Blogging Tips – Jayzilla

The Missing Piece to Your WordPress Site

February 18, 2012 By jason Leave a Comment

When you need to build a new website, what do you usually turn to? How do you know you’re using the best option?

Click here to download this free report – The Genesis Guide for Absolute Beginners (PDF – 1.4 MB)

Static sites are OK, as long as you don’t have to do much updating. But let’s face it: they’ll make you seem old. It’s rare for me these days to find clients who don’t want updates, and it can be annoying and time-consuming to have to be on the hook to make those small changes in a word here and there.

These days, I always look to WordPress first, and I recommend you do the same.

Why WordPress? Isn’t that for blogs?

Back in the day, people jumped on WordPress because it was a new and useful tool for blogging. You can easily set a blog up, add new posts, and manage your content really well.

But it’s not only useful for blogging. In fact, you don’t even need to use it as a blog. Your whole website can just be created as pages. The best part about it is that once you create the website using WordPress, your clients can have their own login information and be able to edit the pages themselves. And they don’t need to know HTML to do it.

It’s all built for you

In addition to giving the maintenance back to the client, there are also myriad features baked into WordPress or else easily added. A search feature usually comes stock. Want to add some social media hooks? There’s a plugin for that. Want to be able to manage some ads? That’s already been built; you just install it.

If you can think of it, it’s probably been built and is most likely free.

You don’t even need to design it yourself. You can find tons of free themes, or you can buy even better WordPress themes that you just install.

Do you SEO?

A big buzzword these days is SEO. If your site isn’t “optimized”, you’re told you’ll have a hard time getting people to find your page. To an extent that’s true, and Google is by far the biggest traffic generator to all of my blogs. It can be daunting, but WordPress has ways to almost teach you good SEO practices.

And there are even plugins for SEO. In a later post I’ll talk about this a bit more. My point is WordPress can help with yours.

You should use a framework

The problem with WordPress, though, is that there’s so much there that it can be nerve-wracking to make sure you get everything perfect. That’s why there are frameworks.

Good frameworks are designed with your best interest in mind. They organize your code so it’s easier for Google to read your site. They strip out the unnecessary stuff and give you some pretty slick enhancements. Simply, they make your WordPress site even better.

Better frameworks provide better ways of doing things, like using custom menus and better SEO customization.

The best frameworks do all that, give you amazing themes to make your site really pop, and make it really easy to customize your site any way you want.

The framework I use: Genesis

When I build a site, I always install the Genesis Framework, from the folks at StudioPress. They understand internet marketing in and out, and they have created a WordPress framework tailored to people who want to get their site noticed and visited.

I wasn’t sure about wanting to buy a framework when FindingMyFitness was new. But I did, just to see. I wish I took a screenshot so I could show you, but my traffic literally instantly tripled the day after I started using Genesis. I’m not trying to exaggerate when I say that Genesis took my site to the next level.

Beyond the framework itself, they also have 40 or so eye-popping themes to choose from that will meet whatever design you’re looking for. Want something minimalist? Try the Minimum Child Theme. Are you working on a site for an artist? Try Landscape. Want a sort of quirky theme? Vintage could be the theme for you.

Or maybe you’re building a website for a local business. Regardless of what you need, StudioPress has you covered.

$1MBP Update 4

November 2, 2011 By jason Leave a Comment

Blog: Our Candle Making
Clicky stats
MDBP Leaderboard (I’m on page 2!)

What I’ve Done

Since the last update, I finished the course emails and even added another two emails to the series. I decided that when I write a post this early on that could be interesting to everyone (cornerstone content), I’m going to add it to the series. There are currently a total of 8 emails in the series.

I also contacted a couple bloggers to see if I could write them guest posts for their own blogs. There aren’t any candle or craft blogs in the MDBP, but I did find a couple that deal with parenting and approached them with a couple ideas (candle-making as activities with kids). So I’ll be getting my first guest posts out there pretty soon! The first one has been submitted to Perfecting Parenthood and will get run mid-November.

I’ve still got the bad habit of checking my stats every day after I do something on the site, but this time things finally are paying off. Out of 7 visitors, 5 were from search engines. I’m on page 1 of Google for more than a couple of the major search terms I’m going for! Because of my previous searching, I also know that OurCandleMaking.com is the only blog that has the info people will look for.

We had our first list subscriber yesterday too! That’s more exciting that I thought it would be. I want to email that person and give them a free candle or something.

Oh, we also shot our first video.

What I’ve Learned

One thing I’ve learned that I didn’t expect at all is that reaching out to other bloggers not even in your niche is an excellent idea. In talking to Alex of Perfecting Parenting, I got an idea for my first candle-making ebook! It’s an idea I would never have thought of on my own, and in talking to a few people about it, it could be lucrative (well, as lucrative as it could be, I suppose).

Honestly I think one of the major factors in getting listed higher up in Google (aside from making sure I do really good research for my posts) is being listed in high-level blog directories. Alltop and BlogCatalog both list OurCandleMaking, and I really think that made a difference.

Finally, this month’s biggest lesson is in using reddit. I’d used it before with not really much success, but I think I figured out the problem. There are two important things you need to know to use reddit effectively:

Find the appropriate category to post your links in. There’s no really good way to do that. You could search for things related to your link and see where they’re getting posted, or you could look through them all to find the right one. Just like you’re blogging to a niche, reddit is so big you need to post links to a niche as well or no one will see them.
Engage in the reddit community. Don’t just post your own links. In fact, you should be posting many links that are not your own for every link you post that is your own. Leave comments on other posts. Answer questions and build up a reputation that people will trust. Only always dropping your own links in there won’t get you many visits.

Following my own advice, my secrets to success post got me nearly 500 visits in one day and a few subscribers. Before that, I had only gotten 200 visitors in a month. Obviously that’s going to taper off, but it was a pretty cool boost.

What I’ll Do

Before the next update, I will have the video edited and uploaded. I need to write other cornerstone content to link up to some static pages, and I’m going to write another guest post.

On the business end, though, we need to make some candles to sell. I don’t know if I’m going to meet my goal of having candles sold at Rostov’s by the end of November because I don’t have any money to invest in those supplies until we sell some of the candles we’re currently working on.

I’ll also continue with my reddit strategy and also work on other link-building strategies to improve that Google ranking.

The Best 6 Indispensible Blogging Tools

August 25, 2011 By jason 1 Comment

Once you start learning how to blog, you’ll find that everyone and their grandmother wants to sell you something to help your blog take off. Trust me, you don’t need all of it.

I’ll assume you have some of the basics. Beyond that, these are the tools for my blogging I can’t live without. Some of the blogging tools are even free.

A premium WordPress theme

You need a good blog template. The one I would recommend is the Genesis Framework by StudioPress. I don’t like spending money, and I was nervous about this purchase. What got me there were the designs I could purchase and the built-in SEO. I’ll let them tell you why you should buy it, but I can’t recommend it highly enough. I have five blogs that use Genesis. You can either buy a premium skin or build your own, or you can even find some free skins (like the one I use here).
http://www.joshstauffer.com/free-genesis-child-themes/
http://www.studiopress.com/themes/free

I have purchased Social Eyes (used on FindingMyFitness.com) and Outreach (used on icfg.org, still in development).

A mailing list

Any pro blogger will tell you to build your list early. If you plan on making money from your site, you need a mailing list. These are the people who will buy from you because you know exactly what they’re interested in: you. You don’t even need to know what you’re going to sell.

MailChimp is the best one I’ve found for the new blogger. If you’re still small, you won’t pay anything for emails. You get something like 12,000 emails to send per month for free. They have premium accounts, but the free one is good enough for me.

An image library

You can use photodropper for free, but there aren’t a ton of images. I *generally* go there first, but if I don’t like what I see, I head to my paid service:

Fotolio: Images for the web can be as low as 1 credit, and you can buy credits a few at a time for $1.20 each. Sign up for Fotolio here.

A Social media presence and plan

I’m lumping these all together because they really fall into the same category, but I can tell you my blogs wouldn’t have the traffic I have without these few strategies.

Find a forum or two on your topic and become one of the most active members. This was the number one traffic driver to my site before Google took over for me. It’s still #2 or #3 depending on whether or not I posted something new that day (we’ll get to that). Spending time on a forum builds your authority. Don’t forget to link to your site in your signature.

Twitter is your friend. Use twitter for several different things. Find people who will want to follow you but don’t know it. Interact with them, answering questions and asking some. Tweet interesting links to sites *other* than yours but pertaining to your topic. Use #hastags.

Use Triberr, Tweriod, and BufferApp to tweet stuff. Find a tribe in your niche (I can help you find one if you’d like) and join it. Your tribemates will tweet your posts. Tweriod will tell you when your twitter followers are most active so you can set Buffer’s times to be during your peaks.

Set up your Facebook page and send your blog feed to it. Find a couple Facebook groups that are about your topic, join them, and become the most active member. Remember to post as your page.

A solid blogging course

I learned a lot from reading Copyblogger and Problogger. But I learned *a ton* by taking a blogging course. It’s just more focused than simply reading a blogging blog.

There are two I recommend: Cloud Blogging by ViperChill and Build a Better Blog in 31 Days by Darren Rowse. You will not be sorry for buying one of these courses. You might think you know a lot, but I bet you’ll find several things in these courses you didn’t think about.

Each time I went through a lesson I found something else to tweak on my blog, and it’s better for it.

A few good blogging buddies

That kind of sounds a little “kumbaya”, bit if the wording bugs you I’ve heard this referred to as a “Mastermind Group” too.

You need a few buddies who blog, preferably a few who are at your level and a few who are ahead of you, to bounce ideas off of. Some of my best ideas have happened because of talking to my group. You’ll help each other out a lot, and you’ll feel better knowing there are a couple other people out there who can help you when you get stuck.

With even just a few of these tools, you’ll be well on your way to probloggerhood. Yes, I just made up that word.

What’s your favorite must-have blogging tool?

Are you becoming a problogger?

Definitely check out this online course by Cloud Blogging. It’s the first course I took when I started blogging to make money.
It totally changed the way I blog.

(Some of the links above are affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the site.)

Build Your Twitter Following Every Friday

July 15, 2011 By jason Leave a Comment

Have you seen the hashtag #FF in your Twitter feed? Ever notice it happens on Fridays?

I saw it for a good two or three weeks before I decided to figure out what it means. It means “Follow Friday”, and while it sounds kinda corny, it can really enhance your exposure.

Reaching out to the unknown masses

If you’re not using Twitter to reach out to a potentially huge market of blog readers, you’re really missing out. If you are using Twitter but only casually, you’re still missing out on connections that are just begging to be made. People want to find your blog, but they can’t if they don’t know who you are.

At first, I thought #FF was a cute idea, but I got over it pretty quick. It wasn’t until just recently that I realized it’s power.

People are happy to let others know that people like them. A lot of times when you FF someone, they’ll RT your FF. It’s like saying “See?! People really do like me!” Bloggers eat that crap up! Now all of their followers know that you’re someone who might have some interesting things for them to read. A lot of them will follow you because of it.

Things I FF:

I’m pretty active in my blogging niche, which is fitness as provided by The 4-Hour Body. There are a few different types of FFs I do these days:

my new 4HB related followers
active 4HB tweeters
my Triberr tribe

For most of the people that follow me, these types of Twitter accounts will be useful to follow. People generally follow me for fitness or 4HB discussions, so by pointing them to people who discuss them also, I’m providing value. When those people RT my FF, I get several new followers to send value to.

So the next time you get annoyed at all the #FF tweets, like I did, remember that you can use them too to increase the base of people who read your blog.

-j

PS: You can follow my tweets at FMFBlogger.

Are you becoming a problogger?

Definitely check out this online course by Cloud Blogging. It’s the first course I took when I started blogging to make money.
It totally changed the way I blog.

How to Create Facebook Landing Pages With HTML

May 27, 2011 By jason 3 Comments

Are you becoming a problogger?

Definitely check out this online course by Cloud Blogging. It’s the first course I took when I started blogging to make money.
It totally changed the way I blog.

One of the fun things about building out Finding My Fitness is finding ways to do really cool stuff to get connected to my fans. One of the best ways is via Facebook.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about why you should get into Facebook because the two articles I’m about to link you to are going to do that for you. Let’s just say that it’s

the most popular site on the internet and
almost everyone you know has a Facebook account.

Two of the blogs I follow to learn how to become a professional blogger are ViperChill and SmartPassiveIncome. They both have really awesome content if you’re starting a blog for business, and one of the things I had bookmarked them both to do was create my Facebook landing page.

I had originally started at ViperChill using Glen’s “The Highest Converting Facebook Page I’ve Ever Seen” post. I was all set to go and super excited about the templates he was offering for FREE to get the landing page off the ground. I downloaded them and ran into some snags (like I couldn’t find the app he was talking about), so I went to Pat’s SPI blog to see what he had to say about using Facebook.

When I started watching the video on Pat’s post, How to Create a Facebook Landing Page (HTML / iFrame Edition), I saw a pop-up that said that in March 2011 the old way (using FBML) wasn’t going to work anymore. In his video, Pat teaches you to create a Facebook Page from scratch. Then he teaches you how to create two different landing pages: one for “fans” and one for non-fans.

So then I knew I had it! I could use Glen’s templates, which use FBML, and adapt them to use HTML and the app that Pat told me about. Then I decided to write this page.

I’m not going to teach you anything here because these guys have done it all for me. I’m just walking on the backs of these giants. What I do have extra for you, though, are Glen’s templates that I modified to use HTML instead of FBML. The biggest difference is that you can’t use the user’s login name in HTML, but I’m also trying to figure out how to get around that.

Download my HTML version of ViperChill’s Facebook landing page templates.

Alternatively, you can keep Glen’s templates the way they are and mark the “enable FBML” checkbox in the Static HTML app. When I did that, though, I still didn’t get the username to show up.

You can enable FBML too.

Let me know in the comments if you find any tricks!

-j

The Missing Piece to Your WordPress Site

Why WordPress? Isn’t that for blogs?

It’s all built for you

Do you SEO?

You should use a framework

The framework I use: Genesis

Further reading

More great posts:

$1MBP Update 4

What I’ve Done

What I’ve Learned

What I’ll Do

More great posts:

The Best 6 Indispensible Blogging Tools

A premium WordPress theme

A mailing list

An image library

A Social media presence and plan

A solid blogging course

A few good blogging buddies

More great posts:

Build Your Twitter Following Every Friday

Reaching out to the unknown masses

Things I FF:

More great posts:

How to Create Facebook Landing Pages With HTML

More great posts:

About Me

The Jayzilla Network