Fiverr is an awesome website where you can get all kinds of projects done for your blog for just $5. I have used this site for many things and it has been a huge time saver. Most recently, I had someone on fiverr create my video introduction. (See the first 10 seconds of this video.) (Note: if you're like me, you will want to point out that I am not capitalizing fiverr. That is because they choose to ignore all grammatical rules and don't capitalize their own name. Drives me crazy when writing about them!) I thought fiverr was kinda weird for a long time, but once I started looking into it, I became a fan. Once I found out that I could get stuff done for $5 that I normally would pay $20, $30, $50 or more for, I was sold. Of course, as with anything, there are weirdos on there, you just have to weed through them to get to the good "gigs", as they are called on fiverr. Need some guidance on how to use fiverr? You're in the right place! First, I'll cover some of the things … [Read more...]
How to Use Fiverr for Your Blog
Stop Comparing Your Blog to Others
It's bound to happen. You're going to compare your blog, your design, your numbers, anything to other blogs. It's human nature. If you never compare, good for you! You're a rare breed! Comparing your blog to other blogs is a waste. A waste of feelings. A waste of effort and most importantly, a waste of time. There is a big difference in comparing your blog to another and learning from another blog. View other blogs with a learning eye, not a comparative eye. If they do something you want to do, learn how to do something like that on your own blog (of course without directly completely copying them). If another blog has way more followers than you, find out why instead of wallowing in the fact that they have 100 times more followers than you. I know, your blog is sooooo much better than theirs and you just don't understand it. How about trying to figure out why this blogger has so many followers? Has the blog been around a lot longer than yours? That could be a … [Read more...]
How to See What Searches People Use to Find Your Blog
I'm sure you've seen it. Many bloggers will post the hilarious search terms that people have used to find their blog. You're going to need to set up Google Analytics on your blog. I have made that a separate post. For a walkthrough on setting up Analytics, see this post. Once you've got analytics set up, you'll see this screen. Look at the left sidebar: Then you'll see a screen over to the right with the top 10 keyword searches. You'll also see a place where you can click to view the full report:Here, you can scroll through and see every keyword that people have typed into Google and found your site. Fun stuff huh? Actually, some of it will probably be disturbing. What can I do with this? Well, if you notice some practical keywords that people are using to find your blog, you might want to consider writing about that subject more, or optimizing the post attached to that keyword/phrase. Whatever you do with it, just remember that people are weird, and don't take … [Read more...]
5 Simple SEO Tips for Your Blog Posts
SEO = search engine optimization aka "showing up in Google" SEO done within a blog post is called on-page SEO and is one of the most important factors of SEO. Backlinks, good consistent content and linking within your own site are other important factors. This post will show you 5 ways that you can optimize each blog post individually. 1) Use keywords in your post title. This is a big one. Of course, there will be times when this does not make sense, but you should try to do this with almost every post. Having your keywords in the posts title is one of the most important factors of on-page SEO. 2) Use the keyword/phrase 3-5 times in an average blog post. Too little isn't a good idea, and too much is definitely a bad idea. The Google robots can tell if you are "keyword stuffing", so don't do it! I recommend using the keyword/phrase 3-5 times for every 300 words in your blog post. 3) Image name and "alt" tag. It is important to name your image after your keyword and to add … [Read more...]
How to Set Up Google Analytics on Your Blog
Having Google Analytics on your blog is very important and can provide a ton of valuable information about who is visiting your website. Among other things, Google Analytics can tell you how many people visit your blog, where they came from, how long they stayed on your site, what keywords they used to get there and how many pages they viewed while there. The information can be used to focus more on specific things that are proving to be successful. For example, if you get your highest traffic from a certain link-up that you do, it's nice to know that. Obviously you would want to continue doing that link-up which is bringing you more traffic than anything. On the other hand, if you see that a certain weekly post that you do isn't getting much traffic, you might want to re-evaluate that post. Anyway, I could go on and on about how much information Google Analytics provides. But let's move on to how you set up Analytics on your blog. I'll have instructions for Blogger and … [Read more...]
