Quick Tips To Avoid Plagiarism Content

When it comes to seeking information regarding any subject, internet is the first place we look up to.

Unfortunately, a few websites today aren’t learner-friendly. Content creators in an aim to develop something beautiful and easily accessible, they tend to forget the learner’s goal. And they end up stealing others intellectual properties, which is why surfers often come across similar texts posted on different sites without any citation done.

However, this may or may not be intentional. As Google is very strict about the content quality and keeps on making newer algorithm updates, it is important to check your content thoroughly before it is live. Read on to know the ways to avoid the chances of plagiarism.

Quick Tips To Avoid Plagiarism Content

Here are three quick tips which can help you in avoidinig plagiarism content and improving your reputation in eye of Google.

Paraphrase it appropriately

SEO writers are quick to learn the art of doing detailed internet research, in order to compose an article on any topic. And in an intention to save time, they often end up adopting some questionable habits, which automatically hinders the search engine optimization efforts. This is why Google’s algorithms are used to find out duplicate content. If two texts have consecutive 4 words common, the document that has been posted first will appear at first.

Though, composing unique content is appreciated, if you are running short of ideas you can paraphrase it from some other texts. However, remember to choose completely separate set of words while paraphrasing. It is recommended to make a fresh start rather than jumbling the words.

Avoid Repeating Structure

Duplicating words is not only considered as an act of plagiarism, but also duplicating structure is illegal in a lot of cases. Whether it is due to impending deadline or lack of ideas, writers often get tempted to borrow ideas. Hence, making use of an article to create a new one is plagiarism. While writing SEO article originality is essential, in order to maintain the site’s reputation.

Fortunately, there are a few online sources, which enable the writers to get their works check for plagiarism before posting it. These sites, other than displaying the percentage of the duplicate text, they provide links to the documents, thereby highlighting the words that were copied. Therefore, it is suggested to pass your article through such plagiarism tool in order to avoid any duplicity.

Even after restrictions self-plagiarism do happen. And one of the main reasons behind this is writers composing articles on same topic almost regularly. Unknowingly, often words or sentences are repeated. Thus, using a plagiarism tool may help to avoid such mistakes.

Highlight Original Ideas

Be original while creating your content.

Not only will this lessen the probability of plagiarism, but also will draw more traffic towards the post. Learners or surfers would take interest in your blog post, if they find something new has been offered. This way it will boost the ranking in the popular search engine as well. And in order to bring forth new ideas, you would need to do a great deal of research. Therefore, avoid taking resource from a particular link.

Prepared using the http://plagiarism-detect.org/

Read more: http://allbloggingtips.com/2014/05/20/to-dos-for-avoiding-plagiarism/#ixzz34nUL4miN

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The Crucial Difference Between Building a Blog and Building a Business

Are you building a blog or building a business?

Do you think of yourself — and perhaps describe yourself — as a “blogger”?

Or are you a freelancer, entrepreneur, consultant, ebook author, or similar?

When I got started in blogging, I was really excited by the idea of building a blog that made money. But I didn’t initially see myself as someone who was in business.

As a result, it took me months to start making any money. It wasn’t until I accidentally fell into freelancing (the first blog I guest posted for invited me to become a paid writer) that I began to think in a more business-like way.

So what’s the difference?

If you’re building a blog and you want to make money, then you’re focusing on the wrong thing.

If you’re building a business, you might not be making money yet, but at least you’re moving in the right direction.

Here’s something important to remember: your blog itself is not your business. Your blog is a marketing tool for your business.

What Numbers Are You Focusing On?

When I started blogging, I obsessed about a lot of different numbers, like:

• How many subscribers I had
• How much traffic I was getting
• How many Twitter followers I had

… and so on.

These days, I often don’t remember to check my stats — because I’m focused on the business metric that really matters: how much money am I making?

That might sound a bit cold and profit-focused to you. If your main motivation for blogging is to have an audience for your ideas, then you may not care about making money (though you might want to run a few ads or take donations to cover your hosting costs). That’s fine.

But if you want your blog to be something more than a hobby — potentially a full-time living — then you really need to think beyond your blog itself.

That means figuring out how exactly you’re going to make money. What does your business provide — what service or product do you offer?

That could be:

• You sell ebooks (or print books, or ecourses) on a particular topic, and you blog about the same topic — though in less detail.
• You sell coaching or consulting and your blog is aimed at your clients, covering the sorts of topics they want to know about.
• You run in-person workshops or classes, and your blog covers similar topics, with a focus on your geographical area.
• You offer a particular service, like freelance writing or design, and your blog is aimed at your clients.

Of course, many bloggers use a combination of these, and that can be a great way to use your blog to maximum effect. For instance, you might offer a particular service but also sell a “do-it-yourself” ebook.

Note: Some large blogs run lots of ads and make money that way. This requires a big audience, though, and it’s not a business strategy that I’d recommend to new bloggers: there are much easier ways to build a successful business.

Many successful entrepreneurs in the blogging world started out just like you. They may well have launched a blog without much of a plan in mind, or without a clear idea of how they’d make it profitable.

But somewhere along the way, they all, without exception, turned their blog into a genuine business. And you can do the same.

Your Next Steps

If your current business plan looks something like “grow my blog and monetize it”, figure out exactly what you’re going to do (starting right now) to bring in money.

What service can you offer, or what product could you sell? How could you get started by offering that service or product for free, so you can get some testimonials?

Tell us about your business ideas, or about your thoughts on blogs vs businesses, in the comments below.

Quick reminder: If you’re yet to start your blog, don’t forget that our courseGet Blogging is open for new members until Friday 13th June.

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How to Integrate Email Marketing with Social Media?

With the advent of social media, it might be easy to think that email marketing has become outdated or even redundant but statistics gleaned from a 2011 StrongMail survey suggests otherwise.

In fact, according to their data, over 68% of business leaders affirmed that they would be looking to integrate social media into their email marketing strategies and not the other way around.

In addition, the respondents also indicated that they would be increasing investment in this area. This directly counteracts Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that email marketing would be replaced by integrated social media messaging services.

Is Social Media Time Proof?

Despite the astronomical rise of social media, email still tends to be the preferred method of communication between professionals and in a B2B environment.

To think about this preference in a more personal light, one needs only to think about how many times we check our email each week, or even each day. The majority of office based professionals will have their inbox close at hand, constantly, throughout the day.

The use of social media networks, on the other hand, is still mostly discouraged in a professional environment.

This does, however, clearly demonstrate the difference between what is considered appropriate, or not, with regards to different kinds of communication. Despite email being the communication method of choice for office based professionals in a workplace environment, the popularity of social media suggests that, outside this environment, social networking is the preferred option.

Integration to Accumulate

It seems that, in order for a business to maximize its communicative reach, best practice must be to implement an integration of social media and email marketing. Indeed, social media and email have a lot to offer one another, and they share many similar features. Both are the type of direct response which is used to relay information and encourage interaction, and both work best when they are targeted according to relevancy.

Both social media and email also have shortcomings, which may be negated by the other. For example, social media messages have a short shelf life, but email can be used to remind customers about a social media message, after the event.

Integrate Your Social Media and Email Marketing

There are many ways in which you could integrate your social media and email marketing efforts, including:

• Advertising and promoting email sign up across your social media accounts.
• Including social media one-click buttons in your emails.
• Providing an incentive for users to sign up for your emails, such as giveaways and promotions.

All of these methods have proven to be effective ways of integrating social media and email marketing; and, as has been the case with social media and email marketing themselves, they work best when implemented together as part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

Read more at http://www.bloggingtips.com/2014/06/10/integrate-email-marketing-social-media/#0B94drbosQUyWxB0.99

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6 Productivity Tips for Getting Things Done Fast

Do you find it hard sometimes to focus on your important tasks? Do you start too many tasks and projects but never finish any? And you’re not achieving the results you’re looking for as a result?

If you answer yes to any of the questions, it’s probably because you’re not managing your time very effectively. The following tips will help you manage your time and get things done fast and efficiently.

1. Become clear of what you want to achieve

Firstly, you work at a project or task to achieve something. But if you’re not clear or don’t know exactly what you want to achieve, it will be difficult for you to know the steps you need to take to achieve your goals and you can’t stay motivated.

So determine what your short term and long term goals are and set deadlines for them. For example, what do you want to get or achieve in a year, or five years from now? What about in a week, a month, or 6 months? And what do you need to do to achieve both your long term and short term goals and when?

First get the general, big picture of the steps you need to take in the long term. Then list down specifically what tasks you need to undertake now.

2. Find an accountability partner

One of the greatest things about being self-employed is the freedom of not having to report to a boss or do what you choose to do.  However, that can also be a bad thing if you don’t know how to keep yourself accountable.

The truth is, it’s not always easy to keep yourself accountable or set your goals, create action plans, and check your progress, all on your own.

What you can do instead is agree with someone else to become accountability partners of each other. You’ll share with them about your goals, and plan of actions and they’ll continually check your progress, remind you of your action plans, and from time to time give you a friendly kick in the butt. You’ll also reciprocate and do the same to them so you both can stay on track and focused on achieving your goals.

3. Tackle your important tasks first

Sometimes, your to-do list can have a lot of items and if you start your day with tasks that are not important or urgent, you might reach the end of the day without accomplishing anything of significance.

To avoid this happening, determine what your important tasks are and do them first. Even if you haven’t done everything on your to do list by the end of the day, you’ll still accomplish a lot. Remember, the 80/20 rule always applies.

4. Arrange your files and folders in an organized manner

We sometimes can waste several minutes in the middle of a task browsing through folders just to find a single file.

Not being able to find what you want when you want it, will not only waste your time but also destruct you from focusing on what you’re working at.

Take some time and organize your folders in a way that you can to find files fast and easily. For example, if you were working on a number of websites, you could create different folders for each website with names such as “Site1″, “Site2″ etc…

If, then you wanted to start an article marketing campaign to promote your site number 1, for example, you would create a new folder named “Articles” under the “Site1″ folder and store your newly written articles in that folder.

Come up with a file management system that works best for you as soon as you can. By doing so you can save time and stay focused.

5. Get a private working place

Another good part about running an online business is that you can work from anywhere or any place. You can work in a coffee shop or in your bedroom in your pajamas as long as you have a computer an internet access.

But if you really want to take your business to the next level, you need to consider getting some private space that is free from destruction so that you can work uninterruptedly. This way, your productivity level will rise and you can achieve more.

6. Block social media websites

How many times have you ever found yourself chatting, watching videos, checking emails or instant messaging on social media websites in the middle of a task? You can get sidetracked easily and find yourself spending more time than necessary on those sites.

If you can’t stop or limit yourself, you can use tools like “Anti-Social” to block out social media websites on your computer.

There you have it, six tips for becoming more productive. All in all, if you set clear goals, become accountable, and avoid destructions, you can achieve what you want in your online marketing endeavors.

Do you have any other tips for getting things done even faster?

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Bad SEO Practices #2: Article Marketing Sites / Article Directories

In case you missed it, here’s the first post in this series: Bad SEO Practices #1: Buying and Selling Links.

Have you come across article marketing?

It means writing for sites like Ezine Articles, which are a repository of articles that anyone can republish – so long as they keep the author’s bio box in place. (You might hear these called “article directories.”)

Back in 2008 when I started blogging, I spent a bit of time writing ten or so articles. They sent me a bit of traffic, though nothing spectacular. More importantly, they helped me get links from other people’s newsletters (“ezines”) and websites.

The drawback to this was that many of the pieces on article marketing sites weren’t particularly good … plus there’s not much value for readers in the same article being repeated across multiple different websites.

Back in 2011, EzineArticles was hit hard by Google’s algorithm update (along with plenty of other article directories). And over the past couple of years, SEO experts from sites like Search Engine Watch and Moz have spoken out against article marketing, saying that it might harm your search engine rankings.

Right now, you’ll be wasting your time submitting to article marketing sites. There are plenty of better places to focus your efforts (like writing unique, value-packed guest posts for major sites in your niche).

Even worse, the links you get from article directories may actively harm your Google rankings. And of course, when anyone can reprint your work, you might find it popping up on spammy sites or even on your competitors’ blogs. Do you really want that?

Article marketing may have worked six years ago, but it doesn’t work today. If you’re doing it, stop wasting your time. If it’s something you’ve been thinking about, don’t bother.

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One Very Simple Email Marketing Trick that Even Big Brands Aren’t Using

Last week, I was in Vegas for MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit – a high-profile conference aimed at businesses looking to improve their email marketing.

While some of the advice was definitely aimed at big brands with big audiences, there were plenty of tips that apply to anyone with an email list.

I wrote about what I learned in a post for Zen Optimise (Twelve Brilliantly Simple Email Marketing Tips from MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit 2014), but I wanted to share just one very simple yet really vital tip here:

Make your “snippet” text compelling.

What’s snippet text?

It’s the first few words of your email, which appear alongside the subject line in many email clients, like Gmail. I’ve indicated the snippets in red below:

Here are the snippets themselves:

South by Southwest’s email snippet reads “Having trouble reading this email? View it in your browser. Faceboo…”

genConnect’s email snipped reads “If you’re having trouble viewing this email…”

This is such a wasted opportunity. Why not use the snippet to encourage people to open your email? The myWaitrose email does the best job of this, with:

“Waitrose £5 wines plus how to make Delia’s pancakes…”

(And I don’t know about you, but the words “having trouble reading this email?” or similar aren’t exactly encouraging ones…)

There are plenty of ways to create better snippet text. Maybe your template has a box to include a sentence or two on the top left hand side. Maybe you want to change the way you begin your emails.

It’s up to you. Just be aware of what readers are seeing … and how you can use it to your advantage.

Have you got a great example of a compelling snippet from an email in your inbox? Share it with us in the comments!

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The Year SEO Changed Forever

SEO marketing finally matured in 2013. With more than 500 algorithm changes a year, keeping pace with innovation was a source of confusion and frustration for some people, yet provided great clarity for others.

The rapid pace of change in our market, fueled by the convergence of earned, owned, and paid media has meant that the traditional SEO mindset moved from keyword-centric methodologies toward new content-centric, and key revenue based strategies.

Google's move to make 100 percent of search keyword data "(not provided)" in September finally forced SEO marketers to rethink their strategies. Some people failed to identify trends, and struggled to adapt, while others took a giant innovative leap into the world of secure search.

In 2014 we'll see a new content and page-centric SEO workflow form the backbone of, what I like to call, a new "Secure Search Manifesto." This new manifesto allows you to actually match your SEO and content marketing strategies to measurable business outcomes.

2013: The Year SEO Changed Forever

SEO changed forever in 2013. The evolution of SEO and the focus on content started a long time ago. Google's Hummingbird update "rubber stamped" the essential need to focus on quality content marketing and, in conjunction, secure search did the same with regard to "adapt or die" pure keyword rank checking philosophies.

Google began giving SEO marketers signals about how their model and algorithms would change in 2011. Panda and Penguin gave clear signals on the shift to content and relevancy and the removal of "black hat" strategies. The gradual rise in the number of keywords "(not provided)" signaled an impending paradigm shift in the keyword model market to a content-centric model.

In September 2013 marketers witnessed the single biggest change to happen in this industry since the introduction of off-page factors and backlinks. Secure search ensured that adapting to change was no longer an option but a necessity.

The Dangerous Perception: Old school strategies can still work

Any fundamental shift in a market brings with it opportunity but also resistance and fear. Many marketers still maintain the misconceived perception that SEO is dead – a very mute and irrelevant topic.

A far more dangerous perception is that although SEO has changed, the way you work doesn't have to change. Let me be clear:

• In a pre-"(not provided)" world, marketers had the luxury of having access to traffic, conversion, and revenue data by keywords.
• In the new "(not provided)" world, marketers no longer have access to this data.
• Continuing to look at just keyword data won't work for your business.
• Marketers that still focus on an outdated dependence on rank checking tools will see their SEO performance decline rapidly.
• Moving from old school to new school tactics across page, content, search, and social sets you up for success in 2014.

The Reality: Content, Page and Analytics Integration now are King and Key Strategy

A renewed importance and focus on quality content was reflected in the Hummingbird change that ran in parallel to the move to secure search. For the forward thinking marketer this was a clear signal that SEO is in fact more alive than ever.

Forward thinking marketers have been evolving and developing content and on-page strategies in line with Google innovation. They changed the way that they work and now look to innovative ways to integrate analytics data to restore visibility no longer available with secure search.

Organizations that can mirror and adapt to a new SEO workflow stand to benefit at the expense of their competitors.

2014: The New Secure Search Manifesto

Adapting to the epic change and shift in our market requires adapting to, and focusing on, a new direction in SEO. Here are four key truths about secure search that you can use as a guide to formulate your strategies in 2014.

1. Analytics is the Source of Truth

Secure search changed the way that we think about SEO forever. In 2014, new SEO reporting requires a shift to measuring real (not estimated) business metrics at a page level. This includes making sure that you measure traffic, conversions, and revenue.

In 2013 many marketers viewed secure search shift resulting in a technology or integration problem. The best marketers saw this as a logical outcome of ashift to page-centric SEO. Your web pages, are what will attract visitors, drive conversions and help you measure organic revenue in the New Year.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

• The most effective way to manage your SEO programs going forward is to make pages the center of your SEO world.
• Pull actual data from your web analytics at the page level in order to do this.
• Understand what is happening with your traffic, conversions, and revenue as a result of secure search and prioritize you work accordingly.

2. Rank Still Matters

In 2013 the meaning and focus on "what rank is" changed rapidly. The convergence of earned, owned, and paid media was reflected in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The integration of search, social, mobile, global, and local, and the growth and adoption of mobile, changed the way content appeared in the SERPs.

SEO success is now the gateway to measuring the ultimate business impact of your content – driving a greater keyword rank for your page's is essential and tracking your keyword performance still matters. Rank still matters in 2014. It always will.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

• Focus on accurate rank in 2014 – this means having a robust methodology in place that takes account of spikes and drops in traffic and not focusing on generic rank reports that do not take into account these shifts.
• Make sure that you measure rank and performance by device type – research shows that rank and conversions on tablets, phone, and desktop vary dramatically.

• Ensure that you are measuring and tracking universal/blended rank. This includes looking at Carousel results. Remember, there aren't always 10 results per page.

In 2014, rank means ensuring that you have complete visibility into how content appears in the SERPs by device type (mobile, tablet, desktop) in universal listings, and by location (city and country).

3. Page and Content are the Center of the Universe

It's essential that your approach to content in 2014 is done the "Hummingbird way." Content on your pages are what attract visitors, drive conversions and bring in revenue. The most effective way to manage SEO programs in 2014 is to make pages the center of your SEO world.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

• Think like a content marketer, analyze like an SEO.
• Analyze your content and data at a page level in 2014.
• Integrate and work closely with GWMT to correlate page and keyword data.
• Use this data to understand your SEO and content performance across revenue, conversions, and traffic at a page level.
• Set up and report on individual and group pages total performance.

"The industry has become overly dependent on keyword referral as a data point," said Chris Keating, VP, SEO, CO and Data Feeds, Performics. "We will continue to leverage other search engine-provided data, but our main source of advanced metrics will cover page-level performance, share of voice, and other enterprise measurements."

4. All Data is Relevant and Connected

In 2014, you'll need to utilize a rich set of data sources to ensure that you have a complete, 20/20 vision, on how your content and SEO is performing. Secure search brought about challenge for some but opportunities for many.

All structured data has a meaning and is connected across search, social, and digital marketing. The opportunity manifests itself in analytical integration and how you connect the search, social, and content dots on your web page.

2014 Tips and Tactics:

• Utilize all your data from multiple data sources (such as Majestic SEO and Google Analytics)
• Ensure that you utilize Google Webmaster Tools data to restore partial keyword visibility.
• Integrate this data to form new format keyword reports.
• Build comprehensive dashboards that collate all rank, keyword, social, and content data in one place – do this at a local and global level.

You can download the Secure Search Manifesto and checklist from BrightEdge here.

Conclusion

Old habits die hard in SEO. However, adapting to change is the new imperative that marketers in our industry have to follow in 2014. SEO has always been the most predominant channel in online marketing and it always will be.

So, what has changed? People's perception of what SEO is has changed.

• SEO is content
• SEO is social
• SEO is analytics
• SEO is marketing

Google's shift toward 100 percent secure search meant that the metrics and methodology SEO practitioners had been using needed to change.

The role of SEO as the driver of earned media has become even more important as part of the content marketing revolution. The key to unlocking this potential lies in gaining a 360-degree view of how your content is performing across all your web pages and attributing this to revenue.

It's time to build a new dashboard – a content performance dashboard.

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Facebook Likes, Shares Don't Impact Google Search Rankings

Eric Enge, president of Stone Temple Consulting, has done a groundbreakingstudy on the impact of Facebook Likes and Shares on SEO, specifically Google, as well as what role profiles play on content shared via status updates.

While there has been a lot of speculation over the years about whether Facebook activity is a factor in Google's rankings, there's been no real hard evidence either way. Enge's new study changes that.

Enge did two separate studies on the impact of Facebook. The first dealt specifically with Likes while the second dealt with Shares.

Facebook Likes 'Not in the Picture'

After creating two different web pages on three different domains, he had friends and Fiverr users drive likes to each of the pages. Despite each of those pages being liked nearly 900 times each, Google never crawled are indexed any of the six pages. So Google clearly is not using Facebook likes to discover or index new content.

There are couple reasons why Google doesn't seem to be using Facebook Likes when it comes to discovery and indexing. While Googlebot can execute the Facebook Like script, it has no idea which people Liked it. When looking at links, for example, Google is able to assign trust to the links based on who is doing the linking. But when it comes to Likes, Google is unable to assign a similar kind of "score" based on who is doing the liking because it simply doesn't know. Therefore it can't determine that one page may be liked by very influential people while a second page is liked by only fake Facebook profiles.

"Likes are simply not in the picture," Enge said. "The only data Google can possibly get is the number of Likes on a page if the page has a Like widget on it, but they have no idea as to who has Liked the page. For that reason there is no value to that information to them. I think it is pretty conclusive that they don't use it for discovery, indexing, or ranking."

Facebook Shares 'Inconclusive'

Google indexing based on Facebook shares was also tested. They asked over 50 people to share different sets of pages, however each page only ended up being shared about 10 times each, although some of the shares were made by fairly high profile people in the industry, people you would expect would have a bit more influence for ranking factors.

Again, although the sample size was fairly small in terms of the number of shares, Google didn't crawl or index the shared pages either. However, the results could possibly have been different with a larger sample size.

"The data on Facebook shares is less conclusive," Enge said. "It suggests that Google does not use it for discovery, indexing, or ranking. I believe that this is in fact true, but others can choose to point out that we don't have a comprehensive data set here, and they would be right. However, our conclusion (that they don't use shares) is also consistent with what Google says about Facebook signals as a ranking factor."

Crawling & Indexing of Facebook Profile Pages

Profile pages are also looked at for potential ranking factors. Google has the ability to crawl public profiles and see who your friends are when crawling the mobile version of Facebook.

To get more Friends shown, you need to scroll the page down, and when you do that, Javascript executes that pulls some additional Friends up and displays them. As you scroll down more, more and more Friends are loaded. It is possible for Google to get the entire Friends list in an automated way, but they probably don't because of the nature of the Javascript. There is no separate version of the page for users without javascript.

However, on the mobile version of the Facebook site, there is a clean link on the Friends page to "show more friends". This is a simple text link and it is not scrolling dependent. We can't conclusively decide that Google is pulling this data, but clearly if they are motivated to get this data they can. For that reason, for purposes of this article, we will assume that they do!

While there's no clear-cut evidence whether Google is or isn't doing this, the opportunity is there, which also means that it is potentially beneficial for users to be friends with high profile users, and those with strong profile pages in Facebook.

One interesting thing was that Enge also discovered that Google has indexed a large number of Facebook posts – 1.87 billion to be exact. So next they looked at those with high PageRank profile pages, from people linking to their profile page, to determine the frequency that those higher authority users saw their post content indexed. However, while the results showed that some of their posts were being indexed, the percentage of content indexed from the profile page was in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 percent, depending on the age of the post.

On those profile pages, images seem to be the least likely by far to be indexed by Google, while links and text did very well. Videos vary depending on the age of the post, and while they were ahead of images, they were far behind to both link and text. But even for these prominent profile pages, Google doesn't seem to be crawling every single thing on the page and indexing it, but there doesn't seem to be a specific reason for the inconsistency.

All the data collected was made available publicly for full disclosure purposes and can be viewed in the spreadsheets here.

Conclusion

While Google has the ability to use Facebook influence in their algorithm, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that Google is using it to discover, index, or rank any content on the web at this time.

This shouldn't dissuade people from using Facebook for marketing purposes, because shares and updates clearly can deliver traffic and exposure.

But from an SEO perspective, you don't need to worry that you need to share every new piece of content on Facebook in hopes you rank higher. Of course, Google being Google, they could change the role of Facebook in the algorithm at any time, but right now there is no influence by using Facebook strictly for SEO value.

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How to Get Out of Niches and Blog for a Purpose Instead

Money is not everything. Anything beyond an optimum amount causes more misery than happiness.

Yet, with a stereotypical assumption that most of us want to make money (let’s not kid ourselves by saying “no” to this assumption), we all have a tendency to get stuck in a rut: the dirty groove of a routine that we get comfortable with over time. Even the advice we receive, the articles we write, and everything we believe in becomes congruent with this comfort zone.

For bloggers, it translates to finding niches, writing 500 word posts, and promoting your blog using the same methods we’ve always been used to. That includes social media, asking for links, putting up sign-up forms for opt-ins, some paid advertising, and then wondering how else to promote the blog.

If you’ve been doing whatever you’ve been doing, how will you get to where you want to go?

It’s time to do something different.

We all know passion pours energy into our life. It gives us more chutzpah to do what we want. It drives our efforts to reach our goals.

If you pick niches, blog multiple times a day, and work like a machine to promote your blog, here’s what happens..

Passion wears out..

Frustration sets in..

You’ll develop stress. Finally, you’ll give up.

Ignore the popular advice.

Forget the damn niches. 

If you have to blog, do so for a purpose. Here are different ways to find your purpose:

What is that one thing that pisses you off?

We all have our pet peeves, don’t we?

Maybe you love to do something but your lifestyle is your biggest enemy. Maybe you actually travel and you don’t like the way immigration procedures and visa restrictions don’t allow you to travel free. You could have been scammed online before and you just can’t get over it. Or maybe you got dumped unceremoniously by your girlfriend. Perhaps, you hate the well-orchestrated, social brainwash that marriage really is.

Find your biggest source of frustration; go and blog about it. Chances are that you’ll not worry about word counts and blog post lengths. There’s a possibility that many others in the world would relate to you.

Relating to the topic on hand, by the way, is half the business done.

Find a real business, blog for that business

Don’t blog about a topic. Instead, find a real business and apply your passion for blogging into a blog built for your business. Why? An unbelievable amount of “you” gets into your business, whether you know it or not.

Hatching that idea, sticking with it, and grabbing a business plan template off the web are the starting points. Beyond that, you’d give your business everything (including startup capital, sacrifices, the comfort of a day job, and the wholesome approval of people who mean so much to you). You will not sound or feel normal after so much goes into starting and running a business.

Your blog now reflects the new “you,” doesn’t it? Whatever you went through until this stage of your business (assuming you go with this idea) helps you communicate better. You are stronger, and you have an attitude to kill for.

Blog for a cause, to make a difference

If starting and running a full-fledged business (such as ecommerce, maybe) is not your thing, let’s get back to blogging.

Niches are popular and commercial. They evoke responses from customers such as “buy,” “buy later,” “no way, it’s too expensive,” and “nah, not for me.” If you don’t directly pitch for anything in your blog, all you’ll get is “ah,” “duh,” or “I see. Wow!”

Blog for a cause, instead, and you’ll mostly get responses like “I so want to help, if I could,” “Where is the donate button?” “I like what this person does,” “This is so true,” and “Wow, really?”

Now, causes don’t have to charitable. You could find a cause within commercial domains too. You can find a cause anywhere. All you have to do is look for something that’s troubling you, and you know that a lot of other people are also affected by it.

Look at what SaltyDroid does:

The trouble seed: Online scammers on the rise

The cause: Exposing scammers, thieves, and fraud “gurus” with make-believe opportunities

Does SaltyDroid sell anything? No.

Does it get traffic? Next question please.

Experiment until you find the purpose

Learning the art of blogging after you find your purpose will draw you in very late to the game. When the purpose comes calling, you have to hit the ground running. You have to be ready by then. That’s why it’s important to keep blogging everyday. How do you become a better blogger? Write blog posts every day.

What’s the secret to passionate blogging? Using your well-developed blogging skills to write about things that matter to you (and others).

In a nutshell, you have to do all the dreaming, thinking, and executing while you already have a blog in place. Now, you know that your choice of niche wouldn’t matter too. Pick a topic, start a blog and run with it. Think of this as your experiment.

Experiment until you find your passion. Once you find it, give your blog everything you’ve got.

Grammar? Rules? What’s that?

Read all the blogs you want on “how to blog better.” Brush up on your basics of writing (add copywriting to the mix). Yet, don’t think that what you read is the only “right” way to do things out there. You can make your own rules. Copywriters, for instance, break rules all the time. Find your voice. Make your writing reflect that voice. If you have to twist sentence structures, do so. If you have to invent your own words or phrases, like labeling yourself as an “anti-niche blogging rebel” go ahead and do it.

This is your playground. Go play. 

Your passion should show. Success will follow.

Are you stuck with niches or are you blogging from your heart? Do you have a purpose yet? Share it with us!

Read more: http://allbloggingtips.com/2013/12/17/blog-for-a-purpose/#ixzz2nwEJI4WG

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There and Back Again: 4 Online Marketing Lessons from The Hobbit

One marketing lesson to rule them all, one—wait, no…wrong movie. From ax-wielding dwarves to staff-bearing wizards, a trek across Middle Earth is quite an adventure. But while a quest from another realm may seem worlds away from the online marketing field, the two are more alike than you might think.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved children’s book (and recent film adaptation by Peter Jackson) The Hobbit has much to teach us about bravery, friendship, and the fight for right. But amidst these adventurous tales, you will also find a lesson or two on good online marketing principles. Check out these four marketing lessons from The Hobbit, and discover how you can succeed even against great odds.

1. Play to Your Strengths

As The Hobbit has demonstrated, strength and victory don’t always come in grand campaigns; sometimes it is through small and unlikely packages that the day is won. For example, though a hobbit is a seemingly unassuming character, upon closer inspection you realize that they have many unique strengths. In Bilbo’s case, he was small and stealthy, and empowered by the simple courage and goodness of his people—all excellent qualities for a “burglar” tasked with sneaking past a live dragon.

Though you may not have to challenge a real life dragon, you will certainly have your own professional dragons to face. For your marketing quest, take time to analyze your strengths and weaknesses. Take advantage of the resources and unique qualities you possess to reach out effectively to your target market. Whether you are a large company or a small startup, focus on your core strengths and highlight them in your campaign. And just remember: You don’t have to be big to make a big difference.

2. Success is a Group Effort  

Bilbo’s successes in The Hobbit could not have happened without the support and efforts of his friends and companions. Similarly, success in online marketing is a group effort. Take time to build your network of friends, colleagues, and followers. Reach out through email, social media, and your blog to connect to your readers and encourage them to subscribe.

Enlist the help of your network to spread the word about your blog by utilizing calls to action in your blog posts, surveying your customers/readers, and asking for feedback. Positive online reviews are an excellent way to build your brand and boost your online reputation. Even SEO companies like Boostability can benefit from positive reviews. A simple Google search for “Boostability reviews,” for example, will bring up multiple results for customer reviews. Reach out to your online community to garner similar feedback.

Just don’t forget to take their suggestions into account to improve your blog and your users’ experiences. As you do so, you will expand your network and build a stronger community. And the bigger your network, the more opportunities for growth—both for your blog or website, and your business.

3. Darkness Never Wins the Day    

Though the forces of darkness are powerful and oftentimes seem overwhelming, The Hobbit teaches us that good always triumphs. When the dragon Smaug takes to the sky and wreaks havoc on Laketown, all it took to claim the victory was one sharp arrow. And fortunately, this truth is not just a part of fairytales. In online marketing, there are good guys and bad guys. Make sure your arrows fly true and that don’t find yourself on the wrong team.

The dark side of online marketing is also known as black hat SEO. Their strategies revolve around the dishonest practices of keyword-stuffing, adding invisible text, and using doorway pages to essentially trick the search engines into ranking sites higher in the SERPs. While this can work for a time, these strategies do not draw in quality traffic and provide little to no value to the users.

Fortunately, as Google and other major search engines make the change to more content-focused ranking factors, it will become increasingly difficult for the darkness to prevail. If you want to be caught on the victorious side of this battle, stick to honest and ethical marketing practices. It might take you a little longer to struggle to the top, but you can get there—and stay there—over time.

4. You Must Be Consistent 

When it comes to almost anything in life, consistency and diligence tends to be key. Throughout The Hobbit, Bilbo and his company of dwarves, elves, men, and wizards came across many challenges. More than once, these courageous warriors were tempted to give up and surrender their cause. However, their story teaches us that if you never give up and see your cause through to the end, great rewards lie in store.

As you work towards building your online presence and improving your blog, be consistent. Stay the course. Publish content regularly and on schedule—this is a sure way to build steady traffic and increase your followers. Inconsistent or irregular marketing outreach will only lead to inconsistent and irregular returns. Building a name for yourself online takes time and patience. As you stick with your marketing campaign, you can expect to see positive results. Just be wary of any fire-breathing dragons that may pop up.

Though your marketing campaign may not be as epic as a trek across Middle Earth, you can gain some ground by applying these principles to your strategies. Soon enough you may reap the rewards of a king’s treasure in increased traffic, improved SERP rankings, and a better online reputation.

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