From Blogger To Medium – Evolution Of Blogging Sites

Technological advances now deliver information, discussions and stories on the digitized screens of our devices. These informational sites known as blogs, publish the stories and write ups. These blogging sites generally belong to an individual. Sometimes even a group of individuals contribute in a blog.

In the recent times multi-blogger sites have surfaced. These blogging sites accept works of various people and edit it professionally before posting them on the websites. These people belong to various sections of life and provide their expertise on their field of work.

Initially, a blog was used as an online personal diary. People included the events of everyday life in the blogs that they wrote. The beginning of online diary, open for everybody online, was initiated by Justin Hall of Swarthmore College.

Also Read: Five Amazing Ways Of Sharing Blogs On Social Media

Blogger – Though the term “blog” was coined by Peter Merholz, it was first used by the co-founder of Pyra Labs, Evan Williams. With the word he commenced one of the first multi-user blogging sites called the “Blogger”. Blogger is a free blog publishing website. It gained immense popularity as it was one of the first tools of its kind.

Blogger did not have stringent policies regarding blog publishing in other host servers. This was possible through the FTP (File Transfer Policy). However with Google’s acquisition of Blogger, blogs were no longer allowed to be published in host servers.

Google’s acquisition of Blogger proved beneficial for blog writers/bloggers. Google made the use of some features of the publishing tool free of charge. Blogger charged users for utilizing the features. After removing the charges Blogger gained more popularity. Google later incorporated Picasa and Hello. Inclusion of these tools allowed bloggers to post images along with their textual blogs.

Google’s acquisition improved the quality of Blogger significantly. It has become one of the most reliable blogging sites with new template editing tools, label organization and Web feeds.

Twitter – After Blogger was acquired by Google, Evan Williams left it. He went on to develop a new microblogging site in collaboration with Noah Glass and Jack Dorsey.

Twitter was initially the brainchild of Noah Glass. It was then called Odeo and was launched as a podcasting service for the public. However, with Apple’s iTunes launching at the same time, Odeo could not gain much publicity. Founders decided to change the name and Twitter was officially launched on 21st March 2006. Since then Twitter has become one of the most popular blogging sites sharing users’ thoughts, suggestions and news events of the world.

Twitter kept on improving, increasing and expanding over the years. This microblogging site has been open to users’ suggestions, the hashtag (#) being the perfect example. The concept of hashtag for improved and filtered search was suggested by Twitter user Chris Messina. With Twitter’s user number increasing in gallops, investment started pouring in huge volume too.

In the year 2010 Twitter opened up for advertisement. This provided a platform for both small and large businesses to promote their products and ideas. With the inclusion of Vine a couple of years later, Twitter allowed videos to be posted on its blog site. With Twitter going public, it has grown and evolved a long way since its days as Odeo.

Medium – Evan Williams went innovative with the idea of blogging sites and introduced Medium along with Biz Stone. This was founded in the year 2012. Evan William the co-founder of Twitter wanted a multi-blog site that would include quality write ups.

Medium has evolved in these couple of years as a social blogging platform. Blogs are contributed by both professional as well as non professional bloggers.

Tumblr – A social network and microblogging site, Tumblr was founded by David Karp. Similar to Twitter in its features, Tumblr allows users to post graphic and multimedia contents. These contents are the blogs that are displayed on the site. Users can post their own blogs and also follow others’ blogs.

Tumblr was launched in February 2007. And within the next two months it entered into paid advertising and became one of the most popular blogging sites. With the rising popularity of Tumblr, Yahoo! acquired it at $1.1 billion. Tools like the Dashboard, Queue and Tags, allow the users to easily post texts and graphics in the blogs without much complexity.

The dashboard provides users with many features including liking blogs posts, sharing blogs, posting of videos, texts and images etc. But unlike Twitter, Tumblr allows users to design and create websites. The dashboard with its unique tools and features allows you to create and design beautiful websites.

The Dashboard has been reformed in the years. It does not feature follower count any longer. It is Tumblr’s attempt to move away the focus of the bloggers from follower count which might hamper the blog posts or quality.

Tumbler has changed the background of the site to dark blue. This is mainly to make the posts more prominent. These posts are all displayed in white. Tumbler developers have also changed the highlight section from the earlier bright green to a soothing dark blue.

WordPress – WordPress originated as a tool to design and develop blogs and websites. The tool is mainly built on PHP and MySQL. WordPress is a free content management system. It was first developed as a branch of b2/cafelog. Developers Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little released the first version of WordPress in the first half of 2003.

Ever since then WordPress has been used by more than 60 million websites.

One of the most popular blogging sites, WordPress, appeared at a time when bloggers used other DIY web designing tools like Movable Type. With some modifications made in the licensing policies, its users shifted to the simpler and free WordPress. With this WordPress took over other open source CMS platforms becoming the leading tool for open source blogging and CMS.

WordPress commenced its function in the same structure as that of b2/cafelog. However, after a year, developers made WordPress search engine friendly. This was a boon to the bloggers as searching for a website became easier. The tool was also simplified which made its installation and upgrading easier.

In 2005 with the 5th version updated, developers incorporated some new tools. New plugins were added along with the static page feature. These plugins allowed bloggers to engineer attractive websites which are tailored according to their desire.

WordPress has also included additional features. The user can build websites easily and use attractive themes and templates. Some of these themes and templates are free while others are paid. WordPress also allows users to input their own customized themes.

In 2010, an Application Programming Interface was included in the CMS. This created a new default theme and a simpler user interface for admin. With each updates, developers created a more simplified and improved version of WordPress. With the gradual growth of WordPress users and the introduction of smartphones, responsive version was introduced.

The latest version of WordPress launched recently was named Benny. With it WordPress brought some new updates. The Smart Media Management allows to surf through the media uploads.

Embedding the URLs by copy and paste procedure makes the process easy. It also includes a support list of embeds in the official website. The textual contents of blogs or websites can now fit perfectly with Automatic Content Fit. The searches for plugins are in visual and hence are quicker and easier. So there is enough reason to for WordPress to emerge one of the most used blogging sites.

Conclusion – With the passing of years, each of the blogging sites, be it microblogging or website designing, has evolved. Some have become social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr. Others are dedicated DIY website development tools. The contribution of Evan Williams in the origin and development of blogging sites or platforms is immense.

Professionals showcasing their work online find these blogging sites truly helpful in promoting their work. Bloggers now have the freedom to express their thoughts and ideas as well as their knowledge to help others. From just an informational post, these blogging sites have now converted into interactive platforms for the post-contributors as well as the viewers.

Five Hacks For Creating And Promoting Content

We all know “content is the real king” in online marketing. But how far do we follow? We end up writing the same worn and torn content over and over again and then expect readers to welcome it. This is where we are wrong. This article brings out the ways of creating and promoting content to sway the audience and increase traffic to our website.

 

1. Is your Idea good?

Check whether your idea is good or bad. But how do you check it? It is very simple. How do we judge a book or a novel? We expect the book to be simple, bring out emotion when we read, clear and concrete and some unexpected twist and turns. The same way our content can also be verified by the following:

Also Read: Content Strategy – Think Like A Journalist

Simple

Do we like the book which makes us turn the dictionary for each and every word? No, right? Our content should be such that even a naïve user must be able to understand. This simplicity will draw attention from our target users. Make sure your ideas reach the audience clearly.

Unexpected

We always like new stuffs. Be it phone, watch or dress. Similarly promoting content should be done in a rather unconventional way. The audience must be eager to read whenever you publish your content. Newness inspires great masses.

Concrete

Promoting content should never be like talking about your imagination. Be sure and strong about what you wanted to convey. Being too abstract is not appreciable in planning content. It must display what you intend to do.

Credibility

We are all brand lovers. Create a brand for yourself. An author with good reputation does half the promotion of your product. Attracting quality audience is shaped not merely by the author but also by the credibility you offer while promoting content.

Emotion

Create content such that your audience is emotionally attached to it. We can’t always expect positive emotions. We must be ready to accept negative emotions as well.

Stories

Right from our childhood we are fond of stories. Rather than stuffing information into the content create something such that your content takes you to a world of story. The story is easily remembered more than information.

All the above factors make your content catchy.

2. Full contact for Audience

Your audience will like to make a complete research on your content. Today we are living in a world where social media is playing a vital role. Hence the author and the content must be reachable to every audience. Provide your email id or Facebook id or any other social media identity so that you can reach your audience and discuss about your product. Social media is a good platform for promoting content both among potential customers and business people.

3. Pay to promote your content

Your content must bring conversion. The report from Google Analytics can be used to check whether your content has satisfied the purpose. A good content will surely increase conversion rates.

4. Learning from your Rivals

There will be no progress without rivals. Competitors will constantly keep us from moving up the ladder. We learn a lot from our rivals. We will always want to overthrow our rivals. In this effort we keep moving forward. Their ideas will let us think how to enhance what our rivals have done. Healthy competition is good.

5. Sentiment with the Audience:

Customers are the real king. It is necessary to know who your target audiences are. It is also important to know what their likes and dislikes are. Present the content such that the target customers increase the traffic to your site.

These 5 hacks will help in a successfully promoting content in the market.

Visual Content To Boost Up Your Marketing Campaign

Visual content creates a greater and stronger impact on your audience than words when it comes to your marketing presentation. When you are initiating a business, your prime motive while marketing your product or services would consist in capturing the attention of your audience. Making use of effective visuals can help you power your communication up and make it livelier. It will offer a boost to your presentation while also sparking up social media. Mentioned below are few reasons why you need to incorporate visual content in your marketing strategy:

 

Visuals enhance the impact of your ad

The point of marketing is to attract and lure your audience to your products and services. And no word can be as effective as visuals. In fact, science tells that the impact of visuals is more on human brain than words and texts. When your ad contains visual content, your target audience would be easily drawn towards your advertisement.

Also Read: Content Strategy – Think Like A Journalist!

Text is often considered indigestible for audience. Information in text format very easily gets ignored or overlooked and forgotten. When you integrate visuals into your content you will find your audience retaining it more and for a longer period. Visuals are processed faster by human brain. Moreover, our brain does not just retain but also delivers information faster when it comes across a visual content.

Images reinforce your content

You must have come across advertisements on the web. There are both kinds- one that is text dominated, and the other with illustrations and images with content. Which, do you think, appeals more to you? The one with proper visual content, right? The reason most evidently has to do with the impact that visuals leave on your mind. Quite naturally, the impact of the advertisement that has appealed to your senses will last for a longer period.

Videos on landing page increase conversion rates

When you add videos to your landing page, it impacts your SEO. Including videos on your landing page increases the conversion rate for your page to a great extent. Videos often times work better than texts and images. When you provide an image, you need content in words as well. Videos need no written explanation and they suffice all in themselves in most cases.

Images are social media friendly

When you are on social media platforms you are more drawn toward ads that have pictorial or graphic representation rather than those with textual content. Similarly, when you are planning a business or marketing strategy you need to take care of these. When you choose social media platforms as a marketing strategy, including images and other visual content can help it more. The Hummingbird update to Google’s algorithm has already made social engagement an important criterion for a business’s SEO.

Images get more attention and more number of clicks on social media as compared to texts and links.

Visual content brings countless inbound links

The tools generally used for online marketing or advertisement include the likes of infographics, posters, memes, etc. These have the potential to make your ad or promotions go viral once they draw the attention of your target audience. Your visual content should be in a form that can be clicked so that it can bring in inbound links. Your rankings get a boost when your ad brings in relevant and high quality inbound links.

Conscious marketers depend on visuals more than on text when they are devising a marketing strategy and want it to be successful. Visuals draw in greater attention from your consumers and help to add both viewer and customer base.

Content Strategy – Think Like A Journalist!

Content strategy. It is potent enough to make or break your website. Content is one of the most vital parts of a website and right content planning lies at the base of a successful website or journal. In fact, the kind and quality of content that you put up on your website influences your online presence to a good extent. Going little deeper, content strategy would involve planning, conception, and innovation.

 

Now, ‘content writing’ is a term used far and wide to refer to the work of planning and writing of web content. And content writing is just nothing more than writing the same content over and over again, with a few changes here and there. But is that all we should do as content writers? We can think different for sure! Be a journalist instead. Look into the needs of your content you are about to write. Know it. Understand it. Express it. Simple, eh?

Also Read: Content Strategy For Better Conversion

Let us discuss few features that you need to take care of while planning a useful content strategy:

Originality of content

Don’t fake! Don’t even rewrite. Keep it simple. But make it original. Originality is something that your visitors would look for when reading your content. Suppose you are reviewing a book. What would you do? You will read it and then express your views. Your content should be handled in a similar way. Same information is not what the readers look for when they visit different websites. Uniqueness and innovation is the key to a successful planning of content strategy.

Proper research required

When you have something to write about, the next thing you are to do is proper research about the topic you are writing on. It is here again that you are to be a journalist! Do proper research and gather data. Work on them. And innovate! How to go about it? You read newspapers and journals, right? Do you ever come across duplicate content or a rewrite there? No! They innovate. Just take care that the facts are right. Lack of proper research can turn your content into trash. Remember, you are not a content writer to write all gibberish. You are a journalist and you need to innovate. Your content strategy should be that of a journalist and not of a content writer.

Consistency between content and services delivered

While planning your content strategy, this is something that you are to keep in mind. You need to ensure that what you write is relevance and consistent with your services and products. Sure, you are to write something out-of-the-box, but that should be relevant as well. Irrelevance would also be treated as trash however innovative your content is. You can look at similar websites to gain ideas. Once you have jotted down the ideas, you can start building your content in your own unique way.

Proper organization

Writing an out-of-the-box content but in an utterly disorganized way! It would only dismay the visitors to your website. Once the ideas have been jotted down, they need to be organized properly. One idea should follow and connect with the other and your content should have the right flow to keep the visitor engaged. It is better to make a flowchart prior to writing the content. Once you have prepared the flowchart, you have your guide to take you in the right direction.

Address your target audience

Your content strategy should be such that it connects with your target audience at once. It is normal for people to overlook boring content. So, the content should be interesting and engaging at once. It should address your target audience. You need to understand the mind of your audience and then start with writing the content. What works for senior citizens might not work for teenagers and the style of writing accepted in European and Asian countries will vary for sure.

Let not your visitor be deceived

A branded content should abide by the same rules of journalism. There should be honesty. There should be transparency. Fairness and accountability. What readers and visitors don’t expect is deception in your content. Your content should give the exact information about your services and products. It should be innovative without being deceptive.

So, if you call yourself a content writer, do not any more. Think like a journalist. Plan an innovative content strategy and keep people engaged with your content.

Growing Your Blog Traffic Using Guest Posting

Every blogger wants to increase their blog traffic, but can’t find the right way to do it. Well, in this post I will be discussing the best way to drive traffic to your blog i.e. guest posting.

It is the simplest way of driving more traffic to your blog and increase your readership. I would explain this in more detail but, first of all I would like to start off by explaining the meaning of “Guest Posting”.

What is Guest Posting?

Guest Posting in simple terms means writing articles on someone else’s blog. That means you can write a post that would be published on other’s blog.

Also Read: Find Out Why Blogs Are Important For Digital Marketing

The Tech Cult also offers Guest Posting that means you can write guest posts on The Tech Cult. I don’t know whether you have noticed it or not, but this post that you are reading right now is also a guest post.

Why Do Guest Posting?

There are various reasons because of which guest posting is considered a key strategy for every blogger to drive traffic to his/her website. I will be addressing to each of the reasons one by one.

Guest Posting Will Help You Increase Your Page Rank

Whenever you guest post on anyone’s blog the owner of that blog will add a link to your website, usually this link appears at the starting or the ending of the blog post, varies from blog to blog. This will generate a backlink to your website. We all know that relevant backlinks are great for search engines and with the help of more backlinks you will increase your blog’s page rank.

You Get to Know Other Bloggers and Build Relationship With Them

Every blogger wants his/her blog to have good content, if you guest post on someone’s blog with  good content they are going to love it and you will build a good relationship with that blogger. Being a blogger it’s very crucial that you build relationships with other bloggers as it helps grow your blog and also makes you popular on the internet.

You Become a Part of New Communities

When you guest post on blogs then you are becoming a part of a community that is already existing. This will allow you to meet and interact with many new people and eventually this will help you grow your blog.

If you take part in good conversations and provide something valuable then you will be appreciated and more people will come to your blog to learn what you have to share.

Guest Posting Is Really Important For Any Blogger

Guest posting is really helpful and will definitely help you grow your blog’s traffic, but you have to do it the right way. When you are writing on someone else’s blog you must write the content keeping in mind that its someone’s precious blog, so you should not spoil it. It should not be the case that you are writing anything just to get backlinks to your website, that would create a bad impression about you and you will be criticized.

Guest posts are five times more effective than writing new content on your own blog. Start wrting today and see the difference. Share your experience with everyone by leaving a comment.

How To Improve Traffic From Your Target Country.

Every website has a definite audience, so until you are a global brand you need not target people from all around the world. All you have to do is target a specific country depending on your audience base. If you don’t realize it fast enough this will only drain out your hard earned money.

 

Here’s how you can improve traffic from your target country –

Decide on a domain name –

If you’re targeting a specific country, it’s better to buy country specific domain. Other top level domains like .com or .net will help you to rank higher on global search engines, but if you are sure of your target audience, then register your domain with the country extension. For example, if your target country is India, go for .in or.co.in. In order to preserve your brand, you can register for .org or .comdomain.

Buy domain from – GoDaddy, 1&1  or HostGator.

Have you tried Geo-targeting?

You can use Google Webmaster tool to increase your traffic from any country you are targeting. Follow these simple steps –

Login and verify your website in Google Webmaster tool.

Open your domain’s dashboard in it, click on the ‘Setting’ button below your Google profile image.

Check Target users in ‘Options’ and specify the country where you want to target traffic.

What about web-hosting?

Your server location is one of the important factors for driving Geo-targeted traffic. For example, if your target country traffic is India, host your website in India. This will speed up your website load time in that country and also helps your site rank higher in search results for that country.

India based servers- HostGator India, ShoutMyDomain, BigRock.

Get more and more backlinks –

Backlinks will help you to get a Google page rank, better Alexa rank, higher SERP and more traffic. So try and get as much targeted backlinks as possible by using methods like blog commenting and guest posting.

Go for content level targeting –

Google determines for itself which country you’re targeting based on your content. Add the country name in your post media title and description. This will make your content more keyword targeted and will also provide a signal of the country you’re targeting. Your content, specifically the language you’re using in the article also determine the ranking of your website. If your language is more U.K standard then targeting US traffic will be tough. Make sure that you manipulate the language accordingly. Hire writers from that country, if you can.

Try out Google places –

For your e-commerce website, you should try out Google places. Fill out all your contact information, address, phone number which will help Google determine the location of your business. Create your account on various social media platforms; type in your exact location there to access the country specific traffic.

Use Local search and directories –

Submit your website to local search engines, and local web-directories. This will help you to get country specific backlinks, which again will be one of the main factors in determining your geo-location traffic.

Make use of Google trends and Google keyword planner tool—

These tools are extremely helpful in letting you find the best keyword to drive Geo targeted traffic.

Google Trends – Just enter a keyword in the search box and hit ‘Enter’. The results page will produce a map that will show the keyword usage level in different countries.

Adwords keyword planner – Firstly, Go to the keyword planner tool and choose ‘Search for keyword and ad group ideas’. Then fill up the form and click on ‘Get ideas’ to get the keywords for the specific country that you choose in the form’s targeting section.

You’ve heard about it, now use it –

Try out Google Adwords to boost up your website traffic. If you have money to spend on ads, then it’s your best bet!

5 Awesome Tips To Write Perfect Content For Websites

More than half of the prospective customers visit your website before making a deal or purchasing your products. They go through every word that you have used, every spelling mistake you have committed and the fonts you have chosen to make readability negligible. Hence you need to write perfect content to prevent loss of potential customers.

 

Do you really think that having an impressive website equipped with graphics and animation is the only thing people are looking for? Well, you are this way increasing the number of miles between your business and target customers. An eye catching website contains quality content presented in a great manner. Some may argue that the web design is important too. May be, but not as much as a valuable content!

Read this article here for the content marketing trends to watch out for.

Web content refers to the texts, pictures, graphs and the videos added in your website to deliver the information on your business to the clients effectively. Hence, it is necessary to have first class content on your website. As they say “content is king” and will always remain a king. Whether you are a part time blogger or an owner of a multinational company, a good website is necessary for your fame and establishment. Lack of appealing content and bad content has broken many businesses. Managing the content is as important as creating it. The contents should be updated and checked every day to make interactions easier. Now you must be thinking about how to write perfect content and manage them as well.

Here is what you can do to make your website content sound appealing!

Hire professionals–they do it better!

They will know the current trends and the things that will work. You may be an expert in your business, but you will still need an experienced person to put your knowledge into persuasive words. They will know what to add, where to add and what not to add. They will identify your potential customers and key audiences. They will assist you to prioritize. They will organize and create your content in a way that is more accessible to your clients and use language that is readily understood. They are the best people to write perfect content for you so that your customers and visitors are always interested on your website.

Pictures and videos – a picture is worth a thousand words!

Visually engaging your audience is important. Visual effect is very essential in any website and it has greater effect on people. Including videos will make you an instant hit. Consumers will share your videos on the social networking sites increasing your client base. Animations and good sound effects are also crucial. But make sure that whatever you add, a picture or a video is of high quality and resolution. Adding infographics can tell more details in less space. They are also appealing to the eyes.

Start a Blog – nothing ranks you better on SERPs than blogs!

Blogs may be hard to maintain but it can contain never ending content for your clients. You can take professional help if you want. Blogs keep your clients glued to your websites. Therefore you must write perfect content for your blogs.

Testimonials and reviews – help customers know you better!

Testimonials help people know that you are trusted by others. It will be better if you have more testimonials. It will give you credibility and helps in gaining trust. Reviews point out the different positive and negative features of your products. Try to add a positive review on your company and its products. Good reviews will draw in more costumers.

Get a mobile version of your site – go mobile!

More than half of your viewers use smart phones to view your website. Hence mobile phone optimization of your website is important. Your site should be perfectly visible on small mobile screens.

Good Web content is the reason people come to your pages. Hence, plan and bring out the best web content of high quality even if it burns your pocket. Good web content can attract new clients as well as keep the old ones. Quality content and interesting information beat a colorful but meaningless website any day.

Five Amazing Ways Of Sharing Blogs On Social Media

Posting of Blogs is the best way to drive traffic into your websites. Not only does it help you with the ranking, blog posts also help increase customer base.  Posting good quality content is not enough, you need to promote them as well. When it comes to promotion nothing can beat Social media. Likes and comments are great but shares are more important as it helps your blog reach a wider range of audience. So let’s take a look at the best way of sharing blogs on social media:

 

 

Link and mentions – Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook lets you mention important and relevant people. Mentions do not go unnoticed on social media as the concerned person will get a notification and it is most likely that they will share the content if it’s really good. So you can interview big names from your field, quote experts or fellow bloggers. It is a great way to spread your work. But going overboard can negatively affect your work as people might think of you as a spammer.

 

Also Read: Find Out Why Blogs Are Important For Digital Marketing

 

Trade content for shares – It may sound odd, but it is one of the best ways to get more shares as people will perceive the content to be exclusive. The trick is not to lock the entire content. You should give a preview of the introductory paragraph and to unlock your audience will have to share the content. However, it is recommended to only use this technique to the posts that are really popular. If you do this to every post then the traffic will get reduced. If your website is built using WordPress then use the social locker plugin to avail this feature.

 

Run giveaways on your site – If you do not do it then its recommended that you start the process and give extra entries to your giveaways when your audience share, tweet or pin something.  Providing giveaways are a great thing and once you have established a reputation you can try and partner with other bloggers to host a joint giveaway. But make sure to have a proper strategy and good knowledge about the giveaway policies of social media sites. For example, Pinterest has strict rules regarding giveaways whereas Twitter and Facebook are a bit lenient.

 

Make it easy for the audience – Sharing blogs on social media would be a waste if your audience cannot find the share button. So do add social sharing buttons in your blog to let people easily share the content. Other than that you can integrate the comments of Facebook with that of your blog. You can also add the Twitter mentions and comments plugin to do the same with Twitter. This way when someone posts a comment on your blog it will be displayed on your Facebook post and vice-versa.

Use images – Not only Pinterest images get more likes and shares on Twitter and Facebook than write-ups. Every blog post must have an attractive image so that people get inspired to come and visit the blog.  So, while sharing blogs on social media do not forget to use an attractive image.

 

What It Takes To Define A Good Content Marketing Strategy

How many times you stick to those roadside hoardings? No, I am not talking about babes’ pictures out there but due to the grasping content showcased? Useful content is the core of any successful marketing. Content marketing strategy is a result of careful planning, thought process and execution.

Good content marketing helps to deliver premium, significant and important information to prospects and also attractsbeneficial consumers. A strategic content marketing campaign can boost your search engine optimization and brand position. Content is an important feature across all forms of customer interactions. Original content like blog, video, infographics, news and ebooks etc. will help you convey your thoughts in a more attractive way. Content marketing generates interest in a product through informative content. Successful content marketing relies on providing stable, high-quality content.

Traditional marketing does not work in today’s world. Attracting a clearly defined audience through valuable content is the only way to attract eyeballs. Marketing experts have declared that content marketing is the future. You may use other marketing strategies but good content should always be the base of your marketing. Quality content should be used in all kinds of marketing including SEO, PPC and Social media marketing and PR. 70% businesses have increased their budget on content in 2014, which itself explains that good content marketing works for a business. You may have any type of business; content decides the success of your company.

Here are five essential tips to create good content marketing –

Seek professional help! They know this better than you

Create a content strategy and seek help to put it into action. Taking help from experienced and quality professionals is an easy way to enhance your overall productivity and include new perspectives. Though newly hired content creation workers take time to learn and adopt, over the longterm it is a beneficial step to take. Hand pick people with good promotional skills. Once you build an audience for your content, the work moves smoothly.

Partner up! One and one add to become eleven

Content partnership means to get a guaranteed audience for your content by leveraging someone else’s audience. Large number of brands and small businesses are playing the content marketing game andcreative partnerships between non-competitive businesses are always welcome. Cross promotion through social media and content sharing, email marketing, and exchanging of ad space are the basic aspects of profitable partnerships.

Understand your customer

Whatever you plan, keep your consumers in mind. Targeting your content marketing efforts is important to understand the needs of your clients. The contents you create cannot be only a product of your internal ideas and views. A good content marketing program focuses on customer priorities, problems and requirements. If you understand and address the customer, your content will attract consumers and can even go viral on many networks.Interview some consumers to learn the buyers’ experience and opinions.

Curate for your audience

Curating and managing consumers is a tough task. High quality content that provides useful information will appeal to readers and automatically rank higher in search results. Annotation is incorporating your own perspective to the original piece, which offers something new and valuable to your consumers and prevents duplication of content. Craft a new and attractive title for your content. It differentiates your curated content from the original. No matter what, do not compromise with the quality of your content.

Keep an editorial calendar

An editorial calendar is important to save keywords, your content plans, and your social messaging. You can plan and post it all on different times. Producing brand new content at constant intervals can be expensive. Let your editorial calendar consist of a content refreshment plan to keep you updated with technology while reducing the burden on your content creators.

Stay tuned and make the most out of your available resources!

Stepping Stones To Starting a Blog: The Brass Tacks

Whenever the topic of starting a blog comes up, a lot of time is spent obsessing over how “cool” it’s going to look or how funny the articles are going to be. But most often, not enough time is invested in activities that actually need to be carried out in order to get a blog up on the internet. While choosing the right niche, deciding on the tone of writing, and drawing up a content plan is important, they don’t make sense if these aren’t translated into a living, breathing website up live for anyone in the world to see. Stepping stones to starting a blog and running it online smoothly are stated below:

Choose a domain name

A domain name is your address on the internet. For the uninitiated, a domain name is what you type into your browser’s address bar when you want to visit particular website. For example, https://www.facebook.com is Facebook’s web domain. There’s a ton of content on the internet on how to choose a domain name, but here’s a few pointers:

Don’t confuse your audience

If your blog is about home repairs, please don’t call it put it at CarsAreCool.com. You may think cars are cool, but your blog isn’t about cars and your audience is going to be thrown off by the mismatch. Go ahead and choose a really whacky, oddball name if you like. It doesn’t even have to be real words. But either make it super relevant or gibberish. Anything in between and you’re going to end up with visitors that never wanted to be at your website in the first place.

Prefer .coms

.com is synonymous with the internet. It’s the most common extension used on the internet and people tend to think of it as a default. There are times when you may want to go with a country specific extension. For example, if the blog is about Indian food recipes, you may want to consider a .in domain. Country-specific extensions tend to have better SEO in that particular region.

Buy said domain

So by now you’ve gobbled up all the wisdom there is on choosing a domain name. What next? You buy it. There are a number of domain name providers online. Go Daddy is well-known across the world while Big Rock is a popular Indian domain name provider. You simply hop on down to the website of your favourite domain name provider, enter a name you like, check to make sure it’s available, and pay for it. A .com domain costs about 650 rupees a year. Domains that end in .in are cheaper, about 250 rupees a year.

Buy a hosting package

Now that you have your address online, it’s time to erect the building. This is done through a web host. Hosting a website is to allow others to see the files and content that you would like them to see. In order to be able to do this, you upload your website to a server, which can then be accessed by anyone around the world.

To do this, once again, you need to buy a hosting package from a service provider. All or most of the sites that sell domain names also sell hosting, so it shouldn’t be tough finding them. Hosting is a bit pricier than buying a domain name, but it also depends on what kind of package you choose. Now that we’re through with the basics, let’s take a look at what do to with the domain name and hosting package in the next part.