Aaron Orendorff says, “Blogging is hard. Damn hard. And, not to be the bearer of bad news, but blogging as a business is even worse. In fact, even seven years ago, Technorati estimated that 95% of all blogs were outright failures, victims of abandonment by their creators. Why? Because day after day, week after week, post after post, to have a business blog, you need: Buy-in from your team Ideas for articles A content calendar to maintain consistency”. The 5-Point Survival Guide to Blogging as a Business Content Marketing Institute  [...]

Brandon Olson says, “The Twitter stream moves at an alarming 9,000 tweets per second. How in the world are you supposed to gain exposure for your blog when the news feed becomes outdated within seconds of posting your tweet? One of the best ways to break through the noise on Twitter is by participating in Twitter chats. It’s a great way to increase your knowledge of a specific topic, build connections with fellow bloggers and gain exposure for yourself and your blog. What Is a Twitter Chat? A Twitter chat is a regularly scheduled online discussion that takes place on Twitter around a specific... [...]

Pamela Wilson says, “It’s a good thing your mom taught you everything you need to know to become a well-respected, successful blogger, isn’t it? What’s that? Your mom never taught you anything about blogs? Because blogs didn’t exist when you were growing up? I beg to differ. I’m going to bet that she really did teach you everything you need to know“. Why Your Mom Was Right About Blogging ‘Copyblogger’ Blog  [...]

Rainmaker team says, “Ever find yourself scratching your head, trying to figure out what to write about on your blog? We’ve all been there. It’s tough to come up with blog post topics week after week, and it’s not easy to keep all those ideas organized, either. This week on Hit Publish, host Pamela Wilson invited three Copyblogger experts to share their best advice for generating a never-ending flow of blog post ideas“. How to Generate a Never-Ending Flow of Blog Post Ideas ‘Copyblogger’ Blog  [...]

Matt McGee says, “Hot on the heels of the 4.1.2 security release, WordPress has announced version 4.2, which is available now. This version of WordPress sports an updated Press This tool, which allows quick posting to your blog by quoting the text, video or images from another website. Press This works on mobile devices and as a desktop browser bookmarklet. Other new features include a streamlined plugin update process that eliminates the multiple page experience and does the updating inline with a single click. Also new is the ability to embed Tumblr and Kickstarter content just by pasting... [...]

Baer says, “Now how many of those were read today? Your guess is as good as mine. A very teeny tiny minority, if you choose to rely on the most basic 80–20 Pareto’s Principle. But have you noticed the number of views, shares, and comments when the post is written by people like Seth Godin? Or Neil Patel? Or Arianna Huffington? So what are the qualities or distinct characteristics that mark these super bloggers, setting them on a plane higher than us lesser mortals? I am inclined to think that entry to this rarefied region is free, as long as you get these three steps just right. Read... [...]

Hacked sites go downhill fast. Google doesn’t trust them (and rightly so) and removes them from the search results. It can take months or years to rebuild trust. You even can get into legal trouble with the Consumer Protection Agencies if the hacker starts stealing people’s credit card information. It can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost sales, not to mention time wasted and frustration when you get hacked. Isn’t it worth a small investment to make sure that doesn’t happen? Matt Garrett’s site was hacked. He tells about this terrible event in his business life here: How... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “The content team here have received a couple of pieces of good news recently. Last week, this blog won the Digital and Tech category at the UK Blog Awards. We’re also currently battling it out with Moz for top slot in Hubspot’s list of digital marketing blogs in the UK and Ireland. So, I thought this would be a good time to share our thoughts on why businesses should blog. If you need to make a case for a content budget, here’s some help… Business blogging: the stats SEO: websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed... [...]

Rachel Sprung says, “How do you decide which topics to write about on your blog to attract the most traffic and leads? What about which types of blog posts to write? How many to publish in a week? How to promote them? These are just some of the questions you might have when creating your blog strategy — and knowing a thing or two about your top performing blog posts will help you find the answers.If you know what made your best blog posts perform so well, you’ll be able to better prioritize certain topics or types of posts according to your content goals. You’ll... [...]

Baer says, “Peter Drucker said, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” So I assume you’ve heard from nearly every content marketing blog out there how to do the right things. That’s being effective. For example, here are some things effective blog editors do: You plan awesome content. You use a workflow to manage your team and guest authors. You complement your posts with visuals and free content. You share your content with social media”. How to Hack Your Efficiency with an Agile Blog Planning Process Jay Baer’s ‘Convince & Convert’... [...]