Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

When you build a blog, traffic is what you want. You should try to build up a strong traffic source. It could be from Google, from other blogs etc.

There is endless possibilities when you want to build traffic sources. You can build up one very strong traffic source, but that wouldn’t be safe.

Let’s face it, if you only build up one traffic source, and that one shuts down, you will be screwed. If you only optimize for search engines and Google completely changes its algorithm, then what are you going to do? You will end up with no traffic at all.

It is all like food chains. If an animal only has one food chain, it can easily die. Let’s say one animal only eats grass, and there was no grass left on earth. Then that animal would die, and if that animal only ate that animal which ate the grass, then the other animal would die.

So if one traffic stream died and you only relied on that one, your blog would “die” too. So you need to have more than just one. I know lots of people who only rely on just one type of traffic, and I have told them that they should try to build some traffic from other ways, but they wont.

I think it is ridiculous to do it in that way. You really need to do this. I can’t state the importance of that.

Another example is if you get fired from your regular job, then you will make no money. That would be bad wouldn’t it?

Which leads us to the next point.

Don’t Rely on Just one Income Stream

The same goes with your income. When you make money online you risk that one of your income streams just stops

This is even more important than the traffic streams. Because this can eventually take a long time to build up again.

So if you just quit your job, and rely on one income stream online, and that one is dying. You are screwed. You will have no money, and that suck.

So you can build up different income streams. It could be:

• Affiliate income
• Own product/service (probably the most powerful one)
• Banner advertising
• Membership income (from a membership site, could equal product)

If you build up at least two of these streams, then you are most likely to keep getting money in. Of course you have to update the stuff and come up with new products or stuff like that.

But as long as you have more than one stream then everything would be good. Or at least you will have enough time to build up a new stream, when you can see one is going down.

How to Increase Your Creativity in 7 Simple Steps

We all need to be creative once in a while. In fact some of us has to be creative every single day. It will be hard, though with some methods I have to share with you, it can become much easier.

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts.” -Rita Mae Brown

Listen to music

Whenever I am at my Mac or just my laptop I listen to music. I become creative by listening to music. It opens up my mind. Though it has to be music that I really like, or find inspiring.

It could be Babyshambles, Blue Foundation, Bloc Party, Band of Horses, Kashmir, Libertines, The Streets, The Strokes, Veto etc. The list goes on, I just feel inspired when I listen to some good music, especially if the lyrics is well written.

Read Posts or Just Read

As a blogger you should keep up with your niche. You should read other blogs in your niche, you should connect with other people in your niche. I read like 10 articles each days, I just pick from my Google Reader. Then I pick 10 articles I think sounds good and read them later on.

While reading those, I often come up with ideas to new blog posts. Which is cool. I can read and then get ideas, which means that I do two thing I should do at one time, isn’t that cool?

If you aren’t reading what’s new in your niche, or just other posts from your niche, you wouldn’t be able to keep it up, because you will not know the newest trends etc.

Experiment With Time

You will need to experiment what time of the day you like to work. Night time, in the morning, or in the afternoon. Or only on Mondays?

This all depends on your mind. If you only is in your “writing mood” on Mondays, then you should during the week find ideas to posts, which you can write on Monday. You should write every article you want to publish on Mondays then.

Then you have all the other days for marketing and stuff like that. Though there will be days where you want to read, even though it isn’t Monday, and then of course you should do that. No doubt you should.

Change Location

It can be going public, taking to a café and work there. Or just change the way your desktop is placed.

I recently did that. I moved my desktop 90 degrees and I really like it. Now I really feel “isolated.” I concentrate on my 27” screen only, which improves not only my creativity but also my productivity.

Change Your Use of Breaks

Every person needs to take breaks. You can’t work 24/7. So the breaks are necessary. You should take a break as few times as possible, so it is needed that you maximize your use breaks.

Instead of you are watching television you should just take a walk, or even better take a run. Just for 20-40 minutes. When you take a walk you will enjoy the fresh air and just in general feel more fresh.

Relax Properly

When you relax (could be in your break) instead of lying in the bed and watching television, you should lie in your bed and just think. Relax instead of watching television. It will open your mind.

You will find that you will come up with ideas this way, because you are focused. I know at least I can’t come up with any ideas when I’m watching television. Hmm maybe because I’m a boy, and not a girl, who knows?

Plan Your Writing

I have talked about this before, that if you plan your writing to just write for the entire week, you will have so much time to do other things. Like marketing and stuff like that, connect. In that way you can benefit from it. But if you aren’t that type, that’s cool.

Then I think you need a schedule, where you fill in what you need to do, and for how long. Maybe write a post for one hour, marketing for one hour. Just keep moving, and you should follow you schedule.

Play Sudoku

I love playing Sudoku. The thing with those numbers you fill in, on the empty spaces. It is so fun, and it is a great way to start the morning. I feel fresh after I have had a play of Sudoku.

It is definitely a mind opener. At least a mind opener for me, I really are creative and productive after playing a Sudoku game.

Group Discussion

What about you? What are your methods for being creative? Any tips you want to share with us?

When is Blogging Going to Die?

New social media sites is created every day and old social media sites is dying every day. It is a normal substitution. MySpace was popular, though the most of its hype is down now. It wasn’t as popular as it were a couple of years ago. Social media websites is like snake-skin. It is being replaced by better skin, as the social media sites gets replaced with better sites.

We are used to see new sites, trying to replace old sites. Like Buzz, Plurk with Twitter. They are somewhat doing the same as Twitter, though Twitter was there first (and has a better service) so they stick there.

It is as I have said totally normal that social media sites die, or just social media stuff dies. MySpace was founded in 2003 and I think it have had its big years. We’ve moved on to Facebook. Which is more I’m your friend, and not focused on music. So with Facebook it is easier to keep up with friends.

So we have moved from MySpace to Facebook. Why haven’t we moved from blogging to something much cooler? Is there such thing?

A Blog Dies

Though we see blog who dies everyday. Single blogs, can be because the author have lost his passion to blogging, because the person died, there are lots of reasons why a blog can die.

But with a blog being created every second second. Does that really matter? Okay a lots of blogs probably doesn’t last too long, though if just a couple of percent of those blogs who is being created last longer than 3 years the blogosphere will never die.

We will always have new people to come with new blogging stuff, new inspiring stuff. Of course one blog can die, though I don’t think the blogosphere will die.

Will The Blogosphere Die?

This should be the question Darren Rowse needs to ask himself, if it is he’s screwed. That’s where we makes living. We alle need to think long-term, when it comes to this.

If the blogosphere dies, it wouldn’t die quickly and people will probably still read those blogs who actually is bringing in value. There will probably just be a thing which is cooler than blogging and then people jump on to that hype.

So when if the blogosphere dies, it will die steadily. There will not be as many blogs created every minute, and more people will stop their blogs, then eventually at last point there will be no blogs left.

As the time moves on I think that the competition will get even harder in the blogosphere, because that the blogs that deliver “crappy content” will not be so passionate about their niche, so they will shut down their blogs. And when the non-scammers educate the regular people how to spot a scammer, the scammer will realize that they have to move on, find another thing.

So they will shut down their blogs, and at the last point we will have very popular blogs. This means that the competition will rise. So we will see much better content on much more popular blogs.

So what you should do, is to get started. Create a blog now. Produce quality content, market your blog, be productive. Then you will grow as the time moves on, your blog will grow. If you do this properly you will get big when/if the blogosphere dies.

There will probably go years before the blogosphere will die, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to be one of the big guys, who actually gets read, when it dies out?

Do You Know How Often Your Readers Want You to Post?

Have you ever asked yourself this question: “How often should I post?”

You probably have, maybe you came to the right conclusion, maybe you didn’t. In this post we are going to get through a couple of points which could change your way of writing blog posts and how many.

Quality over Quantity

Would you rather read 70 short and very bad articles each week, from a blog or 7 kick-ass articles each week?

Now not everybody can produce 7 kick-ass articles each week, and some articles are better than others.

In general you should find a balance where you feel you can provide value to people and still produce more than 3 articles each week. The length of the post doesn’t matter, but don’t publish an unfinished article. You need to get every single point written, before you hit publish.

You just need to think of it, how you would like yourself to have it. If you can publish 14 kick-ass articles each week, I think that you should stay with a maximum of 7-9 articles each week. Of course depending on your niche, but in most niches 7-9 kick ass articles will be just fine.

If you can produce those 14 kick-ass articles then I recommend you to write 4 guest posts each week and then schedule some of next week’s articles. If you are capable of doing that, you really are cool. I should be the first to admit, that I can’t do that.

I am not creative enough to come up with 14 different topics, maybe if I tried I could, but then I would easily get burned out, but again, if you can do that, then go for it. To publish 4 guest articles each week, really is powerful. You will be able to get something from those articles, you send to the blog owners.

So try to find a balance where you will not get burned out, or where the quality of what you write will drop. I think 6-8 posts is just fine. That is how I am writing, weekly.

It’s Up To You

That’s the truth. You decide how many times you want to post each week. The more frequent you post the better it is for building traffic and a better Google Rank, but what do readers really want?

Nobody can read 1000 words everyday if it is boring posts, if your posts are good then publish 1000 word articles each day, but you will at some point find it hard if readers skip your blog posts, because you simply post to many articles.

So finding the balance between you and your readers is probably what you need to do. You can try and explore what other people in your niche are doing. How frequent do they post to their blog?

Do you think by slowing a bit, down they would get more comments? Or do they need to post more frequent?

There is no exact “formula” you can rely on, it is completely different from every niche. Some niches just want loads of information, news etc (like the tech niche), while other niches are aiming for more story telling and so on – more experience based than news based.

So it depends on your niche, how often you should post.

How You Write a Great About Me Page

What Exactly is An About Me Page?

An about me page is a simple page, which explains who you are, what your blog is about. My about me page is one of the most frequent visited locations on my blog and 70% of all my visits is new visits. This proves that new readers want to know more about you.

An about me page is much like exchanging business cards, you want the most important things to be there.

What Should an About Me Page Include?

You know how to write an about me page, it is like every other blog post, this is just about yourself.

• Show your elevator pitch, an elevator pitch is an overview of what your blog is about. It should be quite sort, though it can be longer than a normal elevator pitch. You decide.
• Information that interest the persons reading, it should be something inspiring about you.
• Your goals, you could include your goals with this blog “help someone” or somthing like that.
• Who you are. A picture of yourself, links to social media profiles, etc. stuff that can help people know more about you.
• State your expertise. Show what you really are interested in, what you have acheived.

You could make your about me page in a “interview-style” – so you have a person who is asking you a couple of questions, that could be a great way to make an about page. Also a new way of doing an about me page and a funny way to do it.

Making Your About Me Page Fancy

I have few ways to make your about me page looks more like you are an authority and just make it look better in general.

• Make headings and sub-headings to make it scannable. Like “Who Is Mikkel?”, “What Is The Purpose With This Blog?” etc. just make it easy to read.
• Include testimonials, if you include testimonials people will know that other people recommend you. Somehow shows some kind of social proof.
• Photos with the big guys. This really doesn’t mean anything, but if you have a picture with you and one of the big guys in your niche, then put them up. That is also some kind of social proof.
• Link to blogs you like to follow and in that way they might feel obligated to link back to you, but they really aren’t. So don’t be mad if they don’t link back to you.

If you include a few of these things you should have a quite good about me page. Just review yours if you have already gotten one.

How to Become a Good Teacher

The first thing I’ll tell you, is probably the most important thing you will hear today. If you take nothing away from this blog post (and you better take a lot more away from this blog post.) I tell you that teaching isn’t about what you know, it’s about how you lead.

And of course you are all leaders here.

You are leading your students (blog readers) the path to information and independence. And that’s the path that only you knows.

There’ll be days where you aren’t in the mood of teaches your blog readers, especially in the start. You will feel like you lose the control of your blog.

When you aren’t in the mood of writing, (which you probably will be someday) then it’s okay to take a break. For one of more days, but you should just be aware of that it can affect your blog’s traffic. That’s probably the only consequence of not writing everyday.

If you write everyday then your blog’s development will be much faster than if you were

It’s all about habits. When you write blog posts, like science, instincts can be used. So listen to them. Understand what they are telling you.

Habits are so important in blogging, I have talked about that before. But really if you are going into an awesome period where you are just writing like crazy, you know? When you are in a mood like that, then don’t stop, promise me that. Just keep writing.

Ultimately, what characterizes any good teacher – every good leader, is his faith in himself. With trust comes the confidence of others. Of course it also helps to be right

How to Write a Great Opening Line

Do you want to make sure that your entire blog post gets read?

The headline is definitely the most important thing for attracting readers to your blog posts. Definitely the most important factor, when it comes to getting people to read your blog posts, or just considering reading your blog post.

While that isn’t the only thing you want to focus on, when you are getting people to read your blog post. I believe that opening lines is and will always be the second most important  thing, when it comes to this. The opening line’s purpose is to get people to read the next lines.

There are lots of ways you can write a great opening line. I will only demonstrate a few of them, the ones that I find most relevant.

Arouse the Curiosity with a Question

We could start out with a question-type of opening line. The question could be anything, there is different ways of lay out questions for your opening lines.

Photo by Apoxapox

1st Type of Question to Ask: Ask a question where everyone would answer ‘yes’.

That’s a technique lots of copywriters have used for a long time and it works. An example of a question could be: “Do you want to be an a-list blogger?”

If the reader answers “yes” to this question, then he is wants to be an a-lister (simply). This means the reader wants to read on, because you have his attention.

With this opening line, you will get the attention of all those bloggers who is wannabe be a-listers. The thing is, your opening line should have much relevance to your headline. thus, this opening line would go very well with the title “how to become an a-list blogger?” – it would be perfect, because the reader can relate to this opening line.

I think you have the general picture of how to make a “yes” question as an opening line.

2nd Type of Question to Ask: Ask a question that makes people wonder what the answer is. Make them interested in reading beyond the opening.

This is yet another technique that people in copywriting have used for quite a long time. A great example of a question would be: ‘How did I Jump From a PR1 to PR8?’

Start the Post With a Quote

A quote can be very effective, no matter where it is on the post. When the right quote it chosen it is deadly powerful in the opening lines. If you use other people’s words you could build some authority or credibility around your blog post.

It is very hard to find a matching quote for a post, especially for an opening line. It’s much easier to build a post around a quote, than to find a quote to fit around your blog post. If you want to have a quote as an opening line, I would go out and find a quote and write a blog post around that specific quote.

Statements

I have “studied” a couple of blogs, which I read daily. Blogs on how to blog and a totally irreverent view on blogging.

When I looked at their opening lines I saw the same thing, over and over again. I am definitely not saying that, that is wrong (though variation is good). I saw statements in almost every single post, and I know that most of my opening lines is statements too.

Statements is very powerful (when used correct) and really lead the reader on and make them read the entire blog post.

What I would do to make the statements much more powerful than some of them are now.

• Make it sound conversational
• Deliver it with confidence

That would be the two main things to improve your statement opening lines.

Solve a Problem, By Identifying It

You should begin to see the power and importance of identifying the reader’s need or solve a problem. It is a key for you, if you want to write a killer blog post.

Of course you should never (ever) tell them how they solve the problem in the opening line, but you should tell them, that you will solve the problem later. If they want to solve the problem, then they will most definite read on.

What Was Your Most Effective Opening Line?

I have shared my experience, I’m still on my journey. Everybody is. That means that there is methods that works better, or equal. I really would like you to make a good opening line, the best one from you so far?

The First Case Study of DaneBlogger: FM-Pundit

We’re now ready to announce the first case study here on DaneBlogger it was Thomas Levin who first asked me ,after announcing it on DaneBlogger, to make a case study of his site. So I did that, after a few days and I finally uploaded it yesterday.

Thomas Levin’s blog about Football Manager is at this url: FMPundit.com

Now you can watch the case study, I uploaded it on Vimeo, I hope the quality is good and you can use it for anything. Send me an email if you would like your site to be case studied. Let the video talk for it self for now.

What is Football Manager?

Football Manager is a virtual football(soccer) simulation game. You control one team which you should lead to success. You decide what players to buy, which to sell. The match engine is complete, tactics are important in this game, that’s also what most of the blogs are writing about in that niche.

So it is just like, a game where you are the manager, you do not play the players yourself. It is like being a real manager.

How to Increase Your Productivity in 8 Easy Steps

Productivity is one of the biggest problems for me nowadays (and for others). I am the worst time manager ever. Last night I ended up writing no blog posts, but hell lots of tweeting. That isn’t waste of time, but just a sign that I can’t manage my time, that well.

I think lots of bloggers and twitter-ers are pretty bad to manage their time – while sitting in front of their computer. We might go tweeting, instead of blogging. As I did. Or they find other distractions, if they don’t want to write a blog post.

I don’t think it is smart to force yourself writing blog posts, but if you have a brilliant idea, but you just don’t want to write it. You should start writing it. I have collected some tools I use and methods/techniques I use, to be productive.

Click here to continue reading

Learn How You Should Improve Yourself

Yesterday when I was trying to fall a sleep after I had chatted for, too long, with some bloggers then I thought. “How Can I Improve Myself Online?”

I figured out that I could improve, lots of things. The first thing I did was that I noted it on my iPod Touch, so that I was able to remember it today, when I woke up today I checked my iPod Touch and then I wrote my “schedule” for today. What I needed to do, and how, now these things is done.

I have made some changes on my email list and I really think that I have done the right things. I have removed the report completely from my email list and I will start to write some more quality content to the subscribers in the hope of new and better relationships.

So if you aren’t subscribed then you should subscribe now, I feel like this is going to be big. So subscribe, my biggest recommendation, for you today!

What Can You Do?

I think you should do the same. Brainstorm, what can you do better? When you get the result, then do it. Instead of just knowing it. You really should take action. Action is a key when you are doing anything online.

It could mean a lot to your business, to make some major changes. I have done some changes, you know here and there. I think if everybody did stuff like this every month, then they will be much more successful, because they will be able to improve a blog much better. Because they sit down and just think of some problems. “What Do I Want to Improve?”

So do a monthly “what can I do better”-thing, with yourself and your business.

You could also ask someone else “What do you think I could do better?”

If you think everything is perfect, then ask someone else. Not everybody know how they can improve. So they have to ask someone else. If they are honest with you, they will always be able to think of something you can improve.

You shouldn’t, of course, just go change what they’re saying, you should look honest at what he/she is saying, if they are right, then do the change. If not, then don’t change anything. Really be critical, here.

Sometimes it will help if you ask two or more persons and then they will tell you, because if they are telling you the same thing, then they’re probably right. I think that this is a key point, if you ask them and get their opinion, of course their honest opinion, then you will be able to change something.

Try do it and take your time, thinking of it, It is important that you are not making any hasty changes. Think them through, before taking action. – If you still can’t find any bad things about your blog, post a comment and I will happily do a case study for you.

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