ProBlogger Podcast: Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging

Congratulations for making it to day 31 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. If you're new to the series - check out previous episodes here. How to Plan Your Next Month of Blogging Today's episode is about how you can plan the next steps for your blog. Great blogs are built upon many small but consistent useful actions over time. We look at how you can use the last 31 days of challenges to set up healthy blog habits and make them stick. Street of the Valley of Fire by Andi Hofstetter on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: How to make healthy blog habits stick How to create content on a regular basis How to promote your blog How to grow your blog community How to keep up with blog admin tasks How did you go with today's challenge? What are the next steps for your blog? What habits will you try to establish for the health of your blog? I'd love to hear about your experience in the comments below. Want more activities? There are 7 bonus days in the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog workbook. Also keep your eye open for future episodes of the ProBlogger podcast. We're moving to a 2 episodes a week schedule as of next week. Subscribe to us on iTunes or via our newsletter to get notified of future episodes coming out. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to day 31 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and the 31st episode of the ProBlogger podcast. Congratulations on making it to the end of our 31-day challenge. Those of you who've been doing it on a daily basis have achieved an amazing feat by getting through this month and those of you who are still catching up, that's totally fine as well. You hopefully will have seen some real benefits from your blog. In today's episode ongoing to talk about planning the next steps, particularly looking at the next month, and trying to build some habits based upon some of the things that we've covered over the last 31 days. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/31. Let's get into today's episode. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, day 31. Congratulations on making it to day 31. Hopefully, you've found some of the challenges that we've done over the last 31 days to be useful. I know I've really enjoyed putting this podcast together. It's got me back to some of the basic tasks that I've been talking about for many years that I've started to do a little bit more myself over the last 31 days and have seen some real improvements in my own blogging over this period. I hope it's been true for you. Since I created the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog program a number of years ago now, tens of thousands of bloggers have walked through it, both in the workbook but also on the blog and I guess now in the podcast. I've had the opportunity to connect with many bloggers who've been through the process and I've heard all kinds of stories about how it's helped people to improve their blogs. I'd love to hear your stories as well if you'd like to shoot them to me on Twitter or Facebook. There's one observation that I've made of those bloggers who've had the most success with this program and I wanted to share that today. The people who seem to have benefited the most have gone beyond the 31 days. They've taken these challenges, or at least some of the challenges, into the rest of their blogging. Now, not every challenge that we've covered over the last 31 days is going to be completely relevant to you, your blog, your niche, and the stage that your blog is at. That's totally fine, leave some of them behind. But some of them could be quite useful if you incorporate them into your regular blogging workflow at differ...

How to Dig Into Your Blog Statistics Today's episode is about how you can dig into your blog statistics to work out patterns in what's working and what's not working for your blog. The numbers might seem daunting at first, but I share how you can understand them and use them to uncover the secrets of how people are using your blog. In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: What blog statistics really matter How to use Google Analytics to track traffic on your blog How to use Google Analytics to increase traffic on your blog How to use Google Analytics to create killer content 9 questions to ask yourself to improve your site content How to use Google Analytics to measure your blog progress in a meaningful way Screen Shots from Todays Episode As promised in the episode - here's the process I went through to dig into these Google Analytics stats. Note: I refer numerous times to a previously written post on the ProBlogger Blog in which I go into more depth on using Google Analytics. You can read that post at A Powerful Exercise inside Google Analytics to Set You Up for a Successful Year of Blogging. Start by opening Google Analytics and clicking the Audience >> Overview menu item. On the next page you'll see your 'sessions' analytics like this (taken from my last month of blogging on Digital Photography School). To get a 'comparison' of this month to last month go up to the date section and put in the two periods you want to compare. Make sure you check the 'compare to' check box as pictured below and then hit 'apply' and you'll get a chart like this: While you're in this area of Google Analytics you can look at some of these areas of stats. If you click on each one you'll be able to see a larger chart: Also in the audience area there are a whole heap of other ares you can dig into in the sidebar menu. Next we're moving into the Acquisition area. Click Acquisition >> Overview menu item: You'll be given a good overview page but you can drill down further. Go ahead and click the 'all traffic' menu item and then 'channels' to show you the different areas that traffic is coming from for your blog. Click on the different channels to drill down and see more detail in where the traffic came from. For example if you click the 'social' link you'll see it broken down into the traffic coming from different social networks. The last section we'll look at is 'behavior'. Click on Behavior >> Overview for the overview page: Drill down further into the Site Content >> All Pages menu item. Listed there will be 10 most viewed pages on your blog. Click the 'show rows' drop down menu to make it show 100 instead of 10 so you can see more. This is where I'm asking these 9 questions: what posts you might want to reshare on social at some point? - if it did well once it might do well again (see above for an example of this). what types of posts/mediums get shared most? - for example I notice in our most popular posts this year were a number of cheat sheets and infographics. This gives us hints as to what kind of posts might do well in 2015. what topics are hot? - for example I noticed in our top 100 posts for social that we had a lot of posts on camera lenses that did well. This informs what we might do more of in 2015. what headlines did well? - I noticed in our top 100 posts that we saw a number of posts that talked about 'mistakes' that photographers make doing well. While we don't want to do these posts all the time they do do well on social so we'll no doubt do a few more in 2015. what posts could you extend? - some posts that have done well might lend themselves to become a series. For example our post 'the only three lenses you'll need for Travel Photography' could easily be extende...

How to Develop a Plan to Grow Your Readership Today's episode is about developing a plan to drive new readers to your blog to grow your readership. Many bloggers I talk to think that if they write great content, readers will just show up. This simply isn’t the case. Almost every successful blogger I’ve met has spent significant time on proactive activities that will grow their readership. Coffee cups and drawings on napkins by Gable Denims on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: How trying to grow your readership without a plan is hurting your blog How to work out who your ideal readers are How to find where your ideal readers are spending their time How to connect with your ideal readers What I learned from meeting Tim Ferris The secret magic of the 'servant heart' Further resources Further Reading: Finding Readers: Strategies for Building Your Audience in 2015 How to Find Readers for Your Blog 5 Ways to Attract More Readers to Your Blog: Social Media Examiner No Blog Traffic? Here's a Simple Strategy to Seduce Readers: Copyblogger How to Get the People to Your Blog: Fat Mum Slim Tim Ferris' podcast where he talks about growing an audience (the podcast is a Q&A but the part I refer to starts at about the 5 minute mark) Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to day 29 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and the 29th episode of the ProBlogger Podcast. Today, I'm issuing you the challenge of developing a plan to grow your readership. We've done a lot of writing challenges in this series of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Writing is really important, but today, we're going to get off your blog and start to think about how we're going to drive some readers to it. I've included some tips on that in the episode. I've also got six really important questions to ask yourself as a blogger, to help you to tap into where your readers are gathering and how you can build a presence in those places, that will hopefully help you to build today's plane. There's a lot in today's episode so I've included some show notes with some further reading at problogger.com/podcast/29. Let's get into today's episode. Hi. This is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 29 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. As we're approaching the end of our 31-day challenge, I want us to switch our focus a little from creating content and the day-to-day of building community on our blogs, to do something a little bit more forward-thinking and strategic On day 12, you created an editorial calendar for your blog to help you plan content creation. Today, I want you to create a plan in another really important area of blogging, that of growing your readership. Many bloggers I talk to have the expectation that if they build it, readers will come, i.e., build, write, and create great content, and people will just show up. This magical expectation certainly hasn't been my experience. Almost every successful blogger that I've met has focused at least some of their time on proactive activities that help to grow their readership. In fact, most successful bloggers that I know spend a fairly significant time on promoting themselves rather than just writing content. Today is really about developing a plan to be a little bit proactive about building your readership rather than just focusing on content. I want you to build a plan today to get off your blog and promote your blog in some way. Many bloggers don't do this and that's one of the problems that I see in this area that bloggers have. Another problem that many bloggers have is that they just sort of drift along in this area.

How to Write a Review Post Today's episode is about how to write a review post. Reviews are used many millions of times every day by people looking to make sense of the array of choices that they have, and to help them to make a decision. Writing reviews can help you to help those people, but also help you to grow your blog. Decision by Alan Crosthwaite on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: Why writing reviews can grow your blog How to choose what to review How to write a review so that it is useful and interesting 6 questions every review should answer How to increase the lifespan of your review posts Further reading Further Reading: How to Write a Must-Read Product Review How to Write Amazing Product Reviews How to Write Genuinely Useful Reviews Online: Lifehacker Tips for Travel Writing: The Guardian 7 Tips for Writing Good Online Reviews: Better Business Bureau Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to day 28 of 31 days to build a better blog and the 28th episode of the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and today, I'm issuing you with a challenge to write a review on your blog. Some of you will be struggling already to think about how you could write a review in your blog, but don't worry, I'm going to suggest a whole heap of different types of reviews that you could write on your blog today and give you some really good tips on how to write that review. I've also got some examples of reviews that you can check out at today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/28. Hi. It's Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 28 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we have our very last writing challenge of the 31 days. Today, I want to challenge you to write a review post. For some of you, this won't be a massive challenge as you may regularly write them already. I know some of you probably have blogs that are just purely reviews, so today, it's business as usual for you. For many others, this will be something quite new. I keep coming across bloggers who've never written a review, even though it would be a legitimate type of posts for their blog. Let's just briefly talk about why review posts are something to consider for your blog. The main reason is that the web is used every day by millions of people looking to make decisions, choose between options, seek advice about buying something or using something. They use the web to make sense of the array of choices that they've got in front of them. This is just what we do all day every day on Google. I suspect there's a large percentage of searches that are really searches for reviews or people's opinions on the sorts of choices and decisions that we make every day, so writing a review on your blog positions you to be found at the end of those searches. Reviews are also great places for you to insert your opinions, which we found on day 19, which is something that can be really good for your blog. It sets you apart and makes you distinct. There's also an opportunity with reviews to monetize your blog, whether that be through promoting products as an affiliate or working with brands who want to reach audiences who are in a buying- or decision-making mode. If you're writing reviews on your blog for people who are making purchase decisions, you're going to find advertisers wanting to align themselves with you more and more. This is how I’ve made my first commercial blog. It was a camera review blog, I wrote reviews and I aggregated other people's reviews from around the web. My two sources of income on that blog were advertising revenue, both through ad networks like AdSense and Chitika,

How to Update Old Posts In Your Archives (including how to find Broken Links) Today's episode is about going back into your blog archives do updates - especially paying attention to broken links. Broken links can cause many problems, including potentially exposing your readers to harm. З Днем Незалежності Україно!!! by Olena Zaskochenko on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: Today we talk about: Why broken links are bad for your blog How finding broken links on your blog can create opportunities How to check for broken links on your blog What to do when you find broken links How to make checking for broken links on your blog a regular habit Other updates you could do while you're looking at older posts to bring them up to date and make them more useful to readers Tools and Resources Google Webmaster Tools WordPress Plugins, such as Broken Link Checker (Warning! This can slow down your site as it puts a lot of strain on your database. Be careful!) Xenu’s Link Sleuth Screaming Frog SEO Spider W3C Link Checker Further Reading: One Activity You Should Do On Your Blog Every Day 3 Important Questions To Ask About Posts in Your Blog Archives Updating Old Posts On Your Blog 7 Old Post Revival Techniques You Won’t Believe You’re Overlooking 25 Reasons Why Google Hates Your Blog How to Find and Fix Broken Wordpress Links: Elegant Themes Website Weight Loss: Fix Your Broken Links: About Tech Website Broken Links: Why You Should Fix Them: Dave Lucas Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hi and welcome to day 27 or 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we're going back into your archives to do some updating, particularly looking at broken links, but I also suggest some other things that you can do while you're there. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/27. Hi there. It's Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 27 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog where we're giving you a different challenge every day for a month, that you can go away and do that will improve your blog in some way. The idea is that by the end of this month, you're going to have about 31 different activities that you can come back to over time. Some people do one every day for the rest of their lives, or at least for the next year or so. Others just dip into them from time to time after the 31 days. It's really up to you. Today, we're going to look at broken links, and we're gonna go on a bit of a broken link hunt on your blog. While we're at it, I'm going to suggest some other things that you can be doing to some of your old posts on your blog. The thing with broken links is that when you create a link in your blog posts to another site, that link almost always will work right from the start, but over time, you're bound to start to get broken links. And that's because other people change their sites. Some people delete their sites, some people forget to renew their hosting and the site disappears. Other people change the way their site works, so their link structure might change or they might delete a post on their blog. This can cost you on your blog in two ways because of a change that someone else's makes. Firstly, it can have an impact on your SEO. I don't really know the technicalities of it, but Google recommends that you do check for broken links. More importantly than that, it impacts the readability of your posts. If your readers are clicking links that no longer work, that's frustrating for them and they blame you for it rather than the other person. It's good to be checking for broken links. The question is, how do you do it?

Challenge: Spend 15 Minutes Improving Someone Else's Blog Today's episode is about how to help another blogger to achieve their goals in some way. This might seem a little counter-intuitive, but if you help others you create a good impression that just might come back to help you improve your own blogging. gesticulation by Marczak Marcin on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: How helping another blogger to improve their blog can end up helping you to improve your own blog 13 easy, practical, powerful ways you can improve another blog How to come up with even MORE ideas of practical ways you can improve another blog Further Reading: How to Help a Fellow Blogger: You Baby Me Mummy Five Ways to Connect with Fellow Bloggers: Daily Blog Tips Why Bloggers Need to Support Other Bloggers: The Wetherills Say I Do 10 Ways to Promote Other Blogs: Crafterminds Seven Steps to Writing a Successful Guest Post: Michael Hyatt How did you go with today's challenge? What did you do to improve another blog? What ideas did helping someone else give you for improving your own blog? I'd love to hear your feedback on this approach to growing your community in the comments below. Pick up the 31DBBB eBook at 50% Off Don't Forget You can also grab the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook with a 50% discount using the coupon code PODCAST50 during the checkout process here. Finally - if you have a moment we'd love to get your feedback on the ProBlogger Podcast with this short survey which will help us plan future episodes. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Good day, and welcome to day 26 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and episode 26 of the ProBlogger Podcast where today, I'm issuing you with another challenge. Today's challenge is to not focus on your own blog, but to focus on someone else's, and to improve another blog. This could lead to all kinds of wonderful relationships or collaborations with other bloggers but you also should learn something today about your own blogging. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/26. Hi there. It's Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 26 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, I want to challenge you to help another blogger achieve their goals in some way, to improve another person's blog. Now, this might sound a little counterintuitive. You might ask, isn't this 31 days about improving my blog? Well, yes, it is, but one of the ways you can do this is to be outward-focused in your own blogging. I found over the years that sometimes when I focus on helping someone else in my blogging or other areas of my life that it comes back to help me in different ways. Some people might call it karma. I think it's just being a good human being in many ways. It's also really satisfying to do and might give you a little bit of burst of energy to see someone else reach their goals in some way. You might also learn a thing or two about your own blog by doing it. There are many ways that you can help other bloggers achieve their goals. Some of them are really big and some of them are really small. I want to encourage you to do something today. Don't just leave 50 comments on 50 blogs and help 50 bloggers. Focus upon one today. Do something as significant as you can for them. There's a whole heap of things you could do. I'll just give you a few examples, but really let your own creative juices flow and look around you at the bloggers that you interact with, that you read, and find something that suits their needs in some way. The other question to ask to help you identify what would help another blogger or achieve their goals is to ask the question a...

How to Ask Your Blog Readers a Question Today's episode is about how to ask your blog readers a question. It might be a scary idea at first, but it's quick and easy to do and can be a very powerful way to grow your blog. Do you have a question? by Chad Freeman on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: Ten benefits of asking your readers questions 12 tips and ideas for asking your readers questions on your blog Examples of question blog posts How to get responses to question posts, even when you don't think you have enough readers Further Reading: The #1 Question You Should Be Asking Your Blog Readers: The Blog Maven The Essential Guide to Creating a Survey Your Readers will Love: Blog Tyrant 8 Questions to Ask to Get to Know Your Readers: Wise Ink Know Your Audience: 8 Questions You Need to Ask: Mass Transmit Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger podcast episode 25 and day 25 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where I’m giving you a different challenge every day for a month to help you to build some blogging habits that will help to grow your blog. Today’s challenge is one that I use regularly in my own blogs and I see many successful bloggers doing. Today, you’re going to write a post that asks your readers a question. It could actually be a really simple post for you to write, but it can build a lot of engagement with your readers. Today, I’m going to share a whole heap of reasons why you might want to ask questions, but also give you a series of tips on asking questions that are relevant and helpful, to build that engagement with your readers. You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/25, where I would love to also hear how you found today’s challenge and see a link to the post that you wrote. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 25 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. I hope you’ve been enjoying the challenges so far. We’re actually in the final week. Today’s one is one that you could repeat over time. In fact, many of the challenges we’ve done in previous days could be something that you build into your monthly workflow, but this is definitely one that I would encourage you to use on a regular basis. It’s a writing challenge, but it’s one that doesn’t really have to take a whole heap of time today. In fact, it might be the shortest post you’ve ever written because all I’m asking you to do today is to ask your readers a question in a blog post. Your blog post might be just a question or it might be part of a blog post. There are many benefits of asking your readers questions. Firstly, it gives your readers a sense of community, participation, and belonging. There’s nothing like coming to a blog where readers are interacting with one another. It gives a sense of social proof and it makes your readers feel like they belong, that they own the blog in some sense. It also increases your blog’s stickiness. People are much more likely to come back to the blog tomorrow and in an ongoing way if they have contributed something to it. Questions are also relatively easy to ask, these posts are fairly effortless to write, although they can take some moderating and you do want to put some time into thinking carefully about the questions you’re asking. Question posts are also really helpful for you to learn about your readers and to gauge where they’re at. They can also fuel post ideas for you as you say how your readers interact with your question, and they can also open up opportunities for follow up posts. In fact, sometimes when I’ve started a series of posts with a question, that’s worked quite well. Well-worded questions also can rank really wel...

How to Use a Magazine to Improve Your Blog Today's episode is about how to use a magazine to help you improve your blog - using 'old media' to help you improve your approach to 'new media'. As well as being simple - and potentially a bit of fun - looking through a magazine has the potential to help you improve your blog in any number of ways. Magazines for all domains by Artur Brites on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: 8 different ways looking through a magazine could give you ideas to improve your blog A step-by-step process for how to analyse a magazine to get fresh ideas Further Reading Improve Your Blog by Reading a Magazine - an Exercise for Bloggers Why Reading Makes you More Creative: Creative Market 10 Ideas to Get You Inspired to Write: BlogHer How did you go with today's challenge? What fresh ideas did you get today from analysing a magazine? What will you do differently on your blog? I'd love to see what changes you make to your blog from this exercise. Share a link to your post in the comments below. Let me know what you've done differently. Pick up the 31DBBB eBook at 50% Off Don't Forget You can also grab the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook with a 50% discount using the coupon code PODCAST50 during the checkout process here. Finally - if you have a moment we'd love to get your feedback on the ProBlogger Podcast with this short survey which will help us plan future episodes. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 24 and day 24 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog where today, my challenge to you is to get a magazine and to read it. It sounds like a strange task for today, but you’re going to get a whole heap of ideas from this magazine that will hopefully help you improve your blog and perhaps you’ll have a good time, too. You might want to grab a cup of coffee, tea, smoothie, settle back with your magazine and learn about blogging. You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/24 where you also have the opportunity to let us know what you think about today’s episode. Hi, this is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger and welcome to day 24 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today’s challenge is a really simple one. In fact, many of you probably find it quite fun. It has the potential to help your blog in many ways as well. Today, you’re going to read a magazine. Yup, you heard me. Today, old media is going to help you improve your new media blog. Today, by looking through a magazine, you could find that it helps in any number of ways. You might get marketing ideas while looking at how the magazine pitches to get itself to get readers and paying particular attention to the front cover, which is what convinces people to buy the magazine or not. You might learn all kinds of things about calling people for action, headlines, and all types of things to get people to pay attention to you. You might learn about design ideas while online and offline are quite different, how the magazines laid out, the colors they used, the fonts they use could help you to understand current trends in design. You might get post ideas, particularly if you choose a magazine that relates to your niche, but even if you don’t, I often find as I’m reading magazines that don’t relate to my niche, I get ideas for how to tackle my topics by looking at how they do it. You might also learn about your niche, particularly if you choose a magazine that is from yours, might help you to keep up with the latest trends and developments in your area. I know in the photography space, I used to read photography magazines really regularly,

How to Write a Post That Contains a Call to Action Today's episode is about how to ask your readers to go beyond just reading your blog and to DO something. Readers are often ready and willing, if only you asked. 'If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.' ― Nora Roberts In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: Why extending a call to action to your readers is so powerful Examples of calls to action How to choose the best call to action to start with if you've never asked your readers to do anything Further Resources on How to Write a Post That Contains a Call to Action 12 Tips to Snap Readers out of Passivity with Calls to Action Hook, Line and Sinker: 7 Tips For a Killer Call to Action: WordStream How to Create a Great Call to Action: Amy Lynn Andrews Call to Action: The One Thing Every Blog Post Needs (and How to Do it): Tweak Your Biz 8 Types of CTA You Should Absolutely Try on Your Blog: Hubspot How did you go with today's challenge? What did you ask your readers to do? I'd love to see your post that calls your reader to some kind of action. Share a link to your post in the comments below. Pick up the 31DBBB eBook at 50% Off Don't Forget You can also grab the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook with a 50% discount using the coupon code PODCAST50 during the checkout process here. Finally - if you have a moment we'd love to get your feedback on the ProBlogger Podcast with this short survey which will help us plan future episodes. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to ProBlogger Podcast episode 23 and day 23 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog where today, I'm issuing you a writing challenge. I want to see you write a post today and the post needs to call your readers to some kind of action. Calls to action are a really important part of blogging. Today, you're going to practice that. I actually want to call you to two actions today. First, I want you to write a post with a call to action and also to leave a comment sharing that post with us. You can do that at problogger.com/podcast/23 where today's show notes are and there are (as always) opportunities to leave a comment. Hi, it's Darren from ProBlogger here. Welcome to Day 23 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today is another writing challenge. It's one that I know is going to stretch some of you. It's to write a post that calls your reader to some kind of action. At some point in the life of most blogs, the blogger behind it needs or wants to ask their readers to go beyond reading and to do something. While this might not be on a daily basis, it's something that's useful to learn how to do. And so, we're going to practice that today. The action you want your readers to take could be anything. It need not be a big ask either. Your challenge is to craft a post that asks your readers to do something. The goal here is to snap your readers out of passivity. Incidentally, I think the vast majority of blog readers are probably in a very, very passive state. My estimates on my own blogs are that less than 1% or even a fraction of 1% ever leave a comment or do anything. The vast majority of people are purely reading, if that. Only you really know what suits your readers to do. It could be a whole heap of things. Here are a few that you might want to try. It could be getting them to implement some ideas that you've written about or to do something that you're taught them to do. It could be subscribing to your RSS feed or your email newsletter. It could be getting them to follow you on social media.

How to Pay Special Attention to a Reader Today's episode is about how to deepen engagement and interaction with your readers by making at least one reader feel a little bit special and loved. Paying readers a bit of extra attention is a great way to grow your community. Hands in heart shape framing sun by Elena Elisseeva on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: Three powerful benefits paying special attention to a reader can bring to your readers, your blog, and to you personally Real-life examples of how other bloggers are doing this well Nine different ways you could pay special attention to a reader and make them feel famous Further Resources on How to Pay Special Attention to a Reader I mention Jadah Sellner in today's episode, who says "Choose love over metrics". This is the link to her World Domination Summit talk. Make Your Readers Famous The Power of Making Your Readers Famous 10 Blogging Tips to Surprise and Delight your Readers: Lifestyle Fifty The Philosophy of Great Customer Service: Derek Sivers 6 Creative Ways to Surprise and Delight your Customers: Shopify How to Crowdsource Awesome Facebook Posts from Your Fans: PostPlanner Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view It's day 22 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and the 22nd episode of the ProBlogger Podcast. Welcome. My name is Darren Rowse. Today, we are going to spend a little bit of time paying some special attention to one or maybe a few of your readers. We're going to give them some love. This is a great day of building engagement and community on your blog. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/22 where you also have the opportunity to share with us your reaction to today's podcast episode. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 22 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today is all about your reader and paying them a little bit of extra attention. In the early days of ProBlogger, I used to give two pieces of advice quite regularly. In fact, I probably gave them too much, but they were catchphrases for me. One of them was to make your readers famous. The other one was love your readers to death. Both of these really were about the same thing, about deepening engagement and interaction with your readers in some way or another. Today, your challenge is to do just that or (at the very least) make one of your readers feel a little bit special, a little bit loved. On day five of our 31-day challenge, we did this by emailing a reader. Today, I want you to take it a step further and publicly pay attention to one of your readers. Day five is all about shooting them a private note, something that was in private completely just between you and them. Today, I want to challenge you to pay attention to one of your readers in a public way. This has three main benefits. Firstly, it has an impact upon your reader by taking a little bit of time today to step out of your busy routine and show that one reader that you value them could have a real impact upon that one person. That may sound like a little action, but if you do this on a regular basis, it adds up. You never quite know who that person is and how your action today might have an impact on them and has on-going benefits. I actually did this with one of my readers back in 2005 and that reader became a business partner, just because I paid them a bit of attention. The second benefit of doing this is that it has an impact on your other readers as well. When you publicly value one reader in front of everyone else, it shows that you have a genuine interest in your readers. It's infectious. It goes to help create a positive and inclusive culture on your ...

How to Conduct a Policy Review For Your Blog Today's episode is about some policies or operating standards you might like to consider for your blog. Having policies can save you time, help you to make better decisions, and make you more transparent to your readers. Terms & Conditions by Chris Yates on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: Why you need blog policies and operating standards 6 areas to consider having a blog policy for (plus one BONUS area) How to get specific information about your legal requirements as a blogger Further Resources on How to Conduct a Policy Review For Your Blog Information about Creative Commons licences Information about the DMCA Further Reading: The ProBlogger Privacy Policy DisclosurePolicy.org Writing your First Pages: About, FTC Blogger Disclosure, Privacy Page: Art of Blog Blogging and Social Media Policy Example: About Money How to Create a Privacy Policy for your Blog: Road to Blogging Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 21, where today, we're talking about policy, which seems a little out of place in some ways, but it's a really important area to think about. My challenge to you today is to develop a policy or some sort of an operating procedure for a particular area of your blog, and I'm going to suggest seven different areas to ponder. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/21. Let's get into today's episode. Hi, this is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 21 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. We're on that final home stretch now, just 10 days to go. Today's challenge may sound a little odd, but I think it's really important to do. It's to spend some time looking at some policies, operating standards, or procedures for your blog. This sounds very corporate, but it's actually important. For some of you, it's actually a legal requirement for you to put some attention into some of these things. Some of you live in jurisdictions where you are required to have a privacy policy or where you're required to have a disclosure policy if you're working with brands in some way. For others of you, it may not be a legal requirement, but it might just be good form to be transparent with your readers on how you operate. For others of you, it's not so much about how you look or whether you're complying with the law. It's actually about putting processes in place that help you to deal with issues that might crop up so that when you are faced with these issues, you've already made the decision on how you respond to them. Hopefully, it'll become clear which of these fits in with the different policies I'm going to talk about in a moment. I want to go through seven different areas—in fact, I want to suggest seven—that you might want to consider creating a policy in. I do touch on six of these in the workbook for 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, but I want to suggest a seventh as well. The first one is copyright. Are you willing for other people to use your content in some way? This might mean you put a Creative Commons license on your blog, and there's a variety of different types, so you might want to do a little bit of research on that today. If you're not willing for other people to use your content, that's okay. You might want to brush up your copyright notice. You probably want to do a little bit of research on that and there are posts on ProBlogger on that topic. You want to also put into place processes if you are using guest posters on your blog to ensure that they own the copyright of the material that they submit. For instance,

How to Leave Comments on Other Blogs Today's episode is all about how you can leave comments on other blogs to build relationships and grow your blog's audience. Photographer smiling in satisfaction at her images by Lars Zahner on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Today we talk about: The 5 benefits to leaving comments on other blogs The dangers of leaving comments on other blogs if you don't do it well How to make leaving comments on other blogs a regular habit How leaving comments on other blogs can improve your blog content How did you go with today's challenge? Do you leave comments on other blogs? What ideas will you use next for commenting on other blogs? I'd love to hear your feedback on this approach to commenting on other blogs in the comments below. Further Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Leaving Comments on Blogs How to Leave Meaningful Blog Comments - Writer's Digest 19 Ways to Build Relationships with Blog Comments - Social Media Examiner Benefits of Comment Marketing for Traffic and Popularity - SEO Siren 10 Blog Commenting Tips to Get Traffic from Other Blogs - Learn to Blog Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 20, day 20 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, I’m challenging you to get off your blog, and go and leave some comments on other people’s blogs. This could have all kinds of benefits including driving some traffic to your blog, but also sparking all kinds of ideas and potential collaborations between you and those bloggers whose blogs that you visit. You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/20. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 20 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Probably the most common piece of advice that I hear people giving on building to bring traffic to your blog is to leave comments on other people’s blogs. I’ve been hearing this advice since 2002 when I started blogging. It’s been around for many years and that’s because there’s some truth in this advice. It is a great technique for helping you build your profile and to build some traffic back to your blog, but it’s worth saying right up front that today’s challenge also has the potential to hurt your blog, so proceed with caution. There are definitely some benefits of leaving comments on other people’s blogs. It gets you off your blog and viewing other people’s blogs, which is a good thing because you learn more about how other people approach blogging. It could also spark all kinds of ideas for your own blog posts, particularly if you’re reading other blogs in your niche. It’s also great for helping to get to know other bloggers in your niche, which could lead to all kinds of relationships and even collaborations down the years. By them knowing who you are, they’re more likely to link to you and want to work with you in some way. It also creates a little doorway into your blog for the readers of those blogs. A lot of people say that’s the number one reason, but for me, it’s probably not the number one. It’s certainly an opportunity to drive some traffic that way, but for me, it’s the other things that are more beneficial. Lastly, it also builds your profile, and it showcases your expertise as well if you leave good comments, that is. I said before, there are some dangers if you don’t comment well on other people’s blogs. The dangers are that you could come across as overly self-promotional, spammy, pushy, or just a try-hard. I want to give you some dos, but at first, I want to give you some don’ts when it comes to leaving comments on other blogs. Don’t leave too many links. Don’t leave too many comments.

How to Write an Opinion Post to Draw People in to Your Blog Today's episode is all about how you can write an opinion post to draw people in to engage with you and your blog. Your opinion is something your readers actually want to know and it has the potential to set your blog apart from the pack. Strangers #3 - Hands Up by Dora Hon on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Why sharing your opinion will help your readers Why sharing your opinion will help you to grow your blog How to decide which opinion to share Tips on how to share your opinion without offending people, looking like a show-off, or annoying people How did you go with today's challenge? Have you tried sharing an opinion on your blog? What opinion will you share next? I'd love to hear your feedback on this approach to getting readers to draw down into your blog in the comments below. Further Reading on Opinion Posts Don't Run from That Controversial Blog Post - CoSchedule 5 Ways to Get the Opinions of Others and Add Dimensions to Your Blog - ProBlogger Blog 7 Things Happen to You When You are Completely Honest - James Altucher gives us an insight into the reality of being upfront Should You Write Controversial Blog Posts? A Data-Driven Answer - Quicksprout Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to day 19 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge and episode 19 of the ProBlogger Podcast. Today, I'm issuing you a challenge. It’s a challenge to write a blog post, but not just any blog post. Today, I want you to write an opinion post. This is freaking some of you out who like to keep your opinions to yourself, but don’t worry, there are gentle ways to express your opinion. Today, I’m going to share why opinions are important, but also give you some tips on how to do it, different types of posts that you might write depending upon the niche that you’re in. You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/19, where you can also leave a comment to share the post that you write today so we can see it and you might get a little more traffic to your blog. Let’s get into today’s challenge. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 19 of our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. Today is another writing challenge and it’s to write an opinion post. Some bloggers are going to have no problem with this one. You have lots of opinions. You don’t mind sharing them. In fact, some bloggers perhaps go a little bit overboard on that, but that’s another podcast. For many bloggers—myself included—sharing your opinion is something that you might not find comes naturally to you. That’s the way I was brought up. I was taught to keep my opinions to myself, so I worry naturally about what others are going to think when I share my opinion. What will they say? How will I be perceived? These are all things going on in the back of my mind as I sit down to tackle today’s challenge. Here’s the thing. When you add your opinion to a post, it’s actually something that your readers want. It has the potential to set your blog apart from the pack and become more useful. Opinions make your blog more useful. Readers are not just looking for news or what’s happening, they’re looking to see how that news impacts their situation. If I’m looking to buy a product, I don’t want to just know the features of a product, I actually want to know what someone else thinks about that product, for instance. Opinions also make your blog distinct. There are probably hundreds of blogs in your niche, maybe more. Your experience, story, and most of all your opinions are what make you and your blog unique. Don’t be afraid to share them.

How to Create a Page That Propels People Deep Within Your Blog Today's episode is all about how you can create a page or post that propels (or sneezes) people deep within your blog to read your archived blog posts. #4 by Fábio Sneeze on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Also - if you have a moment we'd love to get your feedback on the ProBlogger Podcast with this short survey which will help us plan future episodes. How to keep first time readers on your blog for longer How to increase page views How to improve SEO Further Resources on Creating a Page That Propels People Deep Within Your Blog Check out this previous exploration of Sneeze Pages (which I wrote as part of the last time I ran 31 Days to Build a Better Blog on the ProBlogger Blog). The above post contains some examples of sneeze pages but here are the links to the examples mentioned in today's episode: Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials for Beginners 21 Settings, Techniques and Rules All New Camera Owners Should Know Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hello and welcome to episode 18 of the ProBlogger Podcast. Today is day 18 in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge and today's challenge is a fun one. You're going to create a sneeze page for your blog. You might be wondering what a sneeze page is and why I'm talking about sneezing. Well, partly because I've got a cold today, but also because it's something that has the potential to really drive people deep into your blog, to some of those posts that you've written a little while ago that no longer get many views. It's great for SEO and helping you to rank higher in Google. It's helpful in keeping those first-time readers on your blog longer and increasing page views. There are many benefits to this exercise, and I hope you enjoy it. You can find the show notes, including some examples of sneeze pages at problogger.com/podcast/18. Today is all about creating something that has the potential to have really quite huge benefits and ongoing benefits for your blog. You're going to create what I call a sneeze page. It's a term I invented that has been slightly grossing people out since 2009, the first time we did 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. I'm sorry if it does gross you out a little bit but the idea is really simple. It's to create a page or a post that propels or sneezes people deep within your blog, to read your archived posts. You might be asking why? Well, if you've been blogging for longer than a few months, now, you've got a problem. Whether you know it or not, you've got a problem. The problem is that you've invested a lot of time into creating content for your blog. Potentially, you've got tens. hundreds, or even thousands of blog posts in your archives. Each of these posts has had a moment of glory when it has been your most recent post on the blog. It's been when you've promoted it on social media. It's been sitting on your front page; it's been really visible. Gradually over time, it slides down your front page, and then it disappears into your archives. For most of the posts that you've written, it's rarely going to be looked at again. This happens with every single post you write. The accumulation of that time, energy, and creativity that you've put into those posts is a lot. It's a bit depressing if you think about it too much, those posts just sitting there, so today is really about getting a little bit of attention back to some of those older posts, particularly, your best ones that deserve to be seen again and again over time. The benefits of creating a sneeze page today, the first one is that it's going to show off your archives.

How to Improve Your Blog by Watching a First Time Reader Today's episode is all about how you can see your blog from a first time reader's perspective, and draw them in to keep reading. You will need to find someone to help you today (although I suggest a service to try too) but it can be well worth the effort! Caucasian couple using laptop together on sofa by Gable Denims on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Also - if you have a moment we'd love to get your feedback on the ProBlogger Podcast with this short survey which will help us plan future episodes. How to find out how a first time reader views your blog What questions to ask a first time reader to get practical, useful, detailed feedback to improve your blog Tools you can use to make getting feedback easier Further Resources on Watching a First Time Reader of Your Blog Sign up (free) to Peek User Testing and you can get a 5 minute video of someone using your site. You can pay for more tests, choosing your audience, setting users tasks etc. and on different devices etc. CrazyEgg shows you exactly where users ‘click’ on your site when there and creates a ‘heat map’. It shows how far people scroll and where they stop. Fascinating tests! Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to episode 17 of the ProBlogger Podcast and 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where I’m issuing you a different challenge every day to help build some habits into your blogging that is going to take it to the next level. Today’s challenge is to watch someone read your blog for the first time. You’re going to need to find someone else to help you with this challenge. Preferably someone who’s never been to your blog before, but I’ll talk you through exactly how you can do that and suggest another service that you can use to get this same thing done for you. You can find today’s show notes including links to any tools mentioned at problogger.com/podcast/17. I hope you enjoy what we’ve got for you today. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 17 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. We’re way over the halfway point now and the home stretch. Congratulations. Today, we are going to do something I always find insightful. I actually love this, but at the same time, I’ll always feel a little bit frightened when I do it. It’s to get someone who’s never seen your blog before to view it and give you their feedback. Here’s the frightening reality. Within just a few seconds of arriving on the blog that you pour hour after hour after hour of time and energy into, just after a few seconds of arriving a new reader is making snap judgments about what your blog is about and if it’s worth their time to stay on it and come back again. It’s frightening to think about it. You put so much time into it, and you see it as a complex and wonderful thing, yet these strangers are making snap judgments about it. First impressions are so important in real life. We all know that when we meet other people, we’re making judgments about them. In the online space, it’s even more important. People make even quicker judgments about others. You just have a few seconds to draw people into your world or they’ll never return. This is a great activity to do because you’re going to get some insight into what a first-time reader thinks about your blog by conducting a little audit. First-time reader audit on your blog to try and get inside their head. To make this work, you’re going to need a couple of things. Firstly, you’re going to need a friend, a friend of a friend, a friend of a friend of a friend, a family member, a colleague, a blogger that you’ve not had much to do with, or a random stranger off the street if you can conv...

How to Improve Your Blog by Solving a Reader's Problem Today's episode is a writing challenge and is all about how you can spot and solve your readers' problems, which is a powerful way to grow your audience. Do it well and you'll make a positive impression on people, create a memory and give people a reason to come back, and give people a story to tell others. Businesswoman with a worried frown busy thinking by Lars Zahner on 500px In this Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Also - if you have a moment we'd love to get your feedback on the ProBlogger Podcast with this short survey which will help us plan future episodes. How to spot the problems your readers are struggling with right now How to anticipate your readers' future problems 5 ways you can solve your readers' problems Tools Mentioned in this Episode There are a variety of keyword research tools available but I’m going to recommend you read Rand Fishkin’s "Beginners Guide to SEO", which has a section on keyword research. He recommends starting with: Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool Google Trends Microsoft Bing Ads Intelligence Wordtracker’s Free Basic Keyword Demand The team at Moz also have good tips about how to do Keyword Research. Further Reading on Solving Readers' Problems Content isn't King - Here's What Is! Survey Your Readers and Discover Who They are and How You Can Be More Useful to Them Blog Post Idea: Answer a Reader Question The Surprisingly Simple Secret to Knowing What Your Readers Want Also check out these previous 'writing challenges' in this series at: Write a List Post Write a Link Post Come up with 10 Blog post Ideas Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 16 and day 16 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where I'm giving you a challenge every day for 31 days, which helps to build some habits for good blogging. Today's challenge is a writing challenge. You're going to write a post today that solves one of your reader's problems. I'm going to tell you how to identify problems and then give you the challenge to go away and write that post. I'd love to see the post that you do write today. You can go to the show notes at problogger.com/podcast/16 and share the post that you write as a result of today's podcast. Today's podcast is a really important one in many ways. This is what I build my business around, solving problems. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 16 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where we're going through 31 different ways to improve your blog. I challenge you every day to spend about 15 or so minutes working on a different activity. Today is another writing challenge. We’ve already had a few of these and I always hear back from readers that they love the writing challenges. After all, we are bloggers. Your writing challenge today is a little bit general. It's not to write a certain type of post, but it's to do something for your readers. It is to solve a problem for them. This is the backbone of my blogs, really. If I have to narrow down what I do every day, my goal is to solve at least one reader problem. Not just a problem for one reader (although that's part of it) but to solve at least one problem that might apply to multiple readers, at least one every day. I know that if I'm solving my reader's problems I'm making a positive impression upon people, that I'm creating a memory for them, and giving them a reason to come back. I'm also giving people a story to tell others. If you think about it in your life and I think about my life, if someone solves a problem for me, it has an impact on how I see them.

How to Improve Your Blog by Partnering with a Blogging Buddy Today's episode is all about finding another blogger (or bloggers) to help you improve your blog. Blogging doesn't have to be a solo venture - in fact it can be incredibly social and when we grasp this idea of doing it together it can lead to all manner of great things. In this Episode You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Why having a blogging buddy can help you to improve the quality of your blogging Areas that you can work on with another blogger 3 ways to find a blogging buddy Head to the ProBlogger Facebook Page to connect with other ProBlogger readers - you might just find a buddy there. Further Reading on Finding Blogging Buddies Building Your Online Tribe: Jeff Goins Shares his Top Tips and Tools The SITS Girls tell us how to Find Your Blogging Tribe in this first part of a several-post series. How to Form a Bond with Fellow Bloggers - Twelveskip Kat from the How They Blog Podcast talks us through how to start and run a mastermind group during her chat with Trina Holden Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and welcome to episode 15 and day 15 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we're talking about blogging buddies, teaming up with another blogger to help improve both of your blogs in some way. Today's show notes are at problogger.com/podcast/15. Hi there. It's Darren from ProBlogger here. Welcome to day 15 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we're going to talk about finding yourself a blog buddy. I'm an introvert. I've declared this many times on my blogs before. While I enjoy the company of other people very much, I get my energy by spending time alone. Blogging and podcasting are great mediums for me in this respect. I get to interact with people, but I had a bit of a distance. I get to monitor how much time I spend by myself. However, one thing I've learned over the last 13 years is that sometimes I need to push myself out of my comfort zone, out of my solitude, and into the presence of others because when I do, my blogs actually grow faster, the quality of my blogging increases, and the impact that I have upon my readers grows as well when I work with other bloggers. I learned this very early on back in 2002 when I started blogging. Even in my first weeks, I remember I stumbled into the company of a very small group of other wonderful bloggers who helped me through those first really tricky weeks of blogging. You probably remember those times where you had so many questions, doubts, fears, and so little knowledge about what you're doing. I had no idea what I was doing and it would have been very easy for me to give up blogging many times in those first few weeks, but with the support of that small group of other bloggers—friends, really; it was no formal group—I got up and running, and I started walking on my own feet. Gradually, I grew the knowledge. Some of the doubts and some of the fears—not all of them—began to disappear. I began to understand what I was doing. There have been many times over the years since this has been the case for me as I've faced different challenges. I remember the times where I've been burnt out and struggling to create content and people have given me ideas, support, and encouragement. I remember times where I couldn't seem to find readers for my blogs and other bloggers helped me by promoting my blog to their readers really generously. I remember starting new blogs at different times and just being completely out of my depth with the technicalities. I remember switching platforms from Blogger to Movable Type and then to WordPress and having no idea what I was doing.

How to Update Key Pages or Hot Posts on Your Blog If you've been blogging for even just a little while you've probably got pages or posts on your blog that need an update. If this is the case those pages could be causing embarrassment, frustrating your readers or even costing you money. So your challenge today is to select one page on your blog to update, refresh or improve. You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). In this Episode A few suggested pages to check out on your blog to see if they need an update Some suggestions of what to look at on your pages to see if they need updating We look at your home page, about page, sales pages, contact pages etc How to update a 'hot post' on your blog to increase page views, grow reader engagement and more Further Reading How Your About Page Can Make or Break Your Blog Got a HOT Post on Your Blog? Here’s What to Do To Find and Optimise It Updating Old Posts On Your Blog Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 14 and day 14 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we're talking about updating some key pages on your blog. It's so easy for pages to get out of date that can have some real costs to you and your blog. That's what today's challenge is. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/14. Also, don't forget you can get the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook at a 50% discount. Details of that are also at problogger.com/podcast/workbook. Let's get into today's episode. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 14 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we have a challenge for you to update a key page or post on your blog. This is an activity that many bloggers who have been blogging even for just a little while could benefit from. Over time, it's really easy for key pages and posts on our blogs to become dated or even obsolete. I've done this exercise many times before. I don't think there's been a time I've done it where I haven't discovered something that was either broken, factually incorrect, potentially embarrassing, or simply holding my blog back in some way. You could do it on any number of pages on your blog. Let me just quickly run through a few suggested ones. Just choose one for today but add any of these that you think you might need to update to a list and then you can work through them over the coming weeks. The first one is probably your homepage. It's the most important page on your blog in many regards because it's usually the most visited page that you have. I think last time I looked around 20% of ProBlogger readers hit the homepage on their first visit. It's an important page to look at. We could do a whole heap of things on the homepage and you could spend a lot of time tweaking and overhauling it. But today, at least just do an audit. What first impressions does a moderator have on your blog? Do they know what your blog is about when they first land on it? That's a really important question. Is it easy to navigate? What are their eyes drawn to on that front page? What do people naturally want to do first when they're there? Look at the sidebar on your page if you've got one on your homepage. Is it cluttered? Is there anything there that could be distracting, dated, or broken? Could it do with a bit of a spring clean? What about the navigation? Is it easy to understand? Is it clear? Is it easy to use? Are there any elements that are hidden, broken, or not quite fitting into the page? Lastly, do you have any calls to action on your homepage? What do you want people to do when they're on your homepage? Is it obvious that you're calling them to do that? That's one page that you could do.

How Going Shopping Can Improve Your Blogging Today we're going shopping!!! Woman shopping by Emilia Ungur on 500px Yep - you heard me, we're going to the mall! If nothing else this challenge is going to get you away from your blog for a bit - but there's more to it than that. Today we're doing some observation exercises that could bring a lot of life to your blog. In This Episode You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). Why are we doing this exercise? A quick outline of what the challenge is and a series of questions to ask while doing this exercise Some suggestions for those of you not living near a mall/shops Some examples of some of the things I've learned from doing this exercise Mentioned in this Episode 10 Lessons in Blogging that I Learned on a Shopping Expedition How to Increase Affiliate Sales with Bestseller Lists Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hello and welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast. My name is Darren Rowse and welcome to episode 13 and day 13 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we're going to do something a little bit different. You probably will shake your head and say, “Darren's gone a little crazy here,” but bear with me. We are going on a trip to the mall, the shopping center, your local shopping strip, or whatever it is that you've got around you. This may sound like it's got nothing to do with blogging. In some ways, it doesn't but you are going to learn a lot today at least. I always do when I do this particular exercise. So, bear with me. Today's show notes are at problogger.com/podcast/13. You'll get some further reading there and any links mentioned in the show. Let's get into it. Today's challenge is a bit different, to say the least. It's gonna get you away from your computer and your devices into the real world. I want you to visit your local mall or shopping center as we call them here in Australia. I can just see people shaking their heads and muttering under their breath, “Darren has completely lost his mind,” but stick with me. There are a few benefits to this little exercise. If nothing else, it's going to force you to get out of your pajamas, brush your hair, get away from your blog for a little while, and hopefully to get a little bit of exercise. If nothing else, that's probably a good thing. I know what else bloggers are like. Secondly, it's going to give us a chance today to do some observational exercises that could help your blogging, particularly if you're selling something on your blog, product or service, affiliate products, or even if you’re selling an idea, even if you're just trying to change the world, or if you're selling yourself in some way. Why are we doing it? It comes out of the realization that many times, my best ideas come from my blog when I'm not blogging at all and when I'm doing something else. Many times, the idea comes when I'm in a different environment. I see something that's unrelated to blogging or online, but it triggers a thought process that actually does come back to it. I've had so many blog post ideas and I've made so many changes to my blog, particularly the way I sell my products based upon what I observe in the real world. For me, many of those ideas come while I'm at shopping centers, sometimes while I'm waiting outside changing rooms for a certain someone in my life, but just observing what's going on around me in those environments gives me all kinds of ideas. Here is the challenge. Grab a notebook, a pen, or some other way to jot down notes, preferably not a device that's going to distract you, and then head to your local shopping mall or super shops. I know for some of you living in rural areas, this might be a bit harder than others,

How to Create an Editorial Calendar for your Blog Yesterday I challenged you to come up with at least 10 blog post ideas for your blog. Today we're going to take those ideas and begin to form an editorial calendar around them - specifically we're looking to create an editorial plan for next week on your blog. As I share in this episode this something I resisted doing in the early days of my blogging but having started to do it a few years ago it transformed my blogging on many levels so if you're yet to do it I can highly recommend you give it a go. In Today's Episode You can listen to today's episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). 10 Quick Benefits of creating an Editorial Calendar How to Create a Simple Editorial Calendar for Your Blog A basic weekly format for an Editorial Calendar that you might want to try (with a different type of post on each day) Tools you might want to check out to help you create your editorial calendar By the end of this challenge you now should: know what you need to create have some starting points for each post have a plan of when you’ll create each post Tools Mentioned in this Episode and Related Reading Here are the editorial calendar tools I mentioned in today's episode: Coshedule Editorial Calendar Plugin Edit Flow DivvyHQ Google Drive/Documents And here is some further reading on the topic: How to plan an editorial calendar [recording of a webinar] Behind the Scenes: My Low Tech Editorial Schedule 3 Ways Scheduling will Make You a Better Blogger The Complete Guide to Choosing a Content Calendar: Tools, Templates, Tips and More - Buffer Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 12 and day 12 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we're talking about creating an editorial calendar for your blog. I'm going to share with you why an editorial calendar is useful, some tips on how to set one up, and I'll share some tools that you can use. You can get today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/12 where I will share those links to all those tools mentioned in today's show. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 12 for 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Yesterday, you came up with 10 blog post ideas. I suspect many of you would have come up with more than 10, which is great because it's going to give you a great head start on today's challenge. Today, we're talking about editorial calendars. Specifically, I want to challenge you to create an editorial calendar for the next week of your blog. Not this week but next week. Some of you have already got an editorial calendar and today is the perfect day to assess it and to do a review of it. If you're like most bloggers who simply sit down to write, come up with an idea, and then hit publish all on the same day, this could be a blog changing exercise for you. I know it was for me. To be honest, this was a bit of a process for me to get my head around. I'm a pretty spontaneous kind of person. For the first few years of my blogging, I pretty much did it as I just described. I sat down, I came up with an idea, I'd write the post, and then publish it almost immediately. But I found a lot of value in switching gears and starting to think ahead. I know that probably is going to relate differently today to each personality type but bear with me and give it a go just for one week, see what happens. Ultimately, today is about setting up a publishing schedule for next week and to determine what you publish on which days. Let me give you a few benefits of an editorial calendar, even a simple one. As I said yesterday, this is going to help take the pressure off idea generation when you sit down to write which, hopefully,

How to Come Up with Hundreds of Blog Post Ideas for Your Blog Day 11 is one of my favourite days and one that is going to pay off over the next few days and weeks of blogging. It's all about answering that question 'what should I blog about today???' that may bloggers struggle a lot with each day when they sit down to blog. The idea today is to spend some time ahead of time answering that question so that next time you sit down to blog you can get straight into creating some great content. You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also love to get your reviews). In todays Episode A trap that many bloggers face when it comes to coming up with ideas for their blog Two reasons why brainstorming ahead of time what to write about is so important A process I used on Digital Photography School to come up with hundreds of blog post ideas (enough for my first couple of years of blogging) A variety of other techniques and suggestions for coming up with blog post ideas - some which are based upon some of the previous episodes in this podcast series including setting up alerts and subscriptions you set up yesterday, emailing a reader, heading to the forum or group you've joined, social media accounts etc How to tap into your own problems, questions and challenges to get content ideas The challenge to set up an ideas collection system (I mention I use Evernote) A couple of visuals from the exercise I suggest today: 1. describe the change you want to take your blog readers through: 2. break down that change that you wish to bring: Your Challenge Today Brainstorm at least 10 blog post ideas that you could use in the days and weeks ahead. If you can come up with more - please keep going while they're flowing but do capture them! Don't get into writing the posts yet - just brainstorm. Tomorrow we'll take the ideas to do something with them so tune back in then with your ideas ready. Further Reading on Todays Challenge How to Consistently Come up With Great Content Ideas for Your Blog How to Build a Blog that Has Lasting Impact Upon Its Readers 5 Sources of Ideas for My Blog Posts Discover Hundreds of Post Ideas for Your Blog with Mind Mapping 27 Killer Strategies for Brainstorming Blog Post Ideas - JeffBullas.com Brainstorming: Generating Many Radical, Creative Ideas - MindTools.com Video: 6 Creative Ways to Brainstorm Ideas 7 Quick Ways to Brainstorm for Blog Post Topics - Random Little Faves And Sarah Schultz even has a free printable and great post at Why Brainstorming is Essential to Blogging. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger podcast, episode 11 and day 11 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, your challenge is to come up with at least 10 blog post ideas for future posts on your blog. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you one technique that I used to come up with hundreds of ideas for the first couple of years of my blog at Digital Photography School. I'll also share some alternative techniques that you might like to use to get some inspiration. Today's topic is so important. Many bloggers get stuck at this idea stage of creating content, so hopefully, it will give you a head start on that. Today's show notes, with some further reading and the tools mentioned in the show, are at problogger.com/podcast/11. There's also an opportunity on those show notes to connect with what others are doing in the challenge. Before we get into it, a couple of answers to questions I've had over the last few days. One is around how frequently should you be doing these challenges. I know some of you are doing them on a daily basis as I'm publishing them. But if you don't have time, don't feel that you have to do them daily. I know some of you are doing them every second ...

How to never run out of ideas for blog posts and be aware of latest developments in your niche Being productive and producing great content for your blog is so important - which is why we've had a number of episodes so far that have been 'writing challenges' (see episode 2 and episode 7) but today we're focusing less on what we 'output' and more on what 'input' we're getting as bloggers. I was challenged earlier in the year to consider this for my own blogging and realised I'd become a little dry and out of touch with my niches - so decided to do something about it. This episode is completely built upon that experience and I hope it gives you some ideas on how to create some inspiring, informed and idea generating input streams for your blogging. The more you're learning, inspired and up to date - the better position you'll be in to help those reading your blog! In This Episode You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). 5 reasons why setting up alerts and subscriptions can be a great thing for your blog How to set up Google Alerts How to set up Twitter Alerts Other tools for setting up alerts, subscriptions and updates relevant to your niche Mentioned in this episode: Google News Alerts Twitter Advanced Search Twitter Lists Sprout Social Feedly Bloglovin Flipboard Facebook Interest Lists (how to create them) Related Reading This Little Service Absolutely Crushes Google Alerts - Forbes.com Tap into Trending Content Before Your Competitors - Buzzsumo How to Use RSS feeds - Digital Trends How to Set Up Content Alerts - Buzzsumo Tell us What You Did Today? I'd love to hear how you found todays challenge in comments below. Did you already have an alerts/subscription system in place? What new alerts and subscriptions did you set up today? What tools do you use that were not mentioned in today's episode - we'd love to check them out? Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger podcast, episode 10 and day 10 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, your challenge is to create some alerts and systems to help you stay informed, up to date, and inspired to be able to create great content for your niche. Today's show notes are at problogger.com/podcast/10. But first, a quick word from our sponsor, 99designs, the best place for new businesses to build their brand. 99designs makes it easy to get your next project off the ground with quality, affordable design. To get your logo, business card, mobile app, blog template, or more, visit 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade for free. Hi, I'm Darren Rowse and welcome to 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. We're on day 10 of 31. Congratulations on making it this far; you're almost a third of the way through. There are many factors to having a successful blog. Being productive and outputting great content is obviously one of them. We've already spent a couple of our days of this challenge focusing upon producing content. Another really important area—in fact, I think it's just as important in some ways—is not thinking about your output but thinking about your input. There's an old saying that we've all heard, what you put in is what you get out. There's some truth to that in this case of blogging. As I look back over the last 13 or so years of my own blogging, I can see a real correlation between the times that I was outputting my best content and the times I was doing the most reading, learning, and listening to others. I can also see a correlation between the times that I was struggling with ideas to write about, feeling dry, feeling burnt out. In most cases in those times, I wasn't really learning, listening, reading, or getting good input.

How to Build Your Profile and Drive Traffic to your Blog Through Forums and Social Media Groups In todays episode I challenge you to focus a little attention today on joining an online forum and/or social media 'group' as a way of growing your blog's profile, finding readers and learning more about your niche. You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). In this Episode In this short episode I share: 3 questions to ask to help you find new readers for your blog 3 reasons why joining a forum or group can help grow your blog Some tips on how to find and participate in a forum or social media group in a way that helps your blog improve Further Reading Relevant to this Podcast How to create a reader profile, avatar or personal for your blog Episode 3 of our Podcast: 11 ways to Promote Your Blog Finding Readers Week: Corinne Talks Commenting, Engagement, and Are Forums Right for Your Blog? How to Use Online Forums to Promote Your Website - Shout Me Loud 7 Ways to Benefit from Facebook Groups over at Socially Sorted LinkedIn Groups: Getting Started How did You Find this Challenge Are you already a regular contributor to forums and/or social media groups? What tips would you add to those in this episode? What do you find works best? What would you avoid doing? I'm looking forward to learning from your experience in comments below! I'd also love to hear your feedback on this podcast if you could spare a moment to leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher. UPDATE: please scroll down to the comments section and check out the amazing and generous advice of Paul who shares some meaty tips on getting the most out of forums. It's great stuff! Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 9 and day 9 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, your challenge is all about building your blog’s profile and finding some new readers by doing one of a couple of things, either joining a forum relevant to your blog or a social media group, either a Facebook or LinkedIn group, perhaps. Today’s show notes are found at problogger.com/podcast/9. But first, a quick word from our sponsor, 99designs, the best place for new business or blog to build their brand. If you’re looking to launch a new blog or project and need some high quality but affordable design work done, then 99designs is where you should head. Start your next design project at 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade for free. Hi and welcome to day 9 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a ProBlogger podcast that gives you 31 different ways to improve your blog over a month. Today, I want to challenge you to join a forum that relates to your niche and then to start participating. One of the most common questions that I’m asked by bloggers is how do I find readers for my blog. It’s the number one question we get asked. There’s a lot of potential answers on a micro level, lots of different techniques that we could suggest, but what I generally start with is some bigger picture answers. Ask yourselves these three questions: Who are you trying to reach? What type of person are you trying to reach? The more you can get clarity around that question, the better. Ultimately, creating an avatar or a persona or a reader profile is a good thing to do. Once you know who you’re trying to reach, ask where are they gathering already? Are there blogs, are there forums, are there social networks that they’re already gathering? The more you know about that, the better position you’re in to go and participate in those places. That’s the third question. How can I participate in those places? So, who am I trying to reach, where are they already gathering,

How to Build An Effective Social Media Strategy for Your Blog Today is day 8 in our 31 day challenge and it's a really important one that I know many of you will get your teeth into. You're going to do a social media audit on your blog to assess how your social media accounts are going and to plan a way forward to use them more effective. You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). In this Episode My confession with social media and how I'd let some of my social media accounts slip Some suggestions for working out which social media accounts you should be focusing upon Some suggested questions to ask yourself today about one of your social media accounts as you conduct your audit The challenge to create an editorial calendar for your social media account How making appointments with myself to make sure I implement what I plan Tools mentioned in todays podcast include: Canva Picmonkey MeetEdgar Buffer Further Reading There are so many posts on the ProBlogger blog on the topic of social media but here are a few that you might like to check out: How to Socialize Your Blog Posts for Maximum Effect How to Build an Efficient Social Media Workflow to Increase your Traffic Facebook: Boost Your Organic Reach with These Tips Case Studies of Popular Pages (and What They’re Doing to Get Great Engagement) Not on Instagram? Your Blog Could be Missing Out 7 Powerful Tips for a Winning Twitter Sales Strategy And here's a few others from other sites around the web Hubspot: The Social Media Content Calendar every Marketer Needs Buffer: How to Create and Schedule a Social Media Marketing Plan Inc.com: How to Choose the Best Social Media Sites to Market Your Business Tell us How Your Social Media Audit Went Today I'd love to hear how you found todays challenge in comments below. What social media accounts are you most active on? How could you improve what you do with your social media accounts? What's one thing you'll do differently with your social accounts going forward? Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hello and welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 8 and day 8 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where your challenge today is to do an audit on one of your social media accounts and to come up with a plan for the future of that account. Including the creation of an editorial calendar. Show notes for today's episode are at problogger.com/podcast/8. First, a word from our sponsor, 99designs, the best place for a new blog or an older blogger to build their brand. If you're looking to launch your blog or a project that needs some high quality but affordable design work done, then 99designs is where you should head. Start your next design project at 99designs.com/problogger and $99 upgrade for free. Hi. It's Darren here from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 8 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, we’re going to talk about social media. My challenge to you is to choose one of your social media accounts, to do a bit of an audit on, to do some analysis, to ask some tough questions. Most bloggers are pretty active on social media but it's pretty easy to just drift along with it and not use it as effectively as you could. In fact, it's pretty easy for it to start hurting your blogging as well, whether it be using social media as a distraction away from blogging itself, whether it's just getting off target in terms of the topic—letting automation get in the way of useful tweeting—or standing to use social media in a more dated way. This is the case for me. I recently realized that I'd let ProBlogger’s social media accounts sleep a little. Social media has always been important for ProBlogger and it's always sent...

Writing Challenge: Create a Link Post for Your Blog It's time for another writing challenge - today is all about creating a 'link post' for your blog. Link posts used to be the bread and butter of bloggers but have become less popular over the last couple of years - but I think they still have real benefit for your blog - so I challenge you to create one today. Once you've published it I'd love to see what you've created in the comments of these show notes below. You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). In this Episode The way things were with link posts and why they were good for the blogosphere Why link posts have become less popular Reasons to consider using link posts on your blog 6 types of link posts to try (choose one for todays challenge) Examples of the 6 Types of Link Posts Let me also give you some quick examples (all taken from the archives of ProBlogger) on the 6 types of 'link posts'. Build Upon the Points of Others - How to Build Your Blog's Audience with Long Form Evergreen Content (where I built on the ideas shared by Tim Ferriss in a podcast) Take the Opposite Point of View - 9 Reasons Why I AM an Amazon Affiliate - where I bounced off a post by another blogger who took the opposing view Build a Resource on a Topic - Four Blogging Tools to Make your Content Go Further or Where to Find Free Images Online Speedlinking/WrapUp - 11 SpeedLinks for Professional Bloggers and Web Workers (it's an old one as I've not done it for a while) One Question Interviews - 14 Bloggers Share Their Daily Blogging Routine (where I emailed some other bloggers to ask them to answer a simple question) Further Reading - Follow These Six Steps to Make Plenty of Time to Write (and Enjoy it Too) (this post had numerous 'further reading' links scattered through the post. Other Tools/Links Briefly Mentioned in todays Episode BuzzSumo Flipboard Evernote Also check out Feedly as a good RSS reading tool. Share Your Link Post In Comments Below On day 2 of this challenge I challenged you to write a 'list post' and many of you wrote and then shared links to the lists you wrote. You did so well and I enjoyed reading them. Today I'd like you to share you newly published 'link posts' in comments below. Please only share newly written posts and please also take a moment or two to surf around some of the links that others share so we can get to know other bloggers taking this challenge. Can't wait to see your posts! Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 7 and day 7 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, your challenge is to create a link post for your blog. It’s a little bit retro, something I used to do in the early days of my blog, that’s disappeared a little bit from the blogosphere, but we’re going to bring it back today and I look forward to seeing your posts. You can find today’s show notes at problogger.com/podcast/7. Before we get into today’s episode, I want to just draw your attention to our wonderful sponsor, 99designs, who make it easy for your next project to get off the ground with a quality, affordable design. To get your logo, business card, mobile app, blog template, or other blog creatives up and going, visit 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade for your next design for free. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 7 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where I’m giving you 31 different challenges to help improve your blog. Today, we’re going to write a blog post. It’s been a few days since we’ve done one. I think day two, we did a ‘write a list’ post and today we’re going to write a link post. A link post is a post where you are simply linking to another b...

How to Get Your Blog Mobile Friendly Welcome to day 6 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge where today we're going to talk about making your blog mobile friendly. While to get your blog completely mobile friendly will take you longer than a single day today you can come up with a plan to do so if you've not already. This task is VERY important. We're getting to the point where half of your blog's readers are probably viewing your blog on mobile devices and if your design isn't good you could be losing them and also running the risk of falling in Google's search rankings! If you're already mobile friendly - todays a great day to review your design not that front. In This Episode Why a mobile friendly design is so important for you to have in place Questions to ask when reviewing your blog design on mobile 2 Tools from Google to help you assess how your blog is performing on mobile devices My Confession with Mobile Friendly Blogs 3 Suggested ways forward if your blog is not mobile friendly - plugins, responsive themes and custom design Some suggestions for those of you who already have mobile friendly blogs Tools and Resources Test Your Blog Google's Make Your Website Work Across Multiple Devices Site (see the 'tool' on the right sidebar where you can add your URL to test your site. Google's Mobile-Friendly Test WordPress Plugins WP-Touch WP Mobile Pack Jetpack Responsive Themes I've used Studio Press who offer fully responsive designs. Need Technical Support? If you're feeling overwhelmed by the idea of installing and getting plugins set up or installing themes talk to the team at WPCurve who offer WordPress support and do small jobs. You can either sign up for a monthly plan to get ongoing support or hire them to do a one off job. Note: I am an affiliate for StudioPress and WPCurve. I've also been a user of both services and recommend them genuinely fro that experience and from knowing the teams behind them well. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 6 on day 6 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, your challenge is to make your blog mobile-friendly. It's a challenge that will probably take you more than today, but you can do some great groundwork to get you well underway. Today's show notes are at problogger.com/podcast/6 First, a quick word from our sponsor, 99designs, the best place for new businesses to build their brand. 99designs makes it easy to get your next project off the ground with quality, affordable design. To get you a logo, business card, mobile app, blog template or more, visit 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade for free. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 6 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where we're teaching you 31 different things that you can do to improve your blog, and then challenging you to go away and do it. Really, the doing part is the most important part of this 31-day challenge, so I hope you are taking action. Today's challenge is a big one. Yesterday's was pretty small in many ways, but it had a big impact, but today's is a bigger challenge, and it may actually take you longer than one day to implement, but I want you to make some decisions today that you can go away and implement. Today's challenge is to make your blog mobile-friendly. I know some of you have already done this and I've got some things for you to do as well, but it's a really important challenge. We're approaching a time where more people will read blogs on their mobile devices than desktops. In fact, for many blogs, it's already happened. I know on my blogs, I checked this morning on Digital Photography School, half of my readers exactly 50% are now viewing the blog on mobile. On ProBlogger,

How to Convert a Casual Blog Reader into a Loyal Long Term Raving Fan It's day 5 of our 31 Day Challenge and today is a pretty simple one that could take you just a minute or two (although you could take a few moments extra and do it multiple times to extend the impact). The task - is to email one of your blog's readers! You can listen to todays episode above or in iTunes or Stitcher (where we'd also LOVE to get your reviews on those platforms if you have a moment). In This Episode I share the 3 things I would always do in the early days of my blogging any time anyone left a comment on my blog I share the impact that I saw doing this had on my readers (and how even 10 years later some of those readers still comment today on ProBlogger) I suggest how you can extend todays exercise to make an even bigger impression on your readers - if you have a few more minutes Todays exercise is super simple. In fact last time I talked about it on ProBlogger someone commented saying it wasn't worth doing. But here's the thing - this kind of action adds up over time. Like I say in todays episode - do this every day for a year you'll have made an impression upon hundreds of people - each who could become daily readers to your blog and whom have their own networks that they might just promote you to. While we'd all love a big rush of overnight traffic as a way to grow readers the reality is that this one by one converting of 'surfers' into loyal 'readers' is the way that most blogs grow and this is one way to do that. Give it a go and let us know in comments below how you found the exercise! Further Reading I mentioned this same idea in a post on ProBlogger - The Power of Personalisation. Also check out this great presentation that Pat Flynn gave. He did this same talk at the ProBlogger Event last year and it had a big impact and talks about how to convert casual readers into raving fans. I think today's exercise very much fits into an activity that could play a part in doing just that. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger podcast, episode 5 and day 5 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, your challenge is a simple one. It won't take you long, but it has the potential to bring a lot of life to your blog, particularly if you build it into your daily blogging workflow. You can find today's show notes at problogger.com/podcast/5. First, a word from our sponsor, 99designs, the best place for new businesses and blogs to build their brands. If you're looking to launch a new blog or project and need some high quality but affordable design work done, then 99designs is where you should be heading. Start your next design project at 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade for free. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger and welcome to day 5 in 31 Days to Build a Better Blog where we're going through 31 different activities that you can do to improve your blog. I'm giving you a little bit of teaching and then a challenge to go and do every day over this month. Today's task is probably one of the most simple things that you can do. In fact, it's so simple that many people don't do it because, well, it's just a small action and what impact could it have? But I'm here today to tell you that this is one of the things that I did in the early days of my own blog that still has an impact today, 12 years later. The challenge today is to email one of your readers. That's it. Just shoot an email to one of your readers. It's all about building community on your blog. Making an impression on a single reader by giving them some personal attention. It's an exercise in building community on a micro level. You're just reaching out to one person today. This might sound a little bit too small. One reader, I want a thousand readers.

How to Improve Your Blog by Watching What Other Bloggers Do It's day 4 in our 31 days to build a better blog challenge and today is one of my favourites - in fact it's something I do very regularly in my own blogging. It's all about spending time on another person's blog in your niche to observe what they do (and don't do) to see what you can learn (no magnifying glass required). This exercise can be done in 10-15 minutes (although you can take longer if you wish). Listen to this episode to find out how I do it. In this Episode Much of this episode is a series of questions for you to ask as you look at the blog that you've chosen to analyse. You might like to get the blog's page loaded up and then run todays episode for a bit while I run through some questions and then pause the episode as you do the analysis. Here are the areas to analyse that I run through: Questions to ask about how the blog you observe handles content Questions to ask about how the blog engages with their readers Questions to ask about how the blog uses social media Questions to ask about who the blog is designed Questions to ask about how the blog monetizes/sustains themselves Questions to ask about how they use email/newsletters Questions to ask about how they are getting traffic to their blog Other questions that might help you identify opportunities to work with this blog I also share 2 words of warning with this exercise. Further Reading This podcast is based upon this post on the ProBlogger Blog where some of the questions I run through are included so you've got them written somewhere. Mentioned in this episode were two tools for looking at the traffic of other blogs. They are Alexa and Compete. These don't give you exact stats and I don't find them 100% accurate as I analyse my own blogs but they can give you a bit of an idea of how a blog's traffic might be trending. For Alexa just add the url of the site in the top right corner where it says 'Browse Top Sites or Enter a Site' and then click 'Find'. For Compete just enter the URL in the front page but note that for full stats you need to pay these days so you won't get a heap of information. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 4 on day 4 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, your challenge is to analyze another blog. You're going to learn so much from this challenge and learn a whole heap about how to differentiate yourself as a blogger, too. Today's show notes are at problogger.com/podcast/4. First, a word from our sponsor 99designs the best place for new bloggers to build their brand. 99designs is the blogger's number one choice for quality graphic design. To get your logo, business card, or any blog creative you might need, visit 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade of services for free. Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 4 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, where each day we're giving you a little bit of teaching and a challenge to go away and to improve your blog. Today is one of my favorite activities and it's something that I do semi-regularly on my blog. I go through periods where I actually do it every day but at least once a week I do this activity. I never come away from it without learning something that I can go away and improve my blog on. The activity is this, to analyze another blog in your niche. You can do it with a blog that's not in your niche but you probably get more value by doing it with a blog on your niche. The idea is really simple. Put aside 10, 15 minutes longer if you can, and just watch what another blogger is doing. It's about watching, listening, observing, learning, how other bloggers approach what they do. Not so that you can copy them, but so that you can perhaps notice what someone else is ...

Find New Readers for Your Blog with Todays Blogging Challenge Today is day 3 in our 31 Day Challenge and today your task is to promote your blog by sharing one of your previously published blog posts (perhaps even your list post from yesterday)! This is an activity that bloggers really need to be focusing regular attention on so I hope that some of the tips I share in todays episode will become a regular part of your daily blogging workflow. In this Episode Building readership for your blog is a question I'm asked about every day and there's a lot to say about it so I start off talking in slightly more general terms but then give you some specific ways to promote your blog. Here's what I cover. Why a 'build it and they will come' mentality doesn't work 6 phases of growing readership for your blog 11 ways to promote your blog post Here's a graphic of the 6 phases from a talk I gave recently to help you visualise it. But as I say - today is very much about phase 4 of the process. Your Challenge for Today Choose one (or more) of the 11 ways mentioned in todays episode to promote your blog (or try another that wasn't mentioned) and get off your blog and put some of your recently written pieces of content out there. Note: Please go a little beyond what you normally do. If you normally push your posts out onto social media - do something a little extra and see what happens. Tell Us What You Do! - Once you've promoted your post please let us know what you did in comments below these notes so we can learn from you. Also let us know what impact your actions have. Other Links and Resources Mentioned In Todays Episode I mention a couple of resources in todays episode that would make great further reading (and listening) on this important topic. Finding Readers Webinar Building a Reader Profile for Your Blog I've also included a few other relevant articles to the topic for you to check out if you want to dig deeper. 5 Basics to Having Your Post go Viral (on creating shareable content) How to Promote Your Blog Without Letting The Rest of Your Blogging Slide How to Socialize Your Posts for Maximum Effect How to Build an Efficient Social Media Workflow to Increase your Traffic 11 Ways I Diversified Traffic Sources for My Blogs to Become Less Reliant Upon Google [With a Surprising Twist] How to Promote a Blog with Social Media The Ultimate Guide to Leaving Comments on Blogs How to Get Media Coverage for Your Blog Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 3 and day 3 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Today, I’ll challenge you to promote your blog and give you some tips on how to get some traffic to your blog. First, a quick word from our sponsor, 99designs, the best place for new businesses to build their brand. 99designs makes it easy to get your project off the ground with quality, affordable design. To get your logo, business card, mobile app, blog template or more, visit 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade for free. Hi, this is Darren Rowse from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 3 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Each day of this series—for a whole month—I’ll be sharing with you some tips on an important aspect of growing your blog, and then challenge you to go away and do something based upon that teaching. Today, we’re going to talk about promoting your blog. Actually getting off your blog, not just focusing upon creating content, and the design, and all the things to think about when it comes to your blog, but to get off it, and go hunting for some readers. Go promote something on your blog to someone else. This is really important. I actually see a lot of bloggers who have this mentality that if they build a good-enough blog, readers will just magically show up to it. For 99.9% of us,

Today your challenge is to create a 'list post' for your blog Since I started blogging back in 2002 the 'list post' has always been a popular type of post for bloggers. While you may not want every post on your blog to have this format there's no doubt there are some definite advantages of using them from time to time. As I look at my most popular posts over the years on my blogs many of them would fit quite well into this category. So today I want you to create one. Here's what to do: Listen to today's episode (either here on the site or in iTunes or Stitcher) create and publish your list post on your blog please share a link to your newly published list post in comments below so we can see what you've done today check out some of the links other share, comment on and share the ones you enjoy the most In This Episode Here's what I cover in todays episode: 8 Reasons Why List Posts Work A Warning on List Posts 3 Types of List Posts to Try Writing on Your Blog Examples of List posts that I’ve written that might give you some ideas Examples of List Posts Mentioned in this Episode All of these examples come from my blog at Digital Photography School but please submit your own new list posts below and check out the examples others leave to see them applied in different niches/topics. 21 Settings, Techniques and Rules All New Camera Owners Should Know 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits (and the follow up '10 more tips...' post) 11 Surefire Landscape Photography Tips How to Make An Inexpensive Light Tent – DIY Posing Guide: 21 Sample Poses to Get You Started with Photographing Women (and the followup series) How to Photograph Fireworks Displays DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers The 30 Most Popular DSLR Lenses with our Readers 10 Photography Quotes that You Should Know 100 Things I’ve Learned About Photography Also mentioned in this episode as a tool to check was Buzz Sumo. Welcome to ProBlogger podcast, episode 2 and day 2 of our 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge. Today, I'll be talking to you about creating a list to post for your blog. But first, a quick word from our sponsor, 99designs, the best place for new businesses and bloggers to build their brands. If you're launching a new business or even a project off the side of your blog, 99designs is a great choice for quality design at an affordable price. Start your next design project at 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade for free. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hi, this is Darren from ProBlogger. Welcome to day 2 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog where each day, I'll be sharing with you some tips on how to improve your blog and then challenge you to do something based upon those tips. Today, we're talking about list posts. List posts, as I look back on my blog, have been probably the best thing that I've ever done in terms of types of content. In fact, I just spent 15 minutes looking back over Digital Photography School's top posts, going right back to 2009 when I started and listed posts featured in the top 100 or so posts that I've written in terms of their traffic and very heavily. In fact, probably over half of the posts that I've written that feature that, that most-read post list would be list posts. I'll share some of them as examples with you in a moment. I just want to touch on why I think list posts are so important. There's a whole heap of them. Firstly, they're scannable. As you probably know, people are much more likely, when they're reading online, to scan content than to read it, or at least they'll scan through it first to see whether it's relevant to them. They might go back and read it or they might stop at different points to read, but they rarely just start reading and then get right through to the end.

Welcome to day 1 of the 31 Days to Better Blog challenge. As I explained in yesterdays welcome episode this 31 day challenge is all about giving you short challenges to do that will bring a little life to your blogging. Today my challenge is for you to create an Elevator Pitch for your blog. elevator by Kai Ziehl on 500px Todays podcast isn't long but the activity can really bring a lot of clarity to your blogging which has many flow on benefits to your blogging. In fact what you do today will help a lot in future days of this challenge. In This Episode In todays episode I'll share: What an elevator pitch is Why you need an elevator pitch Where you’ll use it in your blogging 9 Simple tips on how to Write one 5 Questions to start with to get some clarity on your elevator pitch Share Your Elevator Pitch in Comments Below One of the things I've always loved about 31DBBB is that participants share what they DO as a result of each days challenges. Once you've created your elevator pitch - please share it in comments below (feel free to leave a link to your blog too so we can check it out) and have a look at the elevator pitches and blogs of others too. This challenge works best if we tackle each day together so please get to know your fellow 31DBBB participants! A Great Offer from our Friends at 99designs Before I go I would recommend that you check out the great offer our friends, and new podcast sponsor, 99designs have for you (worth $99). They're a fantastic place to go if you're looking for any help with graphic design in your blogging. I'm a user of their services and appreciate their great variety of designers, fantastic value for money and the quality and speed of the work being produced. Don't Forget You can also grab the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook with a 50% discount using the coupon code PODCAST50 during the checkout process here. A HUGE Thanks for an Amazing Start Lastly I wanted to take a moment to say a big thank you to everyone for your encouragement, comments, shares and reviews of yesterdays first episode. The podcast made it to the #1 Podcast in numerous countries iTunes store and I've been quite overwhelmed and very humbled by the feedback already. Please take a moment to leave us some feedback in a review on iTunes. Also note we are now available on Stitcher - you can find it here. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Welcome to the ProBlogger Podcast episode 1 and day of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. We’ll be talking today about creating an elevator pitch for your blog. But first, a short word from our sponsor, 99 designs, the best place for new businesses to build their brands. 99designs is the entrepreneur’s number one choice for quality graphic design. To get your logo, business card or any blog creative you might need, visit 99designs.com/problogger and get a $99 upgrade of services for free. The idea of an elevator pitch is probably something that you’ve heard about before. I heard about it back in 1990 when I enrolled in my first university degree. I was studying marketing at the time and I remember quite clearly, my lecturer, getting us to come out with an elevator pitch for a hypothetical business that we were a part of. I’ve never heard the term and he really explained it quite simply. Imagine you’re getting on an elevator, you meet someone on that elevator that you’ve never met before. You’ve got the time that it takes to travel between the ground floor and the 30th floor to introduce yourself and communicate in a way that intrigues that other person to know more about your business. You need to be able to communicate quite succinctly to them what it is that you do in a way that makes them want to interact with you again. You’ve got the period that it takes to go from one floor to another ...

I'm super excited today to welcome to the First ProBlogger Podcast! This has been a long time coming and I'd like to thank all of you who have encouraged, nudged and at times nagged me to get this podcast going. I hope you enjoy it! In this Episode Today's episode (find it here on iTunes or listen to it above) is all about setting the scene for the month of podcasting that is ahead. In episode 0: I share why I decided to start podcasting I talk about 2 traits that I've seen in many (if not all) successful bloggers I issue you with a challenge that could take your blog to the next level You'll discover what the next 31 episodes of this podcast will revolve around This podcast will not be for those wanting a nice gentle passive journey. Each episode will challenge you to not only 'listen' but to 'create', 'build' and 'implement' the strategies discussed. My hope is that it'll encourage you to develop effective habits that will help you to build a better blog. Mentioned In this Episode As we move into the first 31 days of the ProBlogger Podcast we'll be moving through the activities mentioned in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook. Having the workbook is not essential to get value out of these next 31 episodes but if you do want to have your own copy of the material (plus a bonus 7 days of challenges) I've set up a coupon code to get a copy at 50% off. From the 31DBBB workbook sales page use the coupon code PODCAST50 in the check out to get the 50% discount for the next month. Again - there's no pressure to have a copy of the workbook but it's there if you'd like to have a copy as we move through the activities (and to work through again and again in the months that follow). Also as mentioned in this episode - I highly recommend you install Google Analytics (or some other analytics/stats package on your blog as we'll be talking about it in a future episode and it would be good to have some data collected by then. Google Analytics is the most powerful stats program I've come across and best of all it's completely free. Welcome to the ProBlogger podcast episode zero. In today's episode, I'll share two keys to successful blogging and introduce you to a challenge that has the potential to take your blog to the next level. Full Transcript Expand to view full transcript Compress to smaller transcript view Hi there. My name is Darren Rowse and I'd like to welcome you to the first-ever ProBlogger podcast. I've been blogging now since 2002 and podcasting is something that I've seen in many blogging friends get into over the years, but it's always something that I've put off. As I've announced to friends over the last few months that I'm planning this podcast, a lot of people have been saying, “Why now? Why are you starting to podcast now?” There's a number of reasons that I'm doing it now. Partly it's the accumulation of the people over the years who've said, “You should start a podcast,” and a lot of my friends have been gently nagging me for a while. I guess that's one of the factors, but the main factor for me is that I love to speak. I love to present. I love to teach using my voice not just my fingertips as I blog. I guess one of the realizations that I've had over the last year, particularly, is that the opportunities that I get to speak while I take as many as I can and enjoy it. As a father of young kids, I don't get to travel and speak as much as I get invited to do so, so podcasting for me is one way that I can continue to do that. That was part of this reason to start podcasting. The other one is that I've been a bit of a podcast listener and a bit addicted to it as well. The realization that I had at the start of this year was that I was getting a little bit dry in terms of my own input. I've always been someone who’s read a lot, but the busier that I get,