Leyla Bonilla's List: Blogging

• Do What Nobody Else is Doing

    

  When everyone and their mamas are buying real estate, what's the wiser decision?

    
   
  • Sell real estate.
   
    

  When everyone and their mamas are selling real estate, what's the wiser decision?

    
   
  • Buy real estate.
   
    

  If you run with the pack, doing what everybody else is doing, you gain no advantage over the market.

• 3. Edit. Edit. And edit still some more:

   

  You don’t have to publish everything the interviewee says. Cut, paste, and reorganize if needed to make sure the story comes out loud and clear. If the interviewee makes grammar or spelling mistakes, correct them. Rephrase his words to make them easier to understand. Just make sure you don’t put words in his mind and keep the message intact. If you are unsure about the end result, ask the interviewee for feedback.

• 4. Comment:

   

  Your readers come to your blog because of you. They have chosen you because of your expertise, because they like your ideas, or maybe even because they think you are a nice person. No matter what the reason, they expect you to speak up - so don’t stay silent. Bring your comments to the interview and make it a discussion between you and the person interviewed.

• 5. Ask your readers to contribute:

   

  Once you have involved yourself in the discussion, the next logical step is to bring in your readers. Ask them to comment on the interview, or answer your questions at their own blogs. Or what if you go as far as to just interviewing your readers in the first place?

• . The headline:

   

  Make sure your headline tells what the interview is about and why the reader can’t afford to miss it. Not just the name of the person interviewed. If the interviewee is well known, you can use her name to make the story sell better, but even then, give a hint about the content of the article: “Jennifer Lopez: Men Are Scared Of Me”. If there is a risk that no one will know her, drop the name and dig deeper in the content. For example: “What To Do When Men Don’t Dare To Look Your Way”

• 2. Formatting:

   

  If you really want to make your interview look useful, leave the familiar questions and answers formatting behind and go creative: Use the information you got from your interviewee and formulate it into a list of ten most important tips. Tell the person’s story and share the things you learned from him in your own words. Write a list of quotes. Just don’t do questions and answers.

• 3. Highlights:

   

  Pick the best quotes from your interview and highlight them to catch the eye of your reader. When you have caught that much, the likelihood of him continuing all the way to read the rest of the post increases already a lot.

• 4. Images:

   

  Interesting images related to the story you are telling through your interview have the same effect as highlights

• 1. Ask a question:

   

  Spare one of your interview questions and target it to your readers. Or even better, ask your interviewee to come up with a question he wants to ask from the audience. This way the communication will go two ways: instead of just you and your interviewee talking to the readers, they can also talk back.

• 2. Let your readers ask questions:

   

  Ask the person you interviewed to stick around for a while to answer questions from the audience.

• 3. Take a stand:

   

  Take the side of your interviewee or the one against him to create some conflict. This feeling of conflict will make your readers respond to you to either support you or correct you.

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• 1. Write a free report or mini-eBook. A 5 – 10 page .pdf might essentially hold the same content as a few blog posts (or one really long blog post) but the format makes it seem a little more valuable. Offer it as a free gift for your readers. It’s a nice way to thank them, and as a bonus, there’s a chance it could go viral.
• 4. Leave comments on the blogs of your commenters. This might seem like a small thing, but leaving a comment on a reader’s blog is something that’s often really appreciated. It’s a nice way to say thanks and return the favor to your frequent commenters.
• 6. Share your best idea. If you’ve got a wonderful idea you don’t think you’ll ever be able to make a reality, give it away. You might even see it become a reality.
• 8. Send out personalized letters. A twist on the Greeting Card idea above, you could also send personalized letters or postcards to readers who want them. Some ideas on what to include: a tip, a quote, a doodle, the answer to a question, or a personalized thank you for the reader’s contribution to your blog.
• 9. Create a links post dedicated to showcasing reader blogs. Many bloggers are in the habit of posting a weekly round-up of links to other destinations on the web. Instead of plucking links from your bookmarks, why not hunt down the best content on blogs authored by your readers? One of the most appreciated gifts any blogger can give is traffic, after all.
• 10. Let your readers choose the content. You could provide five different ideas for a big resource list post and let your readers vote on the one they like best. You should then turn the winning idea into a reality. Readers will feel they’ve helped shape the content on your blog. Let your readers know that the resulting post is a gift to them.
• 1. Make a post highlighting your favorite reader comments of the year. Delve into the comments on some of your favorite posts and pick out five or ten gems you can then turn into a ‘best of the comments’ post, giving your most interesting and eloquent readers some time in the spotlight (and if they have blogs of their own, some traffic!).
• 13. Give a product away for free (or cheap). For an hour, or a day, or a week, give away something that used to cost money for free. Alternately, you could sell it more cheaply than you used to
• 14. Give readers a leg-up on social media. Take requests for social media votes, or hunt down the best posts on your reader’s blogs and vote for them. I’d recommend StumbleUpon for this because, unlike Digg, a single vote usually sends traffic. Send along a message letting the reader know that you’re the source of the traffic they’ve just received!
• 15. Ask for questions, give answers. Set aside a day, or a pocket of several hours, where readers can ask you any question they’d like to have answered. Of course, you can set any conditions and parameters you like.

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• • Write a tutorial.
   
  • Do an interview with key people in your niche.
• • Do a post that answers your readers’ questions.
   
  • Create a comprehensive list.
• • Interview controversial people in your niche.
   
  • Post about current events in your niche.
   
  • Invite your readers to submit articles.
   
  • Instead of exchanging links, get together with other bloggers and review each others’ blogs.
• Answer your readers’ questions with more questions (i.e., have you thought about…?).
• • Make a post that solves a problem.
   
  • Make a post that is inspirational.
   
  • Make a satirical post.
   
  • Write a series of posts.
   
  • Post your research findings.
• • Post an “advantages/disadvantages” post.
   
  • Update an old post for new ideas/findings.
• • Make a post for beginners.
   
  • Make a post for advanced readers.
• • Write a funny post.
   
  • Create a huge list of your best posts.
   
  • Add to a list started by another blogger.
   
  • Create a mission statement for your blog.
   
  • Make a post simplifying a complex problem for your readers.
   
  • Create a guide for your niche.
• Respond to criticism in a post (e.g., respond to the Wall Street Journal’s criticism of bloggers).
• Post about frequently asked questions in your niche.
• Look at the archives of your niche competitors and see if any of their old posts can be expanded in an “update” post on your blog.
• • Write about how to do something more efficiently in your niche.
   
  • Write about generally unknown secrets in your niche.
   
  • Write about how to use a product in an unconventional way.
• Do a post transcribing live events (e.g., Macworld conference)
• • Participate in a reciprocal guest blogging scheme where you blog on someone else’s blog and that other person blogs on your blog.
• • Make a post about your fellow bloggers’ top posts.
   
  • Make a post about your most popular posts.
• Review your blog’s (weekly, monthly, yearly) performance and post the results.

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• It may be easier to browse other websites than your own for inspiration as you are in the mindset of a reader. As a reader, think about what information could be expanded on or what is missing from those sites. As a reader, what would you like to read about? Often its just a matter of perspective. Looking at a topic from a different perspective can unleash those creative juices when you least expect it.
• One of the best ways to do this is to just spend time reading comments and browsing forums. Seek out problems people have around your topic and attempt to solve them. You can do this by browsing comments, forums and Yahoo Answers. You can answer questions directly, but if you begin to see a pattern, then it might be a good topic to expand on

• If your page is plastered with more ads than a Formula 1 car then don’t expect your readers to stick around for very long. That’s not to say that you can’t have ads on your site, just don’t let them get in the way of your content and buttons. Earning pennies on a mistaken click is not worth it if you lose a reader forever.
• Your readers are taking the time out of their lives to leave their thoughts on your website. The least you can do is to say thank you. If your readers have a different point of view then don’t come down on them too hard. An open discussion in the comments can often be more interesting than the original post.
• The most difficult comments to reply to are the ones that pick out sloppiness or mistakes in your content. The second worst way to deal with these is to not reply. The worst way to deal with these is to delete the comment. We’ve seen comments deleted on a number of websites and it’s extremely bad practice

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• Sponsor a contest. When you can find a larger business that’s running a contest, sponsoring it with your cash, products or services can put you in front of a lot of people throughout the entire promotion.
• Create your own contest.
• Open your mouth. Public speaking is a huge way to get your brand seen – find relevant groups to speak to as often as you can. Teach what you know and position yourself as an expert that other influencers will talk about in the future
• Open your ears. Again, turn the tables and invite someone interesting to speak at your offices – and then put the word out to the people you want to reach to attend and hear the speaker for themselves
• Host your own event. No matter what you do, there’s something interesting you can create an event around – for example, host a industry-relevant workshop or create your own networking event
• Write a book. There’s no mistaking it – business owners who write books get more attention and are perceived with greater authority in their field
• Offer “meta”-consulting services. Another way to get people to see your business as an authority worth talking about is to offer consulting services around your area of expertise. For example, if you are a software company, you can offer a small workshop on how to write better softwar
• Get interviewed. Publications (both online and offline) are always hungry for content. Find a media outlet that serves your target audience and arrange an interview with them to get in front of qualified prospects
• Get reviewed. People make buying decisions – and judge your brand – by the reviews they read. Offer your products or services to reviewers in exchange for a thorough writeup on their experience
• Get “stepping stone” referrals. Think about the products and services customers go to right before they look for your offerings, and make arrangements with those providers to bring you up as a referral to their customers
• Be a newsmaker. Both local and national outlets are always on the lookout for compelling stories – so give them one. Find a way to showcase something your company is doing that is cutting-edge, human-interest or unique
• Get behind a cause. This goes beyond the one-time contest sponsorship at the top of this list – become part of the yearly fundraising efforts of a worthy cause and you can find yourself getting repeated exposure each time a new fund drive begins. The positive PR doesn’t hurt, either
• Create a referral program. Finding new customers is expensive, so create an incentive for people to spread the word about you.
• Start a blog.
• Interview others. By featuring interviews with other people on your blog or website, you can tap into their audience as most people like to promote their own interviews
• Write a guest post. Guest posting on a well-read blog is a powerful way to get in front of a new audience and get noticed.
• Feature a guest post. Tap into other’ audiences a second time by offering others the chance to guest post on your blog. As with interviews, they will spread the word and point people to your site
• Participate on blogs and forums. Join comments and conversations on blogs and forums to boost your visibility in front of your target audience (and learn more about them at the same time)
• Start a newsletter. Having a regularly published newsletter tells people you have something worth reading and something worth passing along to others. Write useful content let your subscribers spread the message
• Write articles. Another useful way to show up in search engines is to submit short, relevant articles to article directories around the web. You’ll not only create useful back links to your site, but position yourself to be found by more web searchers
• Make a video. YouTube and other video upload sites can be powerful ways to get a fast-spreading message about your company out there. Learn from those who do “viral video” well
• Trade ad space with a partner. Find a related company that has an audience you want to reach and swap ads on your website, blog or print publication. It’s easy, free, and can get you noticed by new prospects
• Go “half-and-half” on ads. Big ads get noticed, but are expensive; consider splitting the cost with a relevant partner and making an ad that promotes both of you
• Give incredible customer service. Nothing beats great customer service for generating word-of-mouth advertising. Go the extra mile for a customer and they’ll come back to you – with their friends

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• But how do class clowns do it? And why are we so apt to pay attention to them in school?
• In one word: value.
• school is both overwhelming and boring. You spend the entire day learning stuff you don’t want to know.
• After several hours of it, most students are desperate for a diversion. They’d rather put their attention anywhere than on the teacher or their books. Class clowns are simply the only ones brazen enough to oblige them.

• Blogs are a diversion.

   

  Much like how we pay attention to the class clown to avoid boredom, blogs allow us to procrastinate, avoiding all of the other stuff we’re supposed to be doing. If you don’t believe me, look at the number of people who read blogs at work. Aren’t they supposed to be working?
• Bloggers that are invisible online misunderstand their role. They think they’re supposed to become a teacher, when really, that’s only a secondary role. Your first responsibility is a blogger is to get the attention of your prospects, and to do that, you need to emulate the class clown.

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• • Grab the attention of the readers
   
  • Grab the attention of the blogger
   
  • Develop my personal brand
   
  • Create some backlinks

• • Making more money for your own life is not as inspiring and exciting as making more money for your family and people you care to live a better life.
   
  • Maintaining a blog for more income is not as inspiring and exciting as maintaining a blog that can make a difference and contribute to others on a particular topic.
   
  • Generating traffic for subscribers is not as inspiring and exciting as getting other people to come to your site and read a life-changing sharing from you.
   
  • Getting people to subscribe to make more sales is not as inspiring and exciting as wanting them to subscribe so you can continuously contribute and recommend good things that helps them.

• Step 4: Create Another Inspiring And Exciting Reason

   
   
  • Increase subscribers and follow up to get ongoing sales. 
     
    • Increase subscribers to follow up more people to change their life and empower them to attract wealth by making a difference.
     
     
   
  • Increase traffic. 
     
    • Attracting more people to come to my blog so that they will read my articles and get inspired to attract wealth by making a difference.
     
     
   
  • Increase traffic. 
     
    • Attracting more people to come to my blog so that they will read my articles and get inspired to attract wealth by making a difference.
     
     
   
  • Live the lifestyle that I want and being abundance financially. 
     
    • Make $1000 passive income as a living proof that wealth can be attracted by making a difference.
     
    • Make more money to donate and contribute to the poor
     
    • Allow people around me to live a better life.

• The entire nature of a good blog encourages interaction from readers and creates a presence that people and search engines love. Blogging can help a person to establish credibility in most industries, in fact many industry experts have become known as such through blogging.

• Blogs show the newest addition to the site on the homepage. This makes for quite a few specific advantages including:

   
   
  • Ability to bring readers back for more information or more entertainment.
• Ability to get multiple links from sites. With a traditional site you will be consistently fighting to get links. With a blog, returning readers may link to 50+ blog posts that you write over the lifetime of your blog.
• Blogs let search engines know each time new material is published. When you add something new, your blog sends a message called a ‘ping’ to blog search engines immediately
• People leave comments on blogs. Google and other search engines like to see constant updates from websites. Since people will be leaving comments on your blog, they will be doing a lot of the updating for you.
• I can tell you that almost every person is capable of starting a blog that makes money, but the amount that a person can make with a blog is determined by many factors including intelligence, passion, like-ability, and more importantly determination and self-belief.

• Crucial Traits Of Successful Bloggers:

   
   
  • Self-Motivation
   
  • Determination
   
  • Self-Belief
   
  • Persistence
• Direct Advertising - No matter what industry or topic your blog covers, there will certainly be people and companies that can benefit from advertising on your site - as long as you have traffic
• Affiliate Marketing - In order to be truly successful as a blogger that makes money with affiliate marketing, you should recommend products that you really use yourself.
• Some people, (myself included) would rather spend money than time to learn something new.
• on’t waste months of your life by quitting before you get results. If you decide that starting a blog is for you, make sure you are 100% committed to seeing it through before you take your first step
• Hyphens and Underscores - When choosing your domain name, stay away from hyphens (dashes) and underscores. These symbols will make your name much harder to remember and you will always be sending traffic to the non-hyphened or underscored version of your domain name. I have seen plenty of sites that were able to make it with these symbols in the domain, but why would you want to make it harder for yourself?
• People will read your blog if it takes care of one of their needs.
• Be a professional and people will treat you like one. Be an amateur and people will treat you like one.

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• Keep paragraphs short and to the point
• Make use of semantic HTML tags: 
   
  • ul, ol, strong, em, etc. - people scan pages, and look for the quickest possible answer
• SS Reader and Email Subscribers 
   
  • Optimize your posts if you use FeedBurner by implementing FeedFlare,

• Newsletter

   

  Some might say this is dated, or not worth your time based on spam filters and whatnot, but I say to give it a shot. If I have been reading a blog for a while, or it looks like it has some worthwhile content, I will be more likely to sign up to the newsletter

• Start a series of posts

   

  Recently I started a series of posts called “Friday’s Five”, where I post my top 5 picks of the week for: logos, websites, blog posts, photographs, and illustrations. I have noticed a steady incline in subscribers, and visits since starting. The key here is to be as consistent as possible with posting schedules, in my case I try my hardest to get them out by 11am or so each Friday.
• Have a WORTHWHILE Contest

• Exchange posts

   

  Ask a fellow blogger if they would be interested in writing a post for each others blogs, then in turn write a post on your own blog linking to your post on their blog.
• you hop on the web on your phone just to check out some sites, and been deeply disappointed when you look at how awful they lay out on a phone? Take some time to create a nice mobile stylesheet
• DO NOT Change Your Theme Daily
• Let users submit their news to you, and then let it be seen on your site
• Try to keep your images to being relevant to the post, that enforce the message.

• Use Gravatars & Favicons

   

  Free and easy to use, painless, and a great way to promote your brand. Not every blog uses this, but the ones that do, will only help to remind people about your site.  Favicons are also great, and an easy way to add another level of identification to your site. Use them.

• Participate on messageboards and forums

   

  Another great way to gain some web EXP (Diablo 2 reference) is to sign up on some forums and give back to the community. Post quality feedback, and make use of the signature option (if available) in your profile to add a link to your site, blog, or popular post.

• Submit a sitemap to Google

   

  Sitemaps are another easy way for Google and other search engines to know about your site.

• Advertising

   

  Offer it on your site, or pay for some on another. Do not go overboard, and do not overspend if you have nothing to back up the traffic

• Write a tutorial

   

  NETTUTS and PSDTUTS both allow you to submit tutorials to them, and GET PAID. You will get an immense amount of traffic from them, and money, what else do you want?

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• Forget about the quality of your products and services for just a moment, if nobody knows about it, it doesn’t matter to them.
• In the online world, this translates into getting attention of new readers. And one of the tried-and-true approach is to comment and / or guest blog on other blogs.
• it’s better to comment on smaller blogs. He insists that the ROI (return of investment) is higher with smaller blogs. Kind of like investing in small cap stocks. It’s an interesting strategy.
• 1. There is About page with contact info.
• people like people.
• The blogger responds to comments.
   Maybe things are different for A-list blogger who gets 100 comments for every post. For everyone else, it serves to treat the visitors right. Not ignoring the people who spent their precious time to write their comment is really just the first step. I usually don’t return to blogs that ignored me before, and again, I’m betting many people feel the same.
• There are outgoing links.
   We don’t live in the vacuum. Bloggers who send out link loves know they will be reciprocated. (Well, most of the time.) Further, it shows the blogger goes out and do some learning or marketing by reading other blogs, which is important for growth.
• Unique contents that deliver value.
• Big Bonus Point: You’ve seen the blogger at other parties – I mean, at other blogs. This means the blogger is working on the marketing.

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• More often than not, that means forgetting about the brilliant opening line and instead letting yourself write a bunch of crap you’ll never use. What you’ll find is that once that page is all mucked up, the “good stuff” will start to flow.
• Start in the middle: Forget the introduction, and jump straight into whatever part you feel comfortable writing. Most of the time, the introduction is the weakest part of the finished product anyway, because we sharpen our thoughts as we write. Go back at the end and write an introduction. Or don’t — a lot of times, you’ll find that your non-introduction turns out to be a pretty good introduction.
• “Outline-expand-expand-done”: Forget writing straight through. Just write an outline. Then, go back and flesh it out a little, adding a sentence here, a paragraph there. Do that again, also focusing on how one part fits into the next. Repeat as necessary until you’re done.
• Write backwards: Skip to the end. What do you want your reader to take away from the piece? OK, write that. What’s the last thing they should understand in order to take that away? Skip to the top and write that.
• Tell a story: You don’t have to write a document that answers all life’s questions or applies universally. Narrow it down by writing a story. Who are the main players? What do.did they do? What is the conflict? Write “Once upon a time, there were…” and work into your topic. “Once upon a time, there was a young man who didn’t know how best to clean and polish his household silver…”
• go through and cut out the story part and see what’s left.
• Read: I read books on writing and they never fail to fire me up, but read anything. Get your head into “language” mode, seeing and thinking in print. Let your mind wander away from your obsessive worrying about your writing, and 9 times out of 10, the ideas will just suddenly click into place. Run back to your computer and write them down and see where that takes you.

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• 8 Ways to Save a Bad Time at a Conference
• How I Find Blogging Ideas
• Somebody Has to Say It
• My Children Will Do it Differently
• How Schools Could Use Social Media
• The Best Parts of Marketing
• Presentation Skills for a New Conversation
• How I Find Time to Make Media
• Empower Your Best Customers
• Just Jump Into Podcasting- Heres How
• My Community and How You Can Engage It
• If I Were an Advertiser Today
• How Women Use Social Media
• A Hard Look at My Media Habits
• If I Were a Television Producer
• Social Media Marketing vs Traditional Marketing
• Elements of a Marketing Campaign
• Idea Making and How I Make Something
• What I Spend Money On
• How I Use My Website
• How I Process Blogs and What I Do With All That Info
• My Day Job Versus My Passion
• When I Feel Frustrated
• Branding Strategies I Use
• Your Ideas And My Ideas- How We Play Together
• Facebook Applications I Love
• Blogging Tactics- How to Keep it Fresh
• I Want to Brag A Minute
• Wordpress Plugins I Use And Why
• How I Drive Traffic to My Site
• Handling Critics
• How I Went From Very Shy to Less Shy
• Turning Media into a Business Card

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• If you’re blogging, make that a home base for all your other efforts.
• Subscribe to 50 or more blogs in a similar space as yours, including competitors, and any industry blogs.
• On all your presence points, be human, and write a human-sounding profile. Use a human-seeming profile picture. (Did I mention “human?”)
• After you’ve written your first blog post, take some time to comment on some of those 50 blogs, but NOT about your first post.
• Make sure it’s easy for people to subscribe to your blog, via a reader and also via email. (Nearly 50% of my blog subscribers are receiving [chrisbrogan.com] in email).
• For whatever reason, graphics in posts improve audience. Check out Flickr’s Creative Commons pool for how to use which kinds of graphics appropriately.
• Seek out opportunities to guest post on more popular blogs in your space. Don’t be spammy and over-link to your own site/posts. Add value.
• Check your stats to see what people are searching for, and address it.
• Look into creating additional materials like an ebook or online course from your best materials.
• Invite your audience in to guest post where appropriate.
• Remember to comment on other people’s blogs frequently, and show your participation in the communities where you have presence.

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• But here's the interesting truth: We're all born lousy marketing writers. The people who become "good" are the ones who are prepared to do the following simple things: – Read good writing and work to emulate it; – Write a lot—because writing is like exercise: the more you do, the better you get;
• Spend double the time on self-editing that they spend on writing.
• When you're planning your writing time, think in small increments, not big chunks. Remember: If you write 300-350 words a day, you'll have written a decent-length book by the end of a year.

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