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Lots of bloggers seem to do everything right, yet they don’t see much success.
They write well-structured posts, they pay attention to SEO, they know the ins and outs of their blogging software … but something’s lacking.
That missing “something” can often be personality. It’s the difference between a blog that readers come across and instantly forget … and a blog that makes a connection and an impact.
Does your blog need a bit of extra personalisation? Here’s how ten top bloggers make their blogs stand out:
Blog: YTravel
Some blogging topics pretty much demand great photos. Travel is one of those (and others include food, craft and fashion blogging).
Caz and Craig post gorgeous, smiley photos of their family. Some of these are simple candid snapshots, like in 17 Tips for Flying With Kids to Keep You Calm and Happy, and others are a little more posed, like the photos in Getting Settled in the USA + Where to Next.
Lessons learned:
Blog: Smart Passive Income
As soon as you visit Pat’s blog, Smart Passive Income, you see a huge photo of him, plus his signature:
He adds flair in other ways too: his 404 page is inspired by on Back to the Future – his favourite movie, as noted on his bold, eye catching About page.
Lessons learned:
Blog: Shannon’s Kitchen
Salty language tends to polarise readers: some love it and find it a big part of a blog’s appeal; others will be put off and won’t return. Shannon swears – frequently and enthusiastically – on her blog (even in her tagline and navigation menu):
Lessons learned:
Blog: Blog Tyrant
As soon as you visit Blog Tyrant, you’ll see Ramsey’s red-shirted avatar: this illustration features in the banner image on the home page, and in the feature images for several of his posts:
It’s also on the front cover of his free report.
Lessons learned:
Blog: A Beautiful Mess
New readers may land on any post on your blog … and it can help to give them a quick glimpse into who you are and what you’re all about. Sisters Elsie and Emma do this stylishly with a bright, bold photo and handwritten names in their blog’s sidebar:
Lessons learned:
Blog: Chris Ducker
Chris Ducker uses the same (smiling) headshot on his About page, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, creating a consistent brand across multiple platforms:
Lessons learned:
Blog: Jadah Sellner
When you visit Jadah’s site, your eyes are instantly drawn to her bright, colourful banner:
The colours of her clothes tie in with the colours of the newsletter sign up: it feels like everything fits together seamlessly. (The tagline above the banner picks up on the same deep pink colour, too.)
Lessons learned:
Blog: SuperFastBusiness
The first words of James’s homepage are a bold “I” statement: instantly, it’s clear what he’s all about and what he does, and – crucially –how he can help the reader.
Lessons learned:
Blog: Kelly Exeter
Taglines can be really tricky to get right, and some bloggers choose not to use them at all. A great tagline, though, is a huge asset: in just a few words, you can tell your ideal readers that your blog is exactly the right place for them.
Here’s Kelly’s:
Lessons learned:
Blog: Puttylike
Lots of blogs use a “Start Here” page, but having one is particularly important if – like Emilie – you’ve combined several different passions or strands into one blog. Emilie has different sections on the page to bring together her most popular posts in different categories.
Lessons learned:
How are you currently showing your personality on your blog? Did anything resonate with you as you looked at the above examples … and what will you try next?
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This is a guest contribution from LJ Sedgwick.
You’ve read all of the blogging advice. You know writing an outline helps keep your blog post to the point.
But try as you might, nothing’s happening. An empty page stares back at you. That blinking cursor is taunting you.
You want to teach your readers how to follow your processes. But they’re second nature to you. Trying to put them into a blog post seems impossible.
You know that you know everything you need for your post. But how do you get the ideas out of your brain and onto paper? How do you turn them into an outline?
Worry no more. We’re going to use the IKEA method to brain dump those ideas. Then we’ll assemble them into a solid blog post that will last for years to come.
This blog post started out in that exact same way. It’s a process I’ve used for blog posts since 2009. It’s also a method I use in for writing fiction, and academic writing (much to the eternal annoyance of my Ph. D. supervisor).
So what’s the IKEA method, and how can it help you?
What’s the first thing that you do when you get your IKEA flat pack home?
You tip all of the screws, bolts, and random Allen keys onto the floor.
We’ll start your blog post the same way. This is your brain dump. Set a timer and write everything you can about your topic. If it helps, write it in stream of consciousness.
That’s how this blog post started out.
No one ever has to see it but you. It’s how you’ll get to know all of the ideas you have to work with.
In the IKEA method, this is the part where you’re matching the stuff on the floor with the instructions. If you’re anything like me, you’ll also count them before you put anything together.
You need to do the same thing with your blog post. Go through your notes and break up what you’ve written into chunks. Group your thoughts together by ‘type’.
Say you’re writing a post about how to make the transition from a day job to freelancing. This blog post is a chest of drawers in this metaphor.
Put all of your thoughts about saving money and budgeting, ready for the transition, into one pile. That’s all of the parts you need for your first drawer.
Then you’ll put everything to do with time management into another pile. That’ll be your second drawer.
Rinse and repeat.
Like any IKEA assembly, you’ll always have parts left over that aren’t in the instructions. That’s okay. In my house, those extra odds and ends go into a drawer of random pieces, in case anything breaks later. Or sometimes they come in handy for completely unrelated DIY projects.
You should do the same. Open Evernote, Google Docs, Scrivener – whatever you write in. Copy and paste those ‘spare’ thoughts into a document. You never know when they’ll come in handy.
Go back to your piles of bits/thoughts. Most people follow the instructions. Not me. I put furniture together in a more freestyle fashion. So if you hate outlines, this will be your new best friend.
Take a look at your first pile of furniture parts/thoughts. They’re already grouped together, so that gives you your subhead for that section.
Start editing those loose, stream of consciousness thoughts into coherent sentences. Move them around into logical paragraphs.
Turn that subhead into something descriptive, so scanners can easily skim your post. Make sure it signposts your content.
Imagine we’re building a chest of drawers. This newly edited paragraph is your first finished drawer.
Move onto the next pile of thoughts and do the same thing. You’ve already done the hard work and gotten the thoughts together. Now you have to turn them into readable content.
Once you’ve run out of piles, you’ve got the individually assembled parts of your post. Using the IKEA method, they’re the drawers you put together before you slot them into the empty chest.
But how are you going to build the chest to fit the drawers into?
Look at your subheads. What’s the most logical order for them to follow? This is going to be the key to writing the engaging blog post you want to write.
So in our day job-to-freelancing post, you won’t put a paragraph about marketing your new business before one about carving out time to build a portfolio.
Arrange (and re-arrange, if necessary) the subheads you’ve written into a post that flows nicely.
And there’s the chest.
Slide each of the drawers into place by pasting the right paragraphs under the right subheads.
If you’re building IKEA furniture, this is the point where you tighten all of the screws. So for your IKEA-built blog post, you’ll edit your sentences so that the post flows. One section should set up the next, and so on.
In your home, you’d find the best place for your new piece of furniture. For your blog post, you’re looking for the right context.
And that’s your introduction. Craft your intro so that it sets up the information that follows. Give your chest of drawers/blog post a final polish.
And hey presto! You’ve used the IKEA method of assembly to brain dump and edit your way to an engaging blog post!
When I brain-dumped this post, I started out with 637 words. They weren’t necessarily in the right order, but the ideas were there.
It took just 15 minutes to get everything down that I wanted to say. And then it took another 15 minutes to turn it into a 1000 word post.
If you hate using outlines, turning your thoughts into a useful post is a lot easier by brain-dumping and editing than trying to write the perfect post from scratch.
Why not give it a go? Choose your topic/piece of furniture and get started. Let me know in the comments below how you get on!
LJ Sedgwick writes blog posts and copy for startups while drinking more coffee than is healthy. You can find her blog posts about content marketing at her website.
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This is a guest post by Cathy Tibbles of WPBarista
Recently a lot of warning bells were sounding around the internet because of some changes to the Amazon Associates program. Looking at Problogger’s experience and the success of several other bloggers using affiliate sales, this post will take you through the importance of using Amazon Associates (or deciding if it’s right for you); and how to keep your account open and funds within your grasp.
Affiliate marketing is earning income by referring products to your readers. When they purchase your recommended products, it generates a commission payment for you.
To earn affiliate income, two things must be true:
Over the last 13 years, Darren has reported $600,000 from Amazon affiliates alone! Smart Passive Income reported $94,824 in affiliate income for the month of January 2017. Google can provide a healthy list of monthly income reports if you’re interested in more; but keep in mind that those reports are from a small section of the blogging community that reports their income. My guess is a disproportionately high number of them are blogs earning over $1000/month.
If you want to create an affiliate marketing income stream, one of the best run-throughs is right here on Problogger – Podcast Episode 51.
The main reason bloggers prefer Amazon’s affiliate program is because it is so well known. Easily recognised companies have a higher perceived trust value to our readers, and we all know that more trust equals more sales.
The downside is the often lower ticket items coupled with lower commission fees. To find out if Amazon Associates is the right affiliate company for you, see Darren’s Pros & Cons list in this post.
That brings us to point number two in our research – what on earth happened to make Amazon the ‘bad guy’ overnight?
Amazon Associates, the name of their affiliate program, is chock-full of legal jargon and difficult to understand. So I took apart the interesting (read: controversial) parts of the Operating Agreement and contacted Amazon directly for clarification.
Before we get into the consequences, let’s look at what actions are worthy of these consequences, shall we?
“6. You will not engage in any promotional, marketing, or other advertising activities… in connection with… the Program, that are not expressly permitted under the Operating Agreement… For example, you will not engage in any promotional, marketing, or other advertising activities in any offline manner, including … email or attachment to email…”
*Emphasis mine. More on this below.
“We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”
>>> Immediate account closure and forfeiture of all earned funds.<<<
From the Operating Agreement:
If you violate this Agreement… then, in addition to any other rights or remedies available to us, we reserve the right to withhold… any and all fees otherwise payable to you under this Agreement, whether or not directly related to such violation.
Yes, that says you will forfeit your fees, whether or not they are directly related to the particular infraction. I’m guessing even the rebels among us are motivated to stay in line, at least until we find new affiliate companies.
Now, let me take a moment to tell you why #2 above impacts 99% of bloggers …
Do you use feeds? Are you familiar with that glorious machine-readable version of your blog that lets us download your blogs and read at our leisure. We use our own favorite feed reader like Feedly or Bloglovin.
Whether you know this or not, your feed (in WordPress) is always available and anyone can access it.
Go to yourblog.com/feed and you can see a bunch of awful looking code-stuff. That, my friends, is your feed!
Another very common use of the feed, is to attach it to a mass email provider – like Mailchimp or Convertkit – and send your posts automatically to subscribers. Do you see where I’m going with this?
If you link to Amazon Special Links within your posts and you serve your feed via email, you are violating the Operating Agreement.
Promoting your Special Links in blog posts and blog posts via email have to be pretty much the same thing, right? That’s what I thought… so I asked Amazon. Here is Cody, the service representative’s reply:
“Associate links can only be used on approved websites and are not permitted to be used in e-mails, newsletters or in any off-line manner. Sending links via email will cause your Associates Account to be shut down indefinitely.”
Um. I guess they take a different view.
So. Emails are out.
Let’s talk about maintaining delivery of your posts to subscribers’ emails, and somehow keeping Amazon happy at the same time.
The downside is that you’ll need to edit each post! Uggg.
Downside – The reader will expect to be taken to Amazon, and instead will be redirected back to the post, where they can click again to purchase.
Two steps is not ideal, but at least you don’t have to edit each post, and you’re not in violation of the program.
Do you have another solution? Let us know in the comments!
And… like anytime our income is threatened, it’s a good idea to review your income streams and diversify!
Cathy Tibbles is the founder of WordPress Barista – your geeky girlfriends partnering with bloggers to take care of the technical aspects of blogging.
The post Don’t Lose your Funds to Amazon – How to Stay Within The Operating Agreement appeared first on ProBlogger.
