May | 14 | 2008

Creative Writing: How To Get Started

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion In my last post, I talked about the role of creative writing in blog writing. We have a comment from one of our readers, Nancy, which I think warrants mention in this follow up post. She emphasizes the importance of achieving a balance between creative writing and informative writing. So as you try your hand at creative writing, try to bear in mind that balance that you have to achieve. So what do you need for creative writing? I would say your imagination and a conversational tone – nothing else. Put yourself in your reader’s ...

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May | 13 | 2008

Tags for Traffic

Posted by Guru as Tips, Promotion, Syndication Want to increase traffic to your blog? I suggest you start tagging your entries. So what are tags exactly? In the blogging sense tags are simply word(s) you use to help classify/categorize your blog entry. For example since this post is about blogs promotion I can tag this as "blog promotion." Since I'll also mention a Technorati tags later I can also tag this as "Technorati." Since in the end this is all a blogging tip I can also include the tag "blog tips." So how can tags increase traffic to your blog? Tags can help increase your blog traffic by ...

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May | 09 | 2008

Comments or No Comments?

Posted by Guru as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Community Building Having a comment section on your blog is a good idea because it becomes a venue for interaction between you and your readers as well as between the readers themselves. However, if you remember having your very first blogs with no more than a handful of readers then you probably know how lonely a blog without any comment looks. When it comes to building up your blog traffic the bad news is that a lonely looking blog does not only feel somewhat disappointing to the blogger but also lessens the readers enthusiasm for the blog. Because of this a comment ...

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May | 06 | 2008

Is Creative Writing Appropriate For Blogs?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion I came across an idea on Daily Blog Tips about creative writing for blogs. It reads: What does creative writing has to do with blogging? Well, for one thing all bloggers need to be able to write efficiently, and to be able to express and raise emotions from time to time. That is, they need to go beyond the mere facts once in a while (or more often than that depending on your niche). This raised the question “Is creative writing really needed for blogs?” in my mind. If we were to base everything on that snippet above, then ...

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May | 04 | 2008

Learning From Your Mistakes

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing Write, write, write. That’s what my previous post was all about. What I didn’t really emphasize in that post is the need for practice. Yes, I did mention that a bit but I believe that it warrants more detail. Think about it this way – you can write for hours every day, 7 days a week. Heck, you can even write 24 hours if you wish do to so. Yet how will it benefit you if you keep on writing in the same way you have always been writing? How will you benefit if you ...

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May | 01 | 2008

So You Want To Be A Better Writer?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion I would say that if you were really serious about your blogging, then you would give an unequivocal yes as an answer to the question. I know I want to be a better writer. That is why I was quite excited when I saw Brian Clark’s post title “10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer.” I could hardly contain myself as I waited for the page to load. To my surprise, this is what I saw: 1. Write. 2. Write more. 3. Write even more. 4. Write even more than that. 5. Write when you don’t want to. 6. Write when you do. 7. Write when you have something to say. 8. Write ...

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Apr | 30 | 2008

Are You A Fence Sitter?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion The Free Dictionary defines this expression as: fence sitter n. Informal One who takes a position of neutrality or indecision, as in a controversial matter. Take a look at some of your posts which feature particularly controversial topics. For example, when it comes to blogging practices, we have topics such as keyword density, black hat or grey hat SEO, and the like. For blogs that tackle many other topics, politics, religion, etc. could be controversial topics. In those posts, did you voice out a definite opinion on the issue at hand? Did you choose a side and defend it? ...

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Apr | 28 | 2008

Exploiting Clichés

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion Who said that clichés are never good? Well really should avoid them most of the time. After all, I am sure that you can come up with something more original and something that would drive your point home – most of the time, that is. Yet what about those times when you simply cannot get those creative juices flowing? Will you settle for something less compelling rather than make use of a cliché? Personally, I would say no. I am not all that against clichés, really. There are clichés, and there are clichés. I ...

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Apr | 25 | 2008

Are You A Blogging Addict? (Part 3)

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing, Opinion So you obsess over your subscriber count (Oh no! I only have 89 subscribers! My target is 100!). And you can’t seem to stop checking your blog stats (It’s already been 45 minutes since I last checked. I should check again – a lot can happen in 45 minutes, you know!). What else can be indicators that you might – just might – be a blogging addict? How much time do you spend on social media sites? Digg, Stumble Upon, and the like. How often do you “push” your posts on these sites? Do you ...

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Apr | 20 | 2008

Are You A Blogging Addict? (Part 2)

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorials News, Tips, Opinion, Blogging Tools, Software and Widgets In the last post, we took a look at something that a blogging “addict” may obsess about – the number of subscribers. Well, here’s another thing that someone with an intense desire for blogging can obsess about – statistics. To be honest, I have gone through this phase a couple of times in my blogging life. Even if I would like to think that I have overcome this obsession, I still find myself checking my blog stats a little more than I should. Ask yourself this question – how many times do you spend checking your ...

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Is Your Blog W3C Compliant?

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