Entrecard users are almost everywhere and numerous contests are being held to give away Entrecard points just to get visitors to their blog. If I may say it correctly, more bloggers are promoting Entrecard more than promoting their blogs. It is unfortunate that it is actually happening. For the record, this is not what Entrecard man Graham Langdon’s appeal when interviewed by Darren Rowse of Problogger. With this, here are some suggestions you may want to think about.
1.0 Re-locate the Entrecard. Place it in the middle of your blog, and not on the top most. By doing this, your reader can have time to glance your post before dropping a card. Do not let that small card be more attractive than your blog. After all, your readers know that there is an Entrecard in your blog. I now seldom see a blog without it.
2.0 Make your blog faster to open. I must admit, I am one of those who drop a card and click on it even before the blog finally opens. This is because it took my patience off waiting while there is a chance to drop a card. I suppose all of us know the importance of the first eight seconds of a blog, with or without an Entrecard.
3.0 Make your contest more sensible. Many contest holders are giving away Entrecard points by simply asking them to promote the contest and mind you, leaving a comment is a requirement. Now, where does the king content go from there? I just hope the next contest that I will see has deeper sense so I can religiously join.
4.0 Use your card properly. If your Entrecard is being advertised on a blog that is not within your category, your posts will not be even be noticed. The reader will then click on the card or simply back off. Furthermore, dropping a card to a blog that is not somehow related to your blog does not make sense. You may have a lot of visitors but not to read your blog, but just merely a card dropper.
5.0 Maximize the card. The card is only 125 x 125 and it will be useless if you do not maximize it. Although it looks attractive when you use wonderful pictures or caricature in it, but again your purpose is for your readers to read your post, not just a place for advertisements. It is much better if you include your blog title or a phrase that would define the content of your blog.
Striking an iron when it is still hot is good. But if you do not know how to strike it, then your arm might be hit.
Article Source: Humane Blogging Tips
How to convince Entrecard Users to read your Blog
How to be an Effective Co-Author
Being a co-author of a blog is somehow different from a guest blogger. As the name implies, a co-author is also the author of that blog while a guest blogger is just a guest, and not the author. Another thing, guest bloggers ask permission first from the blog owner for the review of his post while co-authors can post any time he wishes. This is the aspect of being a co-author that makes it critical. Although you can freely post a topic, an effective co-author has other important tasks to perform and here are some of them:
1.0 Assist the original author. Provide helpful suggestions to improve the blog like arrangement of posts, rules and regulations and the like. Remember that you also own the blog whatever agreement you had. Communicate with the original author and help him if even if you are not being asked. Do not just make posts and leave the original author alone. Treat him like a business partner.
2.0 Submit quality posts regularly. This is your main task, to post quality articles regularly. If your posts are not helpful to the blog, then you might be the first one to ruin it and the original author will decide to remove you as a co-author. Posting regularly is also a must to prove to the readers that you really are a concern co-author. It is not necessary to post all your articles from your blog, just choose the best posts that you have.
3.0 Submit posts effectively. If you just post a picture or a link to your own blog, then you are not helping the blog. Instead, you are just using it to promote your own blog. Consequently, readers will not be interested in reading the whole post even the content is useful to them. The best thing you can do is to put a teaser with two to three sentences that can be attractive to readers to click the link to the original post.
4.0 Promote the blog. Invite others to visit the blog too. Although you may have only a small share of the blog, you must also promote it like your own blog. If the blog has a widget, place it on your own blog if you have one. You can also include it on your signature on e-mail and forums. It is also helpful if you write a post about the blog. Share your expertise to make the blog grow.
5.0 Protect the blog. Do not allow anyone to destroy the blog. Ensure that the rules agreed upon are being followed, and report anyone who abuses the blog. Contribute in anything that you can to make the blog stay alive. Although you may not be the only co-author, treat the blog like your own too.
I am a proud co-author of Pinoy Entrecard and I am cordially inviting you to visit the blog by clicking the waving Philippine flag on the top rightmost of this blog.
Article Source: Humane Blogging Tips
How to Manage Multiple Blogs Effectively
Managing a single blog will need your countless effort and focus. Not to mention that you may have other important things to attend to. But what if you decide to have more than one blog? Although you really want to blog about other things you are interested about, you are hesitant to do this because you think that you cannot make it. Being a multiple blog owner myself, I would like to share how I am doing this, and somehow they may also be applicable to you:
1.0. Promote them fairly. On each of your blogs, you can show to your readers that you have other blogs by placing their titles with a link, on your sidebars. Once in a while, mention them in one of your articles if applicable. But never promote them directly unless it is related to your post. This will loose the appetite of your visitors and they will never visit again. However, it is not practical to include them in your e-mail or forum signature if you have more than five blogs.
2.0 Relate them to each other. If your blogs has totally different topics from each other, it is quite hard to promote them fairly. It will also take a longer time to submit to article and blog directories since they will fall on different categories. Having a common denominator among your blogs will make you easier to promote them. There are a lot of ways to do it if you will be creative enough.
3.0 Do not pressure yourself. If you rush your posts just to update your blogs, you may tend to make a useless post, which can easily be noticed by your readers. Remember that it is not necessary to post everyday. Posting at least three times a week is more than enough keep all your blogs alive. If you are relaxed, you can think a lot of wonderful ideas to make your posts attractive to readers.
4.0 Have a lot of useful resources. It takes a lot of time to make a good post; and multiplying that to the number of your blogs will be equal to very long hours if you do not have enough resources. Do not rely on your ideas alone. If you have a topic on your mind, using other articles as your reference will make it faster. However, just be sure that you will be making your own version and not just copying all the content.
5.0 Make a showcase. A showcase is like an article directory where you can put all the articles from different blogs. However, instead of placing in different categories, quote each post or put the first three sentences and the rest with a link to the original blog where the post came from. In this way, you are promoting all your blogs simultaneously.
You may not have to be always fair to all your blogs. But make it a point to be fair to your readers because it is your obligation to them.
Article Source: Humane Blogging Tips
Useful Tips in Effective Article Directory Submission
Submitting quality articles to article directories is another way of increasing traffic and income. Just like submitting your blog to blog directories, it has also some similar restrictions but quite harder. Not that it is difficult to follow, but it requires unique strategies and hard work. Remember that your articles are being distributed to various publishers with different tastes. To understand more what I mean, you may want to check these items:
1.0 Correct use of title. The title is the most important since this will be the first thing publishers and search engines will notice. Although there is really nothing with the title “How to be a Guest Blogger” but most quality article directories would rather accept “The Right Time to be a Guest Blogger”. Another thing that makes a title worst is the ALL CAPITAL LETTERS title, as well the use of exclamation point.
2.0 Correct grammar and spelling. Most article directories will inform you that the article you submitted articles contains a lot of wrong spelling and grammar. Some of them will not even accept it until corrected. If the directory is not strict with these items, this means they are not effective and your articles are probably thrown on low quality publishers.
3.0 Proper use of punctuation marks. Arranging your sentence is very important to article directories. Most of them do not allow improper use of ownership such as “your child’s pediatrician”. It would be better if you write it this way, “his pediatrician”. You will notice that the apostrophe is not used in the second phrase. Another bad example is the “his/her” ownership wherein it is much appropriate to use “his or her”, or better yet avoid using pronoun.
4.0 Do not put affiliate links. Affiliate links are not supposed to be anywhere in your article or in the resource box. However you can use words that identify your product indirectly, or put a link that directs to the page where the affiliate link is. Publishers are not interested in the products you sell. Remember that you are selling an article, not a product.
5.0 Re-write your articles. This is not usually being mentioned in the submission guidelines, and most article directories allow the same articles in your blog to be submitted to them. However, re-writing each paragraph of your article will be very helpful to increase your traffic. This is because search engines hate duplicate content. If your articles are being duplicated many times, only one will be credited since it is not practical to see the same articles in the engine search.
To learn more about this topic, you can visit Article Marketer University and they have tons of free and paid article making tips.
Article Source: Humane Blogging Tips
Blogging: Make it towards Responsible Journalism
People around the world who turn themselves into bloggers are increasing rapidly. However, the sad part is that blogging is not being regulated the same way newspapers and magazines are. Although there are a lot of blogging experts who are sincere in assisting the new ones, very seldom that we heard of someone teaching how to blog the humane way. Most of us are here focus on how to earn money more than doing it the right way. With this, I would like to share some of my ideas on how to convert simple blogging into a more responsible form of journalism:
1.0 Write quality articles only. Although there are common topics being discussed by bloggers,it is how it is being presented that makes it high quality article. Choosing the proper words and format is totally different from just merely creating a post. Just like delivering the news they must also be properly examined and proven correct. Note that blogging is sharing information, not a monkey business.
2.0 Blog like a good parent. A good parent will never allow his children to be hurt or even bitten by a single mosquito. He will cover all possible passage where even small insects cannot sneak. If only all bloggers will treat his readers like his own children, then we will not be worried that our hard work will be wasted. The next generation of bloggers will be enjoying it more than we are now and this will be continuous process.
3.0 Make your blog sugar-free. Although sweets are delicious, too much sugar can cause diabetes and is not healthy to our teeth. A blog with too much attractive banners and flashy pictures tend to entertain visitors rather then educating them. Instead of wasting your time to find the best banners, choose the right title to make the post interesting to read.
4.0 Watch your move. Sometimes, we feel pressure when our mind is not in the mood to write, but we think we must so. We get afraid that our loyal readers and subscribers will leave us if we do not update our regularly as we used to. However, posting a bad article will not only deteriorate our image in front of our followers but also would inspire other careless bloggers to do the same. Bloggers have their own moods too and readers can understand that.
5.0 Guard each other. If someone will accept any blog to join his community or group in a social book marketing site without confirming that it is worth to be a member, then one of your goals is missing and that will make this industry not long lasting. Therefore, we must take time to analyze carefully its intention instead of just admiring its popularity and number of subscribers. Feel free to report the abusive ones.
Blogging is an industry where only responsible people should belong to. Let us unite to make it more sensible.
Article Source: Humane Blogging Tips
