Blog Content Presentation

Blog content presentation isn’t just about putting together a couple of paragraphs and calling it quits. The best bloggers put way more effort into their posts than that. You can really provide a good mix of content to your readers by using things like lists, quotes, multiple headlines etc.

1. 6 Popular Content Presentation Design Patterns

2. 10 great, content-friendly web designs

3. Spice Up Your Blog With 7 jQuery Goodies

4. Mastering 3 Styles of Blog Lists for More Effective Content Marketing

5. Blog Design Features That Will Earn You More Money

6. 8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content

Text Styling & Typography

Have you ever visited a blog and just had to leave because it felt painful to try and read it’s content? Yeah that happens often for me and for readers all around the world. For example… have you ever tried to read an article that has white text on top of a black background? Yeah it sucks! That’s why there are some “tricks to the trade” to making your content easier to consume.

1. 4 Tips and Tricks for more Legible Content

2. Blog Post Formatting: Make Reading For Visitors Better Experience

3. A Crash Course in Typography: Principles for Combining Typefaces

4. Ultimate Guide of Web Typography Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices

Creating Images For Your Blog Posts

Images are often critical to a blog posts success. And yes I know I sound like a hypocrite by saying this seeing that I didn’t include one in this post. But nevertheless they are important. But unfortunately the blogosphere is polluted with a wide-spread of poor image use and styling. Learn how to do it better!

1. Create Headings With Big and Small Overlapping Text

2. The Complete Guide to Using Images in Your Blog Posts

3. Web Designer’s Guide to PNG Image Format

4. JPEG 101: A Crash Course Guide on JPEG

I hope you enjoyed these resources and that they help you in your blogging efforts. If you think I am missing any in this list… leave a comment with your link and I will make sure to review it and include it if necessary.

Over the past few years I have collected every valuable/helpful article as it relates to becoming a better blogger that I have read. Below are 50 tips for becoming a better blogger from this archive I have created.

Creating Popularity, Authority & Trust

Learning how to create popularity, authority and trust is the holy grail of all blogging. It’s extremely difficult to do and requires time, sacrifice, and an immense amount of passion.

1. How to Create a Popular Blog

2. How to Go from 1 to 1,000,000 Users (or Readers)

3. Going From ZERO To Popularity – Real Examples

4. The 5 Elements of Authoritative Content

6. How to Impress Blog Visitors Before they Start to Read

7. How Your Worst Enemy Can Become the Key to Your Blogging Authority

8. Leo Babauta from Zen Habits Shares a Popular Post Case Study

9. How I Got 294 Comments With One Blog Post

10. 101 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Content Strategy For Your Blog

Blogging without a strategy is fun at first, but over time it losses it’s thrill and becomes frustrating. You have to have a destination and then you have to plan out how you are going to get there.

1. The Simple 5-Step Formula for Effective Online Content

2. Ten Questions for Planning Out a Year of Blogging

3. Creating Effective and Profitable Evergreen Blog Content

4. Content Style Suggestions, Guidelines for Great Web Copy

5. 20 Types of Pages that Every Blogger Should Consider

6. The Why and How on Repeating Content on Your Blog

7. How to Create Reader Profiles/Personas to Inspire and Inform Your Blogging

8. Ten Tips for writing a blog post

9. Components of High-Quality Blog Posts

10. Are You Giving Visitors A Reason to Revisit Your Blog?

Generating Content & Ideas

It will hit you like it hits us all. Writers block! But have no fear because there are some specific things you can do to help you out of it and even better, continue publishing while you are working your way out of it.

1. If Content Is King, How Do I Generate Enough Content For My Blog?

2. How to Create More Content for Your Blog and Kill 2 Birds With 1 Stone

3. From an Idea to a Complete Article: The Story of a Successful Post

4. Forget “Content Production”, Think “Idea Exploration”

5. 3 Types of Content that Draw Consistent and High Traffic

6. Follow a Writing Process to Publish Blog Posts in Half the Time

7. The 5 Models Of Content Curation

8. Publishing is Not Enough: Become a Blog Post Curator!

9. Frictionless blogging: Remove the barriers to publishing

10. How Batch Processing Made Me 10 Times More Productive

Copywriting Tips for Blogging

Whether you like it or not now that you are a blogger, you are also now a writer! So now it’s time to train yourself to be a better writer than you have ever been before. Here are some great tips to help you do this.

1. How to craft Groupon’s signature write-ups – 27 Copywriting Do‘s and Don‘ts

2. Five Ways to Become a Better Writer and Take Your Blog to the Top

3. How To Write Well The Ernest Hemingway Style

4. Are You Creating Meaningful Content?

5. We Can Do Better: The Overlooked Importance of Professional Journalism

6. Use Google Reading Level to Improve Your Blog Message

7. 5 Easy To Fix Grammar Mistakes Bloggers Should Avoid At All Costs

8. About to Publish A Post? STOP! Read This

9. Copywriting Essentials from A to Z

10. Four Professional Editing Techniques that Boost Post Value

Tips & Tricks Only The Best Bloggers Can Give You

You can’t beat experience. Period. Those who have been doing this blogging thing for the last decade have some seriously good insights into obtaining and maintaining success in blogging. No matter how you define success.

1. 10 Blogging Myths You Must Ignore

2. 38 Critical Books Every Blogger Needs to Read

3. 23 Good Habits of Successful Bloggers

4. 7 Essential Things All Bloggers Should Be Doing

5. 15 Irrefutable Qualities of Successful Blogs

6. 5 Tips to Help You Blog Like Steve Jobs

7. 5 Influential Books All Bloggers Should Know

8. How a 30 Minute Reject Post Brings Me Hundreds of Subscribers a Week

9. How I Grew My RSS Subscription Count by 243%

10. The Best Advice I Ever Received To Make My Blog Successful

Did I miss any resources? I’d be interested in seeing if there are any that you think I have missed. If so leave a comment below and leave your link. Otherwise please share this resource on Twitter, Facebook etc. Thanks!

Images Speak Louder than Words

If you are staring at a blank page for too long with nothing to show, chances are you’ve hit a creative roadblock. It’s a good bet that you won’t get too much writing out of the way, so take a break and watch some YouTube videos related to your blog. After watching the video, go ahead and post it as content. Rich media like YouTube videos and web animations can be great for SEO results and are more likely to be shared through social media.

A popular trend for bloggers is the use of infographics for spreading information more effectively. Most people have an easier time learning and retaining information when they see it visually. By using infographics for blog ideas, you can teach yourself more information at a faster rate.

Eliminate Unnecessary Distractions

We’ve all seen how cellphones have become a major distraction for society. They can be annoyances when rude people talk on them in public places like the gym, subways, and restaurants and they can be dangerous when driving cars. When writing, smartphones can be an excuse for not getting work finished. Instead of trying to justify having your device around with elaborate excuses to yourself, keep yours in another room and forget about it. You can always use a phone number lookup search to learn about unknown calls and rely on your voicemail to pick up the slack.

Other things to eliminate in order to write more productively are:

• Flash Games
• Instant Messaging Services
• Excessive E-mail checks

Stumbling Around Like Barney Gumble

If you are a fan of The Simpsons, you’re probably thinking I’m crazy for writing this. Barney Gumble is a character notorious for getting drunk and making a scene. He is also capable of getting into some interesting and colorful social situations. I’m not suggesting you walk down to the bar and start drinking beer to come up with better blog posts; but taking to the social media scene for ideas is productive:

• Install a StumbleUpon toolbar to view a random website and discover topics you never even considered
• Browse Facebook for interesting quotes and inspiration triggers
• Follow interesting Twitter users for links to websites and other interesting blog posts
• Use photo and video sharing sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Instagram for auxiliary content

By broadening your horizons, discovering hidden corners of the Internet, and sticking to what’s important; you will find more to blog about and have a more productive workflow.

Below is a ranking/scoring system I created for measuring Quality Content with intelligence. The basis or foundation of this scoring system relies on 3 things. 1) that this content is actually blog content rather than traditional static web content, 2) the goal for this content is to be “remarkable” and 3) the other goal is for this content to be Evergreen Content.

So… let’s get started.

1. How Was the Content Received Socially?

First I like to see how an article performed socially. Was it engaging? Did it catch people’s immediate interest? These answers and more can be answered simply by how well the article performs on a social level.

• # of Retweets = 1 point each
• # of Facebook Likes = 1 point each
• # of other social bookmarks = .5 points each (I recommend using a social bookmarking tool like addthis to help you track this)
• # of comments = 1 point each

All points here are bonus to the overall score out of 100.

2. Did the Content Achieve any Business Goals?

Next is to evaluate the content on a business level. Did it meet any business goals? In other words did it generate leads? Sales? Downloads? etc. As you can imagine these metrics hold much more weight when it comes to points. Blog articles are usually meant to support the overall site, so any direct business goals met through your articles are definitely an added bonus!

• # of purchases/leads = 10 points
• # of subscriptions (rss, email, facebook page likes etc.) or downloads = 2 points

All points here are bonus to the overall score out of 100

3. Did the Content Meet Any Technical Requirements? (at least…)

Now here is where you have to begin really evaluating with those eye balls of yours. The on-page SEO in you loves this part of the content scoring. And since technical details play such an important role in web content, this is a part you want to evaluate carefully.

• 500 words in length = y/n
• 1 image = y/n
• 1 call to action = y/n
• 2 outbound links = y/n
• 1 internal link = y/n
• clean url = y/n (no weird characters in the url)

Each “yes” is worth 5 points and each “no” is worth 0 points. Total possible points here = 30

4. How’s the Readability and Usability of the Content?

And now for the final part of your content scoring evaluation. This part is much less technical and more subjective in nature. In other words this is the part that is left more up to your opinion and expertise. But that’s okay! Because if machines could read whether or not content was quality, than machines could create quality content leaving you and your writers without a job or income.

Which is why you must be a harsh critic and evaluate the following with a high standard. This part makes up the majority of the quality content score.

• Image Relevancy – is the image relevant to the article
• Image Quality – what’s the actual quality of the image
• Title Quality – does the title adequately describe what the article is about?
• Title Creativity - is it just another title? Or does it have some punch to it?
• Title Length – does the article have a ridiculously long title?
• H Tag Usage – is the article broken up with h tags to help the search engines understand what the article is about?
• H Tag Quality – are the h tags engaging? Descriptive? Really think about this one.
• Bold Over-usage – you know an over-bolded article when you see one. It’s hard to miss.
• Link Over-usage – are there too many links on the page? More than 10 links and I start to get worried.
• Link Quality – what’s the quality of the links the article links out to. Are any of these links broken?
• Logical Flow – does the article follow an order from the beginning all the way through the end?
• Scanability – as usability expert Jakob Nielsen puts it… users like to scan web pages. Is your article scannable?
• Context of Content - what is the context or relevancy of the article to the overall messaging of the blog/site?
• Overall Formatting – are there any formatting errors? Think spacing around images, funky characters from copy & paste etc.

Each is marked either as “great” which is 5 points, “good” which is 3 points, or “poor” which can be either 0 or 1 points. Total possible points here = 70

What You Get When You’re Done

Using an Excel/OpenOffice spreadsheet simply tally up your score out of 100. The higher the score the better the content was. Don’t settle for anything less than 90 on a per article basis! Set the bar high for yourself and great results will follow.

Take all of these scores and analyze them on a month basis, running an average for all scores in an entire month. Make it a personal goal to improve that score month after month.

Far too many people to this day associate blogging with just being a “fun activity” by some homer in his basement who has no friends and nothing to do on a Saturday evening! But for many of us Blogging is serious stuff. It’s us investing into our future and for many of us… it’s our source of income.

So how do you turn your blog into more than just another blog? How do you turn your blog into a real business?

The answer from 40,000 feet is that you have to build and develop strategies around your blog. Call it a business plan if that helps you understand it better. The act of building out strategies around the content you create, the audience you attract, and the way by which you monetize the blog. All together create a business out of your blog.

The following are 9 articles that I’ve written that help you accomplish this. Enjoy.

Building Your Content Strategy

1. The Bill Belichick Game Plan for Blogging

This post is about turning your blog into an actual business. 10 specific things to develop for your blog other than just content and code. Most people that fail to monetize their blog(s) do so because they lack both the high quality content that is needed to attract readers and a strong overall plan for the blogs direction.

2. 7 Tips For Making Your Blog Posts More Visually Appealing

While the majority of your success with your blog depends on the actual text that you write, it’s the small visual elements that can help “take you over the top.” In this article I talk about 7 simple visual tips you can follow to make your blog posts look more visually appealing to your potential readers.

3. 5 Things I’ve Learned About Blogging Over the Past 4 Years

Blogging for me has been quite the journey. When I look back 4 years ago on how I approached blogging and how I went about doing it, I cannot believe how many stupid mistakes I made. I wrote this article a few months back to share with you some priceless lessons I have learned while blogging. Don’t make the same mistakes I have made!

4. 5 Reasons to Delete Outdated Blog Posts

Sometimes things just need to go in the garbage. Just like the spring cleaning you do around your house or apartment, your blog over time tends to build up more and more excess waste that it really doesn’t need. But you want to be very careful doing this which is why I have outlined the steps I take before deleting a blog post.

5. The 10% Better Content Rule

Good old motivational success speaker Zig Ziglar once said that if you focus on just making an idea 10% better, you can become a millionaire! Well this is very similar to how content on the web is. Chances are that most articles we think of writing and publishing on our blog have already been published. But that’s okay if you follow the 10% better content rule.

6. The Super-Duper Content Page: 2 Examples & Best Practices

Apple.com and Firefox.com like to use what I call “super-duper pages.” It’s this concept of a longer than normal page full of high quality content. While this style of article is controversial in the UI and UX worlds… it’s proving to be very powerful on the SEO and Social front for many bloggers. In this article I break down what these super-duper pages actually are and how you can create them in your blog.

7. The Super-Effective Content Audit for Bloggers

How to Perform a Super-Effective Content Audit For Your Blog + 7 Reasons Why You Should and 6 Things To Track. No it’s not like a Tax Audit from the IRS! Ha ha! I’m talking about an audit for your blog where you hold yourself accountable for everything you have published on the web. Then creating a strategy whereby you can go back and “curate” or improve that content. This is having a huge impact for me in SEO!

8. A Guide to Building a Content Strategy For Your Blog

One of the things I wish I would have done in the beginning is create an official content strategy for myself that I could follow and hold myself accountable to. What is your primary message? Secondary message? Tone of voice?  Who are you targeting? etc. These and many more questions that need answering. It takes a couple of hours to put together a solid content strategy. But it’s worth it my friend!

Building Your Monetization Strategy

9. Content Funnels for Blogs: A Helpful Guide

Why in the world would you need a Content Funnel for your blog? Quite simply put, because customers needs vary depending on where they are in the decision process. Chances are you are not fully capitalizing on the revenue you could be making through your blog because of this principle. DO NOT skip this article. It will help you tremendously.

Test #1 = Increasing Traffic Through Twitter Reposting

I wanted to run a test that involved testing various Tweet Content to promote certain articles that I have had struggles getting more people to see. Sometimes your content can be great but might need a little extra effort to go viral. In this test you want to experiment with the following:

• Text before the URL
• Text after the URL
• The Time and Day of the Tweet

Testing and analyzing your results with this can give you a tremendous amount of information about your Twitter following and will help you leverage Twitter more efficiently for the growth of your blog. I recommend using PostRank.com as a Social Analytics tool to help you track and collect your testing data.

My test results coming soon…

Test #2 = The Effects of Custom Meta Descriptions

It’s so difficult to write custom meta descriptions for every single blog post! Most bloggers have a hard time justifying the time it takes to create these and to be honest sometimes they just aren’t necessary in blogging. But depending on the vertical that you are blogging in, custom meta descriptions could be critical to your success. Which is why I wanted to run a test across a few articles to see how their rankings could increase in my industry.

My test results coming soon…

Test #3 = Open Affiliate Links In The Same Window

In this test you want to see whether or not opening your affiliate links in a new window affect the total number of affiliate conversions you can generate. To do this test I updated all affiliate links in my sidebar, below my content, and within each of my top 10 (in terms of traffic) articles. Generally you want to open your affiliate links in a new window so that you can better keep visitors on your blog. But in some cases this could be losing you tons of cash! Which is why this is a test worth trying on your blog

My test results coming soon…

Test #4 = .ORG, .NET & .INFO Versions Of Your Domain

This test involves you purchasing (if you haven’t already) the .ORG, .NET and .INFO versions of your domain name. This is a direct navigation test. What we want to see here is how many visits you are “leaving on the table” each month by not capitalizing off your own brand. I went to NameCheap and purchased these 3 domains for my brand ChaseSagum.com, then used the Google URL Builder and built a custom tracking code for each of the 3 domains. Then setup each domain with a 301 redirect in NameCheap with these new tracking codes. That way I will be able to specifically see how many visits these domains generate for me in Google Analytics.

My test results coming soon…

Test #5 = The Effects of Blog Commenting

With so many opinions about this so called “link building tactic” I had to test for myself to see whether or not commenting on blogs (regardless if it’s nofollow) had an effect on a keyword ranking. So to make this test happen I decided I would leave an insightful/useful/non-spammy comment on 20 different blog posts that vary across several different subjects. This test is isolated to the keyphrase ‘Organic Internet Marketing’ and I am not doing any other link-building for this key-phrase so I that I can fully isolate the effects of blog commenting.

My test results coming soon…

Q: Why in the world would you need a Content Funnel for your blog?

A: Because customers needs vary depending on where they are in the decision process.

To understand the nature and purpose of a Content Funnel let’s first explain what a Sales Funnel is… since it’s similar in principle.

Content Funnels = Nurturing Your Leads

Okay so if you have a blog that generates a decent amount of traffic, you have probably ran into a problem that many other bloggers face. The ability to turn those visitors into customers. It’s a problem that plagues bloggers of all kinds from the Corporate blog to the Citizen Journalist style blog and everywhere in between.

What’s the source of this problem? Simply put it’s that blog readers generally are researchers by nature. These are not people who are just going to make a decision blindly without doing their homework first. This is why…

a) They used Google to find your content in the first place

b) They read and trusted the information they were reading even though they knew it was from a blog

c) You can’t seem to find a way to convert them at a higher conversion rate

d) They don’t react well to any kind of “spammy” or distraction marketing tactics

These are people you have to engage with high quality remarkable content. You have to do more than just sell them. You have to educate, inform, persuade, and convince this special type of potential customer.

But guess what? There is a huge opportunity for you if you are willing to take the time to acquire these customers. The biggest reason is due to the fact that most people are not willing to spend the time it takes to attract this type of audience.

Your overall goal should be to engage each visitor to your blog and:

1. turn them into a reader
2. turn them into a follower
3. turn them into a recurring happy customer

And in that order. This is no easy task but I want to share with you what I have learned along the process of trying to create my own Content Funnel for several of my other blogs.

Content Funnel For Blogs In It’s Purest Form

In it’s purest form content funnels for blogs is simply about getting visitors from one article to another. Someone is reading your article on Justin Bieber and bam! They see a call 2 action that leads them to another great article you wrote on Justin Bieber and so forth. This type of funneling keeps your readers engaged and exposes them to not just 1 of your articles… but your “greatest hits” if you will.

If there’s one thing you learn from this article I hope it’s this. Learn to funnel your readers by providing calls 2 action for other super-relevant articles. This tactic alone will drastically increase your following and your overall traffic.

But to make someone a customer through blogging is more than just getting people to read more content which is why you should KEEP READING!

Key #1 = Get More Inquiries

The more inquiries you are able to gather from your visitors/readers the better. By definition the word Inquiry means “a seeking or request for truth, information, or knowledge” according to Dictionary.com. There are several ways to generate more of these inquiries from your blog visitors and readers. These include:

• A Free Newsletter
• A Free Ebook
• Free Downloads of any  kind
• A Feedback button for providing user feedback
• A Contact page that allows the user to contact you directly

To put things in plain terms… the more inquiries you get and can respond to0 the more customers you will get. Remember that often times you are responding to these inquiries with no guarantee that any new business will come of it. But those in your industry who are willing to spend the quality time will win this audience.

Key #2 = Get More Followers

Many people don’t feel that they need to “inquire” or contact you for any reason. Many people just want to be informed and receive good high quality remarkable content on a frequent basis. These people are potential followers of your blog and you need to grow this list by providing avenues by which these people can get new and fresh content that will for lack of a better phrase… save their life! These avenues include:

• RSS Subscription
• Email Subscription
• “Liking” your Facebook Page
• Following you on Twitter

The more followers you get the more chances you have to “engage” each and every one of them. This of course results in more customers. Believe it or not… some potential customers will actually follow a blog for months, even years before finally becoming a customer.

(example: I followed Darren Rowse’ blog ProBlogger.net for 2 1/2 years before deciding to purchase his book!)

Don’t forget that the key to all of this is that you consistently write REMARKABLE content! Without this you WILL fail.

Let me give you a few Content Funnel scenarios to give you some more concrete information to work with here. Your content funnel should be unique to your blog and your audience. Here are a few that have worked for me.

Scenario 1: Subscribe To Newsletter

Step 1 – User downloads a free ebook by subscribing to your newsletter

Step 2 – User receives more “remarkable” content via email through newsletter

Step 3 – User is presented with a call 2 action to become a “customer”

Step 4 – User receives more “remarkable” content via email through newsletter

Step 5 – User is presented with a call 2 action to “like” your Facebook page

Scenario 2: “Like” Facebook Page

Step 1 – User downloads a free ebook by “liking” your Facebook page

Step 2 – User receives more “remarkable” content via Facebook updates

Step 3 – ?User is presented with a call 2 action to become a “customer”

Step 4 – User receives more “remarkable” content via Facebook updates

Step 5 – User is presented with a call 2 action to subscribe to your newsletter

Scenario 3: Subscribe to RSS Feed

Step 1 – User downloads a free ebook by subscribing to your RSS feed

Step 2 – User receives more “remarkable” content via RSS

Step 3 – User is presented with a call 2 action to become a “customer” (ads specifically for RSS feed only)

Step 4 – User receives more “remarkable” content via RSS

Step 5 – User is presented with a call 2 action to “like” your Facebook page

You can see in all 3 of these scenarios that a specific process is taking place. First the visitor is engaged by the ability to download a free ebook that they are hoping will solve some sort of problem for them. In order to download the free ebook they have to first “opt-in” which gives them the ability to have access to more high quality content of yours. Over time they are presented with the opportunity to become a customer, receive more high quality content, then opt-in to “follow” you in other areas such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

These scenarios support/follow what Clickz calles the Content for the Purchase Funnel.

Remember patience is key when it comes to this stuff. Focus on educating your potential customers and you will continue to be rewarded year after year for the effort you put in. If I could summarize everything I have mentioned here into one block of text it would be this:

Blog Visitors Need & Want…

• To be informed
• The truth and absolute honesty
• Time to make a logical decision
• Solutions to their problem(s)
• Not to be distracted
• To not be FORCED and/or TRICKED
• Transparency
• Something that will truly HELP theme
• Clarity
• To make a decision and be decisive

Other Nurturing Activities Include:

• Responding to comments
• Responding to emails
• Get people to “share” socially
• Write content that people are actually already coming to your blog and looking for (keyword report in Google Analytics)
• Write what people have proven they are willing to share
• Onsite Targeting – using your sidebar, footer etc. you can target specific ads, links, and content that are completely relevant to what the reader is currently reading

I hope this article helps you in creating more creative and innovative ways of turning your blog visitors into readers, then into followers, then into happy recurring customers!

Have any of you had any success implementing anything I mentioned here? Any suggestions to the other people reading this?

The purpose of Social Analytics in blogging is to track the Engagement power (or lack thereof) of your blog. It’s all about combining the typical Web Analytics data such as visits, pageviews, bounce rate etc. with data from Social Media sites such as how many retweets and Facebook likes.

If you are reading this post I’m going to assume that you are already aware of the importance Social Media has on blogging. It’s critical to say the least. Without it your super-awesome blog posts are like having a Aston Martin but no gasoline to drive it. Your blog posts are not given the “fuel” necessary to get “out there” if you will. This is why Internet Marketers are always talking about how important their social media campaigns are.

So enough of the small talk. Let’s get into this topic of Social Analytics for Bloggers and let me explain to you what specific metrics you need to be looking at in order to track, analyze, and achieve your social media goals.

The Question That Needs Answering = How Are My Posts Doing “Socially?”

Here are the metrics that answer that question…

Social Media Specific Metrics

These are the metrics you want to look at and track on a post by post basis. This data can be a little tricky to come by.

1. Tracking Retweets = the total number of times a blog post has been “tweeted”

2. Tracking Facebook likes = the total number of times a blog post has been “liked” for Facebook

3. Tracking Delicious bookmarks = the total number of times a blog post has been bookmarked on Delicious

4. Tracking Total Number of Comments = the total number of comments a blog post has received

Basic Web Analytic Metrics

This data is provided to you in two places. 1) Google Analytics and 2) WordPress CMS trackbacks feature.

1. Visits = how many total unique visits a blog post has received.

2. Page Views = how many specific times that blog post has been visited (not including your own IP address)

3. Bounce Rate = the percentage of single-page visits for each specific blog post

4. Natural Backlinks = the total number of backlinks (typically from other blogs) created as a result of your blog post. If you use the WordPress CMS you will get a notification for a new “trackback” every time this happens.

Add These Up To Create an Engagement Metric

All this data added up together and you have yourself an Engagement Metric that you can assign to each specific blog post you publish. The higher the score the better your blog post was.  This new Social Analytics data now puts you in a position of great leverage. You now can answer some very critical questions for your blog that before Social Analytics… you did not have the answers to. These are:

1. Where Is The Most Engagement Happening?

Now you will be able to know which social network is giving you the most attention. You can begin to increase your focus in the right areas. Maybe for some reason Facebook just doesn’t do well for you… but Delicious does. Who cares what everybody is saying about Facebook. Go after Delicious and develop your “clout” there.

2. Which Topics Within Your Blog Are Getting The Most Engagement?

This one often surprises many bloggers. As bloggers we think we know what our audience likes… but are so often surprised to find out that the 1 topic we don’t think they care hearing from us on, they absolutely love. I was able to find out through proper Social Analytics metrics that people on Twitter love when I write about SEO. I would never been able to find out that without looking at the right social data.

3. Which Authors Have The Most Engagement Power? (for multi-author blogs)

If you are running a multi-author blog you can use this Social Analytics data to determine who is ultimately doing the best job for you. Maybe you give bonuses to the authors who are creating the most “buzz.” At the very least you find a way to get those top engagement authors to publish more articles so that the blog can grow faster.

PostRank – The 1 Tool I Have Found That Does This For You

Earlier this week I setup a free account at Postrank.com. I was shocked to find out that it collected and reported all of this data for me for this blog and 4 others that I am tracking data on. I am currently using a free account with PostRank which gives me the ability to track all of my blog posts for up to 5 different domains. It has saved me a ton of time and has provided some very solid answers to questions I desperately needed answers with on my blogs.

Here are some screenshots of what PostRank looks like inside: (this is the free version which I am using)

Now that I am able to combine my Web Analytics (Google Analytics) and now Social Analytics (PostRank) quickly and efficiently, I can react quickly to the Social results of my blogging efforts. This is helping me to improve at a quicker pace and increase my traffic and more importantly… my readership.

That my friends is the power of Social Analytics for Bloggers!  Any thoughts on Social Analytics? Anything that you would like to add to what I’ve put together here?

Many people look to that 1 big thing to help them keep their blog safe from hackers. Well I’m here to tell you that there is no 1 thing that can save you. However there is a combination of things that when working together, actually can.

I call it the Onion Method to Protecting Your WordPress Blog. 1 layer on its own is hardly anything but multiple layers all working together to form 1 big layer is powerful.

So I urge you… instead of looking through these 10 steps and just following 1 or 2 of them, follow all of them instead. You won’t regret it. Take it from someone who has had his blog (this one) hacked 3 times. These are not just 10 steps that I did some form of research on to write some nifty little blog post. This is straight up from experience. These are the 10 Steps I had to take in order to keep hackers away from my blog for good.

Note: There are a few dependencies for keeping a WordPress blog safe that this article is assuming you already have in place. These dependencies are listed at the end of this article.

Step 1: Install the Secure WordPress Plugin

Installing the Secure WordPress plugin will establish several security measures for your blog. These include:

• removes error-information on login-page
• adds index.php plugin-directory (virtual)
• removes the wp-version, except in admin-area
• removes Really Simple Discovery
• removes Windows Live Writer
• remove core update information for non-admins
• remove plugin-update information for non-admins
• remove theme-update information for non-admins (only WP 2.8 and higher)
• hide wp-version in backend-dashboard for non-admins
• remove version on urls from scripts and stylesheets only on frontend
• Block bad queries

Maybe you understand what this stuff means or maybe you don’t. But the fact is this plugin is freaking awesome and should be installed on every WordPress install.

Step 2: Delete the Admin User

Hackers know that the default username for administrative accounts on most WordPress blogs is “admin” which is the main reason why you need to make a change here. All you have to do is create a new username and assign it “administrator” privileges. Then delete the admin user and assign all posts, images etc. to your new username. This then leads me to step 3:

Step 3: Create a New Hack-Proof Password

A solid hack-proof password is a password that is a) at least 8 characters in length, b) contains at least one numerical character and c) contains at least one other character such as a ! or % symbol. Oh and of course one last thing… nobody else should know it but you! But you already knew that.

Step 4: Install the Login Lockdown Plugin

The Login Lockdown plugin will limit the number of login attempts from a given IP Address range within a certain time period. What does this mean exactly? If a hacker tries to repeatedly hack into your wp-login.php form (3 failed attempts within 5 minutes to be exact), this plugin will automatically disable the login function altogether for that IP address for the next 1 hour.

Step 5: Install the Stealth Login Plugin

In a nutshell the Stealth Login plugin will disable anyone from going to your URL + wp-admin or wp-login to directly access your login page. Stealth Login will allow you to setup your own custom login URL for example… yourdomain.com/bananapie… which will then redirect to a login page. This helps add yet another layer of protection for that login page which so many Hackers try to exploit.

Step 6: Setup Your WordPress Security Keys

Your WP-config.php file contains a section where you can input what are called WordPress Security Keys. What are these keys? Basically the WordPress Security Keys are a set of random variables that improve encryption of information stored in the user’s cookies. These keys will make it harder for hackers to crack your password.

To get your Security Keys and install them properly refer to this article from WPBeginner.com. It walks you through the entire process and actually only takes a minute or two.

Step 7: Move Your WP-Config.php File

Your Wp-config.php file is like the Title to your car! Whoever has possession of it technically can have possession of your entire blog. To further secure it you can place it 1 level above your WordPress Docroot. Here’s what I mean… currently your WP-config.php probably resides in:

/public_html/yoursite.com/wp-config.php

Instead you can actually move it up 1 level to further protect it…

/public_html/wp-config.php

This simple yet powerful change will increase the limitations a hacker has on gaining access to your WordPress Database.

Step 8: Whitelist IP Address for the WP-Admin Folder

Now it’s time to get aggressive. Like an extra set of arch towers on the Great Wall of China, blocking out all IP Addresses except your own from accessing the WP-admin folder can create an extra layer of fortification that is hard to break through.

To do this you need to create a .htaccess file and place it directly in your /wp-admin/ directory. Here is an example of the contents of that file from Google’s Matt Cutts:

AuthUserFile /dev/null
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName “Access Control”
AuthType Basic
order deny,allow
deny from all
# whitelist home IP address
allow from 64.233.169.99
# whitelist work IP address
allow from 69.147.114.210
allow from 199.239.136.200
# IP while in Kentucky; delete when back
allow from 128.163.2.27

Step 9: Install the WordPress Firewall Plugin

The WordPress Firewall plugin really has 1 task it performs, to monitor web requests and identify and stop the most obvious attacks. This plugin is pretty intelligent and does some tech-level tasks that give you some serious levels of protection. If an attack is sniffed out… WordPress Firewall will email you what’s going on and blacklist the attackers IP Address. Think of it as a Server Administrator working specifically for you. And for free too!

Step 10: Keep WordPress Updated At All Times

Keeping your blog safe starts with the keeping your WordPress Core up to date at all times. This is because it allows you to leverage the constant advancements the WordPress Community creates. These advancements include the fixing of vulnerabilities. Before you follow any of the steps mentioned above, make sure your WordPress Core is updated first. Read Matt Mullenweg’s article on Keeping WordPress Secure to learn more on why this is so important.

WordPress Blog Security Dependencies

• A reliable Web Hosting provider
• You are comfortable installing new plugins for WordPress
• You are comfortable and experienced in editing files on your server
• You have taken security measures on your actual web hosting server
• Keep consistent backups of your WordPress Blog files and database

If You’ve Already Been Hacked…

If you’ve already been hacked first of all, don’t panic! Panic can lead you to making rash decisions which can/will hurt you (or your blog for that matter). Read this article from Codex.Wordpress.org as well as follow the steps that I mentioned here. If that still is not working for you… send me an email through Facebook and I’ll see what I can do to help. Also refer to the WordPress guide to Hardening WordPress for further information.

Good luck! Read my article on WordPress Security Plugins for more information on some of the free tools available for security.

Step 1: Build a Content Strategy

A well thought out Content Strategy can have a profound effect on your blog. Think of it as being a Business Plan specifically for your blog. Learn step-by-step how to create one that will help your blog grow exponentially! In this article I guide you step-by-step to help you develop a comprehensive content strategy.

Step 2: The 10% Better Content Rule

Learn how and why you need to not worry about whether or not content is already published on the web by a competitor and more about how to make it 10% better.

Step 3: Follow the Bill Belichick Game Plan for Bloggers

Bill Belichick is meticulous at his approach to winning Football games. In this article I cover some specific tactics to help you formulate a dominating game-plan and dominate your blogging competition.

Step 4: Speeding Up Your WordPress Blog: 5 Quick Steps

Speed is a major issue not only for your visitors but now for Google in ranking you higher organically. Learn how to make your visitors experience on your blog a pleasant one by following these 5 quick and easy steps.

Step 5: 7 Visual Tips for Creating a Great Blog Post

Images and Multimedia are important to readers. Learn how to best leverage multimedia and imagery in your blog posts without drowning your content. A visually appealing blog = happy readers.

Step 6: The Super-Effective Content Audit for Bloggers

A content audit is one of top secrets of highly successful bloggers. Learn what exactly constitutes a Content Audit and how exactly to do one. This simple yet time consuming tactic (depending on how long you’ve been blogging) can be a huge game changer for your blog.

Step 7: The SEO Blackbook – 12 SEO Secrets for Bloggers

Bloggers don’t have time to do SEO all day long. We have to be quick and efficient in our SEO ways in order to get the most eyeballs as possible viewing our content. Learn 12 specific SEO secrets that help bloggers like you and I get the most out of their Google SERPS.