no blogging to know blogging hangout with prakash

Google hangout based training

session

With Prakash

Know the Trainer

• Blogger since 2009

• Spiritual blogger since 2013

• Has worked on Email marketing/social media

marketing

Defining the blog

• Blog

• Blog address/url

• Blog post

– Microblogging/audio blogging/video blogging and

blogging that mostly refer to

• Blog author

• Blog vs websites

Blog

• Truncation for weblog

• Blog is generally written by one person

• Contents are arranged chronologically

What is blog address

• What is the address of facebook?

– www.facebook.com

• Blog address is what your user type in their

browser to access your blog

What is blog post?

• Each and every content that you post in your

blog is called blog post.

• Can be text, image or video

• Based on the type of content blogging are divided as

Microblogging/audio blogging/video

blogging/general blogging

Micro blogging

• Use of sites like twitter, tumblr

• Generally posts are very small

• In twitter each post is just 140 characters long

Audio blogging/ podcast

• Posts are in the audio format

• Modern radio?

Video Blogging

• Post are all videos

• Gained popularity along with youtube

• Our online tv?

Blogging

• Mostly referred type when the word blogging

is pronounced

• Content may be text/image/audio or video

• Content may be of any length

Blog vs websites?

Blog Website

Posts are arranged in chronological order by

date Highly customizable

Mostly run by single person May be run by many person

Every blog is a website Not every website is a blog

Blog has personal feel and grammar is not

strict Websites are mostly insttitutional

Benefits of blogging

Blogging builds your

online reputation.

It shows off your skills.

It improves your skills.

Your voice/experiences/learning

reaches to mass

You may

• Get popular

• Earn money

Who is blogging not for?

• Those who are celebrity

– He e I do ’t ea eal ele ity, ut the people who think they are celebrity and share their

everyday life (guess who might be interested? No

one!)

• Those who are emotional

– Blog is not a place to express all your sorrow and

collect sympathy

• Advertisers

– Who do ’t a t to ea o ey? But log is ot a place where you post all sorts of advertisers

expecting someone might click them and you will

be rich

• Multi talented ones

– These multi-talented ones are actually confused

logge s. They do ’t k o hat they should log about, after all they know so many things.

Eventually they share so many things that their

readers get confused.

Choosing the niche

• Though you may have varieties of skills, focus

one only one thing at a time if you want to be

good blogger

• Because?

– Bloggi g is ot fo logge …..it is fo use

– i.e. write what benefits your user not what you

feel like writing

Getting technical

• Choosing the platforms

– Blogger:

• Free platform by google

• Easy to manage/ you can focus on content

– Wordpress:

• Free platform

• Number of themes (choose appearance)

• Number of plugins (extend features/functionalities of

your blog)

Decide the blog name and address

• Seems small thing but most important one

• After choosing your niche choose name for

you log a o di gly, let’s keep that si ple and catchy

• You log’s add ess should e easy to remember and totally relate to the content of

blog. If you make a blog named himalaya and

you blog about tshirt printing, people will

have hard time relating that.

Let’s get ou ha ds di ty

• Making your first blog

• Writing your first blog post

What not to do after first blog post

• Forget to recheck grammar

• Immediately share all over the media: instead of sharing all over the media, you can share with some of your friends and gather their feedback. It is recommended that you write atleast 7-8 blog posts before you share in social media so that people who come to your blog and like an article will have some other posts to engaged to.

Become better at posts

A good blogger is a good reader

• Who here reads blogs?

– What sort? (hobbies, professional, etc)

– How do you find them?

– Ho do you k o hat’s posted o the ?

– How do you read them (how long, how much etc)

– What makes a good blog?

• Everyone: what sort of blog would you like to

read? How would you read it?

Tip 1: Write for readers

• Write for your readers

– i.e. know how your blog benefits your readers

– From previous discussion we remember that, we

read what gives us some knowledge or is usefuls

to us

Tip2: Read more for inspiration

• Wa t to ite a log ut do ’t k o hat to write?

– then you should ead othe ’s blog.

• Why?

– might provoke thoughts for you to write about

a d li k to i you o log…

Tip 3: Consistency

• Be consistent in terms of

– What you write on (niche)

– Frequency you post (schedule)

• Decide your niche at first and always write on

same thing

• Frequency is very very very important aspect.

Choose how many posts you want to write &

stick to the schedule.

Planning a post!

What to post about?

• For your intended blog, jot down at least TEN

ideas for posts:

– Titles

– a brief note of what each one might include

– Category and Tags

• Review these: are they too large? can you

break each one down into more posts or

suggest other takes on them?

Types of Post

• You could vary between:

– Instructional tips and how-to

– Explanation and information

– Advice and problem-solving

– Editorial commentary on a news story

– Account of an event e.g. conference

– Some ideas in draft for discussion

– A review of an article or book

– Top ten list

– A series of posts on a topic

Choose your blogging style

• Are you writing poem/story? Suggestion or

descriptive article?

• Do you want to be authorative?

Practising your style

• Now you have topic, type and style

• Take one of your ten ideas for a blog post

• Write 300 words in a suitable style and tone

• See what others think – is it engaging and

accessible? (try reading it aloud as if you were

chatting to someone)

Lengths of posts

• Why is decision about blog length even necessary?

– People have short attention span

– They skim the content

• Short articles: keep that to minimum 300

• Detailed of about 800 words

• Descriptive of 2000-5000 words

– Tip: insert images in between to keep readers engaged

Length of post (contd.)

• Do not worry about the length of the article as

long as it conveys the point. Of course, the

fewer words you use, the better.

• There are very few people who read very long

posts, so focus on short and sweet articles

Betterment tips

• Start the article with a short sentence, not

more than 8 words.

• Avoid long sentences. Instead break the

se te es as u h as possi le ut do ’t overdo that again.

• Edit your old articles, you will know that some

part of them are really useless.

Professional tips

• Be original

• Always use a photo or snapshot

• Describe images

• Spell Check

• Credit the sources (this shows research you have done for writing your post, which increases readers trust in you.)

• Do ’t use y e la guage: you-u....

Rising To Popularity!

What is popularity in blogging?

• More people read your blog

• It is shared more often in social media

• People remember your domain name

• You appear more often in search engines

What are all these related to?

Traffic!

Sources of traffic

• Returning visitors

• Personal referral

• Social networking sites

• Search engine

Equation of traffic

• Content + marketing = traffic

• traffic+ satisfaction=more traffic

+ Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Search engines love social sharing

• Write seo optimised articles

Social media marketing

• Well planned social media marketing

Twitter:

• Follow other people from same niche

• Contact them more often( you may not be replied but if by chance they once share you, traffic will boom)

Facebook:

• Maintain a separate page for your blog

• Similarly focus on other social medias

• Keep all social media widgets in your site

Your Presence in Blogosphere

• Co e t f e ue tly o othe ’s log

• Follow more popular blogs on your niche

• Guest blogging

– If you want to alllow guest blogging in your site

then please have some guidelines written for

the so that you do ’t ha e to go th ough a y crappy posts before selecting them

• Allow others to follow you

Email Marketing • Targeting email of your potential customers

• Start collecting email id of your readers from very beginning, if you are serious about blogging.

• You can offer some free stuffs in exchange of their email ids – Please make sure you have authority over what you

share

– You may also write book and share that

– For me I collect them via blogging trainings

• Services like aweber, mailchimp helps you in email marketing by allowing you track the responses

Benefit of all these marketings

• If you start a new venture you can easily reach

to these people

• Mo eo e you o ’t ha e tough ti e ha i g returning visitors

• Your readers who want to come back to your

blog again wont need to remember your

do ai a e…afterall there are so many of

them

Traffic is there! Now what?

• If you have done your basics right then your

blog is now ready to earn some real money

• A well targeted blog has a audience who may

be willing to buy what they suggest or write

about

• They already know potential sponsors and

now can approach them

Thank You