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- How to Keep Your Blog Active While Traveling
This guest post is by Norbert Figueroa of GloboTreks.
For many, keeping a blog is a full-time commitment, especially if you want to keep your readers active and engaged with what you have to say. This often means spending long hours day after day creating content, commenting, promoting, and networking with other bloggers.
Then the time comes when you need a small break to step back and relax. A vacation sounds nice, right? But, will taking that time off have a negative effect on your blog? Will you lose your readers or will your traffic die during your trip? Will it set you a few steps back on all the work you've achieved so far?
Copyright Ilja Mašík - Fotolia.com
The answer is, not necessarily; and the key is preparation. Since you won't want to spend your entire trip keeping up with the blog, or since there's a chance you might travel somewhere with unreliable internet connection or no internet at all, you have to know how to prepare beforehand in order to keep your blog as active as possible.
1. Write and schedule your posts in advance
Before leaving on your trip, write and schedule all the posts you would like to have published while you're away. Also, try to write an extra post or two so that you can have a cushion after your trip, in case you return too tired to write a new post right away.
2. Bring guest bloggers
If you're open to having guest posts, this is a great way to feature new content that will spark activity in you blog. Ask guest bloggers to submit their content beforehand so you can schedule it before leaving. Ask each of them to respond to comments in their post, and even in Facebook (if you promote there). Just be sure that they are approved to comment, or else their comments will not go live until you moderate them.
3. Schedule or syndicate your social networks
Use tools like Hootsuite or su.pr to schedule tweets and Facebook status of your scheduled content. Personalize your tweets or Facebook posts with a sentence or question that sparks interaction that goes beyond just clicking and reading the promoted content. Alternatively, you can syndicate your RSS content with RSS graffiti and Hootsuite so that it is promoted immediately after publishing. The only down side of this method is the lack of personalization.
4. Promote others through your social networks
Your blog can be active even if you don't produce new content. Use tools like Hootsuite to schedule tweets and Facebook status of valuable content you've read on other sites. This is to keep your profiles interactive because once you go dormant people will forget you easily. In addition, it is always good to promote others; not only because it helps them, but it can also help you attract new readers to your blog.
5. Don't be afraid to look back (promote old posts)
Schedule to promote some of your best "old" content through Twitter and Facebook. There's a high chance many of your readers haven't read it yet, especially if you've grown your following consistently.
6. Keep an eye on your comments and status every once in a while
It helps if you travel with a smartphone, iPhone, iPad or computer, but almost everywhere you will be able to find an internet café where you could spend an hour every day or so to moderate comments, input your comments, and schedule a few tweets or posts if needed.
7. Know your peak times
Promote your content and post your new articles during your peak times to get better results from your efforts. Use Timely (previously featured here on ProBlogger) to learn your best times to publish your tweets. Likewise, use Clicky to know your blog's peak traffic hours and su.pr to know your best times to promote your content through Stumbleupon. If you're going to spend time online while traveling, try to do it at the time you have the maximum impact.
8. Optimize your blogging time on the road
If you decide to blog during your trip, do it in a way that doesn't take much time of your vacation. Write your post during your down time, like when traveling on a bus, plane, or just sitting around. Choose all your pictures, resize them, and write your excerpt, tags, and description before time. The point is to have everything ready to just copy and paste at the time of scheduling, thus reducing your online time to the bare minimum. This is essential if your destination has bad internet service.
9. Last but not least, enjoy your vacation!
Enjoy your time off and relax! That's why you're traveling, right?! It will give you a fresh energy that will be reflected in your blog, one way or another.
As you can see, it is extremely important to keep the traffic coming, even while you're traveling, since you don't want to make it easy for your readers to lose the attention and forget you. But keeping your readers engaged and in the loop by staying active and visible through your blog and various social media sites will help keep their attention and promote interaction.
Do you have other ways to keep your blog active while traveling? Or ways to save time while blogging on the road?
Norbert Figueroa is an architect who shares his process of achieving a location independent and adventurous lifestyle through his travel blog, GloboTreks. Follow him through his facebook fan page or subscribe to the RSS feed to inspire your wanderlust.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
How to Keep Your Blog Active While Traveling
Переслать - Top 20 iPhone Apps for Bloggers
This guest post is by Daniel Scocco of Next iPhone News.
The Internet changes pretty fast, and if you want to have a popular blog, you must keep up with it. What if you get an awesome idea for a new post while at dinner? What if an important news breaks while you are at a birthday party? The bottom line is: you should be able to work on your blog all day long, even if you are not sitting in front of your computer.
How do you do that? With an iPhone! The 20 apps below will help you blog on the go, find ideas and images for your posts, track your analytics, promote your posts on social media and so on. Enjoy!
1. WordPress
If you are reading this blog I am guessing you use WordPress, right? The WordPress app for iPhone gives you everything you need to make a quick post, edit previous posts, edit pages, reply to comments and the like. In other words, it lets you manage your blog even while you’re commuting on a train or taking a break from driving on a highway. Just recently, the app was updated to version 8, bringing one essential feature suited for mobile bloggers: the ability to post photos that you’ve taken using your iPhone’s camera. Perfect!
2. Evernote
Literature on being a successful blogger will always tell you to be organized with your thoughts and to keep notes for your ideas. With Evernote, which is a very popular getting-things-done application, you can do that quite efficiently with your iPhone. You’ll find it’s an awesome tool for organizing your digital life.
3. TypePad
Okay, so your blog is not on WordPress? Then it must be using TypePad. This app lets you do things that you can normally do on your blog using your computer—write new posts, post photos to your blog, and alert your friends when you’ve published a new post, You know what’s great? The TypePad app integrates with the desktop client, too.
4. PayPal
PayPal is a must-have for bloggers and online entrepreneurs. When you want to check your balance, withdraw your hard-earned money, or pay-off a contracting service, you can do so now through the PayPal iPhone app. I’ve used this app many times before, and it’s secure, fast, and reliable.
5. Instapaper
Instapaper is an useful app to keep track of interesting posts and pages you found online. I mean, being a blogger, I’m sure you do a lot of web surfing using your iPhone. Since you’re on the move, though, you won’t have time to finish reading all those articles, so using this app becomes quite handy.
6. Twitter
Find me a blogger who doesn’t have a Twitter account and I will quickly say that the person is not a true-blue blogger. If PayPal is the official financial service of bloggers, Twitter is the official microblogging service. In fact, it’s not a microblogging service anymore. It has become an official communication medium for online geeks. There are many Twitter apps for iPhone, but why bother with third-party apps if there is this official one?
7. Analytics App
Once you start using Google Analytics it’s easy to get addicted. If you already are, then you’ll certainly want to install the official Google Analytics iPhone app. This should also save you from boredom in those situations you have nothing else to do.
8. iEarn
Useful if you’re running Google AdSense on your blog, this iPhone app will let you check your earnings and statistics with all the AdSense aggregate data (including revenues for today, revenues for yesterday, last seven days, this month, and last month). The app also gives you statistics on your AdSense impressions, clicks, eCPM, and CTR.
9. Byline
A useful tool for getting the latest news from your favorite sites and blogs, which you can use as a reference for blog posts, new ideas and outbound links. What’s good about this app is that it syncs with your Google Reader account and delivers the latest and most updated news feeds to your iPhone.
10. Blogpress
If you need to manage several blogs hosted on several blogging platforms, you definitely need this app. It supports Blogger, WordPress, TypaPad, and others. It also integrates well with social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and Picasa. The app lets you do most of the things that you will normally do while log-in to your blog using your computer. One thing that you will most likely appreciate from this app is that you can cross-publish a post to different blogs on different platforms.
11. CoverItLive
Sooner or later in your blogging career you’ll be prompted to live blog a certain event. If you don’t feel like bringing your laptop to said event, you can still cover it using your iPhone. Get this app and you’ll be able to launch and run live events, publish live commentary, publish photos, audio and video, email event links, and more.
12. ShoZu
This app is best described as a social media hub. That is because will let you connect with more than 50 social networking. For bloggers like us, this app also supports WordPress, Blogger and TypePad. It lets you upload photos and videos to multiple sites with one click, update status and tweets, and geotag photos.
13. Photoshop Express
We all need to edit photos and images once in a while, so Photoshop’s app for the iPhone comes in handy. It has several nifty features that we could otherwise enjoy only on our computer. This app gives you the ability to perform several photo editing functions to your images or photos—from simple cropping to filtering and applying special effects. It’s free as well.
14. Air Sharing
Let’s say you’re drafting a post while on your way home. When you finally arrive home, what’s the best and fastest way to transfer your draft to your Mac or PC to fine-tune the post some more? Well, this app of course. Air Sharing lets you mount your iPhone as a Wi-Fi device on your computer. Once mounted, you can drag and drop files from your iPhone to your computers and open them using the appropriate app.
15. Posterous
This app made it to the list because of its seamless autoposting feature that works with most blogging platforms. It’s useful to integrate different blogs, Twitter streams, and to make sure that your posts are going directly to all your online channels.
16. Tumblr
Tumblr is also known as the “other” microblogging service, which thankfully didn’t follow Twitter’s path and remained true to what it was created for. If you have a Tumblr account and you want to regularly update it with text, image, video or link posts, this app should be sitting on your iPhone’s app screen. It’s completely free.
17. WriteRoom
This app (which is the iPhone version of a popular desktop software) has one goal: to give you a distraction free writing environment. No fancy menus, options, formatting features and the like. Just plain and straight-out writing with an even more useful full-screen writing feature.
18. Photobucket
Not only is this app is useful for posting photos you’ve taken using your iPhone, but it also allows you to search for images and photos from the Photobucket website. And if you find something that you can use for a blog post, you can save the photo or image and then use it right after. It’s great for sourcing images.
19. iBlogger
The first thing you’ll notice when checking out this app from the App Store is the relatively expensive price (i.e., $10). However, this app has several nice features that make it worthy of its price. For example, it makes adding links to posts easier and it allows the integration with Google Maps and other location based services (using the iPhone’s GPS).
20. Facebook
We couldn’t leave the Facebook app for the iPhone out of the list, right? After all Facebook and blogging go hand in hand. With this app you can easily share links to your recent posts, write new updates for your followers and readers and so on.
Do you use these apps? What others can you share?
Daniel Scocco is the owner of Next iPhone News, a website that tracks the latest news, rumors and tips about the iPhone!Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Top 20 iPhone Apps for Bloggers
Переслать - Should Kids Blog?
This guest post is by Onibalusi Bamidele of YoungPrePro.com.
Do you know that over 6 million underage children write blogs with or without their parents’ consent? As a 17 year old blogger, I’ll be giving you my opinion on “kid blogging” here, and I hope by the time you finish reading, you’ll be able to make the decision about whether you should allow your kid to blog or not.
Why you should allow your kids to blog
Allowing your kids to blog might be a great decision. In case you’re not yet sure, below are some of the main reasons why you should allow your kids to blog.
Blogging helps improve written language skills
I have been blogging for almost two years now, and within that period of time I have written hundreds of articles. I have also met countless young bloggers, and those who have been following me from the beginning of my blogging career tell me that my written English has improved significantly.
This is also the case for Gloson from GlosonBlog.com. Take a look at his blog and tell me if you believe the blog is owned and maintained by a 13-year old Malaysian kid.
Education is important, and so is going to school, but what many people won’t admit is that being the best at something is more about practicing it than learning it. Blogging has evolved in a way that makes the blogger more interested in blogging—especially if the blogger is a kid. By writing on the same subject regularly, young people can improve their writing significantly.
Blogging boosts communication skills
Another great reason why you need to encourage your kid to start blogging is because it helps them learn how to communicate effectively. I’d like to use myself as an example. When I started blogging, I’d send emails to other bloggers, but I hardly ever got a response—I simply wasn’t good at communicating with others. But as time went on, I started reading other blogs, reading others’ comments, and replying myself, and so my communication started to improve. I now get a reply for almost every email I send.
It’s also important to know that there are different cultures in the world, and the modes of communication in every culture are different. By blogging, your kid would be able to get feedback, comments, and emails from people from every walk of life—and it is only a matter of time before he or she learns how to communicate effectively.
Blogging teaches us how to deal with critics
It really doesn’t matter what your age or skill is, there will always be people who don’t want you to progress. A lot of kids are brought so that they are not corrected by outsiders, so when they start to grow up and receive any comment from an outsider about their performance, they think they’re doing something wrong. If they are not used to being criticized they won’t know how to face even constructive criticism. They may be discouraged, and that can end up affecting their performance and self-esteem.
But when they blog and are criticized, they’ll do their research and see it’s a common thing in the blogosphere for commenters to disagree or point out areas where a post could be stronger. As time goes on, they’ll learn to accept criticism and see it as a part of life—especially for someone who wants to become successful.
It can help generate pocket money
Through blogging, your son or daughter could generate a little pocket money, and come to know what it means to “make” money. Retireat21.com recently released a list of 30 top young bloggers making money online. Most of these bloggers are under 21; there are several bloggers under the age of 17 on that same list.
Take a look at Sushant Risodkar who just turned 18 and is making thousands of dollars every single month from affiliate marketing. Benjamin Lang is only 17, but has built one of the most successful young entrepreneur blogs online. Take a look at Devesh Sharma, who also is 17, and has guest authors flock to his blog. I’m only 17, and I make an average of $3,000 online every month.
When kids make money from their efforts, it really means a lot. First, it means they are learning what it takes to become independent of their parents. Second, they are learning that making money takes time, and requires hard work—thus encouraging them to spend their money wisely.
These young kids further prove that you don’t have to have formal qualifications and a steady job (especially important, considering the high global unemployment rates) to succeed in life. Young bloggers also understand the importance of being self-employed. This is good, because it means they would never have to be in debt to further their education, and they wouldn’t have to look for job when they graduated—unless they wanted to.
Blogging is great…
…but it isn’t only for adults.
There is a lot that kids can gain from being bloggers, and it would be even more awesome if their parents could be there to guide and encourage them as they do so. This will prevent them from going the wrong way, and ensure they have someone to hold them accountable for their actions online.
Would you let your kids blog? Let us know in the comments.
Onibalusi Bamidele is a 17 year old kid blogger and the founder of YoungPrePro.com. Download his ebook titled “From 0 to 3k Monthly” to learn how he averages $3,000 online every month.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Переслать - Blogging for the Greater Good
This guest post is by Michele C. Hollow of Pet News and Views.
My most popular blog post garnered over 500 comments. I asked my readers to leave a comment about their adopted pet. For each comment, a leading pet food manufacturer donated 25 bowls of food to a local animal shelter.
For those of you who volunteer at animal shelters, you know how hungry shelters can be for food and other supplies. Getting my readers to take action is the goal behind my blog, Pet News and Views. I want my readers to care about animals as much as I do—and they do!
Copyright Roman Samokhin - Fotolia.com
So in addition to blogging about pet care, pet travel and other lifestyle pet and wildlife-related issues, I focus on the positive side of animal welfare. Writing about people who work with and on behalf of animals is my passion. I look up to these heroes, and so do my readers.
The couple in California who rescues dogs from hoarders, the 15-year old girl who runs her own animal shelter, the organization that has helped close a large number of greyhound race tracks, and many others are the subjects of my posts.
I ask my readers to contact state legislators to ask them to support or vote against specific bills. A bill before the Nevada senate denying water to wild horses and wild burros drew thousands to action. In addition to covering it on my blog, others posted similar calls to action on their blogs and on their Facebook pages. We asked our readers to send letters to the Nevada tourism office and to the senators stating we would boycott the state if the bill to deny water to horses was passed.
As soon as we learned that the bill was defeated, we asked our readers to send thank you notes. The power of blogging constantly amazes me.
Readers want to help
A call to action gives readers a chance to flex their voices and make a difference. I get a lot of "thank you" emails from readers who are happy to pitch in.
Accentuate the positive
I focus on the positive side of animal welfare. If I constantly posted all the negative stories, I wouldn't be able to function—and readers would stay away. So, by reporting on my heroes and the good they are doing, readers are drawn in.
Find great people and their stories
I have contacted most public relations and media departments of animal nonprofits for story ideas and people to profile. I get information—usually a press release—and contact names and numbers so I can conduct an interview. I'm sure many of you can do the same. So many nonprofits have important stories that are often overlooked by mainstream media. Just ask, and I'm sure you will get a welcome reception. Heck, they will put you on their press lists and invite you to their events.
Going for the stars
While my favorite stories are about everyday people who make a difference, I recently started covering celebrities. I don't watch much TV. I don't read People, Us Weekly, or gossip blogs. I never cared about the lives of celebrities, but I'm starting to post about those who are using their celebrity to help animals. These stories have a higher Google ranking than my non-celebrity stories.
If I were to write about their personal lives, I wouldn't get a response. However, when I ask a media rep if I can interview their client about a specific cause that client is involved with, I almost always get a "yes."
Do a Google search, and enter the name of the celebrity followed by the word "causes." Check out the cause, and if it is a match for your blog, contact the nonprofit. For instance, Reese Witherspoon volunteers on behalf of the Children's Defense Fund and other child-related nonprofits. Obviously, she is not a fit for my blog. But if you are a mommy blogger, she is a good candidate.
I have written a lot about Farm Sanctuary; it is one of my favorite nonprofits and they get a lot of celebrity endorsements. Thanks to my connections at Farm Sanctuary, I was able to post stories about Emily Deschanel of the hit series Bones and Wendie Malick of Hot in Cleveland. I also got to post a story on Jackie Chan, who volunteers on behalf of several wildlife causes. His celebrity got to me—I was starstruck!
By focusing on the good that the celebrity is doing, I get to promote a cause that is also important to me. Plus, I get to interview someone who will bring my blog numbers up. Even the B-list celebrities count! Some musicians have their own following, and when I post a story about an up and coming group, they let their followers know—which brings more traffic to my blog.
And as an added bonus, the staff at the nonprofits I cover are regular readers of my blog. My biggest thrill was reporting on the Born Free Foundation, and the director left a comment.
A friend told me not to worry about my numbers, but to be concerned about who is reading and commenting. Pet News and Views is a niche blog. It covers people who have pets and who care about wildlife and farm animals. I'm reaching my peeps—people I truly am in sync with.
Advertisers
My advertisers know that, too. I recently told an advertiser from the U.K. that while I have readers in the U.K. (and I want more), the majority of my readers are in the states. His company sells pet products in the U.K., and I thought he would be better off finding a blog with a larger U.K. readership. He said he wanted to advertise on my blog because the readers really care about the topics and seem to take an active role.
So that takes me back to blogging for a cause and knowing my audience. They are concerned about the same issues I am. And for that, I feel fortunate.
Michele C. Hollow writes the blog Pet News and Views (http://www.petnewsandviews.com), a site for pet lovers and admirers of wildlife. Her blog focuses on pet care and the people who work with and on behalf of animals.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
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