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 Is there anything out of date?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

Save

Save

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.

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.

One area that many businesses struggle with in online marketing is coming up with a social media strategy. Everything from creating social profiles to social content strategy can be daunting. Fortunately, your business doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Chances are, you can gain a good understanding simply by reviewing your competitor’s strategy. In this post, we’re going to look at how you can scope out your competitors and apply their best strategies to your social media campaign.

Selecting Your Competitors
Your first step in competitive social media research is selecting your competitors. You will want to find businesses similar to yours, but not limit your analysis to competitors of a specific size. For example, you may have a small local marketing agency, but you will want to include other small local agencies along with larger ones that offer similar services in your competitive analysis.

Choosing Social Networks
Next, you will need to choose which social networks to analyze. Most businesses will find that they want to start with the main social networks first: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you need to confirm whether a social network will be beneficial to your business, you can answer the following questions.

• Are your competitors on that particular network? If they are active and have a good following, then you need to be there.
• Are your target customers on that particular network? You can also create a test advertisement on that social network to see the size of an audience that fits your target customer demographic.

Having the answers to these questions can confirm your need to invest in social media marketing.

Analyzing Competitor Profiles
A great social media campaign starts with solid social profiles and pages. Here are some things you will want to analyze to see how your competitors have set up their social presence.

• What wording does your competitor use in their Twitter profile bio?
• What is their Facebook short description (the one on the front of their Facebook page)?
• What type of pictures do they use on Instagram?

Since you usually have less than 200 characters to describe your business to a first time visitor to your profile or page, you will want it to be great. See what your competitors have to say about their business, particularly noting keywords they include. And regardless of what your competitors do, be sure to squeeze your URL into both descriptions to increase the traffic potential from those networks. Especially on Twitter, as you will only see the URL in your profile in some areas of the site like search results.

Kristi Hines knows what she’s talking about – thanks for your Wisdom!

We asked “What is the best way to make sure your social media content stays on-brand, no matter which social media site you’re currently posting on?”

Here’s what Young Entrepreneur Council community members advise:

Assign 1 Person to Handle Social Media
Having one person handle all of your social media is the best way to make it consistent. It’s much harder to fit the pieces together later through copy or edits.

Use the Same Version of Your Logo on All Your Profile Pictures
We have logos for a reason — to make our brand recognizable anywhere, anytime. So even if someone scrolls right past your post, your business is still getting exposure every time you post.

Schedule Posts in Advance
Many social Media sites allow you to Schedule Posts so you can easily post on a regular basis. If you are just posting on the fly, it can result in a mix of content that drifts off into other lanes.

Keep Every Post Brand-Focused
Know what your brand stands for and include that in every post. Think about that before you post anything, including sharing content from others like users. Always include some context that ties it back to your brand. 

My Suggestion: ALWAYS use an Image
Google your topic and you’ll easily find a free one. Also do some research to see what size is best for each platform. Sara Ohara, WordPress Websites and Training

Thanks for your Wisdom Small Business Trends

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

This favorite saying of Mark Zuckerberg reveals the way the Facebook billionaire thinks about life.

Mark Zuckerberg is the ultimate success story. He’s built one of the most powerful technology platforms in the world and at 37 years old, he is worth more than $131 billion, according to Forbes.

Tuesday, speaking from New York at the Facebook Social Good Forum, the billionaire revealed one of his favorite sayings — and it shows a lot about the way the entrepreneur operates.

“One of my favorite sayings is that there are two kinds of people in the world: optimists and pessimists. And the saying goes that optimists tend to be successful and pessimists tend to be right,” says Zuckerberg, dressed, of course, in a grey T-shirt and jeans, addressing a roomful of 300 community members and nonprofits.

“And the idea is that if you think something is going to be terrible and it is going to fail, then you are going to look for the data points that prove you right and you will find them. That is what pessimists do,” says Zuckerberg, according to a live stream on Zuckerberg’s Facebook page.

“But if you think that something is possible, then you are going to try to find a way to make it work. And even when you make mistakes along the way and even when people doubt you, you are going to keep pushing until you find a way to make it happen,” he says.

Indeed, that dogged pursuit of the possible, against all odds, is what makes an entrepreneur.

And it is the pursuit of what is possible that fundamentally drives Zuckerberg, according to a conversation the Facebook founder had with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman earlier.

“I am much more motivated by making sure we have the biggest impact on the world than by building a business or making sure we don’t fail,” Zuckerberg says to Hoffman. “I have more fear in my life that we aren’t going to maximize the opportunity that we have than that we mess something up and the business goes badly.”

“OPTIMISTS TEND TO BE SUCCESSFUL AND PESSIMISTS TEND TO BE RIGHT.”

-Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook

He’s also voiced support for universal basic income, or cash handouts, professing an optimistic belief that if everyone were able to pay their bills, then more humans would be actively chasing their dreams.

“Right now, when there are all these people who don’t have the opportunity to go pursue their dreams or go build a new business, we all lose,” according to Zuckerberg on a Facebook live this summer. “If you who are watching this had more opportunity to go build something that would be a historic business or enterprise that could serve people all around the world, that would improve the economy and give services to all of us that we could all benefit from.”

Thanks for your wisdom Catherine Clifford

You’ve probably heard me caution about adding too many Plugins but this is a good one. Having Related Posts at the bottom of each Post will most likely increase your ‘views’. It’s part of the free Jetpack plugin. Many Themes come with Jetpack already installed – it’s easy to add if you don’t have it. I certainly wouldn’t use everything that comes with Jetpack though – you get to choose what you want activated – or not!

Here’s what Jetpack says about Related Posts:

The Related Posts feature scans all of your posts, analyzes them, and lets you show contextual posts your visitors might be interested in reading after they’re done with whatever post they’re on.

Most sites who activate this see an increase in traffic. Unlike many other related post plugins, we do all the analysis, processing, and serving from our cloud, so there is no additional load on your server. (That’s why many plugins like YARPP or Similar Posts are often banned by web hosts, but Jetpack Related Posts are allowed.)

To start using Related Posts, head to the Jetpack page in your blog’s dashboard and click the Activate button for Related Posts. You can also customize how the related posts section looks by going to your Jetpack → Settings → Traffic page and clicking on the “Related Posts” card.

Now notice my Related Posts below!

1. WordPress is the best SEO

WordPress Focuses on User Experience.

WordPress’s themes and plugins work together to make websites professional, user-friendly, and attractive.

The result?

Visitors enjoy the experience they get on a WordPress site.

They stay longer, decreasing your overall site bounce rate.

If you’re looking to improve your site’s SEO ranking, this is excellent news for you. Google wants to reward websites that provide a great user experience.

2. Optimizing Images for SEO Is Simple on WordPress

Images are essential to your blog posts. One or two of them, used in a timely way, breaks up your blog into interesting, readable sections.

But images don’t only lead readers into the heart of your text.

They’re also powerful tools for SEO, especially when you use WordPress.

WordPress allows you to “create alternative text” for each image you use. This means you can plug in your keywords as image descriptions that’ll be noticed by search engine crawlers.

3. WordPress Is Optimized for Mobile Users

Mobile usage has grown rapidly in the past few years

The great news is if you’re already using WordPress to power your site, you don’t need to do anything extra to make your website accessible on mobile devices.

Why? Most WordPress themes are already optimized for mobile users.

4. WordPress Helps You Integrate Your Campaign with Social Media

Social media is gigantic today, and it’s one of the best platforms for marketing your brand.

What’s more, success in your social media campaign will indirectly improve your SEO ranking.

On WordPress, you can create customized social media buttons for your blog so it’s easier for readers to share your content.

You can add a social media feed to your site.

5. WordPress Has Awesome Plugins Made Specifically for SEO

When you use WordPress, optimizing for higher ranking becomes simple. All you need is to install the right free plugins.

Thanks for your wisdom Julia McCoy

Jeff is a client whom I’ve helped with his WordPress website several times – his latest Post talks about why he’s now a big believer in Social Media and Blogging. Thanks for this Bit of Wisdom Jeff Yeomans Fine Art

“I have to share a great recent experience. I’m a reluctant blogger and FB user but my opinion changed dramatically this week. Although I live in San Diego, I’m frequently in Laguna Beach at Studio 7, where I show my paintings. Last Monday, my wife suggested I let people know the days I’m planning to be in Laguna, just in case people who know me, or my work might make the effort to stop by.”

Sure enough, yesterday afternoon a surfing buddy from high school and his wife showed up unannounced (and really put me on the spot.) After 40+ years I didn’t recognize him (embarrassed, I really tried) but we spent the next hour or so catching up on each other’s lives and “talking story”. They’re down from Paso Robles visiting their new grandchild and stopped in. All because of my FB post! It was so cool — the afternoon flew by and to reconnect was “priceless” to quote that Visa Card commercial.

What I learned — make the time to use social media a little more. It can open new doors and old ones as well.”

Save

Save