Almost everyone knows that for a blog to be successful it must have regular visitors. More importantly it needs visitor engagement. In other words visitors who stay on your blog, read posts, leave comments, and share your blog with friends via social media.

In today’s guest post, Tiffany Dow – aka Ghostwriter to the Gurus – gives us some sound advice for successful blogging.

10 Things Your Subscribers
Need to Hear From Your Mouth

Hi everyone! We spend so much time strategizing for our blogs – which domain to choose, what keywords will pull in the most traffic.

What gets lost along the way is the true purpose of our blog – to cater to the needs of our audience, right?

We blog to share our journey. We blog to inform and set records straight. But all the while, we’re wondering if the SEO is just right or how much social networking we’ll have to do to reach the pinnacle of comment numbers that we hope to achieve.

Instead of optimization and networking – I want you to consider the needs of your readers and what they want to see coming out of your mouth for a change. I had to do this recently. I’d become self centered – thinking about what I wanted to blog about.

Now that I’ve refocused on my readers, it not only has made a dramatic impact on my traffic and sales, but it just feels better. Here are 10 things your readers need to hear you say from time to time…

#1 – “This Is All About You.”

Wow this was a biggie for me recently. I was so focused on sharing my own experience that I forgot what it was YOU guys came here for. When I started really digging in to what people responded to, yeah – you liked my journey sharing – but you ate up my motivating and butt kicking posts.

This blog is here to help YOU – so we have to remember that we need to look at the needs of our audience and see what they’re going through so that we can address them in our blog posts.

This is one reason why I refuse to have a staff or help desk. I want to be the one making that connection with you. I want to know if you feel lost, confused, overwhelmed – and why – so that I can help you however you need it.

Did someone tell you not to go in the MMO niche? I want to know so I can write a blog post dispelling that myth and share my insight to help others.

Get to know your audience on all levels. What is their life like? Not just that ONE aspect that you’re blogging about – but their overall life. If you know this, it can help you tailor your posts to their needs.

Remember to blog about them. Use YOU more than I sometimes. Literally look at your post and see if it’s all about Me, Me, Me – if it is, see if you can make it about the reader’s needs.

Show that you care.

#2 – “Here’s My Experience:”

While some people focus too much on their own stories, others don’t do it – at ALL. Their blog content is so sterile you wonder if a robot is behind the scenes writing it. No one connects to that!

Make sure you incorporate your own journey in there. I was reading a post that Jenn passed along to me by Jon Morrow – about his close call with suicidal thoughts due to pain that turned out to be something he can get rid of.

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Life is short and should be filled with fun, passion, joy, freedom, and positive cash flow.

You don’t have to be a great writer to blog about something that interests you. All you need is passion and enthusiasm about the subject.

Would you like to just make a little extra money from your site so you can buy a new car or travel?

Would you like to make a LOT of money so you can be your own boss and make your own hours and be able to do and buy whatever you want?

You can accomplish either of these goals using some simple proven steps.

In today’s guest post, Joel Comm gives us six tips worth taking to heart.

How to Blog for Fun and Traffic

There have been more articles written on the subject of blogging than just about every other topic. It’s been beaten to death. So why in the world would I put a piece out there on the same topic.

Because I want to. And frankly, because there are still many people who don’t understand the key to long-term success with their blog.

Following are several observations and pointers to help you make the most of your blog.

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Time Management

I must govern the clock,
not be governed by it.
~~Golda Meir~~

Time management is without doubt one of the keys to success in your online business as an affiliate marketer.

Working at home provides many obvious distractions and interruptions that you need to deal with but online there are even more. Planning your work activity is critical otherwise you find yourself surrounded by half finished tasks, jobs put off for another day and even worse no progress with your business and little or no money coming into your bank account.

In today’s guest post, Kim Roach, the traffic queen, provides some ideas for streamlining your business activity so you get more productive use of your time.

How To Cut Your Work Day in Half!

I was thinking the other day about how most people build a business online in order to gain MORE freedom.

However, what usually happens is you end up working FAR more than you would in a traditional job.

In fact, I’ve been guilty myself of staying locked up in the Marketing Laboratory for way too long

But this year I’ve discovered some tips and tricks for creating a business that revolves around YOUR desired lifestyle.

It’s about living more, not just working less.

So with that, here are my 3 biggest tips for cutting your work day in half…

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Website Content Writing

For your affiliate websites to produce top dollars, regardless of your niche, requires a constant stream of quality content.

Whether you write this yourself, pay someone to do it for you or buy in PLR content planning is essential to maximize its value.

After all is said and done unless your visitors read your content there is not much chance your affiliate links will get clicked.No clicks equals no pay and you do want to get paid for your efforts unless you’re operating a charity.

In today’s guest post, Donna Fontenot provides a five step strategy for optimizing your website content.

Tips from Donna Fontenot on Content Planning

Creating content is sometimes a task that gets put off because no one likes staring at a blank white screen, just waiting to be filled with words. I find that constructing a specific content plan makes creating the actual content much easier. In order to understand the plan process, I recommend starting with a small subset of content that you want to develop. Once you’ve conquered this content subset, it will be very easy to expand it to cover any amount of content your site needs.

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Words Sell!

Content is King!

Google loves websites that produce fresh unique content regularly.

You’ve heard or read these and similar statements many times. The question is does your website content inspire visitors to stay and read.

More importantly does your content encourage them to click on your links and put money in your bank account. As an affiliate marketer your primary objective is to make money not run a charity. By the same token content that blasts out SELL SELL SELL isn’t going to cut it.

As an affiliate marketer it is your job to warm up the prospect and to create within them the need for the solution you are promoting so that when they click your link they arrive at the merchant’s sales page in a buying mood. The more compelling your content is the hungrier they will be for the product (solution to their problem).

In today’s guest post, Jeff Herring identifies three common mistakes and how to avoid them in your content.

Profitable Content Marketing – Are You Making These 3 Profit Sucking Mistakes With Your Content?

Content Marketing is King. This is not new news. Despite all the drama around Google algorithm changes, Article Marketing is Dead, etc., it has always been and will always be King.

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