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Is your blog telling a story? Blog Challenge Day 3:Write a Product Review, with a Story

Posted by sharon thoms - May 19, 2012 - Blogging while Angels Sleep
0
Is your blog telling a story? Blog Challenge Day 3:Write a Product Review, with a Story

Hi everyone. How are all my blog writer friends doing with our 90 posts in 90 days blog challenge? Not as easy as we felt it might be! “Kidding”. I knew this would be a difficult task for anyone. They have lot’s of these types of challenges on Hub Pages Sites. I actually see them promoting the idea to Newbie hub blog writers all the time. I have also read many of the bloggers that have been doing the 100 hubs in 100 days, challenges, getting pretty tired by the end of it all. But never give up or say die, and manage to drag out those last few posts and make it to the end of the blog challenge and their 90 posts in 90 days. The benefit that they get from that many posts, is they become better blog writers, build more traffic to their sites, and eventually earn money blogging.  There is one other factor to add to this equation, and that’s the art of telling a story.

Becoming a better blog writer who earns money blogging

In order to become a better blog writer, making regular posts is the quickest and easiest way to be assured of improvement.  Becoming a blog writer that earns money blogging, is also a result of being a great blog writer.  One important point however, is that there are two types of blog posts that really do best. One, which is a post that is epic in it’s information.  The other, is a post that is targeted to earn money, because it reviews a product or a service and has affiliate links on the page.  By combining the two, and writing epic content that either, recommends a product or service, or links to another post, which has affiliate links for a product or service, is really the type of post that a blog writer should be aiming at writing, each time they do post. Make certain to try this, at least while your doing the blog challenge.

One of my favorite bloggers, Supermom in NY, put it this way in one of her hub challenge posts (30 hubs in 30 days my strategy to increase earnings ) “Really great informational articles generate traffic. How? Quality content is shared by readers. On the other hand, helpful product hubs increase revenue.”

And all of the top blog writers repeatedly add to the above formula by telling a story

When I say, telling a story, I mean, in all of their posts, including the posts that they write to review a product or service, they will tell a story. The top bloggers realize that people like and remember stories and that stories inspire them to take action. They are a most powerful marketing tool.

When writing informational posts, the top bloggers will tell how the information provided, was acquired by themselves, why it was useful for them, and how they feel it will be useful for their audience.  So not only are they writing a story about themselves, they are including into their post, the story of why it will benefit the reader.  The reader or customer, always wants to know, what solution or problem of theirs, will be fixed, or improved by using the information, which they have searched for.  To keep a reader coming back, requires the reader to form a level of trust with the writer.  The easiest way that this is able to be done, is by showing your personality in your posts, and by telling your readers a story.

The story behind why you did or used something, how the solution came about, and what your total honest opinion is, including any on the negative side. (No-one or no product in my opinion is ever really perfect)   The more epic you are with your information, and the way that you go about telling the story, and explaining the reasons to your readers, as to why they will love your suggestion, the better blog writer, you will become.

A story from a top blogger

Well that was easy to find!  I just went to my bookmarks to find an example and a link, to one of the top blog writers, and instantly found a story being told.

Meet another of my favorite blogs and blog writers:  Anna from Traffic Generation Cafe.  In this post, titled, “How to milk commentluv for all it’s worth” Anna is discussing the benefits of using a tool, that she personally uses on her site and attributes for a lot of her success, in the amount of informative and worthwhile conversations that take place.  This particular post alone has some 220 comments, and some 326 tweets.  Absolute social proof that the product, commentluv, which she is an affiliate for, works.  In the post, the opening paragraph describes quickly what the product is used for. In a nutshell, if your not familiar with the product, it’s used for comments, and provides the commenter with the opportunity to provide a link to a recent post, on their own site.  Check out the article for yourself.  Now, where were we up to? Oh yes, the story. After the introduction, Anna goes on to tell the story,

“When I first started blogging, I was a nobody in the blogosphere; just another wannabe trying to “make it” online.

We all have to start somewhere, right?

I knew that creating loyal readership was what I needed to focus on. Once you have readership, they will be the ones to spread the word about your blog and bring in even more readers.

And one way I did it is by giving my readers every reason to comment on my blog.

I made my blog DoFollow, which it still is, and installed CommentLuv to give my readers even more incentive to engage.”

As you can see a personal story from the blog writer, softens the hard sell, and focus’s on the true value that the product has had on the blog writer.  Read any of the top blogs and you will see this continuous pattern being played out over and over again.  Not even intentionally I believe. I really think that the blog writers have high opinions of the products that they are selling and by telling you their story, and not being pushy, but explaining all the ways in which the product has helped them, and by which it can help you, makes the whole issue of selling a lot easier and less pushy and sleazy.

Blog Challenge Day 3

Get into telling a story when you write your blog posts.  Over the next week, choose a product that you own, that you couldn’t really do without, to write a review on.  In the review, make certain to write an epic story and to include affiliate links to the product.  Amazon, sells almost everything, so if your wondering who might have an affiliate program for the product your looking to review, you could start there.  One other quick point, if you start with a product that is quite inexpensive, and are able to sell a few, your affiliate commission will quickly rise from, around 4% to 6%, which will benefit you down the track during our challenge and benefit you overall with your affiliate sales.

 Blog Challenge Story of “Caines Cardboard Arcade”

Here’s a story for you that I promise will put a big smile on your face.  About a little boy named Caine, who opened his own cardboard arcade game, shop, in his dad’s car parts store.  As you can imagine, business was very slow, for a long time, but as I have mentioned to you before, the universe has a wonderful way of rewarding those who dare to dream, and who have a burning desire to succeed.

“Link text: Caines Arcade on Vimeo

So do you think it’s important to tell a story in your blog posts? Do you already?  If you know anyone who you think would enjoy our blog challenge, “Blogging while Angels Sleep, why not tell them about.  It’s also helpful to share our challenge with your friends on Twitter.

As always thanks for reading,

Sharon

blog challenge, blog writer, earn money blogging

How Blog Comments and Email can Enormously Grow your Blog

Posted by sharon thoms - May 16, 2012 - Blogging while Angels Sleep
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How Blog Comments and Email can Enormously Grow your Blog

Here we are today at day 2, of our “Blogging While Angels Sleep” blog challenge. Today we are going to keep it a bit simple and start a new blogging habit, of reaching out to the blog writer, of one of our blog comments, by sending them a surprise email.

Make a new blog writer friend

The quickest and easiest way to build a blog based community around our blogs, is by making friends with other bloggers.  Using the blog comments we receive, is a good way to reach out and make some new friends.  By choosing one blog comment writer each week, to say hi to, in an email, can make the process of making, like minded friends, quicker and easier.

Make a new blogging habit

Other the course of the next week, reply each day to your blog comments, keeping an eye out for a blog comment that comes from another blog writer (If your comments platform doesn’t include a space for the commenter to leave their blog address, consider changing to another comment plugin.) If you aren’t getting that many comments yet, not to worry, wait until you get a blog comment and then, give this a try.  An email from your blog, will also show your reader that, you are willing to do more than the average blogger, from your niche, to go out of your way to connect with your readers.

What to include in the Email

All you need to do is, include a link in the subject back to your blog.  You also want to remind the blog commenter of their comment on your blog, and that, that is the reason for your email.  You can then go on to:

  1. Personally thank them for taking the time to comment and introduce yourself.
  2. In the email explain to them, that you are doing a blog challenge which requires you to make contact with another blog writer, that is interested in your niche.
  3. Ask them for their blog address, twitter username and Facebook page name, so that you might be able to check out their blog, follow them and take a look at their Facebook page.
  4. Make certain to give them your Twitter username and Facebook page name also.
  5. Once they have replied, do as you have promised, and make certain to leave them a comment at their blog, providing their personal brand is a match with your own. (If not just wait until you find a blog that fits and reach out to that blog writer)
This is where it’s helpful to have blogs with blog mission statements showing on their sites. It helps to determine if the other site is a match in personal brand values and principals, to your site.

Blog Mission to Make friends with other Like Minded Blog Writers

There is one other point to make in regard to this blog challenge step.  If possible, your best to look for blog writer friends, whose blogs are ranking a little higher than yours, and who have more twitter friends and Facebook likes than you.  If not, you want to make certain that the blog writer your reaching out to, does take care of their blog, and that they are posting regularly and working at also growing their blog.  The reason for this is that, it takes time to develop friendships and in the steps to come, the blog writers that you’ll choose to make friends with are important because, they will be the people that you will be trying to help grow their blogs.  More about that later.

Blog Challenge in Summary

That’s the blog challenge for day 2.

  1. Choose a blog writer, commenter, from your blog comments.
  2. Reach out to them with a reply by email.
  3. Make a new blogging habit of choosing one blog writer comment a week to reply to by email.

If you have any questions or need any help at all, don’t hesitate to contact me through the comments or pm on my email sharonthoms@routinehabit.com

As always, thanks for reading

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

 

blog based community, blog challenge, blog comments, blog habit, blog writer, bloggers, blogging while angels sleep

Blog Challenge Day 1 Create your Blogs Mission Statement

Posted by sharon thoms - May 15, 2012 - Blogging while Angels Sleep
2
Blog Challenge Day 1 Create your Blogs Mission Statement

Welcome to day 1 of our Blog Challenge, “Blogging While Angels Sleep” 90 posts in 90 days.  Are you ready to get blogging? I am.  For our first exercise we are going back to business school and using a principal that has been around, I’d say, since writing and business became mainstream.  In order to earn money blogging, it’s necessary to treat your blog as a business.  So just like any business, the first step  is to create your blogs mission statement.

Remember this is the theory side of the blog challenge.  You don’t need to post about doing this exercise, unless you would like too.   It’s important that you continue writing your blog as you always do, however, upping the anti and posting a blog post everyday for the next 90 days.

Creating a blogging habit

This will not only create a good blogging habit for you, it will also see your posts featured in far more search results, and give you a chance to focus on your target keywords, (use google keyword tool) with the aim of getting to number one for your first chosen keywords within the next 90 days.

Blog Challenge Advantages

The other benefits of the 90 posts in 90 days, of the blog challenge is, improving your blog writers skills, through more writing, increasing your social media presence, with heaps more to share and to talk about and lastly organizing to earn money blogging.

Summary of blog tasks leading to you being able to earn money blogging after completing the blog challenge
  • create a daily blogging habit
  • learn to target sets of keywords to reach number one in Google
  • improve blog writers skills
  • become an authority blog in your niche
  • increase your social media presence
  • become one of the people in your niche who knows everyone in the niche
  • blog writers skills will enable you to design and write information products for your niche.
  • begin writing lots of product reviews for products relating to your niche and meeting the brands behind those products.
  • through the next 90days, take note of how the other blogs in your niche are earning money blogging.

Why do I need to write a Blog Mission Statement?

Mission statements help clarify what niche your blog is in and your goals and objectives. There are generally two parts to a mission statement.

  1. The vision
  2. The principals

The idea is to have a timeless account of what your blog stands for, to you.  It may take time to write it, and you may also want to change it until you feel you have it just right.  That’s good, that’s how it should be.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen Covey explain in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
the importance of He believes that they give the people who write them, a sense of direction, by tying together the values and principals that they live by and weaving those beliefs, words and deeds into their work, in a form that can be expressed and used as a motivator in times when one is feeling a little lost. It also portrays to anyone on the outside, the absolute beliefs and visions of the writer.

"blog-mission"

Read the Seven Habits it's Awesome

Blog Mission not only for Blog Writers

Dr Covey also believes that everyone should have their mission statement. He also emphasizes the importance of all parties concerned working at creating the mission statement together, so that the groups values and principals and visions for the future will remain deeply aligned.

Examples of Business Mission Statements

Rhonda Abrams, author of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies
shares these two mock examples of some business Mission Statements in her awesome book.

“AAA Inc. is a spunky, imaginative food products and service company aimed at offering high-quality, moderately priced, occasionally unusual foods using only natural ingredients. We view ourselves as partners with our customers, our employees, our community and our environment. We aim to become a regionally recognized brand name, capitalizing on the sustained interest in Southwestern and Mexican food. Our goal is moderate growth, annual profitability and maintaining our sense of humor.”

“ABC Enterprises is a company devoted to developing human potential. Our mission is to help people create innovative solutions and make informed choices to improve their lives. We motivate and encourage others to achieve their own personal and professional fulfillment. Our motto is: Together, we believe that the best in each of us enriches all of us.”

Rhonda Abrams author of The successful business plan- secrets and strategies. Amazon says: number-one selling business planning guide in the U.S. includes expert help, worksheets to jump-start the process, a sample business plan, tips on impressing funders, winning tips for competitions, and more. Used in the top business schools throughout the nation, including Stanford; M.I.T.; University of Denver; Hass School of Business, UC Berkeley; and Cornell. Hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs have used this book to launch their businesses.Named by Inc. and Forbes magazines as one of the top ten essential books for small business.

The Easiest way to do this exercise is to ask yourself the right questions

  1. Why do you blog?
  2. Who is your potential audience?
  3. What is the image of your blog that you would like to get across to, your community, your perspective readers, your social media connections, your peers, advertisers, brand managers, and the press?
  4. What type of products or services are you planning on selling on your blog?
  5. What roles do you play?
  6. How do you differ from other blogs in your niche?
  7. How will you use technology, your products and services to reach your goals?
  8. What are the underlying principals and values that you intend to live up to?
  9. What is your vision for your blog in the future?
  10. In years from now, How would you most like your blog to be remembered?

    "blog-writer"

    Blogging while Angels Sleep Challenge

 

Blog Challenge Day 1

For day 1 of the blog challenge you are required to write your blog mission statement and display it on your blog.

Display your mission statement somewhere prominent on your blog.

You could put it at the top of your side-bar in the author box widget, with a picture of you.  At the bottom in the footer.  Try and get your blog mission to the stage where you can put it up today, however keep in the back of your mind that this is an area that you can and should keep reviewing until you can say that your blog mission statement is a precise reflection of you and that you feel proud of it as a blog writer.

Call to action

So the first exercise in our blog challenge “blogging while angles sleep” isn’t really blogging, but it is a part of every successful business and one you should adopt for your blog.  If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.  If you haven’t checked out our FB page yet, please do so.

What do you think about blog mission statements, and mission statements in general? Do you think that they are an important part of a business’s make-up? You can let us know in the comment.  As always, thanks for reading,

Sharon ;)

 

 

90 posts in 90 days, blog challenge, blog mission, blog mission statement, blog writers, blogging, blogging habit, blogging while angels sleep, earn money blogging, social media presence

Bloggers Challenge “90 Posts in 90 Days”, “Blogging While Angels Sleep”

Posted by sharon thoms - May 12, 2012 - Blogging while Angels Sleep
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Bloggers Challenge “90 Posts in 90 Days”, “Blogging While Angels Sleep”

Each day I come into contact with so many beautiful, information filled, expertly designed and written blogs.  The majority of these blogs are written by mom’s.  (Especially in the arts and crafts, organizing and cooking, parenting, fashion, competition, photography, type niches, to name a few.)  Whilst looking over these blogs, which as a blogger myself, I know the amount of hours that go into running sites like these, I always look to see whether there is an indication of the blog earning the owner an income.  To my dismay, I find that the majority of these types of blogs, are not making any type of substantial income.  Why?  Surely these wonderful, talented women deserve to earn a substantial income from their blogging.  Enter the Bloggers Challenge, 90 posts in 90 days, Blogging while Angels Sleep.

I have been blogging on 12 months now, and studying blogs, for around 3years. (wish I had of started then) It’s taken around the 12 months, to get the design of my blog , to where I was wanting it, and my writing, I hope is starting to improve.  Am I making any money from my blog? No, but I have spent no time on that factor.  I believe, that’s the key.  Like anything, to get good at it, requires spending time doing it.  By the time that I’ve written my posts, found or taken some pictures, done some seo, and some promoting, I’ve run out of time, and out my post goes,without adding the key factor, for earning an income from blogging, a monetisation factor.  Surely there was a way to do this, without adding too much extra time to my already busy blogging schedule.  There is a way, I’m excited to tell you.  Over the next 90 days, during the bloggers challenge, we will do it. “Blogging while our Angels sleep” we will develop a way to start earning an income from blogging.   There are many, many ways to do this, and we as bloggers have a wonderful advantage, and that is, a platform from which to be earning an income from blogging, and a love for the work that we do. 

 The next step in this process is to find a way to turn what we do, into a way to begin earning an income from blogging.  

This is the first post in our new challenge “Blogging while Angels Sleep”,90 posts in 90 days, Bloggers Challenge.  For the challenge, we  are going to post 90 articles over the next 90 days.  The blog posts will include in them,  steps you can take on a daily basis, which will lead your blog from being a hobby/passion to a blog that is geared to start earning you a profit.

A part time income to begin, but, over the next 90 days, we will acquire all the tools necessary to become the owners of a blog, with the potential, to earn as much money as you desire, providing your willing to follow a few necessary rules. You can start earning an income from blogging.

You need to do the exercises

What ever the lesson is for the day, and each day the post will include a teaching aspect and a practical aspect, meaning an exercise for you to-do.

A daily Blogging Routine will result from this Bloggers Challenge

Give it a try, even if you’ve heard it before and didn’t think it was important. If after the 90 days, you don’t like it, toss it out.  Some of the exercises you might already do. The main thing is if it states to add to to your daily routine. Do that. If weekly, do that.

Write 90 articles in 90 days

Along with the exercises, I encourage you to also write a post a day for the 90 days.

If stuck for idea’s write about what your doing with the challenge

You write your post on what relates to your blog. If you don’t generally post that often, because your in a niche that doesn’t really require being updated that often, think about still adding a post everyday for the 90 days.  You could always write about what your doing with the challenge, but relating it to your niche, and including tit bits of extra information that uses your keywords, helping to get your articles to a higher position in the SERPS (search engine ranking pages.)

The other point to note is that during this time, you need to start thinking outside the box about your blog.  You need to start trying to think of ways that you are different from the others in your niche, and thinking of ways, and things you can do, to get that point across to the world.  I am also going to follow all the exercises and I will disclose to everyone the results, meaning, numbers and changes that I am seeing at my blog, through the changes or additions.

Where is my authority coming from?

I have found the most wonderful and experienced blogging guides from the world over.  Luckily for us, so many authorities in blogging, share everything they know.  By us being able to take their advise, and follow it to the letter, results that are consistent to theirs, will not be unobtainable.

The main thing to remember though is that, all of the guru’s attribute part of their successes to the network of bloggers, that they have as friends.  They have also got the advantage of experience and time, on their sides.  The time to have built, huge communities of loyal readers, who take action from their trusted advice.  This will be the factor that cannot be emulated, without also raking up some time.

Write 90 posts in 90 days and Improve your Writing Skills

Exciting though for us, as that means by sticking with it for the long haul, awesome results, and a blog that is able to pay you a wage,  is certain to be a big possibility for the future.  Don’t forget that writing ability comes into it also, but the only way to improve your writing skills, is to do lot’s of writing.  Another advantage of doing the 90 posts in 90 days.

Begin a blogging habit of working on your blogging, in this way, for the duration of the 90 days.

In order to begin a new habit, there are three ingredient required.

  1. A Trigger
  2. A Routine
  3. A Response

So in order not forget, or to get too busy to carry out the bloggers challenge, use the 3 steps above as a reminder, and to form a blogging habit.  The trigger could be, the moment you sit down at your computer, before doing anything else, check out what the bloggers challenge is for the day.  The routine could be to carry out the instructions, resulting in successful completion of a blog post for the day,plus fulfillment of the exercise, of working on improving your blog. The response is the action that you have taken. Whether, you carried out the instructions, which will after 90 days, also have created a very good daily blogging habit. Which is the goal. Or whether you started reading emails, newsletters, or playing farmville on facebook.

If you loose Focus

When you realize, you have lost focus, and have started messing with something that’s not relevant to this task, jump back into gear, finish your work, then you can have your free on-line time, knowing that your doing everything it takes to start earning an income from blogging.

Doing the 90 in 90 Challenge

So often we read about different aspects, that we should be including in our blogs and doing as a blogging habit, but for what ever reason, we read it, know it, write it down on a to-do list, but never get around to it.  The whole point of this exercise is to be accountable to the bloggers challenge, and to carry out the steps, and see what the end result will look like for you.

Subscribe by email or rss for daily updates

During the challenge you will be able to receive the updates by email or rss.  Simply use the subscribe link in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

What if I missed the Blogging While Angels Sleep, Start Date?

Once it’ s finished, the best way to follow the challenge will be to bookmark the page on this site, and follow the daily links, that I will number by day, to the daily post.  eg:

  • day 1
  • day 2
  • day 3

You get the drift.  I will still be more than happy to reply to any comments or questions, that you might come across while following the challenge, so don’t not, get involved, just because you missed the original starting time.  The results of you doing the 90 posts in 90 days plus the bloggers challenges, will benefit your blogging in such a huge way, that I can’t encourage you more.

I’m going to share my results and would love for you guys to share some of yours too

I am going to share my starting, and each month, statistics which will include:

  • Page views
  • Visits
  • Alexa ranking
  • Google Page Rank
  • Just to name a few.  I will update this space on completion with a link to the complete results.

Belief open-mindedness.

When your deciding whether to do this challenge or not, have a think about this:

No more effort is required to aim high in life than is required to accept misery and poverty. The World has a willingness to help the dreamer and in the spirit of the dreamer lies an angel, waiting to be woken and help spread forth the message that comes from the person who is prepared to burn all bridges, and with their whole being do whatever it takes to succeed.

(That comes from the book Think and Grow Rich by (Napoleon Hill, )

"think-and-grow-rich"

Download the audiobook now from Amazon

Click on the picture for a link that will take you to Amazon, where you can download a copy in mp3 form for about $8.00

(Disclosure: I may get a small commission if you purchase in this way, however, the company pays the commission, and the product is no less expensive for you, if you are to directly buy it from Amazon without using the affiliate link.)

 Listen to Audio Books while Doing Your Housework

I have an Amazon account and download a book a month and with Think and Grow Rich(link to book on amazon)  I can’t think of a better way to read it, than listening to it.  I absolutely love the examples and stories of hope and faith and desire and to really believe and achieve and never give up. If you don’t own a copy of this book, buy an audio copy, and listen to it when your diving or in the bath, or my favorite, while doing the house work.

A great poet once stated these universal truths through these lines. (Author unknown)

I bargained in life for a penny

And life would pay no more

However I begged at evening

When I counted my scanty store

For life is a just employer

He gives you what you ask

But once you have set the wages

Why you must bear the task

I worked for a menials hire

Only to learn dismayed

That any wage I’d asked of life

Life would have willingly paid

I love that poem.  It comes from Think and Grow Rich.  It was the authors life work.  Took him 25years to write it, and never could the words contained with in these pages, be more true, or more practical, than what they are today.

What to Do Now

So firstly you need to subscribe to the Bloggers Challenge by using the nav bar subscribe or click on the subscribe link, here now. Enter your email address, and you will receive the bloggers challenge in your email or rss feed (by clicking the orange rss button) each day for the next 90 days.

Blog Button

Make a blog post about the bloggers challenge, and place our “blogging while angles sleep” badge onto your site, anywhere in the sidebar is fine. Copy the Html code underneath the button from the side bar, then paste it into your side bar of your blog.  Alternatively you could copy the large badge from below and paste and link to your blog post on your site, about the challenge.

Your help in doing this would be muchly appreciated by me, as it would be from any of your readers, who also choose to do our bloggers challenge :”blogging while angels sleep, 90 posts and tips in 90 days.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook where we can catch up and talk about how we are doing.

There will also be some extra special info shared on Facebook each day, so be sure to remember to check out our page on a daily basis and say hi.  That’s also a great place to share with us exactly how your doing with the challenge.

Challenge starts Monday May 14th 2012.

“Don’t forget to share with all your friends”

As always, thanks for reading,

Sharon

 

 

90 posts in 90 days, blog challenge, bloggers challenge, blogging, blogging habit, blogging while angels sleep, earning an income from blogging, make money from blogging

Free Tickets to Disney Land and Disney World on Facebook Site Now (Limited time only)

Posted by sharon thoms - May 10, 2012 - News, Recent Posts
0

Says the headline on the wall post link, which takes you to a page that looks just like the one below. What is your gut instinct telling you right now?  What was it telling you before you even started reading this post?  If it’s too good to be true, it probably is right!  So why are we tricked into opening sites like these.  When will we learn that if it looks like bacon and smells like bacon, it’s bacon.  A scam is a scam.  So far this one has tricked nearly 6500,000 people, with the scammers recieving a like on their page, from every single one of them.  If you see this shared on your wall by any of your friends, don’t open the link, and make certain to watch out for facebook scams like this in the future, because, facebook scams are something that everyone comes accross often.  It’s just a matter of time. So, beat the facebook scammers, don’t open their links, and if your out to win a prize, stick with the reputable blogs that host competitions.

(claim token P648SKT9F7PF technorati)

How does this Facebook Scam work?

By clicking the wall post link you are taken to a page that looks like this.

Next the Facebook Scammer asks you to share a message

Here you are required  to share a message to your Facebook profile. As you can see by the amount of likes, this is how this facebook scam is being spread so fast.  At this stage you are still totally unaware of this being a facebook scam.

Lesson Learned

By now, your probably quite certain that your not going to be getting any free tickets to Disney Land. So in future, think before you click, so you aren’t blindly, sharing and spreading scams and spam comments  or spam messages to your friends.

Check out this site “Facecrooks.com” who are devoted to explaining and updating every Facebook Scam that they are able to find.

Their number one suggestion for staying ahead of the Facebook Scammers is this:

“The first step is to be aware that scams like this are prevalent on Facebook. If you have the mindset that most of the ‘free’ offers you encounter are bogus, then you’ll be a step ahead of the game.”

The Facebook Scam continues with a like from you

That is what happens once you have hit the like button.  Invisible code that has been placed behind the Like box, now appears, and instead of giving you any chance of winning tickets to Disney Land, you are asked to fill in a no doubt seriously long winded servey from four different companies, which by the looks, take you off into an even more elaborate type facebook scam.

How to Deal with the Scam:

If you accidently opened this message or any like it, and pressed the like button, you are actually now spamming your friends with the very same message.

This is easily fixed.  You can delete entries to your newsfeed and profile so you get rid of any reference to the facebook scam.  (By clicking the “x” in the top right hand corner of the post, you will delete it).

Why are the Facebook Scammers Doing this?

The reason the facebook scammers use these tricks is to either spread malware, or steal your personal identification details or earn commissions from marketing companies. (who would ever pay these people, after acting in such a fashion.  Facebook will eventually remove their page)

So what is the Lesson to be learnt from this?

The lesson to learn here is not to  line their pockets and put yourself or your friends in possible harms way.  Never complete surveys to unlock videos or other content on Facebook either. Remember to mention to your kids about the possible harm lurking on the next screen.  It’s probably best to tell them never to give their details online to anyone full stop.  If they are required to do so for some reason, it’s best that they run it by you first.  No matter what their age.

We even need mum ourselves, to remind us not to open invitations for free tickets to Disneyland from sites we don’t know.

Comment and Please Share and Warn your Friends

This is a current facebook scam (as of May 12) so it’s a good idea to share this link to warn your friends.  Have you seen any other Facebook scams similar to this one of late?  Let us know about them in the comments.

As always, thanks for reading and take care,

Sharon.

facebok scam, facebook scammers, facebook scams, spam comments, spam messages

How to Beat Comment Spam by Using Disqus

Posted by sharon thoms - May 7, 2012 - Bloggers, Recent Posts
2
How to Beat Comment Spam by Using Disqus

You can Beat Comment Spam with some tools of the bloggers trade.  Comment spam is unfortunately, an annoying problem that most bloggers have to contend with on a daily basis.  What these spammers get out of leaving their comment spam everywhere is a mystery to me.  I seriously doubt that many if any of their spammy links ever see any value from the search engines, however persistent they might be at trying to leave it everywhere.  Bloggers happily hit delete and away it goes. Gone until tomorrow,  until the dumb spammer once again pays your blog a visit, to leave you some more of his dumb comment spam messages.  You can Beat Comment Spam.

Bloggers Beat Comment Spam with Askimet and Disqus

Bloggers fight back by using plugins to beat comment spam, such as Askimet, a plugin which intercepts, the comment spam, before you even have to open or see it.  (They keep track of certain words, you know the ones) and are able to filter out and beat comment spam for you.  You also have an area where you can add site names, that repeatedly leave you comment spam, or words that the comment spammers use.  Askimet will then filter tand beat comment spam words and their websites, from your recommendation, and not allow the comment to go through for your moderation.  Another weapon to beat comment spam  is making them accountable for their comment spam by having them use their own social media account to login to your comment box.  Disqus one of the free tools, that makes this approach, possible for you, in your war to beat comment spammers.

A free plugin to beat comment spam

Disqus is a free comment plugin, available for all blogging platforms.  The wonderful creators of Disqus, have developed a commenting platform, which prompts the leaver of any comment, to have to login to Disqus, in order to leave a comment on your blog.  Before you decide, that’s no good, no one will be bothered to leave a comment after having to do all that work.  Think again, Disqus, easily takes the hassle out of that problem by allowing commenter’s to login using any of their social media accounts.  If they are already logged in, which in most cases people are, they simply have to choose, which social media account they’ll use to leave the comment.

I first starting looking toward using a comment platform for my blog after getting sick and tired of dealing with all the spam comments that I got each day.  Sure I could of made all my posts comments rel=nofollow, but that I feel is unfair for my real commenter’s, and for having the comments made, to my blog, indexed by the search engines.  There had to be a better way.  And here it is: DISQUS.COM. And did I mention it’s free. “Yay”

How to install Disqus

First up go to the disqus.com site to register for an account for your blog.  You can also register for an account, to have a disqus account for commenting on blogs, if you don’t want to do so by using your Facebook or Twitter account.

1. If you are using WordPress 2.7 or above, select Add New under Plugins in the left panel of your admin. Search for “Disqus Comment System” and find the plugin provided by “disqus”. Select Install.

2.If you’ve downloaded the plugin, unpack the contents into your plugins directory. After activating the plugin, navigate to Comments

3. Login (your username is ………..) with your Disqus account and proceed with the onscreen install instructions.  It will also tell you here your website short-name is:…………… you set that up when you set up your acct.

4. Locate the Export option and select it to export your comments from WordPress and send them to Disqus. This will take some time to complete. When this is completed, your comments posted on Disqus will be synced back to your local database.

Note from Disqus after setting up says:

    • After this process, all future comments will automatically sync Disqus and WordPress.
    • Note: As a safety precaution, we recommend that you backup your database before importing or exporting comments.

    Not too difficult, but use the advice from disqus.com, just in-case.  Any major changes to your site should always be preceded by a back-up.

Comment

How do you deal with comment spam at your site? Which tools do you use to beat comment spam.  I’d love to know.  Please leave a comment below.

Share this article please

With your social media sites.  It helps bring traffic to blog posts, and that’s the reason why us bloggers, keep on blogging.  If you want to catch up with me on Twitter here’s a link to my Twitter profile.  If you follow me, I’ll definitely follow you back, then we can chat.  Ok guys, as always, thanks for reading

Sharon

 

askimet, blogging platforms, comment spam, comment spammers, commenting on blogs, disqus, free comment plugin, spam comments

How to Create Your Personal Brand for Your Blog

Posted by sharon thoms - May 4, 2012 - Bloggers
0
How to Create Your Personal Brand for Your Blog

Updating your Blog Design, so that you can Create Your own Personal Brand for your Blog,  is something all bloggers should do, once they have settled into their blogging habit and blog routine.  When you first start Blogging on Blogger, or a blog with WordPress hosting, there is so much to learn, and get done.  Not only are you setting up a brand new platform for yourself to write on, your also having to choose headers, backgrounds, categories, arrange sidebars, all of which are brand new, to you at the time. Learning to operate a WordPress blog is enough work in itself. You don’t have to create your personal brand for your blog, all at once. You can bring in little design changes one at a time.

Update my blogs personal brand

Six to Twelve months later, everything is starting to become habit, and that’s when it’s time to think about, Updating your Blog Design and create a personal brand for your blog.

It’s likely that by this time, your already sick and tired of your blogs design anyway!

So what type of things can you do, to make your blogs brand, a perfect fit for you?  A Blog Design that is a mirror image of yourself, mixed with features of the blogs you marvel at.

I’m not suggesting copying other blogs, I’m suggesting incorporating different design features that you admire in other blogs, but adding them to your blog, using your own colors, sizes and styles.  What kind of header, side bar, left, or right.  Where are they placing their ads, do they have a slider for pictures.  How is their footer set up?

What are your favorite design elements for your personal brand?

Creating your personal brand for your blog means incorporating all of your favorite blogging features, mixed with your favorite symbols, colors, textures, typefaces, and having them in the end, be a reflection of you and what your passionately writing about.

Here are five steps for you to use to create your personal brand for your blog

Which are your favorite blogs, from a design view?

  1. Choose a handful of blogs that you love.  5-8 should be plenty. Make a list of the things that you really love about those blogs.  The bits that you are drawn to, and would love to see in your own blog.
  2. How is your blog different from the rest?   (We are all different in so many ways.  These ways can be reflected through our blogs. )
  3. Make a list of all the ways that you are special, and the things that you see in your blog, which make it different     from everyone else. (If you don’t really think your blog is too different, now is time to come up with some ideas that you will be able to use, to make your blog stand aside from the rest.)
  4. In one sentence explain, how your blog is different from everyone else.
  5. Do you have any preference in themes.  Some blogs name the theme they use, at the bottom of the page.

How would you like your blog to be thought of and remembered?

What is it that you would like your blog to be remembered as, or spoken about as, if say you were no longer around to write it, but say it’s twenty years down the track from now.  (Not to be morbid, I’m just saying thinking about this step is really important, and thinking about it in those terms, helps you to remove yourself in order to see, better)  You might have a blog on gardening and a vision of your blog, after twenty years of writing it, to be:

  • The oldest and most comprehensive gardening resource on the web”.
  • Through your teachings, large area’s of USA have eradicated, some introduced noxious plant species,
  • People have saved money and been more successful in gardening, through learning which plants like to grow in what area’s.

Summed up:   Through working together with our community, and educating the public, we are winning the fight against some invasive species of plants. Our readers save money, because they are more aware of what plant it is, where it’s from, and where they are planting it, with the focus on, the plants survival through proper care.

Which Colors For your Blogs Brand

So much study has now been done on color theory and which colors people are drawn to and opposed to.  Somewhere in the middle is a place that includes a color pallet that you love, along with colors that your readers will also love.  Here is a link to a color specialist site, for help choosing your colors for creating your personal brand for your blog.It’s quite amazing at how much they actually know about colors and feelings associated with them in general.  Here’s what color wheel pro has to say about orange:

Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.

Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.

Brand and your Self Brand

As we spoke about in the article 11 blog fixes for a tremendous personal branding strategy, the main point to focus on when creating your self brand is to keep everything consistent.

Other sources for your Blog Update for your personal blog brand

The itgirls.com : a really great resource of idea’s including pictures of other really special and sassy blog designs.

They also have a great article called 7 tips for working with PR, which is the next area that we are moving onto after all the blog re-design stuff.

For blog themes try Themeforest.com

Comment

So what do you think.  At six-twelve months were you tired of your blog and ready to update the design to work on a personal brand for your blog.  Please tell us in the comments below.

Please Help Me Spread The Word

As my regular readers know, I work very hard at updating my blog.  Mainly research for stories, and of course learning from others, the things that I want to know about and pass on to my readers.  What helps me most is if my readers, pass it forward and share my work on their social media platforms.

So please share on Twitter (I’ll follow you back) or like my page on Facebook.  Subscribe to our RSS, and if your a blogger, leave me a comment below, with your blogs URL and I’ll be sure to visit your blog and say hi.

As always, thanks for reading

Sharon

 

 

 

 

 

blog design, blog routine, blogging habit, create personal brand blog, wordpress blog, wordpress hosting

11 Blog Fixes for a Tremendous Personal Branding Strategy

Posted by sharon thoms - April 30, 2012 - Bloggers
8
11 Blog Fixes for a Tremendous Personal Branding Strategy

Fixing your blog, to create, a tremendous personal branding strategy, is a must,  for anyone who is serious about creating a popular and successful blog. The branding strategy I have put together here includes some preliminary fixes, to assure, a really great foundation.

Think about your blogs Theme while creating your Personal Branding Strategy

When I say Theme I mean the Major Categories that your Focusing on.  I have always known that the focus of my blog was on helping others and myself to learn to “Create Routines and Habits for Getting Things Done, along with learning to Put First things First by creating schedules based on values and principals which would Save us Time and Keep us Organized“.

P648SKT9F7PF

So when I decided to focus on a Personal Branding Strategy for my blog, the first thing I decided to do was to choose keywords that were relevant to the categories I was writing about. I  next went back to the first three months of blogging, and updated any posts that had not done well in the serps, by replacing more general keywords with my new set of focused keywords.

Brand Development and Relevant Keywords

1. Your site isn’t focused enough.  You haven’t narrowed your niche and because your topics are so broad, your failing to rank in the serps. (search engine ranking pages)

Fix 1: Make up a list of some keywords that are relevant to you niche and start to target 3 – 5 words that are relevant, but don’t have too much competition for them.  Use a program like Google  keyword tool.  It will tell you how many searches a month for a particular keyword term or phrase.  Many experts on SEO suggest keywords with rankings of around 20,000 a month a good starting point.

2. When you started your site, you didn’t know much about SEO and didn’t implement it.  (search engine optimization).

Fix 2: Use a SEO plugin for your WordPress Site.  All in one SEO, is the one, a majority of bloggers use.

3. Smart phone technology has gone through the roof in the last two years.  Alternative means of accessing web content are rapidly becoming mainstream. About 63 million Americans own smartphones. Yahoo estimates that 36 percent of PC sales will be tablets by next year.

You’ve checked out your site, and it doesn’t look good, loads slowly.  Your widgets that are meant to sit beside one another in the side bar, are all in a straight line, heading for miles straight down the page.

Fix 3: Switch to a new WordPress Theme.  There are plenty of free themes at wordpress.org.  Be certain that the theme says in the about, that it’s compatible for mobiles and tablets.

4. Your whole site loads slowly.  The theme your using is a free WordPress.org one, which is no longer updated.  Your not even using the latest version of WordPress yourself.

Fix 4. Firstly update to the latest version of WordPress.  (3.3.2 is the latest as of today 4.30.12)  Next go and find a new theme.  Make certain that the theme is also compatible with the  WordPress 3.3.2.

"brand-identity-alyeska"

Alyeska brand identity

A theme such as Alyeska from Theme Blvd, is one of the themes available at Theme Forest.net.  Alyeska is the theme that I use on this blog.  The creator, Jason Bobich, has developed a brand identity, which I wouldn’t hesitate, in using any of the themes that I see, that carries the Theme Blvd logo.

You could say that the brand for me, creates an element of certainty and predictability.  I have engaged with this brand and I know, any theme from Theme Blvd, would consistently provide for me, all that I need out of a WordPress Theme.

Brand Development of a brand that creates for the consumer feelings of :

  • An element of certainty
  • Predictability
  • Consistency

The Brands Design and overall look I’d describe as:

  • Elegant
  • Flexible
  • Awesome

I’m certain that this, was no accident, and would be exactly as the creator, would have been planning when he created his Personal Brand.

5. You made promises to update your blog, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but due to the pace of life, you often don’t get around to it.

Fix 5. Firstly don’t apologies for not updating.  It’s your blog and you don’t owe anybody anything.  The other point to remember however, is if you have promised your audience that you will update on those days, come hell or high water, try and update.  Even if it’s just a short helpful point, or a catch up with what’s happening in your life at the time.  They will appreciate it.

 

One of the first rules of marketing says “Seth Godin” internet marketing guru, is to live up to the promises you make to your audience.  Seth says, “Marketers need to spend less time making promises and more time keeping them.”

"brand-blog"

Branding and Promises from Marketers

image source

For a brand to guarantee long-term success, it’s actions should always be consistently, showing the beliefs that they have promoted to their audience. Consumers enjoy consistency, familiarity and expect to get all that they got, the last time.

For a brand to guarantee long-term success, it’s actions should always be consistently, showing the beliefs that they have promoted to their audience from the very beginning.

6. You use different topography/font faces,  all over the place.  For headings, subheadings, and text from page to page.  Your text colors change everywhere, your sizes change depending how you feel.  Your haven’t decided on a personal branding strategy and a consistent brand personality yet.

Fix: Choose a style of font and size of font and stick to it.  It’s OK to use a different heading text, to your writing text, however keep in mind that some peoples browsers only have a handful of the most popular text styles loaded up.  You should also bear in mind that the recommended font size for the net is 16x. Browsers were made to use 16x and it’s the size of an average paper back books, type size.  The line height is recommended at 24px to ensure enough white space.  You should also remember to write in a way that has lots of sub headers and new paragraphs every 4-5 sentences.  Use the h1 h2 etc tags, in order of how important that particular heading is.

7. You use a different picture of yourself on every different social network that you belong to and also on your blog.

Fix: Choose the best picture, most professional picture, that you have of yourself and use that everywhere.  Maybe a bit boring for you, but it’s not for you.  It’s for creating your personal brand.  The more people that see the same picture of you repeatedly are more likely to more quickly get to know and recognize you. That’s Brand Development.

8. You call yourself different names all across the web.  example.com here, http://example.com there and John Black other places, oh and Johnny at some forums.

Fix: A logical but tricky one.  I myself call some of my usernames Sharon, some Sharon Thoms and some of course Routine Habit.  Naturally, your brand will become known more quickly if you use the same name, more often, everywhere that people are going to see it.

"creating-personal-brand"

Click on the Social Media Guy for Video

The branding is everything you do to get your brand out there and the purpose of your brand is the experience that people take away from dealing with you, as your own brand. It’s the way you make people feel about you and the memory that they will keep of you.

Marie Smith, the author of “Facebook Marketing an Hour a Day” uses a great acronym in the above video where she says ” Think FOCUS,   Follow one course until successful”.   An easy way to remember some good advice, for when you are working at your self branding.

9. Your biography is different at every place that you have it written.  Some places you talk about where your from, others what food you like, there all different.

Fix: By using a consistent Biography in every place where you have one written, people will start to recognize and remember you.  I’ve read about that person before.  The next time it will be, “oh yes, that’s right, I have read about Sharon before”.  The next time it will be, “oh there’s Sharon, I don’t need to read her bio again, I already know her”.

10. Your background on Twitter.com is red, on Facebook it’s yellow and on your blog it’ s white on black.

Fix: Find a background you love and make it the background for your brand.  Use it consistently on Twitter and Facebook as well.

You can choose a plain color background, for your brand if you wish.

000000 000033 000066 000099 0000CC 0000FF
003300 003333 003366 003399 0033CC 0033FF
006600 006633 006666 006699 0066CC 0066FF
009900 009933 009966 009999 0099CC 0099FF
00CC00 00CC33 00CC66 00CC99 00CCCC 00CCFF
00FF00 00FF33 00FF66 00FF99 00FFCC 00FFFF
330000 330033 330066 330099 3300CC 3300FF
333300 333333 333366 333399 3333CC 3333FF
336600 336633 336666 336699 3366CC 3366FF
339900 339933 339966 339999 3399CC 3399FF
33CC00 33CC33 33CC66 33CC99 33CCCC 33CCFF
33FF00 33FF33 33FF66 33FF99 33FFCC 33FFFF
660000 660033 660066 660099 6600CC 6600FF
663300 663333 663366 663399 6633CC 6633FF
666600 666633 666666 666699 6666CC 6666FF
669900 669933 669966 669999 6699CC 6699FF
66CC00 66CC33 66CC66 66CC99 66CCCC 66CCFF
66FF00 66FF33 66FF66 66FF99 66FFCC 66FFFF
990000 990033 990066 990099 9900CC 9900FF
993300 993333 993366 993399 9933CC 9933FF
996600 996633 996666 996699 9966CC 9966FF
999900 999933 999966 999999 9999CC 9999FF
99CC00 99CC33 99CC66 99CC99 99CCCC 99CCFF
99FF00 99FF33 99FF66 99FF99 99FFCC 99FFFF
CC0000 CC0033 CC0066 CC0099 CC00CC CC00FF
CC3300 CC3333 CC3366 CC3399 CC33CC CC33FF
CC6600 CC6633 CC6666 CC6699 CC66CC CC66FF
CC9900 CC9933 CC9966 CC9999 CC99CC CC99FF
CCCC00 CCCC33 CCCC66 CCCC99 CCCCCC CCCCFF
CCFF00 CCFF33 CCFF66 CCFF99 CCFFCC CCFFFF
FF0000 FF0033 FF0066 FF0099 FF00CC FF00FF
FF3300 FF3333 FF3366 FF3399 FF33CC FF33FF
FF6600 FF6633 FF6666 FF6699 FF66CC FF66FF
FF9900 FF9933 FF9966 FF9999 FF99CC FF99FF
FFCC00 FFCC33 FFCC66 FFCC99 FFCCCC FFCCFF
FFFF00 FFFF33 FFFF66 FFFF99 FFFFCC FFFFFF

 

This is a copy of the 216 cross browser color pallet.  The color pallet was created to assure that all computer monitors, that were running 256 colors would have them display correctly.  Such nice colors.  In short the numbers on the colors are called their hex values.  You can read tonnes more information on colors for the internet at W3schools.com.  They explain all the different colors and ways of using for the web.

Whilst thinking about colors for your personal branding strategy another point to consider is the way that people perceive color.

"Brand-personality"

Color in logo design

 

11. Social Media Sharing Icons: You have a set of buttons for visitors to share your posts for you, but the colors don’t really match your theme, or pop, so that they are noticeable.

Fix: With Google latest algorithm changes, it’s sensible to do as much as you can to incorporate social media into your blog and your personal branding strategy.  Lucky for us, there are so many free icon sets (social media buttons) now available, it should never be difficult to find, just the right ones, to match the color scheme that you have chosen for your blogs brand.  Here are an assortment of the latest in free blogging icons, and links to the sites where you can download them, for your blog, for free.

Branding Design: Social Media Icon Sets (all free to download)

 

"Personal-brand-vintage-icon-set"

Image-personal brand vintae icon set

Image link to webexpedition

"brand-development-candy-icons"

candy icons

 

"brand-personality-icon-set"

Icon set what's your brand personality

link to site and download

"brand-blog-social-media-icons"

Brand blog with Social Media Icons

image site to download

Creating a Personal Branding Strategy so that everyone will Recognize Your Brand

As you can see there are many different aspects that go into Brand Development.  Self Branding requires almost as many different Branding Design Features as would creating a Branding Design for a major company.   Things such as Logos and slogans can also be applied to a personal brand design, however not really as important as the points above.

Knowing who your audience  are, and how to speak to them in a language that they can relate too, is really the point to keep in mind.  Creating a brand personality that you know your audience will consistently recognize though, is the main focus you should consider when deciding on all the tasks that are listed in our list of eleven.

Question

Have you created a personal  brand for your site yet?  Is it consistent in every area, and every place that you can have it in?

If you enjoyed this article, please leave a comment below, and don’t forget you can subscribe to Routinehabit and never miss a post, by email or RSS.  As always,

Thanks for Reading, from Sharon

 

 

 

brand blog, brand design, brand development, brand personality, branding strategy, personal brand, personal branding, self branding
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