Promoting an online business can be easy if you know the tools and techniques to use. One effective way used by internet marketers is blogging. How can you make your online marketing through blogs more effective? Below are ten blogging mistakes you should know to help you avoid committing them:

1) Not being committed

If blogging is just your past time, then you can get away with blogging whenever you feel like it. But if you’re blogging is part of your online marketing technique, commitment is important. See to it that you give time to blogging on a regular basis.

2) Not getting any help

If you’re maintaining a blog for marketing online, consider getting some assistance. Trying to update and optimize your blog alone can a difficult job especially if you have other tasks to attend to. Have another person, or better yet, a team to help you attend to your blogging tasks.

3) Not targeting an audience

Niche blogging is surely the way to go. If your blog is not targeted to a particular niche or audience, it would be too difficult to get the traffic you want.

4) The lack of passion

In reality, if your main purpose for blogging is just to sell your ads, then this won’t take you very far. People will instantly see right through you if your blogs are all about commercials. An Adsense ads on your blog without quality content cannot give you a more positive result.

5) Not being original

Some bloggers rely solely on news feeds from other sources. However, if people can read the same content in your blog that they can find from other places, they will not be convinced to subscribe to your blog. They may not even bother to re-visit you.

6) Not analyzing your website traffic statistics

Your web stats can tell you a lot of information. It can tell you which page of your site most readers like, it can tell you which days you receive more visits, where you hits are coming from, what type of readers go to your site and other important details.

7) Not making the needed changes

Don’t be contented with just the same layout, the same content, and the same structure on your blog. If something’s not working, then have the initiative to make some changes. The adage “there’s always room for improvement” also applies to blogging.

Not editing your posts

If you don’t have time to do the editing or you don’t have the editing skills, it is best to hire an editor to do it for you. The role of an editor is to make sure that your posts are free from grammatical errors, typos and punctuation mistakes. It will make your blog more credible and professional.

9) Not using RSS feeds

RSS feeds allow people to get updates from your blog. There are many free feeds on the web that you can use. Make sure that your blog has RSS feeds buttons that your readers can simply click on.

10) Not using keywords on your title tags

11) And my biggest pet peeve right now is the new slider – I LOVE the slider – but it is a strange size and a lot of blogs are not putting the correct size picture so it’s all blurry and crazy looking. Makes a blog look very unprofessional. It’s very easy to resize images and you can upload and resize them for free on Photobucket.

Without keywords on your titles, it would be more difficult for search engines to find you. On the other hand, keywords on your title tags allow search engine spiders to crawl on your page and categorize your content easily.

Guest Post: Luie De Von – you can visit his sites here and here.

Significantly, clients and prospective clients become part of the conversation by reading the blog posts and leaving their thoughts and feelings in the form of comments.

Who doesn’t like being asked their opinion?

And, what business owner wouldn’t pay big money to know what his target audience is thinking, as well as what they react to and why?

A blog is a great way to show the world your expertise, thus establishing authority and demonstrating your competence in the marketplace and to your target market. People like to do business with business people they know, like, and trust. Prospective clients are drawn to businesses and business people who are experts in their field. Demonstrating competence enhances your image and makes the prospective client feel confident about their decision to purchase from you…you, as the expert in your field.

When properly constructed and implemented, an effective business blogging strategy is an incredibly valuable asset. Blogging for business is crucial, whether the business is entirely online or a combination of both, as is the case with most brick and mortar businesses today.

When organized and well written, a blog conveys the ultimate Internet image, an image that announces:

“This business is well run, this is a business I can do business with!”

A well thought out, well constructed blog, combined with an effective overall inbound marketing strategy, conveys a message, an image if you will, that this business owner is knowledgeable and cares enough to seek feedback about products and/or services offered from his or her clients and prospective clients.

A wise business owner values feedback, realizing there is always room for improvement, both in sales and service. Why not ask for feedback from the very people who use the product or service day in and day out? A blog can accomplish this for a business, creating a link both valuable and, ultimately, profitable. The feedback a blog offers is an often over-looked advantage; and yet, it is an incredibly powerful resource.

Significantly, the proper blogging strategy will provide a window into the thinking of your client-base and create a vehicle you may then use to improve your products and/or service.

The feedback from your business blog will also provide ideas and strategies for new products and services. Interestingly, you may even be able to gain a competitive advantage by learning what your clients and prospective clients like and dislike about your competitors, their products and services. Perhaps it’s a product or service you don’t provide but should? Perhaps it’s something to do with price? The blog provides the vehicle, the opportunities are there; and, it is up to the individual business owner to take advantage of them. A well constructed inbound marketing strategy, one that has at its center a well-thought-out and appropriately implemented blogging strategy, will put your business on track to accomplish all of the above and more.

One last word about inbound marketing, blogs, and blogging for business: photographs, audio recordings, and short videos are worth their weight in gold. If you aren’t the greatest writer, and don’t have the money in the budget to hire a good copywriter, also worth their weight in gold, a photograph or short video can help you tell your business’ story. With today’s technology, a photograph, audio, and/or video is easy to create and it’s often the first item to catch the attention of a visitor to your blog.

It’s worth taking some time each day to blog. Think of it as going out to talk to the man on the street. Think of it as time well spent. You will find it to be a great investment in time and effort, the ultimate in ROI.

What is The Ultimate Internet Image? The ultimate online presence entails merging Internet “inbound” marketing with traditional “outbound” marketing. In doing so UII has created a revolutionary approach to marketing. UII is the next-step, establishing your business as a force in your competitive niche, as well as in your community, online or offline. John Zajaros The Ultimate Internet Image

In honor of this dubious and not approved by anyone holiday I will be giving away 100 bucks. All you have to do is this:

1.  Rub your stomach while patting your head and jumping up and down on one foot NAKED!!

2.  Sign Up for my RSS

3. Tweet, Stumble, Shout from the Rooftops This!

4. Mention this post on your blog.

5.  IMPORTANT!! - Make sure you leave a comment here so I can add you to the drawing. Each action you take will give you one entry into the drawing which will take place on June 1, 2010.  (I do take bribes for extra entries, but they must be over $100 You don’t have to do all of this stuff to get an entry but I’d REALLY like it if you do and if you don’t and you win you will feel extremely guilty!!  When you leave your comment just let me know what you did so I know how many entries your name gets. This contest will run through June 1, 2010 – Drawing will be first thing on the second – (Meaning first thing after I wake up, drink my coffee, take the kids to school and run any errands I need to that morning)

P.S. Don’t forget to drop on my EC while your here!

The idea is simple. By the end of this challenge you’ll have learned 31 aspects of blogging and put them into practice. It is designed not only to fill your head with knowledge ABOUT blogging, but also to give you some concrete things to actually DO something with the knowledge.

Basically you had a teaching and a task each day. The teaching would give you the concepts and theory, and the task would force you to take action on what you had just learned. Now without making any preface here are my tips, which I have learned from Darren’s book……

1. Focus on a niche topic
   The more you narrow your blog topic, the better it is for your blog’s potential. It is better for your SERP’s and to attract readers and subscribers. A specific blog topic allows you to become an expert in the field and your readers know what to expect from you. It is also easier to monetize a narrow niche. Remember don’t try to be “A Jack of all trades & Master of none.” Try to build unique brand of your blog.
2. Write List Posts
   Using lists has always been a popular and effective technique among bloggers.If you look at pages like the front page of Digg and Delicious and you’ll see that much of the hottest content on the web is written in list style. Because lists are scannable, it keeps post succinct, it looks clean, it can be persuasive and comprehensive and it goes viral.
3. Write Link posts
   Writing posts with the outbound links to other useful resources not only build readership on your blog but it also give something of value to your readers and build your credibility and relationship with other bloggers.
4. Interlink your old blog posts.
   Try to build this task into your daily posting schedule. if you have a lot of content that you’ve never interlinked before start with the most popular posts. This technique gives opportunity to your readers for further reading and to stay more on your blog.
5. Create a Sneeze page for your Blog
   Sneeze page is a page in which you list posts of your blog in some categorized order, it helps you to show off your archives and to promote old posts. Linking to old posts can help grow your search engine ranking.
6. Write Review posts
   The Web is increasingly being used by people for research to help make purchasing decisions. You can write a review on a book, any website on your niche, any article from a magazine, a tool relevant to your niche etc. You can also use any affiliate link associated with what you are reviewing. A well written and balanced review can be very good for driving sales.
7. Extend your old posts
   One of the biggest challenges bloggers are facing is that after a few months they find it hard to come up with fresh content on a regular basis. You can extend your old posts by picking up a question or idea a reader asks in comments, by exploring opposite points of view or by explaining something which was not adequately explained in previous post etc.
8. Find some blog Buddies
   Bloggers who work together often last longer and have more success in the building of their blogs. Having your blogging buddy you can share eachothers posts with social media and with other bloggers, encourage each other through commenting, share communities, guest post for each other, etc.
9. Don’t be Shy, promote your Blog
   If you want success for your blog don’t be passive, get out there. Find your target audience and connect with them. Show that you are the expert. Promote your blog wherever you can, whenever you can.
10. Analyze & Follow the Probloggers
    Analyze top blogs in your niche, Follow them, see how they write articles, when they write them, how often they are posting, how they style them, what complaints readers are making in their blog comments etc. Don’t necessarily only listen to what they say, but analyze how they say it and why.
11. Join Forums and Social Media Services
    Join forums and social media services like twitter or if you’ve already joined one spend 10-15 minutes participating in it. Your forum posts and activity in social media services would bring in dozens of visitors every day. Even if you have various subscribers already.
12. Plan your blogging activity schedule
    Make a plan, list what you have to do i.e. frequency of publishing posts, specific days for some specific posts, specific days for admin, editorial and promotional tasks, a day for readers (for emailing, answering questions etc), specific days to analyze stats etc, So grab a calendar and map out specific tasks that you want to achieve over the next month.
13. Be aware; try to post Breaking news in your niche
    Bloggers should be aware what is happening in their niche. It gives you ideas for fresh up-to-date content for new blog posts.  If you break some news in your blog it builds your credibility very fast. Setup alerts for your blog, for this purpose you can use Google Alerts.
14. Analyze your readers deeply
    Do some analysis of what is the first impressions of your blog on your visitors. Analyze where they navigate, where do they click, where do they pause to read, where do they skip over, which keywords they search in your blog etc. For visualizing the user experience on your blog CrazyEgg.com is a great tool.
15. Ask questions to your reader
    Try to ask some question for your readers in your post, as it is a fantastic way to grow your blog. It gives readers a sense of community and participation, it increases blog stickiness, moreover, reader answer can fuel future post ideas for your blog.
16. Make active your passive readers
    Motivate your readers to go beyond reading and take some kind of action for this purpose ask your reader to write some comments, vote a poll, vote for you on social bookmarking sites, persuade readers to subscribe to your feed etc.
17. Promote your readers
    Make your readers famous by Choosing one or more of your current readers and do anything to encourage them, show them that you value them, and highlight them to your other readers. For this you can promote a comment in your post, write a post about their blog, choose a reader of the week, invite guest posts etc.
18. Be SEO friendly
    While writing your posts take SEO into consideration, Search engines can send you a lot of traffic, allow it by changing blog permalinks, title of post and description of your post to include your post keywords in them. Remove broken links. keyword density in your post should not be more than 5%. But remember don’t write your posts just for search engines, readers should be given first priority.
19. Monitor your Blog statistics
    Keep an eye on your blog’s statistics and see what you can learn from it. Make sure you have some metric package installed in your blog. Analyze your total visitors, most popular posts, referral sites, traffic sending keywords, bounce rates, visitor’s avg. time on site etc. Google Analytics is the best tool for this kind of information.
20. Be Consistent and Unique
    Consistency doesn’t mean you have to publish posts daily on your blog but it means to setup a schedule and publish your post according to this, be aware plans often remain just plans and don’t become reality, so don’t just plan follow it strictly.
21. Don’t just spend your time online
    Success in Blogging takes a lot of hard-work. But it’s not the only thing you have in your life. Learn to enjoy your life, give time to your family, go out and observe what is going on around you, read books, enjoy your weekends. It will improve your energy levels and will keep you and your mind sharp.

With all that said how does a person maintain a high level of enthusiasm and energy to consistently create blog entries while waiting for success to happen? It is only natural for someone to either run out of ideas to write about or the enthusiasm to even write. What to do?

Here are 5 tactics I use to re-energize my thinking and enthusiasm when both seem to be depleted for creating new blog entries.

Rant

Select a relevant topic (or make it relevant) to what you write about and target something about it that bothers you. Discuss why it bothers you and why your readers should care. If the topic is popular enough you will likely get a lot of traffic to your post.

Report

Sometimes just following current events (again you do want some relevancy) and relaying this information to your readers can make for a very good post. To some this type entry may seem ‘lame’ and without originality. It is important to remember that many a popular blog have built their entire following on simply reporting the news to them.

Reviews

Product reviews are a great service to your readers insofar as readers already trust you and this allows you to ‘get up to speed’ on any new products. This is also a great ‘lead-in’ to offering the same product for sale to readers provided of course the review is favorable.

Reveal

A format that has become very popular on television is investigative reporting. This is also an approach you can use for your own readers if you know of unethical or ‘shady’ practices that are exercised online. Reporting such activity is a great way to strengthen the loyalty of the blog reader and also gives the potential for being a ‘blockbuster’ post.

Reiterate

Dust off one of your more popular ‘former’ entries or articles and create a new post by pursuing it from a different direction. It is also a great idea to take an old article and focus on an area of the article that did not get much attention when it was originally composed. For instance say you wrote a ‘top 10′ list type of article. Take one of the items on that list and dedicate more attention and detail to just that one item in a post.

This type of format can give you plenty of content which you can develop for future post at times when you are low on new ideas.

Blog posting can and should be the most enjoyable part of managing the site however when you are low on ideas it can be dreadful. In order to develop a popular blog it is important and almost mandatory that your entries are frequent and intriguing. It is quite natural however to lose enthusiasm over a period of time since the blog building process can be a slow one.

The 5 tactics discussed above serve to help ‘mix up’ the style and direction of your entries. Not only does this help to ‘reinvigorate’ your thinking but also presents to the blog reader an interesting twist apart from the style to which they have become accustomed. As the saying goes ‘variety is the spice of life’ so give yourself and your readers more spice.

Guest Post by TJ Philpott, an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. Visit blogbrawn.com

Becoming a top blogger is one of those topics that attract a massive amount of experts, advice and information, but it is still relatively starved of any real strategy or authority. With the huge army of self-proclaimed blogging experts out there, it can be difficult to know who to trust, what path to take, and how to effectively market your blog to turn it into a popular and profitable online enterprise.

In order to become a top blogger, you need to maximize your audience and personal exposure. While it’s possible to do this by endlessly blogging for other people, taking part in interviews, and jumping through all kinds of PR hoops, the most effective method is to build a massive subscriber list. As with many types of business, the conventional advice and method isn’t always the most profitable, and a small amount of research into alternate routes to a massive subscriber count can yield massive success further down the line. These three tips and strategies are designed to do two things: cause a massive increase in your subscription count, and create subscribers that will stay with you long-term, rather than leaving to the next big thing that comes along. Long-term appeal always wins out in the blogging world, and those subscriptions are the most valuable and lucrative of all.

Tip #1 – Find your optimum update times, and stick to them ruthlessly.
This is a tip from Tim Ferriss, one of the most popular and successful bloggers on the internet. With over 50,000 Twitter followers, Tim is a powerhouse in the internet marketing world, and is renowned for his highly time-optimized strategies and blogging advice. One of his most useful strategies for bloggers is to experiment with different posting times and focus on the times that give the maximum in terms of subscriber benefits. This process is as simple as micro-testing 12 different blog posts to determine which hour of the day is best for subscription increases.

Tip #2 – Give your readers reasons to subscribe.
This one is a simple psychological exercise more than it is a blog optimization. Would you join a club if it had no benefits? No, of course not. But you’d definitely join one that allowed you to access exclusive offers, content and resources that nobody else could access. You need to put yourself in this mindset when you design resources for your subscribers. Offer something exclusive and valuable for your subscribers and they’ll reciprocate your generosity by subscribing and sharing your blog with friends.

Tip #3 – Partner with other bloggers to create cross-subscriber traffic.
This one is a slightly more advanced strategy that requires a larger time commitment to blogging. Once you’ve built a decent audience, build relationships with other bloggers. Once you’ve built a friendly relationship, send them a quick email offering to guest blog for them, and in exchange offer them the same opportunity on your blog. You’ll be surprised at how many bloggers will eagerly accept the offer. This strategy brings multiple benefits — you increase your subscription count, expose your blog to a new audience, and build valuable back links to your blog page. All for free, and all because you understood blogging strategy.

To learn more about blogging, get this free Bloggers Starter Kit at http://bit.ly/bw3t4Y.

Guest Post – Teena Damron

Image, Susan Coffey

I’ve been down for a little while because of ANOTHER nasty virus. At first my site was redirecting to bing.com.  I went into my blog editor and removed a code from every page of the editor that looked like 20 lines of letters.  Of course the next morning it was back.  My husband had to go to the host and restore the blog to a couple days before the virus.   Luckily with Godaddy this was easy.

At first I thought I caught this from dropping cards and surfing sites at EC, Adgitize or CMF but after doing a little research I think this was done by hackers who where able to figure out passwords on hosting accounts.  I was able to find a lot of other bloggers who were going through this exact same thing.  I wish I knew enough to tell people how to fix this but the best advice I can give is to marry a geek.

Just in case this happens to you – John from Daily Photo Gallery was nice enough to do a little research and found some links to others who are talking about this hack.

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/388369

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1770144

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18128737

So now that I have this fixed I need to figure out how I can stop it from happening again.  There’s got to be a way to protect a website from these evil bottom crawlers.

I was able to find a few tips on WordPress.org

Some steps to take

• Stay Calm
  • You have to stay calm to be able to deal with this situation. The first step before you respond to any security incident is to calm yourself down to make sure you do not commit any mistakes. We are serious about it.

• Scan your local machine.
  • Sometimes the malware was introduced through a compromised desktop system. Make sure you run a full anti-virus/malware scan on your local machine. Some viruses are good at detecting AV software and hiding from them. So maybe try a different one. This advice generally only applies to Windows systems.

• Check with your hosting provider.
  • The hack may have affected more than just your site, especially if you are using shared hosting. It is worth checking with your hosting provider in case they are taking steps or need to. Your hosting provider might also be able to confirm if a hack is an actual hack or a loss of service, for example.

• Change your passwords.
  • Change passwords for the blog users, your FTP and MySQL users.

• Change your secret keys.
  • If they stole your password and are logged in to your blog, even if you change your password they will remain logged in. How? because their cookies are still valid. To disable them, you have to create a new set of secret keys. Visit the WordPress key generator to obtain a new random set of keys, then overwrite the values in your wp-config.php file with the new ones.

• Take a backup of what you have left.
  • If your files and database are still there, consider backing them up so that you can investigate them later at leisure, or restore to them if your cleaning attempt fails. Be sure to label them as the hacked site backup, though…

• Read Donncha O Caoimh’s guide on what to do.
  • Donncha wrote a good article on what to do if you suspect a hack, it is well worth reading through and acting on, as it goes into more depth than this page.

• Read How to clean your hacked install and Removing malware from a WordPress blog which explain in details some steps you might need to take.

• Check your .htaccess file for hacks.
  • Hackers can use your .htaccess to redirect to malicious sites from your URL.

• Consider deleting everything.
  • A sure way to remove hacks that currently exist, is to delete all the files from your web space, and clear out your WordPress database. Of course, if you do this, you would need backups to restore to, so …

• Consider restoring a backup
  • If you restore known, clean, backup of your WordPress Database, and refresh your WordPress, plugin and theme files through FTP, that will ensure all those bits are clean of malicious code. At the very least …

• Replace the core WordPress files with ones from a freshly downloaded zip.
  • Replacing all your core files will ensure nothing is left behind in them in a hacked state. Remember to replace plugins and theme files, too.

• Upgrade!
  • Once you are clean, you should upgrade your WordPress installation to the latest software. Older versions are more prone to hacks than newer versions.

• Change the passwords again!
  • Remember, you need to change the passwords for your site after making sure your site is clean. So if you only changed them when you discovered the hack, change them again now.

• Do a post-mortem.
  • Once your site is recovered, check your site logs to see if you can discover how the hack took place. Open source tools like OSSEC can analyze your logs and point you where/how the attack happened.

Any Advice??

I am constantly on the lookout for new information to help me come up with new ideas for writing blog posts. I came across this list of post ideas that I think can help anyone get their creative juices flowing.

Keeping your blog interesting and fresh isn’t just a case of posting regularly, you also need to mix things up and use different styles of posts to keep your readers engaged. Here are five different styles you can try out to make your blog more interesting.

1. The inspection post

One of the easiest ways to make money with your blog is to review products that then pay you a commission for any sales that you make. The inspection post is one where you take a closer look at a product and review it for your readers.

An effective inspection post will cover the positives as well as the negatives. People want to know what’s good and bad about a product before they buy it and the more honest you are the more likely they are to buy the product through your affiliate link.

2. The insights post

Offering insights to your readers is a great way to write an engaging and interesting post. Sometimes you might have a great tip to share that doesn’t warrant a whole article but would make a great short post. Say you blog about cake baking, a useful insights post could be as simple as instructions on how to grease a muffin pan so that the muffins turn out easily. You can add even more interest by making a short video to show your readers how it’s done.

3. The index post

Readers love lists. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 15 Great Ways to Build Traffic to Your Website or the Top 10 Kitchen Utensils Every Baker Needs. Whatever niche you are in you will be able to compile a useful index post. These resource lists are popular because they are easy to scan and can help people find the information they need quickly and easily.

The other great thing about index posts is that they have the potential to go viral. People love to share index posts with their friends via Facebook, Twitter or the other social networking sites, compile a useful list and before you know it you will have a whole new set of visitors.

4. The interview post

Interviews are a great source of interesting and engaging content for your blog. You could offer to interview an expert in your niche, or the author of a useful book. It will take some work to set up the interview as you will need to contact prospective interviewees to ask them to take part. Once they’re on board you simply need to compile an interesting list of questions and ask them to complete the answers by email for publication on your blog.

5. The instruction post

People turn to the Internet when they want to know how to do something. So instruction posts can be really useful. Spend some time in the forums and see what problems people have and then create a blog post walking them through the solution step-by-step. Including screenshots or images can help to get your message across, and videos are even better.

Finally, don’t forget that traffic is the life blood of any online business. To discover 26 ways you can drive targeted traffic to your website without spending a penny visit http://ultimatetrafficmaster.com/ today.

I was talking with Jen over at Redheadranting.com about some of the irritating trends in the blog world so of course I needed to post about it.

Blogs have taken over the internet.  They’re everywhere.  They are fun, smart, sarcastic and informative.  They make me laugh, cry, scream and rant.  I love finding a good blog,  (It’s like finding a good author – I read every single one of their books and keep searching for the next)  I’ll sign up for their newsletter, subscribe to their posts and look forward to reading whatever they blog about.

The thing is, the more I delve into the blogosphere in search of the next best blog I am confronted with an abundance of CRAP.  You can feel it the minute the window flickers open and the pretty pink butterflys float across your screen – CRAP – and you say to yourself, “Didn’t I just read this post on the last blog I read?”  I know how this happens – You started a blog, but you don’t know what to write about – it’s harder than you thought.  You get ideas from blogs you enjoy reading  and voila you got yourself a post – then you do it again, and again and again until your blog isn’t YOUR blog anymore but just a version, a stepchild, a poor example of what it could have been if you had made it YOUR blog and not tried so hard to look like the other 50 million blogs out there.

1.  Don’t Become a Stepford Wife

Make sure you keep your content your own.  Don’t copy what others are doing  just because you think it looks cool – it’s cool the first time, not the second, third, fourth, millionth time.

2. Make sure you know what you are talking about.

Choose a topic you are interested in.  Choose a topic you are knowledgeable of.  Choosing a topic just because it’s the “hottest” trend right now won’t help if you don’t know anything about it.  If you write about something that you are personally interested in, this would eventually manifest itself in your posts and the readers would see just how well informed you are and that would make them want to read more. So make sure that you always keep your information up to date and refreshing. Don’t post the same thing that others are posting, try to be unique and you’ll see that people would prefer your blog over the others.

3. Be consistent – Again, never stray from the subject you chose for your blog. If your blog is about shoes, then don’t start posting about origami unless you can somehow connect it with shoes.

This constant changing would confuse your readers and they would eventually lose interest. Basically, they came to your blog because they want to know about the latest in shoes not because they want to learn origami. Remember that you’ve exerted quite a bit of effort in getting readers, so don’t start losing them now.

4. Make regular posts – Make sure that your blog always has new and fresh content. The more updated you are with information and news regarding your chosen subject, the more people would come to your blog to read.

Another benefit that you can get from frequent posting is that this attracts the search engines to crawl your blog for the new posts and this would subsequently boost your blog’s search engine ranking. So keep your blog well updated with fresh content everyday.

Lastly, make your posts very easy to read. Big words are great for when you are trying to impress someone with an essay but for blogs, keep the words simple and easy to understand. You don’t want your reader to start scratching their heads trying to figure out what you might be trying to say. That would make them lose interest and lose you profits as well. So keep it light and simple.

Image -Julias Gallery

There are a number of important factors that go into the production of a first-class blog. Quality of content, the layout of the page, how best to integrate video, formal versus informal tone, each of these is a decision that must be made during the creation of the project. That all comes before more esoteric concerns, which include the integration of meta tags, link building, traffic generation, and keyword/SEO implementation.

Yet underlying these important issues is one that many people wrestle with: How often should the thing be updated? Innocuous as it sounds, post frequency is actually vital to the success of any content project, and especially to blogs. Equally, it is a surprisingly complex decision that can involve numerous factors. Time, place, and availability of content all have parts to play in determining just how often you need to update your blog.

Finding the Right Frequency

Blogging is an extension of the principles of marketing. You want to get your content the exposure you feel it deserves, so you market it as best you can to cultivate an audience. This involves doing the legwork and research necessary to act on good information, and testing your ideas while allowing room for adjustment as you work and grow. Chances are you will not hit the right rate of posting immediately, and that is all right as long as you’re prepared to adjust when it’s required.

No single article can cover every eventuality of course, but we can break down a few core principles to get you thinking in the right direction. The key is to consider these ideas and extrapolate from them, using the other lessons you’ve learned, to build a solid, whole-picture approach.

1 – Make content king.

More than almost any other community, web users are keenly attuned to fluff pieces that don’t really say much. This isn’t true for 100% of the community of course, but those who can pick out an airy, pointless piece will almost invariably be sure to point it out, leading to some word of mouth you probably didn’t want. Don’t pick an update schedule that can’t live up to the content you have available. Stick to a schedule that you know you can provide a quality post for, every single time you sign on.

This has a twofold effect. One, it keeps the ‘pressure to post’ at a minimum. Content drives the posting, and you aren’t struggling every third day to come up with more information, or worse to rehash the information you’ve already posted. Secondly, it shows you have respect for the community, and keeps them interested and coming back.

2 – Set the time and day.

Even though the web never sleeps, a great part of the world still functions on a Monday to Friday, 9-5 schedule of sorts. Taking these rhythms into account can help you build the ideal web traffic for your project. For example, a blog focusing on home and family concerns and selling books related to it might not find as much of an audience during traditional business hours as during the time when people are at-home with their families. Granted this is only a rule of thumb, as many people surf the web for their favorite blogs during lunch breaks.

Another part of this element is the Monday-Wednesday-Friday cycle. Many business blogs and publications settle on a three-a-week update schedule, and the MWF routine works out very well for this. They’re all business days, and the schedule covers the start, middle, and end stretches of a workweek.

Of course since this ends up being something of the default, it means that Tuesdays and Thursdays end up with comparatively little content for people to peruse. Sundays suffer a lack of content as well, for the obvious related reasons. If you find yourself preferring less frequent, longer posts, consider a T-Th routine to take advantage of the ‘gap’ between other updates.

3 – Have a conversation.

One of the most interesting contributions to modern marketing is the blog comments section. Every blogging software out there has some feature for allowing or disallowing comments. As we’ve discussed before, consumer input can have an incredible effect on any brand, and blogs are no exception.

Taking advantage of this resource requires a certain amount of patience. Conversations develop in the comments section as people discuss, dispute, and debate the merits of what you’ve posted. In short, you need to not just let this happen, but cultivate the effect. Allow reasonable discussions to grow, and comment yourself on the more relevant points. Let the consumer know their input is being seen, and that you care enough to respond to it. Posting new blog posts too frequently overruns this tendency, and could rob you of vital feedback.

4 – Be nimble.

As we’ve mentioned, you are not likely to get it right just out of the gate. You may bite off too much to chew, or update too infrequently for people to care. Evaluate the data, ask your consumers questions, and be prepared to change as needed. Flexibility is the ultimate survival tool on the web, and your blog will benefit if you approach the affair with an open mind and a willingness to try several approaches. Pick an update schedule, observe it, and then experiment with others until you have the one that best fits your needs.

“With the rampant proliferation of user-generated content, the opportunity for disgruntled malcontents to damage your firm’s reputation increases everyday. Make sure to evaluate the extent of the problem, consider legal options, and stay within your comfort zone. Take the high road whenever possible, treat your opponent with respect” -Marty Weintraub

Yesterday an Entrecard blogger discovered that some members are cheating when they drop ECs, using a script that just shows the drop box, not the blogs.  Instead of researching this finding to make sure that there is no other possible explanation for these drops to show up -this blogger posted defamatory comments, calling these bloggers cheats and scammers.  It didn’t take long for other bloggers to join in, saying they would be sure to not visit those blogs anymore.  Some of these bloggers  have proven that his findings are not totally accurate.  If I were one of these bloggers, I would be FURIOUS.  These accusations will follow the bloggers forever.  Something like this should have been turned over to EC – let them figure out who is cheating.  I don’ t understand why anyone would post negative statements when they obviously have done a shoddy job gathering facts.  I’m angry for these bloggers – I’d say half of them drop and comment on my blogs often.    The person who wrote the post seems to jump to conclusions often and accuse people of cheating before he has all the facts.    I remember when he had some ad service connected to his blog that redirected you to another page – one time when I was dropping on his blog the page redirected to some porn site (this was not a virus – but something he was doing to earn money) .  What if I followed the same practice as this blogger and posted a long negative blog entry, connecting his name forever to to this nasty ad scheme.  He didn’t realize that porn was showing up and removed the code when I sent him a message, but it seems like maybe I shouldn’t have said anything to him at all and instead just blast him with accusations.

This is not the first time that he has made accusations like this.  Back in January he accused some CMF members of being Ghost-droppers (I was one of them).  Through research Turnip and Ben where able to figure out why these numbers where showing up and came to the conclusion that there were definitely no scammers/ghostdroppers.

Comment -

“The Spikes Ghost Dropper!
Here are my Ghost Droppers…. My official Spikes ended on 31st
December there i got 15 clicks of 10 available (already 5 clicks more).
Now i get since 1st January 2 – 5 visits from the same persons (mainly
Norfolk and four from San Angelo).
Other members told me similar findings. Seems someone wants to game
the system??”

Response -

There are no “ghost droppers” on our end. We prevent users from being
credited for clicking a spike more than once, even accidentally”
Furthermore, we have security in place to prevent someone from creating
multiple CMF Ads accounts and then visiting your blog from each login.
Note that “Credit for clicking a Spike” and “visiting via the Spike URL” are
not the same thing. If a person doesn’t refresh their page, it is possible to
click the link twice, but the buyer won’t be charged, and the person clicking
won’t receive credit. Seems like a fuss over nothing. 44 unexplained visits
over a period of 10 days. But I will look at the stats for that time period and
see if I can find anything unusual on either end just to follow up.
“Shelia, Ben and I also appeared on one of those lists. I assure you I am
also not gaming anything.

Here are a few comments left in my message box:

“Here’s what I wrote to him (and I’m prepared to take legal action against him if he doesn’t do a good job of retracting his statements):

I’m very mad!!!

I went to the extra effort of Googling your blog and opening it from Google’s cache, because I didn’t see your widget.

I then clicked on your widget from the cached page. I do that for any blog I regularly visit if the site is down or I can’t find the widget.

And this is what I get in return!!!

I expect a public apology.. VERY public!”

“I’m prepared to file a libel complaint with Google and request that they take action, so that I don’t have to resort to legal measures.

I wonder how much damage has been done and how this will hurt my EC reputation.”

___________________________________________________________________________

“As far as I know this is down to using a browser cache, hence the reams of major EC members being accused. To be honest I and XXXX are sick of dropping, we’ve spent months doing it now. So we’re off, no time for this unfounded slander. There’s even a comment at XXXXXX saying the same thing, perhaps someone does have a piece of software but it certainly isn’t us! We can’t even afford to get the roof fixed. If a site is sluggish many users will use a cached version of the site, most Macs have this as standard in Safari. If a widget doesn’t load usually it is because the server is slow…I think XXXXXXXX will regret his actions, he should have asked some of those he has accused to explain first.”

So what do you do when someone defames you online?

Tips From Ame Clear Blog

1. Evaluate the authority of the page on which the negative content is published. As with any SEO assignment, start by taking a look at PageRank and inbound links profile using Yahoo Site Explorer and other tools. If the offending result is not on a site’s homepage, then take a careful look at older and similar interior pages along with their archives.Google’s algorithmic regard for any page tends to accumulate over time as a result of numerous factors, known and “black box.” Therefore it’s a good idea to keep in mind that any page’s clout might increase over time. Be advised and plan accordingly.Reciprocally if the problem content is currently indexing on a blog’s homepage, the difficulty may be mitigated when the post cycles off the homepage into archives. While the post is on the homepage, its content has the full “weight” of the homepage’s authority.This won’t be the case in archive unless the post generates great links. That said many blogs’ category pages, author and date archives accumulate PageRank and you might have to wait a while for the post to cycle even deeper into to site over time. (Note: PageRank isn’t everything but it’s better to have it than not.)
2. Since some offending results violate copyright or trademark laws, a strong understanding of and willingness to utilize legal channels can be important arrows in the SEO sharpshooter’s quiver. Sometimes the first salvo we fire is from our client’s law firm in the form of a cease and desist letter.Be aware of laws as pertain to protected marks and intellectual property. Certainly taking the legal route can yield results and sometimes the expense makes sense. Our legal team has scared many an idiot off our client’s back. Some rouges just don’t want to mess with lawyers and can be “encouraged” to take down their problem content.On the other hand be a realist. Some insolent jerk halfway around the world won’t give a rat’s ass about your attorney’s saber rattling. Sometimes firing legal missals can even result in your opponent digging in their heals with an intransigent disregard for reality.When nasty search engine results stem from social media channels, it can be impossible to locate the villain let alone engage them legally. Social site moderators often couldn’t care less because they thrive on the passionate engagement which surrounds controversy. StumbleUpon (eBay) is the worst as they are nearly completely unwilling to enforce Terms of Services as pertain to abusive “troll” users.
3. Determine the likelihood that the substance of proposed defensive content will further provoke and backfire virally. We find it’s best if newly created content and subsequent promotional activity do not appear to be directly related to the problem we’re competing with.My grandmother used to tell me never to “get into a pissing contest with a skunk. Even if you win…you stink. “Instead, create defensive content that builds on strengths of your business to contradict the negatives raised by a bad editorial. Build your content to outrank the perpetrator’s.Though we never take directly refuting offensive results off the table fully, one needs to be extremely careful. We don’t want 5 other bloggers to rally behind their jerky friend and take up a damaging cause they hadn’t even noticed before.
4. Unless you’re an expert, talk to a professional before engaging directly in social channels surrounding the problem results. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen a business person, who has no experience in social media, climb into a comments thread and make things SO much worse. There are very few instances when taking a step back and counting to 10 will negatively impact the end result of defensive activities.If you’re not a regular contributer in a specific social media channel, learning the vernacular while under duress is not the best choice. Also we’ve seen clients make legal mistakes publicly which made a difficult problem much worse. Call an SEO/social media expert. Call your lawyer. Have a glass of wine and some sushi. Chill.
5. If direct engagement in social channels makes sense, attempt to earn the provocateurs respect by your response. Every disaster is an opportunity in the making and vice versa. Whilst measured righteous indignation can be a powerful tool, start with classic high road messages of respect and understanding: “I understand your position,” “respect your right to express your feelings in public,” “am grateful for the opportunity to engage in a dialog” and “what can we do to make things right?”
6. Take the high road over and over. Then take the high road again. If that doesn’t work…you can always nuke em’. There are white hat methods and other, ummmm, not-white hat methods available to “eliminate” the problem. Given recent furor over public discussion of non-candy-ass SEO tactics you’ll have to contact me directly to discuss the options further.
7. Consider paid search as a stopgap and/or ongoing strategy. When weighing the cost of PPC to circumvent damaging organic results, paid search is often an attractive “lesser of all evils’ option, especially in the short term while waiting for other solutions to come online. Google’s content network, in the hands of a site-targeting expert, can be a highly effective channel-especially when clarifying or refuting mainstream damage in news, niche’ and social channels.
8. Get back to SEO basics. The best defense is a good offense. In reality it should be difficult for idiots to crack into direct brand search results if your website is optimized properly.One of our newer clients came to us under assault from a disgruntled former customer. It didn’t make sense at first because the offensive result was on a PR zero site with little authority.Upon evaluation we quickly ascertained that our client’s website was entirely a Flash movie, literally with no deep indexing. Solving the “crises” was as simple as re-publishing the site in HTML with Flash elements instead of a full Flash movie.

The number one reason I chose to pursue Internet marketing as an online entrepreneur was the freedom it provides. Having an online business allows you to take your business with you wherever you go and work on it at whatever time suits your schedule. Now, that’s the kind of freedom I am after!

But, in order to make your work at home, online business a success, you must possess a certain amount of self discipline so that you can properly use your energy and time productively.

Here’s a few of the most important elements that I learned that will keep your confidence, focus and productivity strong as you pursue your own dream of working at home…and succeeding.

The most important thing I learned was what things produced money for me and what things didn’t. For me it was no question…article marketing and list-building were the two most important elements to pursue for my business.

In other words, they were the best use of turning my time into money as they provided the best results.

Hanging out in forums and chat rooms…although very entertaining, was simply not cutting it. Forums can be productive for you if you monitor the way you use them and don’t just hang out killing what could otherwise be productive time.

Another important step to take is to cut yourself off from the noise…cut off the world that takes you away from your focus.

For example:

1) unsubscribe from your thousands of mailings. That is a chore in itself, but if you don’t do this, you will continue to be bombarded with offers that will only distract you from your goals. Choose to follow 1, 2 or possibly 3 mentors at a time…and no more. Trust me, the others aren’t going anywhere and will still be around when you’re finished with your present ones!

If this idea scares you, then create a separate email account and resubscribe for those hundreds of promos you will be getting and check it occasionally.

2) Do those things that make money for you first such as sending an email to your list, writing articles for the directories, checking your support desk for any help needed etc.

3) Shut your computer down and accomplish any offline tasks that are nagging at you to complete. I have found that if there are things that I am not tending to in my offline life, they will continue to nag me and unconsciously I am not getting the most out of my mind energy because of this subtle disturbance to my peace.

Value your time: Learn to say “no.” Sounds easy enough doesn’t it and yet there are those that have trouble saying “no” to anyone or any offer that comes their way. You need to choose what and whom gets your valuable time…you only have so much of it. Use your time to enjoy your family or to benefit your business in some way.

Learn to say “no” to time wasters. Learn to say “yes” to your life (family and business)

Set up your work hours and stick to it. For me, this was early in the morning. I would get busy on my business…coffee in hand while most everyone else was sleeping.

If you’re busy writing an article or blog post, time yourself! That’s right, buy a typical timer and set the alarm for the amount of time it should take you to complete this task. This will keep you honest with yourself but more importantly it will keep you accountable for your time!

Don’t spend 3-4 hours on a short report or blog post that should be written within 20-30 minutes. After timing yourself for awhile you might be surprised at what you find. Use this information to improve your time management skills.

Create a daily action list. I create mine the night before so that it is ready and waiting for me when I sit down at my desk in the morning and I never have to guess at what needs accomplishing. It is simply a compilation of tasks that I want to accomplish that day. Better to keep it simple…especially at first until you get comfortable with your own time frames. Don’t make the list so long that you are defeated before you begin.

I move from one task to the other until I’ve completed them all. If I have miscalculated my timing and everything does not get done that day, whatever is left undone goes to the top of my “to do” list for the next day.

Don’t forget the breaks! We need to take 15 minute breaks to stretch our body and give our minds a rest. Ideally you should never work more than three hours straight without some sort of break. But, come right back after your break!

And, last but not least, take ACTION. This is the most important step of all. If you don’t take action, your dreams an ideas remain just that…dreams and ideas. Combine your dreams with action steps…persistently and consistently…and watch your dreams manifest before your eyes!

Becoming an online entrepreneur is one of the most exciting opportunities that has ever come along. Becoming a success at it, is all about your self discipline.

As a website owner, one of your top priorities is going to be getting your site indexed and ranked by Google. People perform over 235 million searches a day with Google, so the potential to receive significant traffic from this search engine should be enough for you to invest the time to make sure it’s done right.

Google wants to fill its index with quality, error free websites that are beneficial and targeted to their searchers. Enter Google’s Webmaster Central Tools ….. http://google.com/webmasters . If you’ve never heard of it, it’s Google’s way of helping you with your website’s indexing. Not too long ago, it went through a redesign and upgrade process which made it more useful and easier to use than ever.

First thing you’ll need to sign in with is a Google account. Google requires an account to be able to use all of their free services, including Blogger and Analytics, so if youdon’t have one, now’s the time to register.

If you have multiple websites to list, that’s no problem. Up to 500 sites can be added all under one roof. You will need to perform what Google calls “site verification” for each site submitted. This proves to Google that you are the owner of the site before they release detailed information to you. At one time it was a lengthy process of cutting and pasting code into the head section of your index page or uploading a separate HTML file. Now they’ve streamlined the process and it’s all done with one click of an email.

If you use Blogger.com, “Webmaster Tools” can be enabled from within the Blogger dashboard under tools/resources. Once your sites have been submitted, you’ll have access to a whole suite of useful tools. The website is broken up into three main sections.

1. Site Configuration (Information about your site)
2. Your Site on the Web (Google data re: your site)
3. Diagnostics (Any problems Google had while indexing your site)

If your website has never received a decent ranking with Google, these numerous reports will help you in tracking down the problem. It’s truly an “eye opener” to see your site through the eyes of a search engine.

On the “Crawl Errors Page”, any errors Google encountered while crawling your site are revealed. The url’s not listed, and the types of problems such as restricted by robots txt, url’s that timed out, and unreachable url’s will be uncovered. If numerous pages of your site are not indexed, Sitemaps can also be submitted to help Google find and crawl all of the pages of your site.

If your website is not showing up in Google’s index, or you think it’s being penalized for some reason, you can contact Google from within the “tools interface” with a “reconsideration” request. This will ask Google to take another look at your site. Before submitting, make sure you’ve cleaned up any errors, and that you’re not in violation of any of Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Here’s a small sample of some other tasks that can be performed.

• Keyword Research: The keywords page lists the most important words Google found when indexing your site. So you know what keyword/phrases your site is ranking for.
• Who’s linking to your website.
• Page rank for individual pages can be reviewed.
• Change of address feature, which is useful when moving domains to let Google know.
• Data can be downloaded in spreadsheet format in order to be analyzed and tracked.
• Any RSS feeds can also be submitted as sitemaps.
• Parameter Handling- Allows you to tell Google which url’s you want them to ignore.
• Emails from Google’s Webmaster Tools can be forwarded to any email address you specify.

Contrary to popular belief, Google wants you to succeed online which is why they give you the tools needed to fix any problems, and make your site a search engine’s indexing dream. That’s not just good business for Google, it’s good for your website too.

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Search engine helps you to generate traffic, but consequently Search Engine Optimization is very complicated, which beginners and expert bloggers dismay in joining such a strategy for achieving traffic. Starting a wordpress by default is pretty suitable at letting search engines see what’s happening. Fortunately, there are wide varieties of plugins accessible to keep you attain a good ranking for your blog, lessen that the stress of typing the code of your blog to obtain results of the search engines.

Here are some very beneficial SEO plugins to help you build a better wordpress blog.

Redirection

In improving our wordpress blogs, we cannot avoid our permalinks to be broken. This happens when you make changes to an old post, or maybe in upgrading or improving your wordpress blog also when you make changes on your permalinks. These changes can break up your entire wordpress blog.

Ill explain what really happens behind these changes, each post has its own URL this is what we call permalinks. When it is broken, those visitors won’t find your blog post. The redirection plugin helps you to redirect the visitors to follow the new permalink. So that your traffic will work efficiently.

features include by John Godley:

• 404 error monitoring – captures a log of 404 errors and allows you to easily map these to 301 redirects
• Custom ‘pass-through’ redirections allowing you to pass a URL through to another page, file, or website.
• Full logs for all redirected URLs
• All URLs can be redirected, not just ones that don’t exist
• Redirection methods – redirect based upon login status, redirect to random pages, redirect based upon the referrer!

Existing features include:

• Automatically add a 301 redirection when a post’s URL changes
• Manually add 301, 302, and 307 redirections for a WordPress post, or for any other file
• Full regular expression support
• Apache .htaccess is not required – works entirely inside WordPress
• Strip or add www to all your WordPress pages * Redirect index.php, index.html, and index.htm access
• Redirection statistics telling you how many times a redirection has occurred, when it last happened, who tried to do it, and where they found your URL
• Fully localized

Robots Meta

Robots Meta plugin allows you to point specifically to the search engines which sections of your blog to crawl. This means that you’ll gain more respect from search engines, and likewise more traffic.

This plugin by Joost De Valk makes it possible to:

• Prevent indexing of your search result pages, while still allowing the search engines to follow the links on them, by adding noindex, follow robots meta tags.
• Disallow indexing of subpages to your homepage, category pages, author pages and tag pages, to prevent duplicate content.
• Prevent indexing of your login, register and admin pages by adding noindex robots meta tags.
• Add noodp an noydir meta robots tags, allowing you to opt out of DMOZ and Yahoo! Directory descriptions.
• Prevent Yahoo! and Google from indexing your feeds by adding a meta tag to their head-section.
• Prevent indexing of just your comment feeds.
• Disable author and date-based archives.
• Prevent attachment pages from ranking in the search results over your articles.
• Enforce a trailing slash on archives.
• Edit your .htaccess and your robots.txt from within WordPress.
• Assign robots meta tags to individual posts & pages.
• Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Add noarchive tags to your blog.

SEO Smart Links

Internal linking structure is the prime subject of SEO. If you have more links it just convey how well your website structure is. The problem with this is that if you had to manually go and create links to relevant and important posts you’ll spend hours and hours doing it.

Here are some advantages by Vladimir Prelovac:

• SEO Smart links allows you to specify a word, like ‘SEO’ and then link it to a post on your site. Then each time the word SEO appears on your site, it’s automatically turned into a link you specified.
• SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more.
• SEO Smart Links can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.
• Further SEO Smart links allows you to set up your own keywords and set of matching URLs. Finally SEO Smart links allows you to set nofollow attribute and open links in new window.
• It is a perfect solution to get your blog posts interlinked or add affiliate links to other sites.
• Everything happens completely transparent, and you can edit the options from the administration settings panel.

Do you ever dread sitting down to write because you’re just not sure what to write about?

When you’re doing article marketing, you need to create a steady flow of articles. You may be just getting started and haven’t gotten into a writing groove yet. Or maybe you’ve written tons of articles and are feeling like you’ve written about your topic in every way you possibly can.

I assure you–you have more creative writing ideas in you. You just need a little help in looking at your topic in a new way to come up with new writing ideas.

Use these 15 article ideas to start your next brainstorming session:

1. Use a keyword suggestion tool such as WordTracker to look up searches that people are doing related to your topic. When you find a search term that is popular for your topic, then write an article to satisfy that term.
2. Take a look at your website stats and see what people have been typing into search engines to reach your site. Write articles to satisfy those searches.
3. Forums: Look at popular forums in our niche and see what topics are hot. Pick out some questions that people are asking that you think your target market might also be wondering, and then write an article that answers that question.
4. Blogs: Start following some popular blogs in your niche, and see what topics strike a nerve with the readers. You can usually tell what topics are hot by how many comments the post has. Sometimes just looking at the comments on a topic is enough to spark ideas for new articles.
5. Newsletters: Subscribe to newsletters in your niche and see what catches your eye. Use a compelling newsletter topic as a jump start for your next article.
6. Google Alerts: Create Google Alerts for each of your keywords and see what other folks are writing about your topic. The idea is to just catch an idea–you can cover the same or similar topic in a new way, with a new perspective, and with different information.
7. Solicit questions. If you have a blog or a newsletter list, ask your readers if they have any questions for you. Take the best questions and write articles that provide answers.
8. How To articles. What can you teach your readers? Think of a specific lesson, technique, or skill that your target market needs to know in order to succeed in your niche, and then walk them step-by-step through how to do it. Numbering each step helps readers follow your instructions more easily.
9. Top Tips articles, or any list article. All articles do not have to be in essay form–some articles can be lists. Be sure to include an intro and concluding paragraph and to choose an overarching theme that your readers would be interested in. For example, this article is a list article. My overarching theme is “article topic ideas”. All of the elements of my list contribute to that theme.
10. Got an e-book that you’ve written? You can break your e-book(s) up into articles. You can also use your table of contents as an article idea list.
11. Look at your newsletter messages–turn them into articles.
12. If you’ve done any audio interviews, you can turn them into articles. Just re-listen to the interview, take notes, and then create articles based on the information you covered in the interview.
13. Customer support replies–have you ever written a customer support reply that was so thorough, instructional, and useful that you thought you should share it with all of your readers? Some customer support replies are worthy of being turned into articles.
14. Forum replies and blog comments. If you leave really insightful, helpful, and knowledgeable blog comments, consider turning them into articles. Now, these comments have to have some depth and meat to them. You might have to develop the idea further to make it into an article.
15. Write a “Top 7″ article and then bounce an article off of each of the 7 items. That way you get 8 articles out of one Top 7 list!

Use this article idea list to brainstorm your next 15 (or more!) articles. How many article ideas were you able to come up with from this list?