“The Dos and Don’ts of Weight Loss Blogging for Beginners” plus 1 more |  |
| The Dos and Don’ts of Weight Loss Blogging for Beginners Posted: 10 Feb 2013 11:06 AM PST This guest post is by Karol K. There’s a popular trend on the internet these days among people who have taken upon themselves to lose some weight. I’m talking about starting a weight loss blog. The idea in itself is perfect. You get a place to document your progress, talk about the things you’re doing, get additional motivation by interacting with other people through comments (also great for getting additional tips from them), and finally, you’re making your journey public, which is sure to improve your success rate all by itself. There are some problems, though. The weight loss blogging space is really heavy on purely promotional sites, deceptive sales messages, or even scams desired solely to earn some quick money. All this makes it really hard to build a credible brand that stands out from the crowd. That’s why I decided to create this quick tutorial to show you some things you can and should do ASAP, as well as other practices that are better left alone—unless you want to be mistaken for a spammer. The light side of the forceBefore I get to that, let me take a minute to list some people who do this the right way. Here’s the light side of the force (so to speak), just as an example on how weight loss blogging should be done.
Now, let’s focus on how you can join the ranks of these quality weight loss blogs. Do use your own name and personalityThese days people don’t have that much trust reserved for websites talking about weight loss. With so many poor affiliate blogs around—blogs publishing low quality content purely to promote other products through affiliate links—you never know who’s for real and who’s in it just for the quick buck. One of the common things such marketers do is that they never use their real names. Instead, they showcase some lame brand name, like LoseWeightTacticsBlog, or something. The easiest thing you can do to differentiate yourself from this crowd is to prove that you’re a human being by using your real name. Then, go one step further and display some actual photos of you (either taken by you or your friends; nothing too professional-looking). When your audience sees your face on the blog, they will know that you are a real human being who genuinely cares about the content they publish. Don’t promiseWhenever you want to endorse something (a product or service) be careful about promising any kind of results. This is something spammers do every day. They publish loads of promises, great looking success stories, and even fake before-and-after pictures. People are very careful now when it comes to believing any sort of promises. Whenever you say that something will bring massive results you’re immediately becoming suspect. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t endorse anything. But do it only when you are absolutely sure that the product is of great quality. You have to experience the results yourself, otherwise you won’t be believable. Do pick the right nameThis is about the name of your site. Now, you can take one of two possible paths here:
Both approaches have their pros and cons. The first one is obviously more expensive. You have to spend $10 a year for the domain, and around $6 per month for hosting. But what you get in exchange is better credibility and a more serious look from the get-go. The second path is quick and cheap. You can set up a new blog within minutes, but its address will end with .wordpress.com. This is up to you, but make sure to go with a good name. Whatever you do, don’t make it seem spammy. For instance, WeightLossTacticsBlog is spammy. MagicWeightLossToday is too. LosingWeightWithKaren is not. There’s no rule of thumb here. Always go with your gut feeling. The consequences of getting this wrong can be serious. If people see your blog’s name as spamm—as a hidden marketing pitch of sorts—they won’t believe a thing you’re saying. Do build credibilityAs I said before, trust is the rarest commodity in weight loss blogging. If people don’t trust you, they won’t listen to your advice, and might even find it hard to believe your stories. There are some ways to boost your believability rate, so to speak, and your trust:
Don’t talk only about good thingsOne of the main giveaways that we’re dealing with a weight loss marketer rather than a real person is the fact that each post only touches upon the positive side of things. As in life, in weight loss, too, there are good and bad days. Good and bad products. Good and bad people. You can create much additional credibility when you share a message that’s not that positive, but is still 100% real. Only the strongest people are able to share a negative story and be confident about what they’re saying at the same time. Don’t use too many adsAdvertising is the most intuitive way to monetize a website. Essentially, I’m not against advertising. If there is a possibility to earn a couple of bucks from your blog then I believe you should take it. However, be careful not to make your blog overloaded with ads. Such situation will bring your credibility down very quickly. Just one block for AdSense ads (or any other provider) in the sidebar is really enough. Do publish only real reviewsYou can skip this if you’re not planning on publishing any reviews. If you are, keep reading… The main problem with reviews online is that a big chunk of them is simply fake. Every day countless marketers publish reviews of crappy products without even having those products in their possession. This is especially visible in the weight loss space where, as we all know, there are hundreds of products available … pills, diets, training programs, training equipment, DVDs, you name it. That’s why if you’re going to write a review, you should remember a handful of things:
Do publish different types of contentMost of the time, spam-bloggers publish only simple 400-word blog posts providing no actual advice. You can differentiate yourself pretty easily by looking at the topic of blogging much more broadly. Some examples, besides the traditional blog post:
Now it’s your turn. What do you think about using a blog as a way to document your weight loss story? Are you a weight loss blogger? What tips and advice can you share? Karol K. teaches how to save on the popular Flex Belt, and discusses the basics of TRX training (learn more). He contributes articles on fitness training, working out, and losing weight in general. He also enjoys writing occasionally for WeightLossTriumph. He’s a fan of healthy living and being in shape no matter what. In his personal life, he proves that one doesn’t have to struggle to be healthy. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger The Dos and Don’ts of Weight Loss Blogging for Beginners     |
| The New Writer’s Guide to Evaluating Websites for Guest Posting Opportunities Posted: 10 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST This guest post is by Traian of Pitstop Media Inc. Almost every article written after the infamous Panda and Penguin updates has suggested guest posting as a viable and effective technique to increase authority with search engines, improve organic search visibility, generate leads, and build authorship. As you can see, there are quite a few benefits to guest posting, but you have to do it right—start small and then grow big. What most people don't realize is that it's almost as easy to go wrong with guest posting as it is with any other content marketing technique. There is no guarantee that just because a website is accepting guest posts, it is reputable or credible. It's also now evident that Google has no love for low-quality sites and inbound links from them. So, when it comes to guest posting, you have to ensure that you associate your name and brand with authority, or at least quality, sites only. If you want to guest post the right way, you need to know from the beginning that it's a time- and resource-consuming process. But it's also one of the best investments you can make to build your reputation online. Evaluating guest posting opportunitiesFinding the most valuable guest blogging opportunities on high-authority sites takes time. You have to nurture a relationship with the blog owner, and that means human interaction, not automated emails. But if you've just started building your reputation, you can't approach authoritative bloggers yet, because you’ll have no evidence of what you can write about, or how well. If you approach them at this stage, you will probably get a low response rate. Instead, focus on blogs with small and medium levels of influence (Twitter followers, blog subscribers, likes, +'s and so on). Contrary to what many believe, finding such guest posting opportunities does not have to involve hours of research. When approaching small blogs, you don't have to put yourself through the cumbersome process of pitching your guest posts to famous bloggers in niche-related blogs. You will get refused, but it won't hurt as much as being refused by an online influencer. Once you build a bit of a reputation and learn from your mistakes and feedback, you can gradually approach the bigger players. For the lowest hanging fruit, register on popular sites like MyBlogGuest and BloggerLinkup that offer members a platform to announce niche-specific guest posting opportunities and to solicit proposals. Keep in mind that these are also populated by offers that are not worth considering. Once you have shortlisted a few guest posting opportunities with influence, the next step is to make sure that the site you agree to write for is credible. The following checklist will help you determine their standing. Check the site's integrityWhile you cannot guarantee that a website will always stay online, or that a link from it will never be de-valued, there are precautions that you can take to minimize the chances of those things happening. Integrity checklist
Look for social signalsCheck for the website's presence on social media sites. For instance, it should have an active Facebook page with a decent number of Likes, and the owner should have a respectable number of Followers on Twitter and/or G+, and/or have an active LinkedIn profile. Of course, these are no guarantees of credibility, but they can certainly be considered points in the website's favor. Find the number of RSS subscribersTo accomplish this, either refrence the data displayed on the blog, or identify the number of subscribers using Google Reader (this is not as accurate a method, though). To use Google Reader: login, go to Browse for Stuff, and then Search: For an in-depth article on how to find this number you can read the article Using Blog Subscriber Metrics for Better Outreach Decision Making. Check content qualityA look at the top two to three posts hosted on the website will give you an idea of the blog’s quality. If most of the posts look spammy, are badly structured, or are just generally low quality, you should be wary. Also, if you see more ads than content on the website, it's a good idea to give the site a miss. Check competitive data sourcesTry Compete, Quantcast and Alexa, but be aware that none offer completely accurate data. Look for absolute numbers, but also for trends. This alone will give you a lot of information and help you decide whether or not the website is worth guest posting on. Trending shows that this site is growing (wonderful, that's our site J) Alexa.com reveals metrics like:
The demographic and keyword information will help you decide if a particular site's visitor base matches your blog’s target market profile. Visitor time investment and social reputation will give you further clues about the quality of the website. It’s worth the timePutting every potential guest posting opportunity through the full checklist might sound like a lot of work. But, in practical terms, all you'll have to do is this:
The whole process won't take too long. In any case, it's better to spend ten minutes on the checklist, than to waste hours writing for a website that is penalized or banned, or doesn't have an audience. Keep recordsThis comes last on the list, but it's actually critical. Every interaction with a site owner has to be recorded for future reference. Nowadays I use Buzzstream to keep track of my guest blogging initiatives. I used to use Excel but things get very complicated very quickly. This article is just the tip of the iceberg for guest blogging, but it should at least provide a quick checklist for selecting the right guest blogging partners. Writing the content to win them is the other part of the story and one that’s been covered here at ProBlogger many times. Traian is Director of SEO and co-founder of Pitstop Media Inc, a Canadian company that provides top rated SEO services to businesses across North America. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger The New Writer's Guide to Evaluating Websites for Guest Posting Opportunities     |
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