Tiffany Washko

More of the 31 Day Challenge…

I did want to back up just a bit and make a comment about the challenge to make friends on social networking sites. I had not really done that before. So I started with Digg and I now have about 125 friends and 14 followers. I used to get 2-3 Diggs on my posts but lately I have been getting a half dozen or more. Baby steps…but still something.

So on to new challenges….

Day 22. Ask someone to guest-post on your own blog. If you’re friendly with another blogger, invite them to write on your own blog. If your blog is more popular than theirs you’ll have a better chance of being accepted. A guest-poster can inject a bit of freshness into your blog and, most importantly, allow you to focus on tasks other than content creation for a day.

I have put out a call for guest bloggers or even regular bloggers and I am even offering to pay them. I got lots of requests for info but no bites and no submitted posts. I am not sure what I am doing wrong there. When I have more time I will have to think about how to fix that. Right now though I am not exceedingly interested…although I am swimming in product reviews and could use some help.

Day 23. Do some SEO on your blog.SEO can be tricky, but if you know a little bit about it, set aside a day to revise and tweak your blog’s SEO. Alternately, you can take the time to learn how to optimize your blog for search engines.

I would say my blog is optimized. It has tags, descriptions, applicable post slugs, keyword rich page titles. I heavily research long tail keyword phrases and my I usually end up ranking in the top 5 (usually top 2) for almost anything I aim for. I have been pretty successful in that area.

Day 24. Buy a $5 StumbleUpon advertising campaign for your best post.$5 buys roughly 300 visitors. If some of those StumbleUpon visitors end up adding more votes to your article, the result could be a traffic snowball much larger than the one you paid for! Before you start, you can read this post at ProBlogger on advertising with StumbleUpon.

I had never heard of this before…but what the heck. Let’s try it out. I created a campaign using one of my biggest money making pages and I spent $5.00 to have it Stumbled. I will let you know how it goes and what I think.

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Here are the next 5 days of the Become a Better Blogger Challenge:

Day 17. Think up 20 post ideas you can use. Once you know what you’ve got to write, starting becomes a lot easier. Set aside a day to brainstorm 20 post ideas you could definitely see yourself using on your blog.

I have a running list of post ideas, and keyword phrases that I collect for all my web sites and blogs. When I am running low on inspiration I just wade through that list and find something to write about. I also have an Outlook file called “Blog Ideas” where I save emails with products tips, leads, and ideas. This is a real time saver.

 Day 18. Thank your readers. Set aside a day to say thank you to your readers — even if it’s just a short sentence at the bottom of your latest post. Of course, if you can be innovative in the way you say thanks to your readers, it’s a lot more likely to leave an impression.

This is a good idea. I have never done and I guess I should eh? I have a post set to go out tomorrow with a thank you!

Day 19. Update your blogging software to its latest version. Out of date blogging software can be vulnerable to bugs and attacks from hackers. Just make sure to back up your previous install (and that you know what you’re doing). You might need to spend some time researching the transition before you actually begin the process.

 I do this regularly. Most of my blogs have a one click update feature which is a lifesaver. Although my NatureMoms blog is heavily hand coded so I always trust my designer to do those upgrades. Right now I am waiting until the new version of Wordpress comes out and I test it with a few other blogs but then I will update.

Day 20. Create strong, alpha-neumeric passwords for all your accounts. If any of your blogging related passwords are single, Dictionary words or letters only, it would be quite easy for a determined hacker to break into one of your accounts. Set aside this day to strengthen your passwords by using combinations of letters, numbers and punctuation that exceed 8 characters in length. Make sure to keep your new passwords written down somewhere in a safe place (and write them down carefully).

I have a system for my passwords. They are alpha-numeric and I can remember each and every one for my dozen or so blogs because they have personal significance and blog significance. I used to just store the original passwords that came with the blog but that got old having to look them up all the time.

Day 21. Sit down and analyze your stats for the last month. Statistics can tell you a lot about what worked and what didn’t. Analyzing stats over an extended period can reveal visitor trends, popular posts and which of the promotional activities you undertook were worth doing.

Yes! Analyzing traffic is what tells me what is working really well on my blog. I can see what type of posts get the most searches and traffic and duplicate those “type” of posts. I attract hundreds of people each day looking for BPA free products. Did I set out to be the BPA free queen? No. I wrote a post about the issue and got lots of hits from search engines…so I decided to do reviews of BPA free products and got tons more hits…..rinse and repeat. Analyzing traffic is just as good as doing surveys in my mind…they really give you insight into what your visitors want.

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Day 15 & 16 of the Better Blogger Challenge…

Day 15. Write a 10-page report or mini eBook. A few hours work will result in a free report you can distribute to feed subscribers only, give out to your readers and encourage them to share, or otherwise leverage to bring more traffic back to your blog. If it’s really useful, it might even go viral.

Day 16. Try adding a new income stream to your blog. If it wasn’t clear already, blog advertising programs can be unreliable. You might be on to a sweet thing with one form of advertising at the moment, but what if the service changes, or goes bust — taking your income with it? If you’re monetizing your blog it’s a good idea to have at least two strong income streams in place, so that if something goes wrong with one, you’ve still got backup.

I am working on the report right now. It will be more of an e-book and I am putting it together to meet a previous challenge to give away something free on my blog. It will require and opt-in and it will be full of affiliate links so hopefully it will be a source of income as well.

As for monetizing my blog I think I have that down too. My primary money makers for my NatureMoms blog are Amazon, Adsense, BlogherAds, and various affiliate programs. I also opened up my blog to private banner ads too and have some regular subscribers now. So I am not looking to add any new revenue streams…just keep tweaking and tuning the ones I already have in place.

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