DIY or Die: Good Blogging Based on Punk Rock Ethics

Before the late 1970s, it was nearly impossible for independent musicians to tour and release albums without major label backing. Punk came along and changed all of that in a few different ways. Kids saw that they could, in fact, play music without looking like rock stars or playing like virtuosos. Punk bands also set up concrete DIY models for releasing their own records and setting up their own tours that anyone could follow. The major labels were cut out entirely, and it actually became a case of “you can do this if they put the work in.”

The Internet, in that way, is in those exciting golden years. The infrastructure has been set up and there are several credible models available for reference. There are a staggering amount of resources available to independent bloggers so they can, in fact, do it themselves. That might seem obvious, but it also becomes a valuable thinking point when you start to incorporate the ethics of DIY, independent music into blogging.
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Cool New Christmas Snow Storm Effect For Blogger Blogs

Over the last few years I have tried to help you get your blogs into the Christmas spirit with some neat Christmas themed gadgets.The most popular and simple of these have been the Snow Fall effects we have published.Some code added to your blog can transform the look of your site as over the Christmas period visitors are greeted with snow falling gently down the page.

This year is no different as I have a new Christmas snow effect but this time it's a snow storm with the direction of the snow fall dictated by your cursor movements.Check out the demo below then you can add it to your blog using our one click Blogger button.


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3 Ways To NOT Build Links For Your Blog In The Penguin Era – And 3 Ways To Do It Better

By now if you have a blog you’ve no doubt heard all about Google’s Penguin update. If you haven’t, here’s a quick recap from an earlier post on Spice Up Your Blog, How Google Penguin Update Will Affect Your Blog ? .It’s been many months now since the hammer fell on some webmasters and it always takes a while to adjust and learn how to go forward. Of course every major update has its casualties and you rarely hear about people having Panda issues any more. Strategies change and every new update strikes even worse fear in the hearts of some webmasters. If it wasn’t clear before it’s pretty obvious now that if you want to succeed on the web, then you need to be ‘doing it right’. So without further ado I’m going to explain what strategies you shouldn’t be doing and explaining how to ‘do it right’.
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10 Writing Tips of Famous Authors You Can Use Now for Blogging

With nearly a hundred literary masterpieces between them, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, and C.S. Lewis could be considered experts on the writing process. Fortunately for those who chose to take up the career in their wake, these famous authors left behind valuable tips and tricks to make the process easier.

While the blog’s conception was decades after their time, their knowledge is still applicable to the trade. Check out these 10 writing tips of the famous authors. See how relevant they are to your blog today.
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10 Writing Tips All Bloggers Must Adhere To

Look, there are a lot of people out there that are going to tell you how to write. Some will give your ideas on topics, some will give your ideas on how to create title, and some will just tell you to use proper grammar. While all those things are important, I grant you, what are most important in blog writing are two things: passion and consistency. Unlike any other type of writing, with blog writing you get an audience based not only on WHAT you write but on HOW OFTEN you write it. No one will follow a blog that is only updated every few months. With that in mind, here are some writing tips for you:
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The Key Factors To Guest Posting For Authors And Publishers

For the last year or so Guest Posts have made up the majority of content on Spice Up Your Blog.A guest post is a post submitted by a blogger, webmaster or content writer representing one of the aforementioned.We have covered the subject of guest posts previously, we even have guest posts about guest posting ehh...But a short description is the guest author gets valuable links to their sites in the author section and the publisher gets quality content from a new voice.

But while the majority of content on Spice Up Your Blog is now written by guest authors I don't just accept and publish every post submitted.Even though I have published 103 guest posts so far in 2012 you will be surprised to learn I actually reject about 85% of posts submitted.

So what are the key factors that make the difference between posts been accepted and rejected.

What Publishers Want

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The Blogging Game: When Blogging Resembles Hunting

Blogging has been compared to so many everyday activity's but did you know blogging in many ways is like hunting ? Of course you didn't know that but that's exactly what you are about to find out starting with The Hunt.

The Hunt

Getting Internet users to visit your blog is like sitting at the edge of a clearing in the woods, waiting for the arrival of your target.He comes eventually, stepping on the twigs, shifting, bowing his head for a drink on a little pool of water.

When you finally have a clear view on the target, you quietly and patiently aim your gun, lowering it in an angle, not breathing, careful not to produce even the littlest sound that might startle the creature.

And bam! You missed the deer just near the ear.

Off he runs out of the clearing and beyond the thick woods. He leaves behind not even a cloud of dust, gone as if he had never been in the clearing at the first place.You just stand there, your chest hurting from the recoil.

You are the huntsman, the web developer. The clearing is your site. The gun, your web host provider. The bullet your SEO schemes.The deer, the Internet user.

What happened? How did the deer escape ?
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10 Steps To Targeting Your Blog Readership

You want your readership to grow, and seeing numbers increase is a great sign. That doesn't mean your readership is "everyone." Your content writing needs to be targeted to a specific niche, and these 10 steps will help you find the right readers for your great content.

1. Who would want to read your content?

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Dollar’s in the Details : Creating Quality Content

The infrastructure of the search engine optimization (SEO) industry is one that is natural predisposed to constant change. This stems from the fact that people are always finding new ways to exploit technology, which is always being updated to battle these exploitations, which continues in an eternal cycle of innovation and technological advances.

This is by no means a negative thing; it just means that working in SEO is not an easy job. There is a continuous string of changes happening and challenges to face. This means that SEO personnel need to stay on their feet and be prepared to meet any unexpected changes that arise.

The all-powerful answer to every question in the SEO field is “create quality content.” Whether it comes to on-site SEO or off-site methods such as link building, we are constantly being assured that if we provide relevant, quality content, we will be safe from being penalized in the search engine results.

The Challenge

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How To Use Facebook To Boost Blog Traffic And Sales

Guest Post - Our host is Alicia, here she looks into using Facebook to help your blogs traffic and sales.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Is investing time and money on Facebook really going to help increase your traffic and sales?

Or is Facebook as a social media marketing leader overrated?

I’m sure these were some of the questions that had come across your mind before, regardless of whether you have used Facebook as a social media marketing platform or not.

Is the ROI really worth the effort we put into Facebook?
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