Why You Should Start a Second Blog on Blogger

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WordPress is the #1 blogging platform of choice for many bloggers including myself. But in this episode I'll share with you, why I chose Blogger as the platform for the Ms. Ileane Speaks Podcast blog.

Question - Is it time for you to start a SECOND blog?

When it was time for me to find a home for this podcast I had to decide where I would host the blog. Since I already have a thriving and successful, self-hosted WordPress blog, I didn't want to add the podcast to that site because of branding issues. After all this podcast is Ms. Ileane Speaks and my WordPress blog is Basic Blog Tips and the two brands don't mesh together seamlessly. 

After careful consideration I decided to use Google's Blogger platform and in this episode I talk about my reasons for coming to this conclusion. Here's what I discuss:

Why I'm Using Google's Blogger Platform for this Podcast's Blog

1. Visibility on Google (Google+ was shut down)

2. Libsyn's "On Publish" podcasting feature works with Blogger which I first heard about from +Ray Ortega in an interview on The Podcasters Studio with +Rob Walch 

3. Blogger's built in mobile template

4. Drag and Drop layout customization

5. Google Analytics integration

6. Social Sharing options without plugins

7. Uploading images from Smart Phones

8. Consistent "Up time" and no plugin conflicts with platform updates

9. It's FREE!

All in all, I think that anyone who is addicted to blogging like I am should consider starting a second (or ancillary) blog with Google's Blogger platform.

Will you consider starting a second blog in 2020?

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5 Ways to Grow Your Email List With YouTube Videos

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Building an email list is an important task for any blogger or webmaster. In this episode we explore 5 ways you can use YouTube Videos to get email subscribers for your newsletter.

Grow Your List With YouTube

Over the last few months several people have subscribed to my email list after watching one of my YouTube video tutorials. 

Here are 5 methods I used to grow my list:

• Add a link in each video description to my optin form
• Ask - I simply ask people to subscribe
• SlideShare Pro users can upload videos and capture leads
• LeadPlayer Plugin for WordPress
• Viewbix - is by far the most effective tool for growing my email list with YouTube Videos.

Additional resources mentioned in today's show:

Join my Email List
AWeber Email Marketing

LeadPlayer Review by VidiSEO

A Marketer's Guide to SlideShare

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My All Time Favorite Tip for Getting Blog Traffic

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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!

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Become an Authority Online with Scoopit

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In this episode I discuss how content curation can help you establish yourself as an online authority without writing your own content on a blog or website.

Curating Content with Scoop.it 

“Scoop.it is a FREE publishing-by-curation platform. We provide a service making curation a simple and new form of expression on the Web. Thus, you can easily create your online magazine. We want everyone to be a publisher and be heard everywhere. “

My first contact with Scoop.it was when I saw a Tweet from +Anise Smith. She curates content about QR codes. I was impressed with the layout and format of the online magazine she created on Scoop.it http://www.scoop.it/t/anisesmith-qr-codes.

Scoop.it is similar to Pinterest where the spotlight is on the image however you can include more text and add your own take. 

Scoop.it is now integrated with Bufferapp which extends the social sharing capabilities to include:

Twitter
Facebook pages and Profiles
LinkedIn and LinkedIn groups
Pinterest
Google +
Tumblr
App.net
StumbleUpon
Blogger 
WordPress

My Scoop.it topic boards are:

• Basic Blog Tips – Helping You Build a Better Blog
• YouTube Tips and Tutorials – Anything to help you succeed on YouTube (by far my most popular topic)
• Podcasts – Tips for creating effective podcasts and podcasting services and equipment
• STEM Advocate – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
• Blogging Contests – the hottest blogging contests around

Another great Scoop.it user to check out for Social Media News is Gerrit Bes

My podcast board has all the top news and stories about podcasting and the top podcasters.

Podcasts on Scoop.it

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10 Point Check List For Blog Promotion

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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

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5 Reasons to Start Building Your Email List with AWeber

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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

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Time For Your Transformation from Blogger to Webmaster

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Ready to transform from being a blogger into being a Webmaster? 

I bet you’re wondering how you’re going to do that. 
First, let's take a look at where we started. In the episode titled Start Your Blogging Journey Today, we talked about how to decide on a blog topic and how to pick a domain name for your blog. Next we focused on the importance making connections and collaborations with other bloggers.
In this next phase of your blogging journey you are going to dig deeper and gain a better understanding of the traffic that is coming to your blog.

Enter Google Webmaster Tools 

If you haven’t submitted your blog to Google’s index yet, the best way to do that is by submitting a sitemap of your blog to Google Webmaster Tools. 
It might sound super geeky to do this but it’s really not all that technical. 
Most WordPress blog themes have this feature built in already or you can install a plugin like the XML Sitemap plugin.  

Once your site is included in Google’s index, you should also verify your site with Bing Webmaster Tools as well, so that your blog is included in their index also. 

Search Queries in  Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools will "teach" you several lessons about the performance of your site and help you evaluate how effective you are at attracting website visitors. 

Go to the Traffic section of the report, click on Search Queries, and you'll find the following columns of data:

Queries: Number of search terms people are looking for

Impressions: Number of times your site shows up in Google's search results or SERP

Clicks: Number of times people saw your site in search and click through (also known as TRAFFIC!) 

Google Webmaster Tools versus Google Analytics 

There is a clear distinction between Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. 
Google Analytics - tells you about all the traffic you have coming to your blog. It tracks all of the traffic no matter what source it comes from. You can find out how many visitors come to your site from social media sites, links on other blogs, paid advertising promotions, other search engines, YouTube, etc. 

Analytics also tells you how long people stayed on the page, how many pages they visited and more. 

Webmaster Tools - provides details of your sites performance in Google’s index or in their search results pages. You can find the keywords or search terms that people are looking for that send traffic to your blog.  Connect Google Analytics to Webmaster tools

For more information about Google Analytics read Google Analytics Integrations: Centralizing Digital Marketing by Daniel Waisberg.

Monitoring Keywords That Send You Traffic

In the traffic report you can click on any column heading to sort by that item. For example, select the "Click" column and you'll see the top post on your blog that is getting "organic" traffic.  

Hopefully you will find that you are getting traffic based on something you want to get traffic for. Use this information to develop more content on the that topic. Go into more detail about the topic or approach it from a different point of view and be sure to interlink the new post with the old one to boost your rankings even higher. 

On the other hand, you might find that you're getting organic traffic for terms that is relevant to blog's topic but you don't have enough expertise to do a follow up post, see if you can get someone to do a guest post. 

CASE STUDY: In the podcast I joked about a post on my other blog Basic Blog Tips about The Benefit of Having an iPhone. That particular post ranked on page one of Google and sent tons of traffic to my blog. The problem was that I couldn't do a follow-up post myself because I don't have an iPhone. As fate would have it, turns out that one of my guest authors, Ahmed Raza has lots of expertise and knowledge in the area of mobile marketing. He wrote a follow up post called Ten Smartest iPhone Apps for Bloggers and now that post is getting all of the organic traffic from people searching for tips about using the iPhone. This is the ideal situation for me because Ahmed's post is much more relevant to my audience and the type of visitors that I want to attract - bloggers. These visitors will tend to stay on the blog and look at other articles versus traffic from the older post, who were people just looking for information about using iPhones. 

This is just one example of how you can use your new found "webmaster" skills to increase traffic and more importantly send the right signals to Google so they can send targeted traffic and potential clients and customers to your blog. 

I'd like to hear from you. Have you submitted your sitemap to Google? Did you connect your Analytics to your Google Webmaster account yet? 

Be sure to check out Google's Webmaster Academy.

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The Three C's of Your Blogging Success

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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

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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