Tips, Tricks, and Insider Info For Tomorrow’s Best Bloggers

Were you able to watch Leo’s Masterclass? I think everyone got a lot out of it. I certainly did! I’ve downloaded the video here and you can download the chat here.

You can find all the links on our A-List Blogger Club page.

I applaud all of you who put your blogs forward for Leo to review. In an email, one of these brave bloggers said: “I found Leo’s suggestions to be extremely helpful.  Contrary to being offended, I feel fortunate to be able to receive this kind of guidance early on.”

It was instructive to see Anastasiya’s blog in the lineup. You could see what happens when you go through our training and put what you learn into action. Now, after her second Bootcamp, Anastasiya’s blog looks totally professional. And yours will too, some months down the track.

The material of “Skyrocket Your Subscriber Count”

You can find links to the material of our first Bootcamp on the A-List Blogger Club page. My suggestion is that instead of starting to read it now, you might want to wait a couple of weeks until you’ve digested this Bootcamp.

Then you can request that we subscribe you for free to the self-study version – where the material is drip-fed to you daily with downloadable material over a period of 24 days or so.

Date for the next Masterclass: 15 March @ 5pm Eastern US.

If you want Leo to review your blog, please email mary@alistbloggingbootcamps.com

Club Training

We have some insanely useful stuff for you this month. I suggest that you follow the step-by-step training instructions and then share your experience with each other in the Club forum.

• Two Different Strategies for Growth – and Which to Choose (Video)
• Coding for Blog Starters: How to Use the HTML Editor Without Fainting (3 Videos)
• How to Promote Your Blog With the Feedburner Headline Rotator (Article)

You can find all links the training material on the A-List Blogger Club page

(If you click on A-List Blogger Club in the sidebar of our website, it will take you to all the Club material)

Nuggets on the Net

There are two free Ebooks out that are very interesting and worth joining a mailing list in return. The first one is by Pat Flynn. He was laid off a year ago and is now making a 6 figure income on the Net. His Ebook is an interesting  guide on how to publish, market and automate an Ebook You can get it here.

Another worthwhile freebie Ebook is by Skellie who publishes good, but irregular posts on Skelliewag.  Her Ebook is focused on branding and its title is: “Rockstar Personal Branding” . You can get it by signing up to the mailing list here.

Talking of Skellie, she has just published three excellent posts:

The Definitive Guide to Choosing a Topic for Your New Blog

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Also check out these two interesting posts about blogging:

Why Bloggers Need Twitter

How to Write a Viral Blog Post: 7 Real Examples

Feedback about Bootcamp

We would love to get some feedback about the Bootcamp. Please send an email to mary@alistbloggingbootcamps.com and let us know what you enjoyed, as well as what we could improve. We would like to use your raves for publicity purposes later on. If you don’t want us to publish your comment, please make a note of that when you reply to us.

Leo and I would like thank all the Moderators for their great work during the Bootcamp. In particular Lodewijk who was awake at the wheel when we were hit by the huge software glitch that erased all membership data and managed to alert us. Also Arvind who helped with a lot of work backstage.

To your success

Mary Jaksch
A-List Blogger Club Coordinator

By Leo Babauta

Download the article as 3 PDFs:

Secrets of Killer Content Part 1
Secrets of Killer Content Part 2
Secrets of Killer Content Part 3

Download:  What Kind of  Images Attract Readers – Part 1

10:59 downshifting: unfolding?

10:59 coachbarrie: Infection??!!! Oh gross. That won’t do. Should I abandon Bloom altogether? Even though it’s my business name and I’ve just paid for a beautiful logo.

10:59 studiomisto:  : )  I usually charge people for this kind of work, but today it’s free! : )

11:00 barbarazelnick: worth what you paid!

11:00 studiomisto: I like the work bloom, and depending on the rest of your branding, it could be very positive.

11:00 jeffreyftang: good afternoon, everyone!

11:00 PSteu: Hi @hsvajgl

11:00 sicworld: it does definitely have something in it. I would think very carefully before abandoning it

11:00 CraigJarrow: Hi Jeffrey!

11:01 sicworld: although i’m sure you will

11:01 sicworld: it’s a headache

11:01 hsvajgl: hi @PSteu

11:01 arvinddevalia: Good evening everyone!

11:01 PSteu: Hi  Jeffre

11:01 PSteu: Jeffreu

11:01 jeffreyftang: hey arvind

11:01 coachbarrie: I like it too and don’t want to abandon it. Must keep thinking!

11:01 jeffreyftang: hi steu

11:01 arvinddevalia: Congratulaitons Jeffrey!

11:01 phenomenalphil: helly everyone!

11:01 downshifting: big headache but keep playing with words\

11:01 MaryJaksch: Hi every one!

11:01 studiomisto: Good luck coach. Keep us posted.

11:01 PSteu: jeesh — I just got a new laptop and the keyboard is different

11:01 mello411: I like bloom. I associate it with thrive or grow. So I guess it depends on the person. If it is combined with life and coaching I think it would explain it.

11:01 arvinddevalia: Hello Mary!

11:01 jeffreyftang: good afternoon, mary

11:01 amimattison: Hey, Mary

11:02 hyhh: Hi Mary..jacqueline here thnaks for today

11:02 coachbarrie: Thanks for your help everyone! It’s a blooming conundrum!

11:02 teenytinypieces: yep

11:02 alandreth: ypu

11:02 barbarazelnick: yes

11:02 studiomisto: : )

11:02 alandreth: aka yup

11:02 blacknivory-1: all good here

11:02 hsvajgl: @sicworld – checked out your site today. You have some good content. I used to be a sponsored snowboarder, so I have interest

11:02 hyhh: Don’t tie urself up in knots barrie. youve worked hard today

11:02 sicworld: cool, thanks

11:02 downshifting: yeah sound

11:02 waterfire8: Like all words, “bloom” can have both positive and negative meanings.  Although as a flora lover, the negative simply doesn’t come close to undoing thousands of years of blooms.  Strive for balance.

11:03 MaryJaksch: Hi Leo! QUESTION: Are you recording

11:03 CherieBell: sounds good to me

11:03 sicworld: @hsvajgl whats your name? i’m dave raybould.

11:03 hsvajgl: i love barefoot running – saved my shins!

11:03 elizabethbaier: Hi, everyone.

11:03 sicworld: would be good to get your input if you know the industry

11:03 marvin_abisia: Happy Valentines Day EVeryone !!!

11:03 alandreth: 5 Fingers: go for the midfoot strike instead of the forefoot if your calves get worked too much

11:03 hsvajgl: @sicworld – Heath Svajgl

11:04 marvin_abisia: ready fire aim !!

11:04 ssonsino2: Go!

11:04 sicworld: cool.

11:04 phenomenalphil: ready!

11:04 coachbarrie: Let’s go

11:04 studiomisto: ready

11:04 downshifting: yep ready

11:04 sicworld: go for it

11:04 jeffreyftang: ready :0

11:04 CherieBell: ready to rock and roll

11:04 CraigJarrow: Ready! Let’s go!

11:04 BrianHodge: 45 minutes – good luck!

11:04 arvinddevalia: get started, go Leo!

11:04 barbarazelnick: go

11:04 sharonsk: yesworld: just wish I had proper broadband

11:04 hyhh: oui

11:04 magH: I’m in

11:05 AngArtemis: Hello – I made it.

11:05 laurensierra: Yippee – happiness is blogging bootcamp

11:05 lauracarlin: hello all

11:05 arnoldwasserman: arnoldwasserman

11:05 dougarmey: hi eyeryone

11:06 jeffreyftang: hello

11:06 unwrapyourmind: hi everyone it’s Patrick from Germany here

11:06 GirijaSub: testing again

11:06 unwrapyourmind: Hi Jeffrey

11:06 jeffreyftang: hey patrick!

11:06 DGriffis: Hello everyone

11:06 arvinddevalia: Hello Patrick!

11:07 unwrapyourmind: Hi Arvind

11:07 CherylMcL: Hello everyone!

herylMcL: QUESTION: What is a good-sized hosting package for a new blogger in terms of storage space and bandwidth?

11:17 dougarmey: I use hostgator and have not had any problems but my site is small at this point.

11:17 jeffreyftang: @craig – well, since I use WP supercache, the site should load pretty fast for non-logged-in users, but my font replacement plugin loads slowly without the caching

11:17 hsvajgl: @maryjaksch – thx.

11:17 sicworld: Wordpress is the way to go for sure

11:18 jeffreyftang: and sometimes it hangs when I try to save a post

11:18 barrypolansky: I asked a ? on Forum about posting my book on the blog — Patrick answered and implied HTML usage–I know nothing about HTML what should I do?

11:18 downshifting: @Leo QUESTION -How do you choose which hosted service? How long are contracts? What criteria do you look for? Thanks Anne

11:18 RaymondKHouston: Raymond from St. Louis (though in New Orleans at the moment)

11:18 mello411: QUESTION: do you take into consideration search engine optimization tools offered by hosting companies when choosing a host? Or are they basically the same?

11:18 barrypolansky: Question I asked a ? on Forum about posting my book on the blog — Patrick answered and implied HTML usage–I know nothing about HTML what should I do?

11:18 MaryJaksch: use capitals, like this: QUESTION

11:19 alandreth: Question: How do you balance the presentation of informative content against the potentialy negative emotional reaction that someone might have to the “bad news”.

11:19 juliemautner: QUESTION: Can I switch all my content from my blogger blog to a wordspress blog easily? I’ve been blogging 1.5 years so have lots of content.

11:19 jeffreyftang: @barrypolansky – I haven’t read your question, but I’d be happy to help you out

11:19 webajeb: can you give numbers for bandwidth & storage please

11:19 DGriffis: Question: Leo, are there any personal security issues with using my full name or where I live on a blog?

11:19 AngArtemis: Question: I’m using Site 5. Leo, have you heard of this one? If so, what do you think of it? I had someone set up my blog for me – I’m not all tech-saavy.

11:19 webajeb: sorry- Question: pls give numbers for bandwidth & storage

11:19 jeffreyftang: @julie – I believe you should be able to export your posts and comments to wordpress fairly easily

11:19 magH: QUESTION:  do you recommend starting on wordpress hosted site and then moving to host when it becomes necessary and how difficult is it to migrate to your own hosted site?

11:19 CraigJarrow: @Leo QUESTION: Some of us have blogs on other services. Any big lessons learned about migrating our content to Wordpress? (gotchas, etc.)

11:19 laurensierra: Question:  Will you speak to branding relative to separate products (say e-books) and the importance of separate, yet related branding so they each have their own identity, yet the reader recognizes

11:19 ssonsino2: Video should go to Amazon S3 – it’s very easy.Not on your main host.

11:20 unwrapyourmind: @Barrypolansky: You don’t need to know a lot of html. You can use the wordpress editor and fix your formatting there once you’ve pasted only the text from word (no formatting)

11:20 laurensierra: so the reader recognizes your overall brand?

11:20 MaryJaksch: please preface your question with: QUESTION

11:21 AngArtemis: Craig – I moved from Blogger to Wordpress and some of my content got messed up and I can’t fix it. The only way would be to delete it from the new blog and repost it.

11:22 CherylMcL: QUESTION: I will be having a good bit of audio & video. Do you recommend having them hosted on your site or to have the audio/video hosted elsewhere and then pulling them into your blog?

11:22 AngArtemis: Question: How do you change the tag line in a Wordpress blog? Thanks Leo.

11:22 CraigJarrow: @Ang – I started real simple on Posterous.  Was great for getting me started…but not sure what impact migration will have. (or how I will do it.)

11:22 marvin_abisia: QUESTION What is the generally accepted etiquette when linking another author’s blogpost within your own post? (e.g. asking permission, offering to link back, etc.)

11:23 unwrapyourmind: @çherylMcL: You should put audio, video outside your normal host. Use Amazon S3.

11:23 jeffreyftang: @Ang – go to General Settings in your wordpress dashboard

11:23 AngArtemis: Craig: I had to pay someone to do it for me! I’m not up to speed tech-wise.

11:23 fhontoy: @craig found lately an article on moving from posterous to wordpress you might want to look into that ?

11:24 jeffreyftang: @marvin – typically bloggers are happy to get links, so you usually won’t need ask permission

11:24 ssonsino2: Great to hear you can SEO, because your content is great and people find it so useful they pass it on or link to it externally. Very helpful rant, Leo, great.

11:24 PeterMis: QUESTION:  What exactly is a Link?

11:24 sicworld: Copyblogger talked about this subject a lot recently. Good for people, good for SEO

11:24 CraigJarrow: @fhontoy – Yes, was going to search for something on that.  If you have an article…would love to see it.

11:24 arvinddevalia: A rant! “How to get over a rant” Maybe an idea for a future Zen Habits post? Watch this space….

11:24 jeffreyftang: I think what Leo is talking about is blackhat SEO, where you try to spam search engines.

11:25 sicworld: @petermis – a url link somewhere. a linkback is someone else putting a url link back to your site

11:25 sicworld: It links to your domain and your site

11:25 juliemautner: QUESTION: I keep reading I need metatags and metadata in my HTML to help with SEO. Do you agree and where/how would I accomplish this? I don’t want to mess with my HTML. Thanks!

11:26 sicworld: In Wordpress you can use all in one SEO plugin for this

11:26 jeffreyftang: @juliemautner – metatags aren’t nearly as valuable for SEO as they used to be; most search engines have stopped really taking them into account

11:26 unwrapyourmind: @Juliemautner: Don’t worry about that as a blogger. I never used it.

11:26 GirijaSub: Leo is right about not bothering with SEO. I saw a program on Google; they want their searches to reflect the most popular pages. Not those optimized by SEO. Links are one way to determine popularity.

11:27 laurensierra: QUESTION:  Will you speak to how to brand products separately, yet maintain continuity so your overall brand is recognizable?

11:27 arvinddevalia: Google want RELEVANT content, not content optimised for SEO. Focus on relevant and great content and the SEO will take care of itself.

11:27 PSteu: Your metatag “description” is listed under your link in the Search Engine results so it’s good to complete that.

11:27 elizabethbaier: QUESTION: What are the top 5 plug-ins you recommend for a beginning blog?at are the top 5 plug-ins you recommend for a beginning blog?

11:28 jeffreyftang: <– works at an SEO firm; I can answer questions on the forums if you guys need. But the real way to go about SEO is to be clear in your content and how you display it.

11:28 AngArtemis: Question: How do you place a linkback to someone else’s blog?

11:28 CherylMcL: @ssonsino2: Thanks re: video to Amazon

11:28 CherieBell: QUESTION:  Do you moderate all comments before they go onto the page?

11:29 laurensierra: Jeffrey – if you write good content does that eliminate the need for keywords?

11:29 jeffreyftang: @lauren – keywords have a bad reputation because people spam them. Think of keywords as the language that people are speaking and recognize

11:29 fhontoy: @craig just looked for it  <mashable com> 2010/02/09/wordpress-posterous-importer/ (you’ll have to put the URL back together as they are not enable yet here in the chat)

11:29 sicworld: @cheriebell, you usually moderate the first comment from an email address, and then they can post freely after the first comment.

11:29 laurensierra: thanks Jeffrey!

11:29 jeffreyftang: so if your audience has a name for something that makes sense to them, you should use that name/keyword in your content

11:29 marvin_abisia: @jeffrey thanks!  does the other author automatically become notified of how linked back to them?

11:29 CherylMcL: @unwrapyourmind: thanks

11:29 juliemautner: thanks leo!

11:30 jeffreyftang: @marvin – most blogging software automatically checks for links; some older ones require you to use a special “trackback URL.” sometimes you’ll want to email a blogger and tell them that you linked

11:30 jeffreyftang: [REMOVED]

11:30 laurensierra: Got it Jeffrey – thanks again!

11:31 CraigJarrow: @fhontoy – Thanks! Found it on Mashable.

11:32 marvin_abisia: @jeffrey thanks, appreciate ur feedback!

11:32 AngArtemis: Leo, sorry I wasn’t clear =Site 5 is a host. I’m using Wordpress.

11:32 AngArtemis: Leo, sorry I wasn’t clear =Site 5 is a host. I’m using Wordpress.

11:32 jeffreyftang: np, lauren and marvin

11:33 marvin_abisia: QUESTION What are key components for content to pique a reader’s curiosity while also encouraging them to share your blog with others. (e.g. number of words per post, paragraph structure, etc.)

11:32 jeffreyftang: np, lauren and marvin

11:33 marvin_abisia: QUESTION What are key components for content to pique a reader’s curiosity while also encouraging them to share your blog with others. (e.g. number of words per post, paragraph structure, etc.)

11:33 unwrapyourmind: @Marvin: Usability of the content and easy scannable (using good header and list structure) are very important

11:35 CherylMcL: Enable links on chat, Leo? Thx

11:36 MaryJaksch: LEO: enable links please

11:37 sicworld: QUESTION: benefits of using feedburner compared to Aweber or mailchimp

11:37 MauldinS: QUESTION:  Could you speak about how to gently/tastefully mention consulting services in the area of a blog?  Thanks.

11:37 jeffreyftang: @sicworld – feedburner is different from aweber and mailchimp

11:38 jeffreyftang: aweber and mailchimp are mainly for creating email lists that you can control separately from your blog

11:38 sicworld: I know, but you can use both to capture email subscriptions

11:38 sicworld: <URL removed> is supposed to go to all the major video hosts

11:39 CherylMcL: Thanks, Leo and all. Helpful re: video/audio

11:40 MaryJaksch: as long as links are still off, write them like this goodlifezen[domt]com

11:40 barrypolansky: QUESTION Can you talk about test editors like Mars Edit?

11:40 CherieBell: @sicworld   thanks, just wondering about the wisdom of allowing negative comments – hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve had a few off the wall comments…wonder about controlling the tone….

11:41 sicworld: I would say avoid “trolls”. You can read about this on copyblogger

11:41 AngArtemis: Question: How do you LinK?

11:41 sicworld: just allow people who are constructive. Otherwise, get rid of them. I would say.

11:42 unwrapyourmind: AngArtemis: On your editor you have a link symbol you can click on and then you put the URL (the address starting with http)

11:43 ssonsino2: @sicworld Dave I spelled your name wrong in the feedback I just sent you – apologies! Raybould! not Raybold. Oops.

11:44 lgabriel: QUESTION – What is a pingback and do we need to worry about them?

11:44 sicworld: thats cool. It’s a stupid name anyway

11:44 juliemautner: ok thanks leo!

11:45 laurensierra: oops..Leo, I put my question twice!  I think maybe using the word brand was confusing.  I’ll write about it on forum later!and embed a complex ppt. display (text, images, video clips, animations). When I try it the text deformats and the animation timing goes nuts.

11:47 juliemautner: QUESTION: Are plug-ins the same as widgets? Does Blogger have plug-ins?

11:48 sicworld: QUESTION: Where do you find good images to go with your posts?

11:48 unwrapyourmind: JulieMautner. A widget is something  to place in your sidebar; plugins are small programs that allow you add new functionality

11:48 ssonsino2: @arnoldwasserman – you can convert ppt to flash or host it on a separate site, scribd I think.

11:48 magH: QUESTION:  What would you recommend to include in the side bar (i.e. subscription form, top posts, blogroll, etc.)?2010/02/09/wordpress-posterous-importer/ (you’ll have to put the URL back together as they are not enable yet here in the chat)

11:29 sicworld: @cheriebell, you usually moderate the first comment from an email address, and then they can post freely after the first comment.

11:29 laurensierra: thanks Jeffrey!

11:29 jeffreyftang: so if your audience has a name for something that makes sense to them, you should use that name/keyword in your content

11:29 marvin_abisia: @jeffrey thanks!  does the other author automatically become notified of how linked back to them?

11:29 CherylMcL: @unwrapyourmind: thanks

11:29 juliemautner: thanks leo!

11:30 jeffreyftang: @marvin – most blogging software automatically checks for links; some older ones require you to use a special “trackback URL.” sometimes you’ll want to email a blogger and tell them that you linked

11:30 jeffreyftang: [REMOVED]

11:30 laurensierra: Got it Jeffrey – thanks again!

11:31 CraigJarrow: @fhontoy – Thanks! Found it on Mashable.

11:32 marvin_abisia: @jeffrey thanks, appreciate ur feedback!

11:32 AngArtemis: Leo, sorry I wasn’t clear =Site 5 is a host. I’m using Wordpress.

11:32 jeffreyftang: np, lauren and marvin

11:33 marvin_abisia: QUESTION What are key components for content to pique a reader’s curiosity while also encouraging them to share your blog with others. (e.g. number of words per post, paragraph structure, etc.)

11:33 unwrapyourmind: @Marvin: Usability of the content and easy scannable (using good header and list structure) are very important

11:35 CherylMcL: Enable links on chat, Leo? Thx

11:36 MaryJaksch: LEO: enable links please

11:37 sicworld: QUESTION: benefits of using feedburner compared to Aweber or mailchimp

11:37 MauldinS: QUESTION:  Could you speak about how to gently/tastefully mention consulting services in the area of a blog?  Thanks.

11:37 jeffreyftang: @sicworld – feedburner is different from aweber and mailchimp

11:38 jeffreyftang: aweber and mailchimp are mainly for creating email lists that you can control separately from your blog

11:38 sicworld: I know, but you can use both to capture email subscriptions

11:38 sicworld: <URL removed> is supposed to go to all the major video hosts

11:39 CherylMcL: Thanks, Leo and all. Helpful re: video/audio

11:40 MaryJaksch: as long as links are still off, write them like this goodlifezen[domt]com

11:40 barrypolansky: QUESTION Can you talk about test editors like Mars Edit?

11:40 CherieBell: @sicworld   thanks, just wondering about the wisdom of allowing negative comments – hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve had a few off the wall comments…wonder about controlling the tone….

11:41 sicworld: I would say avoid “trolls”. You can read about this on copyblogger

11:41 AngArtemis: Question: How do you LinK?

11:41 sicworld: just allow people who are constructive. Otherwise, get rid of them. I would say.

11:42 unwrapyourmind: AngArtemis: On your editor you have a link symbol you can click on and then you put the URL (the address starting with http)

11:43 ssonsino2: @sicworld Dave I spelled your name wrong in the feedback I just sent you – apologies! Raybould! not Raybold. Oops.

11:44 lgabriel: QUESTION – What is a pingback and do we need to worry about them?

11:44 sicworld: thats cool. It’s a stupid name anyway

11:44 juliemautner: ok thanks leo!

11:45 laurensierra: [REMOVED]

11:46 arnoldwasserman: QUESTIION: What is the best way to import and embed a complex ppt. display (text, images, video clips, animations). When I try it the text deformats and the animation timing goes nuts.

11:47 juliemautner: QUESTION: Are plug-ins the same as widgets? Does Blogger have plug-ins?

11:48 sicworld: QUESTION: Where do you find good images to go with your posts?

11:48 unwrapyourmind: JulieMautner. A widget is something  to place in your sidebar; plugins are small programs that allow you add new functionality

11:48 ssonsino2: @arnoldwasserman – you can convert ppt to flash or host it on a separate site, scribd I think.

11:48 magH: QUESTION:  What would you recommend to include in the side bar (i.e. subscription form, top posts, blogroll, etc.)?

11:49 jeffreyftang: @sicworld sxc[dot]hu is a good free image source; you can also check flickr for creative commons licensed photos.

11:49 juliemautner: unwrapyourmind: thank you! i want plug ins! does blogger use plug ins? how/where do I find them? thanks!

11:49 unwrapyourmind: sicworld: Flickr and <URL removed> are 2 great sites. I only use <URL removed> now.

11:49 sicworld: thanks

11:49 jeffreyftang: if you don’t mind paying for better images, try istockphoto[dot]com

11:49 sicworld: I use creative commons but not the other

11:49 barbarazelnick: @sicworld – google the image and see what’s free

11:49 unwrapyourmind: Julie, I am not sure about blogger, never been on it. For most plugins you need your own host.

11:49 teenytinypieces: QUESTION If I recieve info on a RSS feed, where do I actually see it?  I don’t know where to go to see the things I’ve signed up for.

11:49 juliemautner: unwrap: ok thank you

11:50 jeffreyftang: @teenytinypieces – you need an RSS reader, such as Google Reader (reader[dot]google[dot]com)

11:50 unwrapyourmind: teenytinypieces: Use Google Reader.

11:51 jeffreyftang: @barbarazelnick – a word of caution: just because an image doesn’t have a price attached doesn’t mean you’re legally allowed to use it.

11:51 lgabriel: for images stockxpert dot com has a  lot of same images as istockphoto only cheaper

11:52 barbarazelnick: thanks – only using non-copyrighted free photos on blog.

11:52 CherieBell: Thanks, Leo!

11:52 GirijaSub: QUESTION: How do you get rid of spam comments?

11:52 unwrapyourmind: Use Akismet on wordpress for spam.

11:53 teenytinypieces: thanx I’ll check into googlereader

11:55 CherylMcL: @teenytinypieces: take a look at netvibes as an RSS feeder. I keep track of about 100 blogs very quickly and easily with it.

11:55 MaryJaksch: Best to start with AWeber straight away. t out your web pages on different web browsers?

11:56 unwrapyourmind: Unfortunately there is nothing like Windows Live Writer on a mac

11:57 MaryJaksch: Yes, Mailchimp does the same. But AWeber has much better capability.

11:57 jeffreyftang: @sicworld Aweber has a very very high delivery rate, which is why a lot of people use it.

11:57 mello411: Thank you so much Leo for this session. Huge thanks to Jeffery for the answers and a big congrats. I subscribed earlier today . Thanks to everyoone for intersting questons and answers.

11:57 sicworld: Right, i’ve gotta sleep. So tired. Thanks Leo and everyone.

11:57 sharonsk: will you have a session later on on how to create a blog vision/theme/strategy? how to develop post ideas that will make our blogs more valuable to readers?

11:58 MauldinS: QUESTION:  Was my question inappropriate (it was skipped) or will we talk about how to mention professional services on a later date?

11:58 CherylMcL: Windows Live Writer is like Mars Edit for WIndows. Free and makes writing and uploading your posts a breeze

11:58 wendyk888: QUESTION: do you recommend Frugal or Thesis?

11:58 PSteu: Yes, Win Live Writer is very easy to uses.

11:58 GirijaSub: @mauldin – I think Leo is skipping questions at random. Nothing personal – my guess is because we are limited in time

11:59 jeffreyftang: @MauldinS – I would suggest creating a separate page called “Hire Me” or something similar, where you describe what you can do for people

11:59 fhontoy: its slideshare

11:59 MauldinS: Thanks!

11:59 jeffreyftang: and then experiment with linking to that page on posts that are relevant

11:59 phenomenalphil: slideshare

11:59 phenomenalphil: too late

11:59 CherylMcL: Are you thinking of SlideShare?

11:59 AngArtemis: unwrapyourmind: Thanks!Can’t keep up with all the comments.oy: @ phenomenalphil

12:00 barbarazelnick: slideshare was what I would recommend too

12:00 webajeb: Question: Will you be covering content today?

12:01 lgabriel: Keynote (Mac equivalent to PowerPoint) allows you to save the slideshow as a quicktime movie.  Maybe something similar for PC?

12:03 barbarazelnick: QUESTION – how do you use feedburner?

12:03 AlistBlogging: istockphoto.com

12:03 MaryJaksch: @barbarazelnik: there’s a feedburner article up todaynik: there’s a feedburner article up today

12:04 unwrapyourmind: Okay folks, I need to go to sleep. Goodnight Leo, Mary and all of you.

12:04 PSteu: Bye Jeffrey

12:04 barbarazelnick: thank you mary!

12:05 jeffreyftang: goodnight patrick

12:05 arvinddevalia: Goodnight Patrick

12:05 lgabriel: keep going!

12:05 marvin_abisia: keep it up !s: More questions!

12:05 CherieBell: more, sir

12:05 barbarazelnick: Happy Valentine’s Day! Thanks for everything.

12:05 jnormandia: i have all night

12:05 juliemautner: keep going please. very helpful.

12:05 jeffreyftang: oh I’m still here, haha

12:06 marvin_abisia: thx Leo

12:06 juliemautner: QUESTION: Six kids and a wife. How do you find quiet time to do your blogs???

12:06 jeffreyftang: @julie – read zenhabits it has all Leo’s secrets

12:06 marvin_abisia: @Julie I bet he has the most amazing wife in the world.  That and he drinks fairtrade coffee. 

12:07 arvinddevalia: @juliemautner Leo is super-productive and a minimalist – hence he is able to write about it. Can you believe at one time he was doing around TEN guest posts a week!

12:08 juliemautner: Will read Zenhabits for sure. I find Blogging tons of fun but super time consuming…the learning curve has been big but getting better.

12:09 magH: Gnite Patrick

12:09 jeffreyftang: @julie – the trick is to experiment to find what fits into your schedule

12:10 PSteu: Goodbye Everyone!

12:10 annz829: You rock Leo!

12:10 lgabriel: thanks Leo!

12:10 marvin_abisia: @LEO Thanks again for an amazing presentation.  We appreciate your time and energy in helping all of us become A-List bloggers!  Keep up the terrific work!

12:10 laurensierra: Thank you so much!  I’m loving it

12:10 coachbarrie: Thanks Leo! Great webinar.

12:10 DGriffis: Thank you so much Mary and Leo

12:10 Canabear: thaks Leo. this is cool

12:10 marvin_abisia: @LEO Thanks again for an amazing presentation.  We appreciate your time and energy in helping all of us become A-List bloggers!  Keep up the terrific work!

12:10 CherieBell: Thanks, Leo and Mary!!

12:10 juliemautner: thanks Leo! lovin’ it.

12:10 dougarmey: thanks Leo

12:10 annz829: Thanks so much! Great information!!

12:10 MaryJaksch: Thanks Leo!

12:10 CherylMcL: Thanks, Leo and Mary!

12:10 AngArtemis: Thank you Leo!

12:10 magH: thanks Leo, HUGELY helpful. Thanks all. Can’t wait to chat more on the forums.

12:10 elizabethbaier: Thanks, Leo and Mary!

12:10 teenytinypieces: Thanks everyone

12:10 amimattison: Thanks, Leo and Mary!

12:10 theklarichter: Thanks Leo and Mary

12:10 MauldinS: Thanks!  Leo and Mary!

12:11 marvin_abisia: Thanks Mary !!!

12:11 ssonsino2: thanks leo, and everyone!

12:11 magH: thanks Mary and Jeffrey too.

12:11 jeffreyftang: mary, if you’re still there – is there a way to enable a recent posts thing on the forums?

12:11 jnormandia: seeing us when?

12:11 arvinddevalia: Oops – Leo just minimalised himself!

12:11 MaryJaksch: Bye everyone. Will post chat on site now, ok?

12:11 marvin_abisia: Thanks for everyone who helped with my questions !

12:11 blacknivory-1: Thanks Leo I can’t believe how much information I’ve written down

12:11 fhontoy: thanks mary

12:11 jeffreyftang: so we can see the latest questions?

12:11 arvinddevalia: Goodnight everyone.

12:11 fhontoy: good night

12:11 marvin_abisia: Happy Valentine’s everyone!

12:11 jeffreyftang: see you guys on the forums!

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Blogging 101 Podcast 4 – Big Picture questions from A-List Blogging Bootcamps on Vimeo.

How can blogging launch a publishing career, or help a published writer expand, or launch a coaching career? How do I establish a newsletter and paid membership site?

Join the forum discussion on this post - (17) Posts

By Leo Babauta

This is the question for bloggers.

You’ve got a blog, but you’ve barely got any readers. And every blogger wants at least a smattering of readers, and many bloggers (myself included) would be thrilled to have a pretty sizable readership.

So how do you promote your blog and get those readers?

Part of the problem is that, while you want to promote your blog and get readers, so do tens of thousands if not millions of other bloggers. Everyone is clamoring to be heard … how do you get heard above the din? How do you get noticed? How do you attract readers to your blog, when there are so many others trying to attract those same readers?

The first step is really the biggest: create powerful content, that people want to bookmark, link to from their blogs, and share on social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

We’ve covered that step, but just realize that this is by far the best way to promote your blog — without the content, the next step is wasted effort.

So let’s talk about step two: getting out there, getting visible, and reaching new readers.

Your Target Audience
The first thing you really need to think about — and give this some good thought — is who are the people you’re trying to reach. If you don’t have a clear idea in your mind who your target audience is, you could end up wasting a lot of effort on ineffective tactics.

So give this some thought: who would be interested in your content? What kind of people are they? What problems do they have? What interests do they have? What other blogs do they read? What online services and forums do they use?

If you know their interests and what else they read and where they hang out online, you know where to go to reach them.

If you do a blog about blogging, you know your potential audience is bloggers, and you want to go where bloggers go: to the big blogs about blogging, such as Problogger and Copyblogger and Daily Blog Tips, as well as social media such as Twitter and such.

If you do a blog about parenting, you need to find out where the parents go online: perhaps to the big parenting blogs, or parenting forums.

Promotion Strategies: Cream of the Crop
So now you know where to go to find your target audience … but what are the best ways to reach them? I’ve tried and tested a whole host of promotion strategies, and have found the ones that work the best for me. I recommend this group of strategies the most, but I definitely think you should try others to see if they work better for you. Remember, blogging is an experiment — you have to try things out and see what works best for you, your readers, and your goals.

Here are the best strategies in my experience:

• Guest posts. This is the No. 1 strategy for promotion, in my experience. It’s unbeatable because it’s free advertising, you can really showcase the quality of your content, and you are reaching new readers in the best way possible — by giving them the great content they’re looking for. No other method matches guest posts in these areas.

• Interviews. Interviewing more popular bloggers is a great way to promote your blog. Email your favorite bloggers within your field, and ask them for a quick 3-5 question interview. Publish their interview on your blog, link to them and maybe to some of their best posts, and you’ve just promoted them to your readers. Lots of bloggers will be appreciative and will link back to you somehow — maybe from their blog, maybe from Twitter. Some won’t link back to you, but at the least you’ve started a relationship with them that could lead to a guest post or links to some of your best posts in the future. And at the very least, you’ve provided great content to your readers from an excellent blogger.

• Commenting. This is one of the most common ways that bloggers promote themselves, mostly because it’s the easiest — you don’t need to get approval from another blogger to submit a guest post on their site — you just leave a comment. Commenting on other blogs won’t get you a lot of readers — most people reading a blog don’t click through to a commenter’s blog. However, it could get you a few readers, and that’s important when you first start. And more importantly, it will do two crucial things: 1) get you some visibility among the readers of blogs in your field, and 2) start a relationship with a bigger blogger. However, you don’t need to comment on 10 blogs a day to achieve these two things — I think a couple blogs a day, rotated among your favorite blogs, is good enough.

• Twitter. If you’re not already on Twitter, you should start now. Of all the social networks I’ve tried out, it’s by far the best for promoting your blog and making a connection with your readers as well as other bloggers. On Twitter, follow your favorite bloggers, big and small, and be sure to converse with them, retweet their best tweets, link to their best posts. Be visible, and connect with others. Share great stuff with your readers — they’ll appreciate it, as always. You don’t need to be on Twitter all day long, however — logging on a couple times a day is sufficient for most people.
• Social media. By this I mean social bookmarking services such as delicious and stumbleupon, as well as social news sites such as Digg and Reddit. Now, I should tell you this up front: it is almost impossible for a small blog to get popular on one of these social media sites, unless they get linked to by a very large blog. So trying to get your posts popular on social media when you don’t already have a decent sized readership. Still, once this begins to happen, social media is a great way to reach new readers. We’ll get into much more detailed discussion of this in the next module — exclusively on social media.

Other Promotion Strategies
The strategies above have been my bread and butter, but they’re not the only things that work. Let’s take a look at some other good strategies, along with some that aren’t the greatest.

• Ebooks. One of the reasons I released copyright on my ebooks is that I would love for people to share them with others — spreading my ebooks is a great way to promote my blog. Seth Godin takes this one step further and releases some fantastic ebooks for free, basically reaching new readers and promoting his blog, building his brand and showing what great content he creates. Other bloggers have followed suit, and releasing an amazing ebook for free is now one of the best ways to promote your blog. I highly recommend it — the only reasons not to do this is if 1) you don’t have the time to create an ebook or 2) you want to sell an ebook to make money. Either is a good reason but if you’re looking to grow you’re blog, you should find the time, and wait until your blog has a good amount of readers before trying to make money. Again, a great ebook should be full of very useful content that aims to solve a reader’s problem(s).

• Link resources. This is something I did early on and it was a great way to get incoming links — by creating a list of resources or great blogs or posts for my readers to read on a certain topic — GTD resources, simplifying resources, and so on. It’s actually a very useful tool for your readers, and it has the potential to do well with social media such as delicious.com if it’s really useful. What’s more, bloggers who you link to from this resource post often appreciate it, and will sometimes link back to you. Spread the link love, when appropriate, and you’ll eventually get some in return.

• Networking. This is actually a very effective strategy — although it’s more of a long-term one. Remember that the blogging community has always been, at its heart, a group of people having a large discussion about ideas on the web. We talk about each others’ posts, link to each other, do guest posts on other blogs, and so on. So it’s important to become a part of the community, and not be isolated. That means you should do many of the things listed in this post, such as commenting on other blogs and engaging other bloggers on Twitter and Facebook, simply to be a part of the community, to participate in the larger discussion, to form relationships. Email other bloggers, do guest posts for them, link to them, do projects with some of them. You can call all of this “networking”, but really it’s being part of a larger group, having a larger discussion, forming online friendships, participating in a community. The side benefits, of getting links to your blog and good guest posts submitted to your blog and so forth … those are just side benefits. They’re not to be ignored, but don’t do it exclusively for those benefits.
• Facebook. After Twitter, Facebook is probably the next best social network for bloggers to connect with their readers and other bloggers, and to reach new readers. It actually has many more users, but those users seem to be spread out wider, and it’s harder to build as large a following on Facebook. Not impossible, but more difficult, for a variety of reasons. As a result, it doesn’t seem to be as effective a use of a blogger’s time, but if you have the time, connecting with people via both Twitter and Facebook could be effective, especially if you use tools that allow you to publish your messages to both networks at the same time (such as TweetDeck or Seismic Desktop). Still, you’ll need to participate on discussions on both networks in order to really connect with people — they’re not publishing tools, they’re social networks. So you’ll need to spend time on each, separately, to be effective. Another good social network is Friendfeed, which combines several social networks (including Twitter and Facebook) in an interesting way.
• Forums. There are a million different forums on the Internet, and if you let them, they can suck up all your time. But if you’re just starting out and would like to reach new people who are interested in your type of content, it might be worth your time to find the largest forums in your content area, and participate. I would try to gauge the effectiveness of this strategy, based on how much time you put into it and what the benefits are, to see if it’s something that’s really worth your time. I tried it early on but it wasn’t very effective for me.
• Blog Carnivals. If you don’t know what Blog Carnivals are, we’re not going to get into a detailed description here — Google it and find out. But they can be a good way to reach new readers and connect with similar bloggers, at least early on when no one knows about you. As you grow, you might find Blog Carnivals to be more trouble than they’re worth, especially as participants usually link to all the other posts in the carnival and that might not be of the greatest interest to your readers. Remember, the most important readers aren’t necessarily the ones you’re trying to reach, but the ones you already have. Don’t piss them off with tons of links every day they aren’t interested in. Blog Carnivals don’t necessarily do that, but they can.
• SEO. I saved this for last because I am not a fan, at all, of SEO. I actually talked about this in one of the podcasts, so I’m not going to go into details here. Let me summarize: SEO can improve your search engine traffic — if you already have a decent number of links pointing to your pages. But if you don’t, SEO won’t get you much extra traffic — what gets you more traffic is creating great content to draw new readers, and doing some of the other strategies above (such as writing guest posts) to reach new readers. SEO is also an artificial way to draw new traffic, rather than one of creating great content and being useful to people. Finally, if you have a ton of extra time, feel free to do SEO stuff, but if your time is limited, forget about it and concentrate your limited time on creating amazing content.
]]> http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/2541/how-to-promote-your-blog-strategies-that-rock/feed/ 0 http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/2523/unit-8-how-to-craft-headlines-that-lure-readers-to-your-blog-2/ http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/2523/unit-8-how-to-craft-headlines-that-lure-readers-to-your-blog-2/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:07:09 +0000 admin http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/?p=2523

Materials for Unit 8:
How to craft headlines that lure readers to your blog

Article by Leo Babauta: How to Craft Headlines.
Download this article as PDFs:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Screencast video by Leo Babauta: Headlines

102 Headline Formulas by Chris Garrett of ChrisG.com. Download PDF here

Headline Tipsheet by Jonathan Fields of Jonathanfields.com. Download PDF here.

Screencast video by Leo Babauta: Headlines

102 Headline Formulas by Chris Garrett of ChrisG.com. Download PDF here

Headline Tipsheet by Jonathan Fields of Jonathanfields.com. Download PDF here.

]]> http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/2523/unit-8-how-to-craft-headlines-that-lure-readers-to-your-blog-2/feed/ 0 http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/1256/test/ http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/1256/test/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:20:12 +0000 Leo Babauta http://www.alistbloggingbootcamps.com/?p=1256

Building a successful blog isn’t easy, but neither is it impossible. If you’d like to learn the most effective strategies for building a blog, I’d love to share with you what I’ve learned through trial and error — the things that have given me the most results.

I took Zen Habits from zero to over 130,000 subscribers and you can do it too.

Maybe you think it’s impossible for you to create a successful blog? That’s what I thought when I first started Zen Habits. But after a lot of experimentation, I hit upon some incredibly effective growth strategies that enabled me to go from zero to over 100,000 subscribers in only 2 years. I can help you to apply my strategies to your blog for optimum growth.

Learn Strategies that Really Work.

There is a lot of information out there. And that can be overwhelming. The effective strategies that I’ve used to build Zen Habits are practical and easy to implement — though they will take hard work. I will help you move toward your goals, step-by-step.

Build a Career.

I was able to give up my day job after only 12 months of blogging. And now my income has grown by an unprecedented amount in the last year. Building a big blog is one of the greatest opportunities for creating income that continues for years to come. I’ll show you how to do build the blog that will create all kinds of income opportunities.

Open Doors for Yourself.

The blogging world is a cooperative field. That’s why it’s important to learn how to connect with other bloggers. This connection can help you really tap into the incredible creative and cooperative power of the blogging community.

I’ve created a private forum for my A-List Blogging Bootcamps. You will be able to connect with me and other positive and enthusiastic bloggers. The connections you make will help shape your future.

Get Answers to Your Questions.

Do you feel frustrated at times because you’re looking for answers? That’s why I’ve created a supportive mentoring community for you. I and my team will be available to answer your questions in the private forum and give you the practical advice you’re searching for.

A-List Blogging Bootcamps

My new series of virtual 10-day courses, called A-list Blogging Bootcamps, kicks off in August 2009 with “Skyrocket Your Subscriber Numbers”. This is a live virtual event for bloggers who want to reach the top. You can participate from anywhere in the world.

Daily teachings in the form of articles, videos, and audios – combined with a private forum where I and my team will be on hand to answer your questions – will help you to learn and apply my most effective strategies for growth.

When can you register?

Registrations for “Skyrocket Your Subscriber Count” are now closed. If you click on the ‘download’ button above, you’ll get to read my free report and will get access to two podcasts from my series “What Bloggers Want to Know”. You’ll also be notified when we run our next A-List Blogging Bootcamp,

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