Author: angie

Here’s my latest Periscope broadcast. This one’s all about quick actions you can take to grow your blog’s traffic. Overview of Video Tips Hot Blog Topics – Find topics that are currently trending. Use tools like Google Trends, BuzzFeed, BuzzSumo, Twitter and Facebook Trends and other related tools. Write your spin on what everyone’s talking about. HTML Trick – If a post gets a lot of traffic from a particular keyword but that keyword isn’t in the HTML title, edit the title to include it and republish the page for an instant boost in SERP rankings – bringing you more traffic. If you do this to your top 10 posts that meet this criteria, you can get it done in less than 20 minutes. Share your posts to relevant social networks. Detail in the video. Don’t forget to respond to and like all comments. This increases your chances of being seen in newsfeeds. Post at optimal times. Check Google Analytics and the analytics available on your social media pages. Tools like Buffer also help with posting your social media updates at optimized times. Plugins: Popular Posts and Social Share plugins will increase shares and click through rate. They take just a few minutes to set up and are more than worth the effort. Add a call to action to the end of every post and page. Ideas include: for...

How to Get Rid of Thousands of Spam Comments at Once (Even if already approved) After having my sites attacked by spam bots, I had a problem. Google thought my sites were malicious and had blacklisted me. I got together with my web host/tech guru, who helped me by essentially gutting the sites and allowing me to start over from the bottom up, but since I didn’t want to lose my content, there was an additional concern. It seemed that, at least on some of the sites, I had thousands of already-approved spam comments, and they were causing issues with my hosting service. If you have WordPress, you know that the standard issue CMS doesn’t allow for bulk deletion of already-approved comments. What a huge pain! Anyway, after much research and many hours of stressing, I figured it out! There’s a simple way to delete all spam comments in WordPress instantly–and almost anyone can do it. Here’s what I found out. How to Delete All Spam Comments in WordPress With a Few Simple Clicks Download and activate the Portable MyPHPAdmin plugin. Navigate to the plugin’s interface in your WordPress dashboard. (It’ll be on the left, below the “settings” button). Using the drop-down menu in the interface, select your database. Select “comments” in the left-side menu, then select “empty.” That’s it! Once you’ve completed those steps (shouldn’t take more than...

All resources mentioned in this video can be found on the Periscope page here. Transcript Below Know exactly what you’re selling. So you need to pick a niche – and I know you’ve heard this before, but here’s how much it matters in your business – listen closely. It’s really easy to want to be a generalist. I want to be one too! But we can’t, because that’s already being done. What we can do, though, is to become a SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT – and this is the key to taking your business to the next level in 2016. You will find resources for how to select your niche and create your niche-related content at the Periscope Pages at both OnlineWritingPro.com and GoAskAngie.com. Okay, tip #2: Expand your line of products or services. You know what I’m saying? So you’re going to GIVE people more of what they want – more of what they’re already getting from you. This might include stuff like “go-along” products and/or services, add-ons and even just related stuff. So, for example, in my case, one of my existing niches has always been blogging and building websites. But when I became certified as a solution focused coach at UCI, I added the coaching element to that side of my business. So now, I can do it FOR them, or I can teach them how to...

Transcript Below Infographic When you do it right, the combo of Blogging and Social media marketing is not only the most effective, targeted way to connect with your potential customers and client that has ever existed until now, but it’s absolutely necessary in today’s business world if you’re going to stay competitive -and it’s true in nearly every industry. Even a local “mom and pop” shop can benefit from social media and the real-time networking it can offer. But while some bloggers have the luxury of working full-time on just their blogs, most don’t – and it can become very overwhelming if you don’t find ways to simplify and streamline your blogging process. If you’re feeling that way now, you’re not alone – heck, I’ve been there myself and I’m always working on ways to make my life easier. I hope my experiences will help you to transition much faster and avoid the pitfalls I found myself in along the way. Are you ready to get started?: Get those tapping fingers ready to show some love – I’m about to break it down for you! Let’s start by helping you to figure out the best process for your blogging responsibilities – the one that fits into your life. Tip #1: 3-Pronged Approach to Creating the Process So, I suggest that you start with focus on three primary areas when...

If I told you that, for a blogger, “the money’s in the list,” how would it make you feel? If you ask me, it can feel intimidating and exhilarating all at once. What blogger doesn’t want to experience the joy of sending out a single email and seeing sales pour in? The only problem is that many don’t know how to start their list building endeavors. But I have good news! That’s where the Blog-Fire Method comes in! Many bloggers and marketers find that time slips away and before they know it, they’re living in Wish-ville because they kept saying stuff like “oh, I’ll get to it – someday I’ll build a list.” And of course, someday never comes. That results in a struggle each time they have something to promote or release because they have to find buyers. What a pain!! But good news – a well-crafted list with carefully targeted readers will make your life so much easier. Sounds oversimplified, but when you have an email subscriber list, you have a built in stable of interested customers and prospects – and they can convert for you, promote for you, and give you tips on what needs to be improved. Build Your List With an Amazing Freebie (Lead Magnet) Offer Okay. So What Constitutes a Great Offer? Value– Obviously, the value of the freebie is what will impress your audience. This...

One of the most important parts of being in any business is communication with your clients, customers and could-be clients and customers. And when you don’t have an unlimited budget, sometimes setting up certain parts of your process to be automated can be useful. When it comes to autoresponders, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it – and today, we’re going to talk about that. Types of Emails You Can Send via Autoresponder There are two different kinds of emails you can send when it comes to your autoresponder – broadcast emails and follow up emails. Broadcast emails are blasted out to your list(s) one time. That means if someone signs up a week from today, they won’t ever get that email, so if there’s something you want all of your subscribers to get, make sure you don’t broadcast it. Follow up emails are where you’ll put your series emails in. So if you promise a 7-day course, you would create 7 follow up emails that get drip fed to your subscribers once a day for a week. The problem with follow up emails is if you do a mix of those and broadcast emails. This can mean your subscriber actually hears from you more than once a day, and this can anger many of them and cause them to unsubscribe. What NOT to...

Setting up a good email autoresponder system is important for an online writing pro and blogger (not to mention small business owner) because it helps you build your list right from the very beginning. Related: All About Building Your List Some people go the free route because they worry that their list won’t build or convert for them, and they want a return on their investment. The problem is that you eventually have to transfer your list to a paid model with more capabilities and no intrusive advertisements that you’ll have to compete with when you email from a free autoresponder. Many marketers choose to use Aweber. This tool is affordable when you pay for it, but the first month has a nice $1 trial fee and it’s just $19 a month after that if you decide to continue on with it. Aweber is also one of the preferred autoresponders because of the vast number of tutorials they provide, along with a simple, step-by-step walk-through with prompts when you’re setting up your system. Personally, I prefer Mailchimp. Your Squeeze Page Matters You’ll want to have a squeeze page in place for building your list. You can do this right on your home domain, and place your blog at yourdomain.com.blog if you want to. The squeeze page should have a nice graphic presentation. Everything should be above the fold, so...