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How to Develop a Daily Blogging Routine

blogBlogging is a great way to communicate information, stay in touch with like-minded people, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and many other things. However, if you don’t blog regularly, you likely won’t be taken that seriously. Consistency is absolutely the key to being a successful blogger, so developing a daily blogging routine is essential. Your audience expects you to provide regular content and value to help them get better health, lose weight, exercise, etc.  Below are 4 tips to assist in getting you on a consistent blogging routine and, as such, set up for success.

1. Commit to a time at which you will write every day.

Set up a time every single day at which you will write your blog and post it. Make this a convenient, or at least feasible, time. If you set aside 7am every day as your chosen blogging time, but you don’t wake up until 8, that won’t help you. On the other side of the coin, if you say you’ll blog at 10pm every night, but you know you have obligations at that time, that also won’t help you much. Think about when you most commonly have an hour to spare, and start there. Once you decide on a time to blog, be religious about it.

Keyword Density for SEO 101

If you’ve been writing online content or blogging for long, you have probably heard the term keyword density and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) quite a bit. Although these terms tend to be woven into the fabric of almost all conversation regarding online content now, those who are newer to blogging or writing, or who just never got a great handle on the subject, can be wondering what these things mean and how it can benefit them. If you’re in this group, the below information was written just for you. Here is an easy, simple guide to keyword density and SEO.

What is keyword density?

Keyword density is directly related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and is simply the way in which you place keywords into your text so that search engines can find your page. For instance, if you have a website that sells handmade jewelry, and you have a lot of great pictures, and maybe a shopping cart, but you don’t have the term “handmade jewelry” anywhere on your site, or it’s only mentioned once or twice, you have very low keyword density, and your site will likely not be found in a search. Search engines deliver results to the searcher based on keywords that are being searched. If someone searches “farmers market” they are going to be given the sites that have “farmers market” and related terms mentioned in their text. Having a balanced keyword density, or the amount of times keywords like these appear on your blog, is key to getting more traffic.

SEO Keyword Density

How much is too much?

Keyword density is an art form in some ways, and in others it is incredibly natural. When you’re using keywords, you don’t want to over-saturate the page with them. Going back to our handmade jewelry example, if you have a sentence that reads like the following, you have far too much keyword density.

This handmade jewelry website is made for those who love handmade jewelry and who are looking for the best handmade jewelry that the handmade jewelry market has to offer.

It’s completely unnatural. Nobody would ever talk like that, and search engines are very smart. They can tell when text is repeated over and over in an attempt to be picked up by search engines, and what they’ll do instead is not send anyone to your webpage, as it is considered spam.

The opposite is true. If you never mention the items on your blog, or items related to it, you won’t be found because you are virtually invisible. If you sell handmade jewelry, chances are you sell necklaces, bracelets, and the like. Use related terms, as well, like in this example below.

ABC Jewelry offers the highest quality handmade jewelry available. Shop for necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings by using the navigation bar to your left. Whether you are a bride searching for customized, affordable jewelry with that personal touch or simply need a new bracelet for everyday wear, the handmade jewelry options available here will suit your needs.

This is a very balanced section of text as far as keyword density goes. You’ve mentioned handmade jewelry a couple of times, but not too many, you’ve mentioned the types of jewelry you sell, and you’ve mentioned some of the people who might need your product. So, if someone is searching for “handmade bridal jewelry” or “everyday jewelry” or “handmade bracelets”, they’ll now  be more likely to be sent to your website because the search engine knows that’s what your site is about.

Speak it before you save it.

Now that you know you need to incorporate keywords into your site text, that you need site text in the first place in order to be seen by search engines, and that balance is key, there is one more tip you should follow to ensure your keyword density is sufficient but balanced. Read everything on your website aloud. If it sounds forced, take some words out, and if you find yourself not mentioning your product or main page content at all, go back and add some keywords back in.

Hopefully the above tips have helped you to understand what keyword density is and how achieving balanced keyword density can help you attract more viewers to your weight loss and health blog. Attracting traffic to your website is essentially a dance with search engines; you have to let them know you’re there, but not be too pushy and over-weighted with keywords. Get the search engines to notice you, and they’ll start returning your web page in their results to people searching for what you have to offer.

10 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Blog Daily

Bloggers blog dailyIf you are going to be a blogger, no matter the topic is, you must be consistent. Daily updates are absolutely the best way to attract and keep readers, and keep them interested, as well. However, sometimes it can be difficult to motivate yourself to blog every day or even several times a week. This is particularly true if you do not blog as a profession, but rather do it on the side of a full time job as a hobby or passion (or to make a little Google Adsense money :)). Life is busy, but keeping yourself motivated each day to blog is the best way to stay consistent. Here are 10 tips you can use to help you stay on track.

1. Set restrictions. If you love that second cup of coffee every morning, don’t let yourself have it until your blogging is done. Forcing yourself to do your blogging before you can have something you want both motivates you to do it, and also gives you a sense of satisfaction because you get to enjoy something after you’re done.  Set up some penalties if you don’t do it, like you don’t get your coffee or you have to workout 20 extra minutes.

2. Keep a schedule. If you blog at the same time every day, it will become a habit in no time.

3. Plan ahead. Planning in advance can help you stay on schedule. Outline the topics you want to cover each day and then go through the outline list over the week and you’ll have half of the work done.  If you do this and your blog posts are create ahead of your schedule, you can schedule to blog posts in your content management system (WordPress, Blogspot, etc) and you won’t have to actually go into the site and post each day.  That could save time.

4. Set aside a research day. If you have to do any research for your blogs, pick one day on which to do it. That way, you have all the information you need going into the next week.  Weekends are great for this.  You can also find a freelancer on sites like elance.com to help you with your research to save time.

5. Write topically. Instead of randomly blogging about anything and everything (unless that’s the design of your blog), write topically instead. If you pull from a set of predetermined topics for each blog posting, your readers are better informed, they have a clear sense of what you’re talking about, and it helps to keep you as a writer on course, too.  You want your overall blog to be cohesive and on topic so that it’s easy to optimize it for search and your audience knows what your focus is.

6. Write in series. If you have a large topic to cover, break it up into a series. This works for you in two ways. One, you get to write a series of blogs instead of one blog, so you don’t have to come up with so much material for the week. Secondly, your readers will want to come back daily to see the next segment.

7. Reward yourself financially. If you put a quarter or a dollar in a jar every time you blog and at the end of the week you get to spend it on something you want, like a coffee or a new item, then you will stay motivated to write.

8. Be like Nike. Just do it. Sometimes just getting it out of the way is the best motivation of all, because then you know you won’t have to deal with it for the rest of the day.  Blogging takes work.

9. Engage your readership. Maybe you shouldn’t come right out and say you’re having a hard time staying motivated, but if you have surveys, poll, contests, etc. then you will be forced to check back in to see how things are going and award prizes and so forth.  Encourage readers to comment and let you know what they think.  Engage them on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.  Their feedback can give you ideas on what to write next.

10. Set an alarm. If you set an alarm on your phone or on your computer to alert you to blog for the day, you’ll be more likely to remember and, thus, stay on track.

Hopefully the above tips have helped you come up with a plan of motivating yourself to add to your fitness, health or weight loss blog daily. By making things simpler for yourself, planning ahead, rewarding yourself, and engaging your readership, you can be well on your way to motivating daily without thinking about it. Be consistent and make it a habit and you will see great improvement in your blogging results.

How to Get Quality Guest Posts for Your Blog

finding guest bloggersIf you are trying to find a guest blogger to provide a guest post for your weight loss blog, you might be at a loss concerning where to start. After all, people don’t normally advertise themselves as guest bloggers. Also, you don’t want just any guest blog post, you want a high quality one from someone who has great info that can help your audience. It might seem like there is no perfect starting point for accomplishing your goal of acquiring a quality guest blog post. However, there are a few tips you might want to follow in order to find quality content.

Ask Other Bloggers

If you want a quality guest blog, ask a quality blogger. Many bloggers are looking to network, and if you ask them for a guest post with a promise of linking back to their blog, they might just do it. Networking is very important in blogging, so the ability to guest post on somebody else’s blog is an attractive opportunity to any serious blogger. You should make sure that your blog has a following, though, as many bloggers don’t want to write for blogs that don’t have a substantial following or have a firm foundation. This isn’t necessarily the rule, though, so you could still ask around.  Not that established, look for other bloggers looking to build their network who have great, accurate info.  You can help each other build your audiences and help people to lose weight.

Hire a Freelancer

There are plenty of freelance writers who would be happy to craft content for you. Many of them have their own websites, and would be happy to network with you just for referring traffic to their website or email address. Unless your website is about freelance writing, they are not your direct competition, you’re getting content from a reputable source, and they are getting referrals. In fact, you might even ask if they would be willing to write a blog content in exchange for your promotion of their website, if that’s something you’re willing to do. Not every writer will be open to this, but some will be.  You can also find freelance writers for hire on sites like Text Broker and Elance.  On Elance, you can even connect with writers with fitness and nutrition backgrounds as well as a number of other specialties.

Ask Professionals in the Field

If you want a guest blog post written and your blog is about the finer points of losing belly fat or dressing for your body type, go to Google and look up some websites, blogs or articles on the subject.   The next step…contact the writers you find that would be most likely to respond.  Additionally, look up some books on what you are writing about. Contact the authors and ask them if they would be willing to write content for your site as a guest blogger. They may charge you a fee, or they may not, but regardless, networking with professionals is a great way to learn more about your field, in addition to possibly obtaining a great guest blog post. You can always ask them if they’d be willing to answer a few questions, and if you can use the interview, or portions of it, as part of your blog (written interview, video or audio recording). You would be surprised how many reputable professionals in different fields are more than happy to share their knowledge and help educate others, and how many can become really great affiliates and friends.

While there are countless ways to obtain a guest post for your blog, here are three ways that will likely get you headed in the right direction in the most efficient manner. Always make sure to be respectful of the writer’s time, whoever it is you ask. If this person is a professional writer, a reputable blogger, a leader in their field, and so on, they likely have many demands on their time and responsibilities. Approach your prospective guest blogger with professionalism and respect, and you may be surprised how many doors open for you.