An Easy Way To Find Blog Post Ideas In Your Niche

Many bloggers stick with a single method of coming up with blog post ideas – simply writing about whatever is on their mind that day. Although some bloggers may find it easy to come up with an endless stream of interesting, relevant topics this way, almost every bloggers has faced the experience of sitting down at their keyboard and simply drawing a blank.

Rather than simply sitting at your computer trying to conjure up new blog post ideas, an easy way to find relevant topics in your niche is to actively seek out questions, issues, and news that are already being discussed. By finding topics that are already in the discourse, you can not only identify new blog post ideas, but you’ll identify blog post ideas that are relevant and interesting to your readers.

There are many ways you can go about actively seeking blog post ideas, but here are some simple ideas to get you started:Click Here To View Full Post >>

Things That Go Bump On Your Blog - What Bloggers Can Learn From Horror Films

It’s the season of ghosts and general spookfulness. The time of year for us all to check for monsters under the bed and wonder what’s out there in the woodshed. But whilst we’re wondering whether or not to go and check what that noise is down in the dark cellar (it’s just a mouse - don’t go down there) is there anything bloggers can learn from the season of the witch?

I’m going to look at some horror films to see what inspiration we can take from their perennial popularity.
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Create A Killer Content Calendar For Your Blog

Writing is tiring. Pulitzer Prize winner and 2012 MacArthur Grant recipient Junot Diaz recently shared his struggles with writing short stories in The New York Times, saying that he never wants to write a book of short stories again. While many people will be quick to point out that the writing struggles a food blogger faces pale in comparison to the one a celebrated author faces writing a series of vignettes about love, the point remains that writing can often be an uphill battle. For bloggers, the need to generate interesting, informative, engaging, well-written content on a regular basis can be very stressful and stifling, and failing to do so can have negative ramifications for your blog, particularly for traffic. If the struggle to create content that establishes your blog as a captivating go-to resource is overwhelming you, creating a content calendar can give you the peace of mind you so desperately crave.
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17 Very Interesting Blog Post Ideas For Bloggers

After you have written a few hundred blog posts, you start to come up empty on ideas. In fact, your ideas seem to be the same ones over and over again. Why not spice things up? Here are some new, fresh ideas for your next blog post:

1) At Home – Did you know that rubber bands last longer when you refrigerate them? Things for around the house get a lot of traffic. That is because everyone needs help keeping their home clean and in order. Use that to bring new readers to your blog.
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5 Content Curation Tools To Help You Build Content

In a world where content is King, it might be said that content curation is God. This is the hottest trend to come out in the years in the marketing and search engine optimization field. At its most simple, content curation simply means collecting the best content on a particular topic and publishing it with edits, additions, and specific advice.

It is an amazing tactic for gaining traffic, backlinks, and a targeted audience. The best part? You don’t have to do a lot of the writing! Now, that is not to say that it is an easy task that can be done by anyone. You need the right tools and the right attitude in order to make a piece of curated content that delivers massive value to your intended audience.
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3 reasons why many bloggers get frustrated and what to do against it

One reason why I have started to research and write about blogging tips is that I really don't like it when good blogs are taken offline just because the blogger became frustrated. So what are the
causes for blogger frustration and what can you do against it?
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6 Blog Design Tips That Will Get You Better Results

With most blogging platforms being geared for beginners, blog design can be as simple as choosing from a selection of pre-made templates and uploading a logo for some users. This might work for you, but if you want to take your efforts to the next level, then be prepared to take it up a notch.

Following are six high-level blog design tips that will help you see noticeably better results.
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28 Tips To Write Reader-Friendly Blog Posts

When you write a blog post, who do you write it for? Is it for the search engines, potential advertisers or other bloggers in your network? No, it’s the reader for whom you write. So no matter how SEO-friendly or Ad-friendly your content may appear, if it doesn’t have reader appeal then you don’t get anywhere.
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How To Successfully Use Giveaways To Build Social Proof

I'm a huge believer in doing blog giveaways (hence I've done at least 5, giving away a total of $1200). Not only is it nice to give something back to the readers, doing a blog giveaway can really benefit your blog! Here's how:

Giveaways aren't for building long-term blog readership or traffic.

Before I get on with the rest of my post about how giveaways are great for building social proof, I'd like to say something first. Many bloggers host giveaways, hoping that by doing so, they can increase their blog readership. In reality, that doesn't happen: people aren't going to keep coming back to your blog just because you hosted a giveaway. True, out of 100 giveaway participants you might get 2 or 3 people who find your blog interesting and keep coming back everyday, but the majority of giveaway participants are what I call "the professionals" - people who scour sweepstakes forums for giveaways to take part in and won't come back a second time.

So what are giveaways great for?

For Building Social Proof

Social proof is exactly what it sounds like - proof from social sites that your blog has followers. In other words, social proof is what I like to call, your "numbers". These include the number of Facebook fans you have, the number of Twitter followers, the number of RSS subscribers, etc. So what's so value about having the right "numbers" (a lot of fans, followers, subscribers)?

Social proof is valuable in 2 ways:

1) Social proof encourages visitors on your website to "Like" or "Follow" you, creating a positive snowball effect. Let's look at 2 examples. Tom went to Site A, and saw that the site had a grand total of 17 RSS subscribers. What does this tell Tom? That the site isn't very popular! Thus, Tom might not want to come back to the site, thinking that something must be wrong with it (since it only has 17 RSS subscribers). Now Tom went to Site B, and saw that the site had 319 RSS subscribers. What does this tell Tom? That the site is pretty popular, and probably for a good reason! Thus, Tom is more likely to come back to Site B every day and "Like" or "Follow" it. Now if there are 100 guys like Tom coming to Site B, that really creates a positive snowball effect that drastically boosts up Site B's social numbers and traffic.

2) Now this is the big one. Having the right "numbers" gets you PRIVATE ADVERTISERS (drum roll please). Many sites who have good traffic just can't get PRIVATE ADVERTISERS because their Facebook Fans, RSS subscribers, or Twitter followers are too few. To an advertiser, having, for example, 300 Facebook fans shows that your site is popular and deserves their attention. For example, I hosted a $500 Giveaway on my blog, which resulted in me gaining an additional (approximately) 100 RSS subscribers, 150 Facebook fans, and 130 Twitter followers. A few days after the giveaway was over, I started getting emails from private advertisers left and right.

Now that you see how powerful giveaways can be and how the social proof gained from giveaways can help your blog, here's how to successfully host a giveaway.

What kind of prizes to give out:

Last year, I was in Beijing, and at the subway station I noticed 2 very different advertisement styles. One company bought every third ad space at the metro station (the long corridors where subway riders walk by every day). Another company bought 3 ad spaces (one next to the other), skipped 9 ad spaces, and bought another 3 ad spaces one next to the other. I remember thinking that day I'd rather be the second company than the first. Why? Because by heavily bombarding viewers at one moment by putting 3 ads next to each other, the second company is creating a lasting impression on viewers that the first company's way of advertising can't.

So what does this have to do with hosting giveaways?

It's better to host 1 giveaway for $300 than it is to host 10 giveaways giving away $30 each. Through extensive testing via giveaways on A Young Investor and my other sites, I've noticed that the total number of giveaway participants in a big giveaway exceeds that of all the small giveaways combined.

I've found that cash giveaways tend to be the most popular among all giveaways (for obvious reasons, because if you're giving away a specific product, people who don't like that product most likely won't participate in that giveaway). Would you have $500 or an iPad? Obviously $500, because with that money, you can either buy an iPad or something else.

So when hosting a giveaway, make sure you're giving away cash and make sure it's for a large sum of money (remember, it's better to host 1 giveaway of $300 than 10 giveaways of $30 each).

How to get sponsors:

Now I understand not every has enough money to host a large giveaway (neither do I). Thanks in large part to the sale of my previous sites, I was able to give away a few hundred dollars out of my own pocket. But eventually, I had to get sponsors to help pay for my giveaways. For my $300 Cash Giveaway - Elections Style, I was able to get 1 sole sponsor who provided most of the funds for the giveaway. So how did I do it?

Contact websites related to your blog's niche. Since my blog is about investing, I Google searched "investment brokers" and contacted all the investment brokers to see if they'd like to sponsor my giveaway. In return, YOU MUST make sure that the sponsor gets something valuable. Since my site has never had any advertisers before and has quite a lot of investors who read it, a few potential sponsors emailed me back. Eventually, I let them bid up the price, and the winner got a link (nofollow) back to their site and a banner ad on the giveaway page. Try this method, and I'm sure it will work for you. Even if you don't have a lot of traffic, potential-sponsors will likely want to sponsor you because they know that giveaways get a LOT OF TRAFFIC.

How to promote giveaway:

In general, I tweet about my giveaways and post them on my Facebook fanpage. I also make a giveaway entry option as "Tweet About This Giveaway". Thus, a snowball effect is created, where giveaway participants tweet about my giveaways, drawing in even more giveaway participants.

But by far, the best way to promote a giveaway is to submit it to sweepstakes directories. By far. Without submissions to giveaway directories, my giveaways would only have had 20% of the participants that they did have.

How long should the giveaway last ?

Through extensive testing, I've found that 2 weeks for a giveaway is the best lenght. Any longer, and participants won't want to participate because they don't like waiting that long. Any shorter, and you're not maximizing the full potential of the giveaway. I like to start giveaways on a Saturday and end them on a Sunday. The reason for this is that the first and last 2 days of a giveaway are usually the days that get the most participants. By starting on Saturday, the first 2 days are Saturday and Sunday, days when most people are off work and have time to participate in my giveaway. By ending on a Sunday, the last 2 days are Saturday and Sunday, days when most people are off work and have time to participate in my giveaway. For example, an ideal giveaway would start on Saturday, September 15 and end on Sunday, September 30.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

The Social Media Election What You Can Learn From Candidates

Social media strategists and political advocates for the Obama and Romney campaigns have exceeded their A-game to influence Democratic, Republican and Independent voters, including even the most politically apathetic citizen.

Often, trending topics and conversations are beyond the control of both political parties. Bloggers are even poking fun at Vice President Joe Biden's acceptance speech, mocking the number of times he said "literally." Any press is good press, right?
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10 Excellent Productivity Tools for Bloggers

Guest Post - Our host is Jacob E. Dawson, in this post Jacob lists some great Productivity tools for you.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Multiple browsers with twenty tabs or more open on each one. A word-processing app, numerous folders, image editing software and desktop notifications crowd your monitor(s). A mug of bitter coffee, Post-it notes and illegible scribbles layer the desk. Sound familiar? This is the life of a blogger – connected 24/7, streams of bits and bytes dancing at your fingertips, and an overwhelming feeling that there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done. We're quickly approaching information overload, but for those of us that earn a living online we can't afford to tear ourselves away from the light fantastic for too long. We need to minimize the noise and increase the quality of our output. That's why I've put together this list of productivity tools that will help you to focus, plan and succeed. Enjoy!

1. e.ggtimer - http://e.ggtimer.com/ - Eggtimer is a super-simple yet really helpful online tool for blocking out time to work on tasks. All it does is display a countdown timer in a browser window, but by pledging to work for a specific amount of time you can really make progress on any tasks you have to do, and when the time is up a nice, loud alert sounds so you don't have to constantly monitor it. Try the Pomodoro-Technique timer to work for extended periods of time with incremental breaks.

2. 42 Goals - http://42goals.com – 42 Goals is an online goal-setting app that can be as simple or as deep as you want it to be. You can use it as a simple daily planner, or use it to track your productivity over a longer period of time, giving you stats that allow you to find regular patterns and improve your work flow – a necessity for busy bloggers trying to break into the big time!

3. Rescue Time - http://www.rescuetime.com/ - Rescue Time is a productivity tool that monitors your day-to-day activity on your computer, providing you with detailed stats as to how you're using your time and also giving you the ability to 'lock' certain software and services for specific periods, allowing you to forcibly block out distractions at times when you absolutely need to finish a project (yet are tempted to check out Facebook for the twentieth time...).

4. Work Plus - http://www.workpl.us/ - Work Plus is a really interesting tool that can particularly benefit bloggers and freelancers. No matter how enjoyable it is to wear pyjamas all day long, we all know that working from the comfort of our own home is not always the most conducive environment for completing tasks. Enter Work Plus, an iOS app that helps you to discover new work-spaces in your area, like cafes with free wi-fi or shared work-spaces that allow you to bring the dog in! Add in time-tracking and workspace ratings and you've got a real winner.

5. Boomerang - http://www.boomeranggmail.com/ - We all work in a global marketplace, especially those of us who make a living online, and time-zones have become something that we deal with on an everyday basis. Sometimes you need to send an email halfway 'round the world, but you want it to arrive in their inbox at 11am, tomorrow. You've got 2 choices – set the alarm, get up and manually send it (ouch!), or check out Boomerang for Gmail, a really efficient tool that allows you to schedule email and set-up reminders for yourself.

6. TheInterviewr - http://theinterviewr.com/ - The Interviewr is a really interesting tool for those of us who rely heavily on conducting interviews to keep our blog humming along. The Interviewr is essentially an interview relationship management tool that enables you to track contacts, schedule interviews, add notes and set reminders. Never forget another interview appointment and stay productive!

7. ZenWriter – http://www.beenokle.com/zenwriter.html – Zen Writer is a simple tool that can be surprisingly effective. It is a stripped down text-editor that provides serene backgrounds that place the focus firmly on the text, allowing you to block out distractions and just let the words flow. Cutting out all of the noise we find cluttering our screens can really make a difference in your day-to-day productivity, and this tool is well-recommended for serious writers.

8. IFTTT - https://ifttt.com – IFTTT stands for 'If This Then That', a reference to a kind of computer programming logic that they've put into action in a really interesting way. IFTTT integrates with web platforms (for example, Twitter and Wordpress), and allows you to automate actions between them. You could set it up to alert you via Gmail every time someone on Twitter mentions a specific word, or automatically post Instagram photos with a specific tag to your Wordpress blog – it really is an amazing tool. They also provide a series of pre-cooked 'Recipes' – tasks set-up by other people that you can start using straight-away.

9. Coursera - https://www.coursera.org/ - If at first you're wondering why an online education platform like Coursera is on a list like this, let me explain. As a blogger, your job is to be informed and share quality information with your readers, and there's no better way to provide that than to have a solid and continuing education. However, these days we don't all have the time (or money!) to go back to school – which makes online education platforms like Coursera a godsend – you can educate yourself on cutting edge topics, on your own time, for free! Now that's being productive!

10. Typing Test - http://www.typingtest.com - As writers, we spend most of our time at the keyboard bashing out awesome as quickly as we can – but how fast can you actually type? Of course we know that learning to touch-type is the bare-minimum needed to be a productive writer, but knowing how quickly you can type, then taking lessons to increase that speed can literally double or triple your daily productivity. Take the first step now and find out how fast you really are...
This post originally started out as a list of 20 tools and tips, but with so many great apps and platforms out there I could have filled a book with them! If you've enjoyed the tools listed above, or have some more indispensable tools that you feel belong on the list, please share it with us in the comments section, and maybe – just maybe – Paul will invite me back for round 2:)

By Guest Author - Jacob E. Dawson works withDelivery Hero, and is an entrepreneur and inbound-marketing consultant with a passion for creating value! Follow Jacob on twitter @jacobedawson and on Google+.

Changing Up Your Content When You’re Stuck With The Same Subject

Content is king in the online world. It’s got to be fresh, got to be unique, got to be new. Some days knowing you need to provide a new blog or article on the same niche product AGAIN is enough to make even the most creative of us wake up with a headache. But there are some easy techniques to use to freshen up those samey subjects.

I’m going to look at five ways to get a new angle on the same subject, and give you some examples. These five methods will work on a massive range of topics, so apply them as you need. I’m going to imagine we’re working on content strategy for an estate agent to illustrate ways to use each method, but they could be used for any business or client.
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