Often when you’re trying to keep up with writing enough content, it’s hard to find the time to do anything extra.

But that definitely doesn’t mean you should give up. If you split your tasks into small chunks, you will be surprised what you can accomplish.

In this article, I’ll show you 10 two-minute tweaks that can help you improve your blog.

1. Make a Title More Compelling

Even if you’re great at coming up with attention-grabbing titles these days, you most likely have some great posts gathering dust in your archives that could use a better title.

Most readers judge your posts by the title. A few small tweaks like adding an adjective, number, or even rephrasing the title to make the benefits of reading the post clearer could give you a huge boost to your traffic.

Here’s an example:

Old Title: Using Twitter Effectively

New Title: Six Clever Twitter Tricks to Save You Time

It’s easy to see which of those is going to get more attention … yet they could easily describe the exact same post.

2. Link to Another Post

Backlinks are good for SEO Here’s a great one for this Post: 4 Reasons Why Blogging Is Important For Marketing and SEO

One great way to decrease bounce rate is to give your users ample amount of opportunities to check out other related content.

You probably have posts languishing in your archives that hardly anyone sees. Take two minutes to find an appropriate place to link them from an existing post.

You can also link to your new posts from your older articles. Perhaps you’ve gone into a topic in much more depth since you first wrote about it, so you should point your readers to your best material.

3. Update Your About Page

When did you last update your About page? If you’re like most bloggers, you’ve not touched it since you created it … and that might have been years ago.

Take a quick peek right now. Is there anything out of date? Look out for:

Biographical details, new updates, press and mentions, etc.
Information about your services and products – you may have ditched old ones or added new ones.

4. Add a Photo of Yourself

Photos can be a great way to help readers connect because it shows them the person behind the words. If you’ve got a good recent shot (it doesn’t have to be a professional one) add it to your About page.

You could even use it in your header or in your sidebar.

Alternatively, you can add images to your older posts. A photo helps to break up the page and makes it easy to read your content.

5. Remove a Widget from Your Sidebar

Most blog sidebars are hopelessly cluttered. Readers often struggle to find the options they actually want (like subscribing to your blog or following you on Twitter) in the middle of all the clutter.

Take a look at your sidebar and find one widget that you could do without – then remove it. Hint: tag clouds and little calendars aren’t usually adding much to your readers’ experience.

6. Deal With Any Comments

Even if you’re not inundated with comments, it’s easy to get behind with dealing with them. Have a two-minute check for any that need a quick reply … or for any spam that’s snuck in past your filter.

Unanswered questions don’t create a great impression for readers.

They make it look like you don’t care about your blog or that you’re an absent blogger. If you find it hard to keep up, you might want to close comments on posts older than a month.

It’s also a good idea to turn off comments on pages (such as your About page) so that these don’t get cluttered over time.

7. Put More Information on Your Contact Page

Some bloggers put a contact form on their contact page and nothing else. While that’s not a disaster, it does create barriers for readers who may want to contact you in other ways.

Depending on your business, you may not want or need to include a phone number or address on your contact page, but it’s often a good idea to add:

Your email address (not all readers trust that contact forms will work, and they may prefer to create their message to you through their email client).

8. Add “As Featured In”

If you’ve been blogging for a while and have guest posted on other blogs, or been interviewed in a blog or podcast, then make sure your new readers know … especially if those blogs or podcasts are well-known names in your field.

My header includes logos of some of the key sites where I’ve been featured.

OptinMonster also does the same on their front page.

You should use your header or your sidebar for this. That way, every visitor on your site can instantly see that you’re an authority on your topic.

9. Fix a Typo

Typos happen to every blogger … but they can create a poor impression. If your posts and pages are riddled with spelling mistakes, you’ll look less professional and potential clients will – understandably – question whether you’re much good at paying attention to small but important details.

Read carefully through your blog articles starting with the ones that get a lot of traffic. If you spot a typo, fix it.

If you’re sure your work is typo-free, look out for sentences that you can improve or images / videos that you can add.

10. Add a Call to Action

When you get to the end of a blog post, it’s easy to just stop … but that’s a huge wasted opportunity. Instead, you may want to include a “call to action” – a prompt for your reader to do something.

You might want them to:

Leave a comment.
Share your post on social media.
Comment on your post on social media.
Take action in their business or life.
Read a related post on your blog.
Check out one of your product or services that’s related to the post.
… or any other action that would benefit you (and hopefully them too).

Each of these tweaks could take you just two minutes – but it could reap you huge benefits.

Wisdom of Syed Balkhi

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WordPress: August 6 – August 27

Blogging: August 8 – August 22

SEO: August 9

Social Media: August 29

We also offer individual and small group classes in your office or home.

In recent years, blogging has become a staple when building your brand. Blogs provide a platform to connect with others through a direct line of communication. Not only is blogging a great way to expand your reach, but blogs also help keep your audience engaged in your business. In a world where humans are busier than ever before, and have the attention span of a goldfish, it’s important to stay prevalent in the forefront of their minds.

• Businesses that maintain a blog acquire more customers! This should be enough to get working on that blog!
• Your blog is communication directly from you. Clients love this personal connection. They also like having accessibility to you.
• Your blog is a forum to share all your social media outlets. The more followers you get, the more your business will grow. Tip: Be sure your social media URL’s are tagged in each post so readers are able to share the content easily
• When you plug in key words to your blog posts to make them SEO friendly, search engines then share this valuable content to those who are searching using these key words. This means more traffic for you!
• Blogging gives your company a voice. It creates a forum where you can discuss products, expertise, services, market trends and company initiatives. It’s a great place to build a stellar reputation and trust for your brand.
• Blogging opens up communication with your audience. Always try to promote two-way communication. When people take the time to comment on your page, be sure to reply. This proves there is someone on the other end who is truly listening.
• Blogging creates free PR. Once your posts start to get noticed, people come to you as the expert and often times start promoting you and your business. It’s a win-win!
• Blogging builds relationships and sales. Customers start to look at you as a reliable resource for information. This trust leads to sales and referrals, which, you guessed it, leads to more sales.
• Blogging allows you to tell the story of your brand. It’s a great place to offer insight into the company, showcase your employees and share your ideas. Emotional connections foster loyalty from customers.
• Blogging is an inexpensive way to build brand awareness, promote your products and services, and gain loyal customers.

Blogging can be very time-consuming, but is absolutely worth it, especially if you’re a small business or a service related business. Positioning yourself in the marketplace is key to growing your brand. Set a stage for your brand to be seen and the followers will come. By Holly Rust

2024 WordPress continues to be superior to other content management systems (CMSs) due to its adaptability, user-friendliness, and huge plugin library. Because it is an open-source platform, it is regularly updated and developed by a community of developers from all over the world as they work together. This is why WordPress is able to maintain its position at the forefront of web development trends and technological advancements.

Can you create a professional Website or Blog yourself?

Probably not BUT you will be able to Edit it Yourself and keep it Updated. We will train you to do this!

Yes, more can be done but this is key! If you do have time to do more SEO it’s because you NEED better SEO. We can help with that. But if you’re crazy-busy because you have so much work, this may be all you need to do. Create Basic Blogs following Jay Rosen’s advice. Be sure to share it on Social Media; always linking back to the Post on your website.

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WordPress: Sept. 5 – Sept. 26

Blogging: Oct. 5 – Oct. 19

Social Media: Nov. 14

SEO: Nov. 21

We also offer individual and small group classes in your office or home.

There are 70 million new posts each month. As a result, blogging is still a prominent part of an online marketing strategy.

A recent survey, out of all the content marketing modes out there, 90% of businesses used blogs to help market their brands within the last 12 months.

Here’s Why

1. Blogging Builds Loyalty And Trust

Providing advice and reliable information that consumers can use will establish authority on the topics you discuss.

Blogs are a great way to slowly nurture your audience and prove your expertise when it comes to your industry and product line.

2. Blogging Increases Visibility

The next part of building great content is making sure it is search engine optimized. Blogs that answer the questions consumers are asking about in your industry are helpful for SEO.

Additionally, incorporating keywords throughout your captivating and unique headings and subheadings, is a sure-fire way to help increase visibility.

Internal linking is a way to increase visibility. Link building throughout other pages, blogs, and product pages on your site can help build brand visibility, awareness, and authority.

3. Blogging Creates Brand Awareness

New and original content can make your brand more prominent amongst the rest of your competitors.

4. Blogging Drives Engagement

Blogs provide more shareable content than just your products or service posts for consumers to share with others across social media.

Thanks for your Wisdom Kristi Hines

But once again, you get nothing. There may as well be no-one reading it.

So what’s the problem? It could be that your writing isn’t as strong as it needs to be. But there’s also a very good chance the problem isn’t your writing.

It’s your formatting.

Over the years I’ve reviewed dozens of different blog posts, and most of them were fairly well written. But some were really let down by poor post formatting: the post just didn’t look good.

If you’re not convinced that formatting matters, compare this screenshot…

… to this one.

These are two versions of the same Post. They both have exactly the same text. But I know which one I’d rather read.

Your readers are busy. They’re distracted. They want an easy, engaging read – not a daunting wall of text.

So what’s stopping you from getting the formatting right? Maybe one of these sounds like you:

• You haven’t really thought about it before. You’re a writer, not a designer, and it never occurred to you to bother with formatting.
• You’ve got a vague idea that formatting matters, but you’re not really sure how to go about doing it. What if you make your post look worse rather than better?
• You haven’t figured out how to use the formatting features built into WordPress.

I’m going to take you through four key formatting features you can use straight away to make your posts more readable. And don’t worry. I’m definitely a words person and even I can manage these.

#1: Short Paragraphs

Plenty of white space helps make your post readable. White space is all the stuff around the words. If you have short paragraphs (or lists, which we’ll come to later), you’ll already have extra space where your words can breathe.

There’s no absolute rule on how long is too long for a paragraph. But if it goes over four or five lines, you may want to consider splitting it.

#2: Subheadings

I like to think of subheadings as signposts that help orient readers within my post. Almost any post can be broken up into subsections, and each one should have a clear (and hopefully enticing) subheading.

While it helps readers who are skimming for information, it’s also useful for readers who are reading your entire post. Subheadings prevent them from feeling lost or confused along the way.

I like to use ALL CAPS for my subheadings, but you might prefer to capitalize only the first word of the subheading. Just make sure you’re consistent.

Before

After

#3: Bold Text

Bold text is a great way to call attention to a key point or important sentence. But it’s easy to overuse, and I suggest bolding only one or two sentences per subsection (depending how long your subsections are).

Some bloggers use colored text instead of bold text. This can work if it fits with your branding, but it can also look a bit amateurish and distracting.

Tip: Try to avoid bolding only one or two words – it can make your text look choppy. I also tend to bold only the first sentence of a paragraph. Having a bold sentence in the middle or at the end of a paragraph can also look a bit odd.

#4: Lists, and Using Bullet Points

See my Post about lists HERE

Thanks for your Wisdom Ali Luke

If you’re looking to up your writing skills a level or two, a few good writing tips and tricks can help make it happen.

1. Edit Like Crazy

Many first drafts are clumsy, sloppy, and difficult to read. This is true for most writers — even experienced, well-known ones.

So what separates great content from the nondescript?

Editing.

The hard part isn’t over once your first draft is complete; on the contrary, it’s only beginning.

To take your big words to the next level, you need to spend just as much time editing your words as you do creating them.

It’s ruthless work. It’s kind of boring. But it’s vital.

2. Craft Irresistible Headlines

Smart Blogger’s CEO, Jon Morrow, recommends spending at least 20% of your time on the headline for your content.

That isn’t a typo.

If you spend 10 hours writing an article, 2 of those hours should be spent writing and re-writing the headline.

Why so many?

Because if your headline sucks, no one is going to give your content a chance.

In short:

It’s a writing habit that’ll pay off again and again.

3. Write with Rhythm

In digital media, short sentences and short paragraphs are your friends.

But that doesn’t mean every sentence and paragraph you write should be short.

Too many short sentences in a row and your writing will bore your readers. Too many long sentences in a row and you’ll overwhelm them.

So, mix things up.

Let the rhythm of your words dictate when each paragraph begins, and you’ll strike up the perfect balance between short paragraphs and long.

4. Challenge Yourself to Write in Weird Places

Having a designated writing space (especially when you’re working from home) is important.

However, writing in different places from time to time can spark creativity.

Give it a try.

More Tips from Kevin J Duncan