Blogging Archives - Page 3 of 19

December 4, 2018

How Slow Site Speed Can Hurt Your Business (+ an Infographic)

HOW SLOW SITE SPEED CAN HURT YOUR BUSINESS

Slow site speed can affect your customer engagement, your bounce rate, and your sales.

To elaborate on this, I have invited Nick Galov from Hosting Tribunal to share some really important information with you.

Take it away, Nick!

How can you improve customer engagement?

This is one question that troubles bloggers and online marketers the most – and perhaps understandably so.

Customer engagement is crucial to success for any blog site or e-store, but improving it is one tough task. This is mainly because there are several factors that can affect customer engagement, and it is often easy to miss the one that influences it most.

While content quality, site design, and interactive media all help improve your blog’s or online store’s appeal (and you should pay attention to them), they don’t affect customer engagement as much as site speed.
When you think of it, this is hardly surprising.

Today’s online users have little patience, and if there’s one thing they want more than anything else, it is access to information quickly. If a site is slow to load, they will quickly jump to another site that can provide them the necessary information, even if the former has better content or site design.

Statistics, too, point in this direction. Did you know that Hosting Tribunal reports some stupefying statistics?

1: The bounce rate probability jumps by 106% if your page load time increases from 1 second to 6 seconds

2: The bounce rate probability soars by a whopping 123% if page load time is 10 seconds

Slow Site Speed Affects Bounce Rates

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of your total site visitors who leave your site after viewing the first page for a few seconds before navigating away. Needless to say, if a high percentage of your visitors are choosing to not spend much time on your site, you’ll struggle to improve customer engagement.

And it is not only viewers who don’t like slow sites. Google, too, might have an aversion to snail-paced websites. While slow speed might not affect your search results page ranking directly, it can still reduce the efficacy of your SEO efforts.

The impact of slow speed is even more on online stores. Research shows 79% of online shoppers don’t want to buy from a site again if the site’s performance was below their expectations.

How else does site speed affect e-commerce?

Have a look at this interesting infographic which contains loads of information regarding how page load time impacts e-commerce. Read More

November 21, 2018

3 Essential Articles Every Website Needs to Make Money Online

To make money online, there are 3 articles you should have on your website.

Are you making the most of your writer website or your blog? Do you even have your own site?

For many writers and bloggers, setting up a website is crucial. It allows you to brand your business, display your portfolio, and gives you a place to write that is all your own.

However, unlike social media pages (which help with the above), websites incur costs. The natural thing to do is attempt to generate revenue through your website. After all, if you can break even or (preferably) turn a profit, your website truly becomes an asset rather than a liability.

However, to many, this can cause a conflict. After all, you want to offer genuine value to your audience, but you need revenue. So, how do you not only provide great content for your readers but also turn some revenue without losing credibility?

Today, I’ve invited Dave Chesson to share with you three types of posts which have been proven to generate revenue for writer websites while also providing genuine value to audiences. He will even include examples so you can put these to work on your own site.

Although I actually have multiple income streams, Dave says the three types of posts you should have on your site to make money online are:

1: Product Review Posts

2: Product Comparison Posts

3: Resource Master Lists

Take it away, Dave!

1: Product Reviews

One of the keys to successful revenue-generating blog posts is getting the right mixture of enthusiasm and likeability. One of the best ways to achieve this mix is by taking the time to review and share the products you truly use and care about.

When you review a product you genuinely use and love, your enthusiasm will be tangible. It will be clear from the level of knowledge you provide that you are a genuine fan of the product.

Product Review Posts – Best Practices

Some of the best practice tips to keep in mind when putting together a product review post include:

– Be sure to take pictures and even videos of you using the product. This not only shows that you genuinely own and use the product, but it also conveys your personality more than simply writing about it.

– Make sure that the products and services you review have an affiliate program available. Be sure to register for this in advance of putting your review together.

– Check out the other reviews that are ranking on Google for the same product you are looking at. Make sure your own review offers something extra.

– Be honest about the product. Highlight its flaws as well as its advantages. This adds credibility to your review and shows it’s a genuine analysis rather than a fluff piece.

Now that you know some of the best practice tips for putting together a review for your website, let’s consider some of the types of products you might wish to review.

– Software relevant to your audience. As a writer, this could include writing software, editing software, or anything else you think your audience might enjoy and find useful. Examples could include notebooks, pens, or anything else writers need to get by.

– Off-topic products. These might not relate directly to writing, but might be useful for writers, such as a special brand of coffee.

Basically, anything that you love, and that you think your audience might as well, is the perfect choice for a review post.

Product Review Posts – Examples & Lessons

Now that you know how to go about creating a review post, and the type of products you might review, let’s check out some examples from real websites for the final piece of the inspiration puzzle.

1: Wording Well’s Review of Meaning, Self, and the Human Potential

Wording Well posted a review of Meaning, Self, and the Human Potential. Some of the tips to take away from this review include:

– Provide context. The relationship between the reviewer and the product being reviewed is clearly discussed and talked about.

– Explain the implications of the product. Rather than just talking about what the book is, this review also explains why it matters.

– Clear suggestion of who the book is for. Rather than just saying what’s good or bad in your review, suggest the right type of person for it.

Grammarly feature comparison table

2: Kindlepreneur’s Review of Grammarly

In the above link, you can see my review of Grammarly. Some of the actionable tips you can take away from this when putting together your own review post include:

– Include video content. This will capture your readers’ attention, cause them to spend more time on your page, and boost your Google rankings as a result.

– Include graphic content. A large wall of text is unappealing and is likely to bore your audience. Mix things up with lists, bullet points, graphics, and tables.

– Give a ‘good fit’ recommendation. Rather than include an overall verdict, suggest who the product is and isn’t right for. This makes it more likely that you will convert suitable traffic.

November 1, 2018

7 Powerful Copywriting Tips You Can Apply Today to Become a Better Blogger

image for 7 Powerful Copywriting Tips You Can Apply Today to Become a Better Blogger

Do you need these copywriting tips?

Probably!

It’s only with excellent copywriting skills that you can create blog posts that stand out and go viral.

Blogging, as you may already know, is the most popular form of content marketing, a strategy that enables you to attract new readers and prospective clients, as well as retain your existing readership.

That is why Moss Clement was specifically invited to write this guest for me. (As most of you already know, you must pay to have a guest post published on Wording Well these days!)

Take it away, Moss! (And READERS, there is a SPECIAL BONUS waiting for you at the end of this post! … But no cheating… don’t skip ahead! Read Moss’s fantastic article on these copywriting tips!)

With over 21 billion web pages grabbing the attention of more than 409 million people, and over 70 million new blog posts with 52 million new comments being published per month on WordPress.com alone, it is not an easy task to create web content that others will eat up!

It is not easy to get people to consume your blog content each time you publish a new post. In fact, it can be overwhelming.

Hence, if you publishing blog posts frequently, it will help you attract new leads, as this research indicates.

The research shows that company websites that have blogs generate about 67% more leads than company websites that have no blog.

It further revealed that digital marketers who make blogging a priority in their content marketing strategy achieve 13x more positive ROI (return on investments).

Consequently, the questions that arise are…

1: How can you make your content more entertaining, move people to action, and generate more leads?

2: How can you turn a blog post into a phenomenal piece of content that people will love to read, share on social media, and maximize your ROI?

3: What copywriting tips and techniques can you apply today to create powerful blog content and become a better blogger?

These are just a few questions to consider.

As a result, I’m going to reveal 7 actionable copywriting tips you can apply right away to become a better blogger.

Copywriting Tip 1: Write in a conversational tone and be concise

To use a conversational tone in your blog content is a remarkable way to hook your readers.

It will help you refuse bounce rate because it makes your blog post more interesting to read, no matter how difficult the topic is.

But if you’re using a formal tone, be careful not to overuse it, as it will only make your blog content boring and less interesting to read, which will effectively put visitors off and increase your blogs bounce rate.

To help you write in a conversations tone, this is what you should do…

When writing your blog posts, ask questions within your content. You can ask a question at the beginning of a sentence, or at the end of it to get the reader to think and draw out what’s in his mind.

Here is a sample conversational content I came up with for you …

When writing articles for your blog, ideas come and go, and to some extent, you hit writer’s block, not knowing what to write about. (Hint: Read Writer’s Block (+ the 10 Best Ways to Overcome It).

Here are 5 actionable tips to help you come up with consistent blog topic ideas to write about.

This is the variation …

When you’re writing articles for your blog, sometimes you run out of blog topic ideas, and to some extent, you hit writer’s block, is that so?

To help you tackle this problem, I have put together 5 actionable tips that will help you come up with consistent blog topic ideas to write about.

You can clearly see the difference between the two. Now tell me, which of these is more conversational?

However, inasmuch as you have to write in a conversational tone, you want to make sure you don’t go off-topic – be concise.

For this reason, you have to keep to your content focused. Be to the point. Read More

September 14, 2018

Which WordPress Table Plugin Should You Use?

Sometimes, when you are writing a blog post, using a table to show your data can add to your article.

There are 4 main benefits of using a table!

1: It can help to organize, compare, or just simplify.

2: It’s also been proven that adding a table helps keep visitors on the page longer.

3: It also helps with conversions.

4: Plus, it improves your on-page SEO.

However, there are many different WordPress table plugins out there. Some are easy to use, but lack in design, while others offer many customizable features but can become very complex. So, what’s the best WordPress table plugin for your WordPress website?

To save you time, I’ve found five different options that vary in their customizable features, costs, and design element. The first one is free; the others require a small monetary investment on your part.

Read through the list and then you can decide which WordPress table plugin suits your needs the best.

WordPress Table Plugin Option #1: TablePress

Tablepress table plugin example of a table that shows data for cakes

TablePress is one of the most well-known table plugins for WordPress sites. It’s simple to use and offers the basics of creating a table, while also being free. However, where it serves in simplicity, it fails to offer extra capability like others.

Price

– Free

Features

– Simple, easy-to-use table plugin

– Capable of handling formulas

– Functionality can be expanded through JavaScript

TablePress Examples

Kindlepreneur and Grammarly Premiums: While reviewing Grammarly, it became evident that the pricing structure and premiums were a bit confusing when written out. Therefore, TablePress to the rescue. Using the table I was able to compare the Grammarly free vs. Grammarly premium, and thus, helping the reader quickly see the difference.

Food Delivery Guru Find these Best Smoothies Delivery: In this article, Food Delivery Guru used the TablePress plugin twice in the same article. The first was to compare the different food delivery services and then later used the TablePress plugin to show the differences in prices based on the number of cups.

Evaluation

Overall, TablePress is an absolutely solid choice for a free table plugin for your author site on WordPress. You can see from the above examples it’s equally capable of creating simple, text-based tables, or handling more colorful tables containing images.

Which WordPress Table Plugin Should You Use? #bloggers #business

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August 27, 2018

Some Resources for You (#4)

I’m ~~too lazy~~ too busy editing to put a lot of time into blogging these days.

But you are still on my mind… and that is why I have compiled this list of resources for you. 🙂

I am doing this from time to time. I’ve already published:

– Some Resources for You (#1)

– Some Resources for You (#2)

– Some Resources for You (#3)

For Bloggers

8 Traffic Generation Secrets From The World’s Top Social Media Accounts — Adam, AKA The Blogging Wizard, shares the top secrets to having a top-notch social media posting strategy!

For Freelancers

How to Negotiate With Your Freelance Clients on Pricing (With Example Emails!) — Amy, AKA The Wherever Writer, breaks the steps down for you!

For Writers of all Kinds!

How To Become A More Confident Writer — Kaleigh Moore, a fellow freelancer who has been blogging and freelancing since 2013 (like me!) shares some really good tips for writers of all kinds in this post.

For Business Owners (Solopreneurs and Entrepreneurs)

How to Promote Your E-Commerce Business on Twitter — Although the title suggests this article is only for e-commerce owners, the “how to” tactics will work for ANY business owner!

Additional Resources (for Success)

16 Quick Tips To Enhance Your Mindset, Focus, and Productivity — FYI, this one is from the Blogging Wizard’s personal blog. (Thanks, Adam! I love these tips!)