How To Use Images and Titles To Connect With Your Audience More Effectively

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: http://ileanesmith.com/podcast

Using Good Images Helps You Connect With Your Blog's Readers

The effective use of images can evoke an emotional response from your audience. With the right image you can tug at the heart strings of people visiting your blog. Images can also make your blog posts more memorable and leave a lasting impression that compels people to interact with you and share your content. Keep in mind that before you embed those high quality images in our blog posts you need to have the rites and permissions to do so. That's why it gives me great pleasure to announce that:

Today's Sponsor for the Show is Depositphotos

Visit the homepage of Pinterest and as you scroll down the page you will be taken on a roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows. You can go through a range of emotions that span from mouth watering hunger to the warm and fuzzy comfort of cute puppies or small children.

Facebook is another site that is very image focused. Posting great photos on Facebook is a strategy often recommended by top marketers as a means to increase your EdgeRank on Facebook. Google search is another area where images are vital. Especially now that the profile images of those who have claimed their Google Authorship, makes their listing on the SERP's stand out and more clickable.

Viral Content Buzz adds Pinterest

Viral Content Buzz is a social sharing service from +Ann Smarty and +Gerald Weber that will make it easier for you to promote your blog posts, but they have also included a Pinterest sharing component to the site now.

Take part in the Grand Viral Marketing Contest at Viral Content Buzz, by joining the site and submitting your article and images to be shared within the community.  [Contest ends July 12th 2013]

Tools for Taking Screenshots

Since I create a lot of tutorials and instructional material I often use screenshots to illustrate my point. There are two Chrome extensions that I recommend using:

• Awesome Screenshot Extension for Chrome
• LightShot Extension for Google Chrome Tutorial

I also like to take screenshots when I'm not on the internet and I need to demonstrate offline tasks and activity and for that I use Screencast-o-matic. It allows us to add annotations and draw arrows if we need to point something out.

Enhancing Images with PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an online image editing service that integrates very nicely with Google Drive (watch the tutorial below for complete instructions). You can do basic editing, for example you can crop, resize, recolor, rotate, etc. But you can also use PicMonkey to enhance your photos with borders, special effects, overlays, text and so much more. 

Take a look at the image that I used for this post. I got a "phun" stock photo from Depositphotos and used PicMonkey to add a drop shadow, a border, a picture frame and the colored text caption beneath the image. You can have a lot of fun with PicMonkey so be sure to watch the video for some additional tips and tricks.

Podcasters are increasingly making use of blogs and I'd like to encourage those of you who are podcasting to make good use of imagery as well. Recently got a chance to chat with +Daniel J. Lewis from The Audacity to Podcast and we talked about how important it is for podcasters to have a blog. You can listen to that interview here: The Audacity to Podcast Episode 129

Blog Post Titles Take The Connection a Step Further

During that interview with Daniel, I was really pleased that he mentioned the effectiveness of the blog post titles that I use on Basic Blog Tips. The fact that he mentioned the titles meant a lot to me because I put a great deal of effort into crafting those titles so that they are attractive. Good post titles are another way that we can get an emotional reaction from our audience and grab their attention.

One example that I refer to here is a post I did on Basic Blog Tips. Be sure to listen in and pay close attention to how I combined imagery and the post title to make a lasting impact on my blog's visitors and commenters.

Other links and resources mentioned in this episode:

Shout out to Justin Germino from DragonBlogger for a cool introduction

Viral Content Buzz
Follow me on Pinterest
+Cynthia Sanchez from Oh So Pinteresting
Udemy
+Daniel J. Lewis
The Audacity to Podcast Episode 129
Google+ Comments
+Chris Lang
If You Wait for Perfection You Might Miss the Boat!


Watch this tutorial for enhancing images: PicMonkey Tutorial With Google Drive Integration

What's your experience with using images? Do you think using great images and titles makes your audience return to your blog faithfully?

Drive Traffic To Your New Blog [Podcast]

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: http://ileanesmith.com/podcast

The show notes for this episode are published on my main blog Basic Blog Tips. 

I felt so passionate about this topic as I was writing the post I decided to record it for the podcast too. 

I hope you enjoy this episode and you'll notice that I am being more proactive about asking for reviews and ratings for the show in iTunes. Please open iTunes and leave a review. 

Ms. Ileane Speaks in iTunes

I want you to be totally honest and let me know what you think of the content and tips I provide. If you're not sure how to leave a review in iTunes,

Finding The Best Guest Bloggers for Your Blog

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: https://ileanesmith.com/podcast

Get The Best Guest Authors for Your Blog

In the past 3 years I have served as the host to over 150 guest bloggers. I opened up the blog to guests as a way to give back to the blogging community. Many new bloggers, as well as seasoned blogging veterans, get the opportunity to promote themselves and expose their writing to a new audience. 

The other benefit for guest posting (and hosting) on Basic Blog Tips is that it helps to strengthen and grow the community. The guests feel a deeper connection to the blog and they interact and engage with one another in a familiar place. 

The Down Side To Hosting Guests Authors

As with everything in life you have to take the good with the bad and there is a down side to offering guest posting on a popular blog. One of the biggest challenges I faced was that my inbox would be flooded with requests on a daily basis. 

If you have the standard contact form on your blog, most of these request will come from "link builders" who have no idea what your blog is about or what your readers are interested in. These random requests will come in from hired writers who only have one goal and that is to get links for their clients. 

In the podcast and in the presentation slide posted below you'll discover how I avoid that problem and keep those requests from over-taking my inbox.

5 Tips For Finding The Best Guest Bloggers from Ileane Smith

My 5 Tips for Vetting Guest Bloggers

1. Require a Human Gravatar

2. Verify the Google+ Profile

3. Get Samples of Previous Guest Posts

4. Set up contributor accounts in WordPress

5. Reward Your Guests

Best Ways To Reward Guest Bloggers

Give your guests access to their own profile and display it in a bio box. The good thing is, because you already vetting your guest carefully, there is no need to worry about them adding "questionable" links in their bio. This will also help you in the long run - as your guests build their Author Rank, your blog will build Publisher Rank.

Install Premium plugins so that your guests will get exposed to plugins they might not have on their own blogs. I recommend having SEOPressor Version 5 and CommentLuv Premium. 

Support the post by submitting to blogging communities and directories. This will send traffic to your blog as well as your guest's blogs. When your guest logs into Google Analytics or Webmaster Tools sees all the referral traffic coming from your site, they will be sure to submit more posts and they will save their best content to post on your blog.

Bonus Tip!

Install the SpeakPipe widget and take down the standard contact form.

If you are new to blogging and the concept of accepting guest posters, start off by inviting your friends to do a guest post. This will help you get your feet wet in the process.

The Ultimate Guide to Do Follow or No Follow Links on Your Blog

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: https://ileanesmith.com/podcast

Do you give do follow or no follow links on your blog? 

What does that mean and how does it impact your blog's page rank? In this episode of the podcast I go into some detail on this topic. 

Do Follow links are an indication that a webmaster or blogger endorses the site that they are linking to. This sends a signal to the search engines (like Google) that the link is valuable and there is some page rank or "link juice" that will flow from the site to the site that it's linking to. 

Surprising, the majority of the links on the internet are Do Follow!

CLICK HERE TO TWEET THIS POST!

In around 2005, Google introduced the No Follow attribute which basically means that even though one site is linking to another, there is no endorsement and no page rank flows to the other site. The link essentially drops out of the link graph.

However, this does not mean that getting a NoFollow link is the end of the world. 

PEOPLE will still click on the link and the link can still send traffic to your site.

To illustrate Google's views on Do Follow and No Follow link attributes I put together a playlist from the Google Webmaster Help YouTube Channel. Watch Matt Cutts responds to questions from webmasters about links. 

Sites mentioned in this episode:

Hot Blog Tips
+Brian D. Hawkins 
+Sheryl Loch 
+Mitch Mitchell 
+Andy Bailey 
+Matt Cutts 
Disqus
Livefyre

Want to know how to find Do Follow blogs to comment on? Find out where to find them and how to know if ANY blog is using Do Follow or No Follow. 

For more tips subscribe to my email list and click here for:

The Ultimate Do Follow Cheat Sheet Guide

The Ultimate Do Follow Cheat Sheet Guide from Ileane Smith

Claim Your Blog on Technorati in 2013

Technorati was the #5 traffic Source for Basic Blog Tips in 2012

In this episode I encourage bloggers to register their blog's in the Technorati blog directory. Currently over 1.3 million blogs are listed and the submission process is simple to do.

A review of the 2012 traffic stats for Basic Blog Tips, my primary blog, shows that because of the directory listing, Technorati became the #5 source of referral traffic for the entire year. 

The benefit of getting visitors from Technorati is that the traffic is highly targeted and engaged. Many of the visitors ended up subscribing to my email list, following me on Twitter or Facebook and subscribing to my YouTube Channel. 

Technorati is "set-it-and-forget-it"

Sign up for an account with Technorati and the process of claiming your blog is pretty straight forward. Enter the title, description and RSS feed for the blog and Technorati will provide you with a claim code. 

The claim code needs to appear inside of a blog post, and this is Technorati's way of verifying that you are the owner or administrator of the site. I recommend adding the code to an existing blog post (versus publishing a post just for the purpose of the claim). You'll receive an email once your site is verified and basically that's it! That is all you need to do in order to complete the procedure - "set-it-and-forget-it".

I first noticed the increase in traffic and back links when I was monitoring my blog's progress in Google Webmaster Tools. And at the end of 2012 I received an Annual Traffic Report from WordPress.com. I recorded a video to demonstrate the wealth of information provided in:

WordPress Stats from the JetPack Plugin

Don't think that Technorati is just for small blogs, even the high traffic blogs are taking advantage of being listed in this powerful blog directory. The Huffington Post, Mashable, The Verge, and many other leading blogs have claimed their listing and so should you!

Here's a screenshot of the top five blogs!

Did you claim your blog with Technorati yet? Let me know in the comments below!

iTunes and Stitcher

My All Time Favorite Tip for Getting Blog Traffic

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: http://ileanesmith.com/podcast

In this episode I talk about how you can get more blog traffic by paying attention to the information found in Google Analytics.

Getting Traffic

We always communicate with our readers on blog comments, Twitter, Facebook and even through email responses to our newsletters. Even though these readers are extremely important and they represent our core group of followers, there is another group that we need to listen to as well.

The only way to understand what this "silent" group of readers is trying to tell us is by looking at our tracking statistics. There are a lot of different software programs we can use to do tracking but I recommend using Google Analytics.

Analytics Integration with Webmaster Tools

Google Analytics can be integrated with so many other Google products and primarily I go into detail about the integration with Google Webmaster Tools. You can learn more about Google Webmaster Tools in a previous episode of the podcast and you can find watch this video tof find out how to make the connection between the two accounts.

How to Connect Google Webmaster Tools to Google Analytics 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWtKoMA1gY

Once you connect the two account the Search Engine Optimization reports will help you find which posts on your blog are getting the most traffic from Google. This is really helpful for you determine how effective you are at getting search traffic for the terms you are going after. On the other hand, you'll also gain insights on what you might be doing wrong! But once you have that information you can put a positive spin in this by creating more content that people like. 

I share two examples of this from posts on my Basic Blog Tips blog and how I was able to turn this into a successful traffic generation tool for my blog.

Google Analytics and FeedBurner Integration

It's also a wonderful idea to allow FeedBurner to integrate with Google Analytics. I give an excellent example of how Justin Young from Major Money Tips http://www.majormoneytips.com/how-to-use-google-reader-find-and-share-content-553/ put this to good use on his blog.

This is how you can really listen to your readers and develop  more of the content they want to read about and more importantly, you can provide them with the content that they are searching for. This will help you get more traffic but also help your readers by giving them information that addresses a problem they are trying to solve or fulfills a need that they have. Eventually these "silent" readers will become part of you core group of commenters, followers and subscribers.

Happy blogging!

iTunes or Stitcher

10 Point Check List For Blog Promotion

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: https://ileanesmith.com/podcast

Click here to ask a question 🤓 leave a voicemail ☎️ send a text📱 or get more tips 💁🏽‍♀️ https://ileanesmith.com/links

I call this the:

Blog Promotion Manifesto

Use this ten point blog promotion checklist to promote your pillar content on the internet.

You wrote a great post - Whats next?
In this episode you'll learn:

• How to drive traffic to the post
• How to get the post shared
• How to grow your network

#1: Choose a catchy "sharable" headline - What's a Shareable Headline? A shareable headline get attention? It also needs to be around 120 characters so that it fits easily into a retweet!

#2: Share the post on social networks, blogging communities and webmaster forums 
For Twitter use: JustRetweet and Viral Content Bee
For Facebook use: Social Buzz Club
Forums and Communities to join:

• Blog Engage 
• Triberr
• BizSugar 

#3: Add a link to the post in social networking profiles instead of your home page

#4. Blog Commenting - Leave "valuable" comments on CommentLuv enabled blogs. Here's some tips for leaving good comments that get approved:

• Offer good advice
• Share your take
• Ask a question

#5: Publish related content on your blog. Case studies are just one option!

#6: Guest Post on authority blogs that help build your Google "Author Rank". In order to do this, you must be sure the host blog provides you with an author bio box so you can get your Google Authorship!

#7: Reproduce your content as a video, presentation or podcast! Get creative - Check out the slides and video for this post below.

#8: Conduct interviews with bloggers who have expertise on the subject of your blog post.

#9: Build links to your post with content curation platforms like Scoop.it, Paper.li or Storify

#10: Send an email to your newsletter subscribers
Don't miss an episode - subscribe to my podcast The Anchor Show

If you are new to blogging be sure to check out Blogging Tips 101 and to get free tips and resources to help you build a better blog and expand your audience! http://BasicBlogTips.com/email

The Blog Promotion Manifesto:
Your 10 Point Check List for Blog Post Promotion from Ileane Smith

iTunes and Stitcher

5 Reasons to Start Building Your Email List with AWeber

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: https://ileanesmith.com/podcast

AWeber is one of the most popular email marketing services around. 
My top five reasons for using AWeber to build an email list are: 

• WordPress integration through the free plugin
• Ad tracking keeps track of links that are clicked
• List segmentation based on various characteristics
• Facebook application allows for easy sign up
• Rapportive - an extension for Google Chrome that works inside of Gmail.

Take AWeber for a test drive 

If you have WordPress, you'll also need a great plugin like 

New to blogging? 

Then be sure to check out The Beginners Guide to Blogging Series and free tips and resources to help you build a better blog and expand your audience! 

Sign up for my newsletter here:
Ms. Ileane's Newsletter

iTunes and Stitcher

The Three C's of Your Blogging Success

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: http://ileanesmith.com/podcast

Blogging Success means different things to everyone but for me a successful blogger has these three qualities. 

The 3 C’s of Your Bogging Success

Now that you have set up your blog, lets move on to the step of growing a successful blog.  These tips are rules to follow throughout your journey of your blogging career.

The three C’s of Your Bogging Success are Connections, Collaborations, and Confidence. 

Connections

The easiest way to make connections is to join Blogging Communities such as Blog Engage, Website Babel,  Blokube, Biz Sugar, and The Social Buzz Club.  Joining these communities you can share your stories, learn, comment and interact with other bloggers

Collaborations

Once you make connections in blogging communities it will be easier to collaborate with bloggers who share similar interests with you.

Build you path to blogging success.  You cannot do it on your own. 

Confidence

Once you collaborate you will start to build your confidence.  Now that you are putting out good work and valuable content you will start to build confidence.  Your confidence will now show through your work making you a better blogger.

Are you surprised that I didn't include "content" as one of the three c's? 
That was done intentionally and if you want to know more about my feelings on the subject, check out this interview I did with SmallBizTrends. 

Here's a snippet from the article:

"And while the primary focus of the community was initially blogging, as social media rose in popularity, Smith began offering more tutorials and blog posts to help small business owners navigate the worlds of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google + and more.  Smith practices what she preaches about social media, with active profiles on all the major sites. She recognizes the importance of maintaining profiles on multiple social sites, though she does have her favorites..."

Resources mentioned:

Blog Engage

Social Buzz Club 

Start Your Blogging Journey Today

MS. ILEANE SPEAKS PODCAST HAS MOVED!

FIND NEW EPISODES HERE: http://ileanesmith.com/podcast

Start Your Blogging Journey Today

In this episode of the Ms. Ileane Speaks Podcast, I want share my thoughts on getting started with a blog. I often get questions from bloggers who don’t know where to start with their blogging. 

First you need to establish a goal or objective for your blog. Here are a few examples: 

• You want you voice to be heard 
• You want to help people 
• You have a business, or product or service 
• You want to support a cause or charity 
• You not sure what you want but you’re experimenting 

The Story of How I Got Started Blogging

I share the story of how I started blogging by accident when I thought I was subscribing to my daughter’s blog, but I ended up signing up for my own by mistake. 

When visitors come to your blog for the very first time, can the take one look and know exactly what your blog is about? Does your blog title and tagline send the correct message about your content. What should you name your blog? 

Don’t worry if you’re not sure about “focus” in the beginning stages of your blog. 

You have a lot of skills to master in the early days of blogging. Once you build up your blogging skills, you can decide on your topic like I did with Basic Blog Tips. 

Next make sure that the title and tagline of your blog appears “above the fold” so that it is the first thing people see when they land on the page. Add a picture of yourself to the sidebar (I cover some do’s and don’ts) and provide more detailed information on your “About Page”. 

Remember to have fun. 

Happy blogging!

PLEASE NOTE: PREVIOUS SHOWS AVAILABLE HERE