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Monday, March 24, 2014

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USHUHUDA KUTOKA KWA MTEJA WETU (client's testimony)

TZ blog design imekuwa ikifanya vizuri kwenye masuala ya ushauri wa kuifanya blogs za hapa nchini tanzania ziendelee na kufanya blogs kuwa chanzo cha mapato katika maisha ya kila siku.
je unajua hapa tanzania kuna blog zaidi ya 5000 na tovuti yaani websites nyingi ..Tanzania kwa sasa inakuwa kwa kasi kwenye masuala ya mtandao.kulingana na ukuaji wa uchumi,biashara na viwanda
kuna faida nyingi mno za kuanzisha blog kama chanzo cha kipato..blog inaweza kuanzishwa na mtu yeyote lakini je ni jinsi gani ya kuindeleza ili iweze kukunufaisha?.watu wengi kote duniani wameanzisha blogu ila wengi wameshindwa kufanikiwa katika kuindeleza..blog au website yeyote ile inahitaji werevu wa kutosha katika kuifanya iweze kudumu..kulingana na utaalamu wetu kuna vipengele vitatu muhimu unavyotkiwa kuvijua ili uweze kunufaika na blog yako
1.MUONEKANO WA BLOG YAKO
hiki ni kitu muhimu sana kwenye blog..muonekano.Wafuatiliaji wengi wa blog yaani visitors wanapenda kuona blog yenye muonekano mzuri wa kuvutia wenye mpangilio maridadi isiyomchosha mfuatiliaji.ila wengi wameshindwa kwa hili kwa sababu ya kukosa utaalamu..
2.TAARIFA YA KUANDIKA (BLOG CONTENTS)
blogs nyingi hapa nchini Tanzania wamekuwa wakifanya mchezo wa kuibiana taarifa maarufu kama copy and paste..ila bila kutambua kuwa kuna taarifa nyingi sana zinazoendelea duniani kote..kila siku kuna taarifa lukuki mpya..blog yetu ya kwanza kutengeneza inayoitwa walimwengu imefanikiwa ndani ya mwezi 1 kuwa website ya 130 nchini tanzania kutokana na kuwa na blog contents nzuri za kuelimisha ,kufurahisha na kusisimua..Tz blog design tutakupa ushauri ni jinsi gani ya kuandika contents zitakazowavutia watu wengi na kuongeza wafuatiliaji yaani visitors
3.KUTANGAZA BLOG YAKO
ili uweze kuongeza wafuatiliaji kwenye blog yako.Kuna njia nyingi za kuweza kufanya blog yako ikue na kupata watu wengi.Muhimu ni kufanya ijulikane kwenye mitandao ya kijamii kama vile facebook,twitter,google + na youtube.ila kuna mbinu za kuifanya ijulikane kwa uharaka..je unazijua?
TZ blog design itakusaidia kwa hilo

je unataka kuwa blog maarufu hapa nchini hebu ona hii blog website tuliyoitengeneza na kutoa ushauri ..inavyoweza kufanikiwa..kulingana na alexa rank;walimwengu
imeanzishwa mwezi mmoja sasa..je unataka ufanikiwe hivi .tupe nafasi tujusaidie
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5 Tips to Becoming a Top Blog in Your Industry

 BY MICHAEL STELZNER
Have you ever dreamed of becoming one of the top blogs in your space?
Are you wondering how some bloggers find success and why others struggle to survive?
If so, keep reading as I reveal five tips and techniques that have helped large blogs (such as Social Media Examiner) grow into influential and widely read publications.

First, Rethink What it Means to Blog

When I started Social Media Examiner back in October 2009, I made the decision not to call our site a blog.
Instead, I opted for the phrase online magazine.
Why? Because every business owner and marketer in the world knows what a magazine is.  That word brings to mind rich, thoughtful articles that are designed to educate and inform.
There’s no question that a magazine is a publication.
When you start thinking of your blog as a publication, then you can start calling yourself a publisher.  When you’re a publisher, your business and editorial decisions become more clear.
Are you a blogger or a publisher?  Decide today to become a publisher.
What follows are five tips to help you transform your blog into a powerful online publication.

Tip #1: Survey the Interests of Your Audience

Who are you trying to reach?  What types of content do these people most desire?
When you know precisely what content your readers crave, it’s much easier to create posts that are widely read and shared on social channels.
For example, we know what content our readers love because we asked them.
We use SurveyMonkey and simply ask readers what questions they most want answered.
Each year we survey thousands of marketers and ask them what they want to learn about.  We then take the data and create a super-rich report we release for free.
But the best part is this: We have a massive database of blog post ideas we can write about because we simply asked our readers. No guesswork.  We know precisely what they want.
Here’s how to do this:
  • Create a simple survey using a tool like SurveyMonkey.
  • Ask this question: “What question about _____ (your subject) do you most want answered?”
  • Ask your existing readers and fans on your social channels to take your survey.
  • Then study the results.

Tip #2: Spin Hot Topics Into Many Posts

Once you understand the interests of your target audience, you need a plan to create content that’s focused around popular subjects.
I like to call this spinning.
For example, at Social Media Examiner, we know that social media return on investment (ROI) is a hot topic our audience wants to learn more about.
You might be inclined to think there are only a few blog posts that could possibly be created around a single topic like social media ROI.  Or perhaps that you’ve said all that can be said on a topic. You’d be wrong. :)
Here are four popular articles we published last year, all focused around the same topic:
Each of the above articles focused squarely on social media ROI.  But each one was written from a different angle and by multiple authors.
Here’s how to find different angles on the same topic:
  • Create a beginner’s guide.
  • Address biggest misconceptions.
  • Showcase how others are solving the problem (success stories).
  • Create a video.
  • Appeal to different segments of your audience (like small businesses and then again for big brands).
See how the above list could allow you to create five blog posts on the very same subject without looking repetitive?
Take-home point: You can get enormous mileage by spinning new, yet related, articles that focus on a single subject your audience is very interested in.

Tip #3: Leverage the Power of Multiple Authors

Have you noticed that nearly without fail, the largest blogs in almost any industry have multiple authors contributing content?
Check out this list of top small business blogs from Technorati:
The most popular blogs have many authors.
There’s a reason the top blogs have many authors.  It’s because they treat their sites as publications (or online magazines).
Have you ever read a magazine with only one voice?  One author?
I began around 2005/2006 as a solo blogger.  It became very clear very quickly that the work needed to build a successful blog as a single person was enormous. My blog on white papers was popular among writers, and it did help my business growth, but I found myself hitting a ceiling.
It wasn’t until I started Social Media Examiner with the express intent of sharing many voices that my blogging experience exploded.
Here are some benefits of having many authors write for your blog:
  • Your site appears to have more prominence because it’s not all about you.
  • You don’t have to do all the work yourself!
  • You gain fresh voices and can develop new spins on topics.
  • Often authors will promote the content they write for you.
  • You can establish strong alliances with contributing authors.

Tip #4: Integrate Social Sharing

Here’s one of the huge misconceptions about blogging: Great content will be found, you simply need to write it.
The fact is that some of the best bloggers in the world are undiscovered because not enough people are reading their content.
To become a top blog, you need evangelists for your content.
Said another way, you need to empower people to effortlessly share your great blog post with their friends, fans and followers.
Social sharing is your secret weapon.
If you visit any top blog, you’ll likely see fully integrated social sharing.
Notice all the social sharing options near the top of the post?
Take a close look at the world’s largest blog, The Huffington Post.
And then check this out, again at the end of each post:

Take-home point: Let your readers become evangelists for your content by embedding social sharing buttons from top social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Tip #5: Capture Emails

This last tip is one of the biggest secrets to becoming a successful blog.
Just as brick-and-mortar businesses are built on growing repeat customers, you want to nurture repeat visitors to your blog.
Email is the most powerful tool for your blog and your business.  Yes, that old technology still has legs!
Here’s a reality that most people will never tell you: The majority of people who visit your site will NEVER return.
Take a close look at this chart from our Google Analytics:
Notice how 58% are new visitors. For many blogs, that number is more like 70% or 80% new visitors.
If most people will never return, you need a way to encourage people to become repeat visitors.  Email sign-up forms are your solution.
If you take a look at this blog post, you will see multiple locations where we encourage people to sign up for our email newsletter.  Once on the newsletter list, we email our 140,000 subscribers each day with a link to our newest blog post.
Email has helped us grow a very large and loyal fan base that we own.  Be sure to leverage the power of email.
I hope you find this post valuable.  If you do, please help me spread the word by sharing it via your social channels.
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How to Become an A-List Blogger



by GLEN ALLSOPP
If I asked you to define what an A-list blogger actually is, what would you say?
I’m sure the usual thoughts like “thousands of subscribers,” “lots of comments,” and “large influence” come to mind.
While these may be things that many of us agree on, they aren’t really about the blogger, they’re about the blog.
Yet it’s the writers behind the blog that position it at the top of an industry and gain so-called “A-list” status.
Now, of course, if you’re sitting on a feed count of 400 subscribers today, there’s no magic bullet that’s going to get you 4,000 subscribers tomorrow. But the key to building those numbers is to be the kind of blogger who attracts plenty of subscribers and links.
Today I want to offer the suggestion that instead of focusing on all the factors that define an A-list blog, let’s look at the factors that define an A-list blogger. The characteristics behind the men and women who build massively popular websites.
While I don’t personally think of myself as anything special, I have managed to build two blogs to a combined audience of 10,000 subscribers, and I call a few A-list bloggers my friends. Four years of blogging and interacting with thousands of people have helped me to see what it is about the “big guys” that makes them successful.
Now I’m going to share those findings so that you really can have the qualities of an A-list blogger, today.

Make content your # 1 focus

When it comes to blogging, there are plenty of important factors. Having a unique and professional design, a viable topic, a brandable logo, and clear options for subscribing are all important.
But without one factor, none of the rest of them matter.
All A-list bloggers recognize content as the biggest factor to their growth. As a quick scenario, let’s imagine that Brian Clark owned your website. Do you think if he wrote the high-quality content he did for Copyblogger and applied the same marketing strategies, that blog would go nowhere? Of course not. Copyblogger’s excellent content would do well on any relevant website and is what has kept people coming back here for more than four years.
I’m someone who gets obsessed with designing and tweaking sites for maximum conversion, so it took me a while to really implement this. In fact, I would say that I was blogging for almost two years without giving writing the focus it deserved.
It was only after I eventually took my head out of stats programs like Crazy Egg and BLVD Status (which are both fantastic, by the way) and put my effort into writing that I managed to build a 4,000-subscriber blog in 12 months.
Content is your main way to shine in an increasingly competitive field. Make sure that it’s getting your full attention.

Stick to your own guidelines

I believe that most bloggers reading this could eliminate all blog reading from their lives and still do well online.
Sure, it’s great to read the stories of people doing well and gain nuggets of knowledge that will help to improve your current offering.
But this knowledge-seeking becomes a problem when you allow your search for great information to change how you operate.
In the social media space, I am always changing, because it’s my job to be active on the latest service and see how it can best be used to connect with others in my niche.
My blogging strategy, though, rarely changes.
If you look carefully around your niche, different bloggers write very differently. You’ll find variations in things like:
  • Posting frequency
  • Writing style, tone, and voice
  • Article length
  • Use of images
In the internet marketing niche, the common length for most blog posts tends to be around 500-800 words. If you look at my own articles though, you will see that I regularly surpass 2,000 words. This is completely different from anyone else in the niche, but because I provide a lot of value in one place, it’s working well for me.
Just like you’ll probably never see Brian start publishing two or three posts every day, I’ll rarely write less than 1,000 words on my own website. You lose your winning difference the moment you do something because someone else is doing it.
Set your own guidelines and you’ll build an audience that will not only love what you have to say, but stick around because they expect more great things from you in the future.

Recognize your own influence

Everyone has some influence online, even if some have more than others. Growing that influence involves a lot of effort and a lot of time, but losing it can happen overnight.
Even if you only have 10 twitter followers and your blog hasn’t yet received its first comment, you still have influence. And that means you have a responsibility to give people the best advice and value that you can.
If you care about your audience and put value first, your influence will grow more quickly than you might think.

Look at “who,” not “what”

Looking at who is behind a blog and trying to model how they achieved what they did, rather than focusing on the end result as we usually do, has been a big game-changer for me.
I hope I’ve helped you see that most of you are A-list bloggers already — you just need to leverage that talent. Focus on your content, stick to your own guidelines, and use the influence you have today to help your audience.
Those thousands of subscribers are waiting for you. You’ve just got to be ready for them.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

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THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GUEST BLOGGING



I try not to sound too egotistical when I say this, but over the past 12 months I have certainly been one of the ‘faces of guest posting,’ simply because I have had a lot of public success with the tactic. I’ve been interviewed about marketing using guest posts over 10 times, I’m mentioned on the homepage of a guest posting community and I’ve written far more of them than I care to remember.
Because of this, I feel I’m probably one of the best people to cover this subject with a long in-depth article. If you’re wondering what guest posting is or why you should even care about it then you’ve been missing out. You’ve seriously been unaware about one of the best marketing tactics available today. Thankfully, if you’re reading this article then you may have time to utilise this strategy before it is too late.

Why Guest Blog?

If you’re wondering about the “what’s?” or “why’s?” of guest blogging then they’re going to be covered here. To begin with, let’s explain what guest blogging actually is. In it’s simplest form, guest blogging is the exchange of content from one blogger to another, for a site which the author does not own.
In essence, someone (you, perhaps?) writes content for another website and this act makes you a ‘guest blogger.’ If you’re wondering what you get in return with more specifics than the typical “exposure” response then let me give you a run-down:
  • Links - Links control the web. If you want rankings on Google, you need links. If you want authority in your niche, you need links. If you want traffic from other blogs, you need links. Guest blogging is a fairly easy way to get custom anchor-text, high quality one way backlinks to your website. There are few other techniques so effective.
  • Traffic - There are millions of webmasters out there and they’re all competing for targeted eyeballs online. Guest blogging is not only a way to get one fundamental of the web – links – but also another fundamental: traffic. The difference between someone who makes money online and someone who doesn’t, is generally because one has a website which gets traffic. It’s that important, and guest blogging provides it.
  • Subscribers – Not everything is about web spiders and the big G of course; the readers of a blog are more important than anything else. This, of course, is why so many bloggers care about their feed count. Subscribers are the life and soul of a blog and if you can get in front of an audience on another site, it’s likely that they’re going to subscribe to your feed. (More on this later).
  • Branding – Research suggests it takes someone eight views of a brand name or logo to have it stored in memory. On the web, your name and your blog are your brand, and guest blogging helps you get them out there in your industry. My own activities with guest blogging have sometimes found me on 3-4 sites all on the same day. This massively pushed my brand around the niche and put my website on the map.
Guest blogging is a great situation for all parties involved. Blog owners win because they get excellent, free content for their site and bloggers win because they get more links and more subscribers on their blog.

How to Find Sites

If you’re going to guest blog on other websites in your niche to enjoy some of the benefits that guest blogging has to offer, then you need to actually find websites to write for. After guest posting consistently for over a year, I now have quite a few tactics for helping with this process.
  • Google Search – Google is always the place I start with my internet research because it gives quick, accurate results. Depending on what you know about your niche, you can use Google for two things. The first is simply to help you find sites in your industry by searching for things like “niche blog” (changing niche for your industry). Alternatively, you could search for things like “niche blogging” or “niche guest posts” to find sites that want your content.
  • Niche Browsing – Many sites in your industry will make it clear that they accept blog posts on their site. Therefore, all you have to do is simply browse around the top sites in your niche and see which one’s do. Look for text like “write for us,” “become an author” and “submit your article”. These are all indications the site wants guest posts so click on these buttons or send the blogger an email.
  • Google Blog SearchGoogle blog search, if the name doesn’t give too much information away, is a blog search engine. Because of this, we can easily find blogs that are accepting guest posts. If you type something you may have typed into the regular Google search box such as “niche guest post” or “niche article by” then you should find some interesting results. If you remove the niche section it’s possible you’ll find a lot of sites that offer guest posting, but few will be relevant.
  • Contact Authors – Every blogger should know at least 10 other writers in their community very well. If you don’t, then start finding them now. Most of the guest blogging opportunities I have had did not happen because I found ‘write here’ buttons on a website, but because I simply contacted the author. Get in touch with the influencers in your niche and simply ask if they would be interested in your free content. If they say “No” is that really so terrible? Giving them a chance to say no, also gives them a chance to say “Yes!”
There are other more complex ways to find people to write for in your niche then this should be more than enough. If you think that every article for someone else can take you up to 2 hours to research, write and edit then even just 10 guest blogging opportunities is going to put a lot of work on your plate.

Writing Publish-Worthy Posts

Although bloggers who accept guest posts also ‘win’ because they get free content, they still want great content. On that same note, guest blogging has so many benefits because you get to show a new audience the kind of awesome content you’re capable of writing, not to slip in a link and hope to get hundreds of subscribers.
The Basics
The basics of all good blogging applies to guest blogging so because they’re so important, I thought I would jot down a few of them here:
  • Write content that is unique and hasn’t been used elsewhere previously
  • Break posts up with images, bullet points and headings
  • Write your best work. Blog posts to a blogger are like paintings to an artist. They’re your portfolio and show you off.
  • Keep the piece relevant to content the blogger has published in the past
  • Provide as much value as you can to the new audience you’re interacting with
If you write good content for other sites, you’ll have your posts approved and you’ll receive the benefits that guest posting has to offer. If, however, you put in minimal effort and product sub-par content, then you will have done nothing but waste your time. Even if your post gets published, nobody will take the time to check our your website and they certainly won’t subscribe for future updates.
The Process
The process that you go through with guest blogging very much depends on the website you are writing for. For example, in almost all cases, bloggers will say that they want to see your article idea before you get to work. However, these same bloggers will say that if you want an interview with them, send questions with the request so if the answer is “Yes, I’ll do it” then things get done.
Based on this, I decided to send a number of guest posts without saying anything. I simply sent my content and said ‘I really hope you enjoy it’. Now, these were people that clearly accepted guest posts, but they were also people who said they wanted to know the idea before the article is written. This is usually just a measure so that the blogger doesn’t waste his time, but when I was writing these things so frequently, the only time being wasted with the process was mine.
I don’t recommend you going ahead and relying on this, but it goes to show that people like to do business without much fuss. If you know your work is up to standard, you just might get away with this like I did. Otherwise, the process typically goes like this:
  • You find blogs accepting guest posts or contact those who you’re unsure about
  • You tell them what you would like to write about and see if they would be interested
  • They get back to you with any suggestions or thoughts
  • You write the article and make sure to include a link back to your website in the bottom
  • You send it to the author
  • They publish the article if you like it, and you receive the rewards
As far as publishing time goes, I’ve had one blogger who published my post the next day and one who took almost four months for an article to go live. A handy rule to remember is that generally, the bigger the blog (in terms of subscribers), the longer the wait.

Guest Blogging Examples

I’m certainly not the only guest blogger in the world so there are lots of examples out there of it’s benefits. Some of the most prominent guest-bloggers (and people I count as friends) include Ali, Jade, Mary and Dirk. This means that I can give examples about each of the points mentioned earlier and show how things work out.
Links
As you know by now, guest posts give links to the authors website. These links in-turn send traffic which could then become subscribers to this persons blog. The links don’t just send direct traffic but they also help with search engine traffic. If you want more traffic from the likes of Google, Yahoo and Bing, you need more links.
yahoo-backlinks
The image above shows a Yahoo backlink count of links to PluginID. The tool seems to be a bit ‘off’ lately as PluginID has around 15,000 backlinks but this screenshot should show proof that guest posting can get you a lot of links. Also highlighted in the image is an article that I did for ZenHabits.
Traffic
As I am working a little on getting the name of ViperChill out there, I have already written a few posts to both help people and build this audience. Notice how I don’t think of guest posting as just getting something in return, but also doing a good service to the readers of the blog I write for. Because of this promotion, I recently posted an article on Problogger about the lessons I’ve learned from blogging over the last 12 months.
problogger-traffic
The article ended up getting me almost 700 highly targeted visitors from the site which I believe resulted in around 200 feed subscribers through watching my stats closely around this time. This clearly shows more proof about the benefits of guest blogging and what 1-2 hours work can do for you.
Subscribers
Traffic and links are great, but they’re only second compared to the potential of getting new devoted blog readers. Devoted readers talk about you, they share your content, and they buy your products. If you want to make a living blogging, then you must realise your subscribers (the real people behind your site) matter a lot.
feedburner-stats
My guest post for Problogger went live on November 15th when I had 2,646 subscribers. On November 17th the site had 2,848 subscribers. That is an increase of 202 subscribers in just two days.
Guest Blogging Email
Instead of just showing you the benefits of guest blogging, I also thought it would be useful if I provided a sample email of what I send to bloggers after I’ve written an article for them. Note that I send all of my posts in text (.txt) files because I send bloggers the HTML code of my post, and not just the text version. This allows us to keep links intact and make the post far easier to edit.
guest-post-email
If you can’t read all of that text clearly then don’t worry too much about the specifics. Instead, the two most important tips I can give you when sending emails like this are simply: be friendly and to get to the point. Bloggers are busy and they don’t want you rambling about your life story but neither do they want you to be robotic, so be personal in there. As long as your content is good, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about this email.

Getting the Most from Guest Blogging

Everything I have told you so far has hopefully given you a clear understanding of what guest blogging is, how to get blogging opportunities and how much potential this ‘method’ has. Before I leave you all to start getting in touch with bloggers in your niche, I want to share some tips from getting the most out of guest blogging.
  • Write Awesome Content – I know I covered this earlier in the post but I believe it’s worth repeating due to how important this step is. Remember: even if you get your article onto the site of someone else, it doesn’t guarantee any results. The best way to make sure you reap the benefits of guest blogging is to write the best articles you can for other websites. This means that they’ll a) want you to write again and b) you’ll get traffic and then subscribers from their site.
  • Leave an Optimised Link in the Byline - Guest blogging has been around for a while, and there are hundreds of people who do it. The biggest mistake I see these people make, however, is that they just leave a normal link in the footer of the article to their site. While it’s obvious that you should leave a link to your own site in the bottom of your post, you can get more ‘use’ out of the link if you change the anchor text to something you want to rank for in Google. I’ve received thousands of visitors from this tactic and it means that the benefits of guest blogging on each site will be with me for a long time to come (search engine rankings).
  • Vary Where You Post – Generally, the way to maximise the benefits of guest blogging is to write for bigger blogs. If a site you write for has a large audience then that means there are more visitors who can click through to your website and subscribe to your feed. I have noticed a few people trying the guest blogging ‘tactic’ just on a few websites and constantly using the same ones. They had great results at first, but this quickly died down. If you keep writing for the same site, the people who want to subscribe will, and those who haven’t already probably won’t. I have wrote for sites with 200 subscribers and I’ve wrote for sites with 150,000 subscribers. I’ve enjoyed both and received the rewards for varying where I place my content.
  • Respond to Comments – Because guest blogging is about writing on relevant websites, it’s important to stay professional and friendly with the influencers in your niche that you interact with. Not only should you try to keep in email contact with the blogger you’re writing for, but respond to as many comments as you can once your guest post goes live. This will show the blogger (and their site readers) that you genuinely want to give people genuine advice on whatever it is you write about.
  • Make Subscribing Obvious – If you want people to subscribe to your blog after they click through to your site, at least make it easy for them. The amount of sites I go to and struggle to find how to subscribe to them is actually amazing. Remember that most of your visitors are probably not as web-savvy as you are so you need to make your RSS and email subscription options very clear. As you can see, I have mine in a bright yellow box at the top right of a page (for those who are web-savvy) and then sections in both the blog sidebar and single post footers for those who need a little push.
  • Have Excellent Content Waiting – People won’t judge you just by what you write on the site of someone else, but what you have waiting for them when they arrive. If visitors don’t like what they see and don’t feel like missing your content is missing out then they just won’t subscribe. For example, I once promoted my personal development site on an internet marketing blog (where I wrote about internet marketing) and as expected received links and traffic for doing so. However, I only gained about 20 subscribers from 500+ visitors because only a few people were interested in both topics.
A lot of these are common sense suggestions, but I do see them being ignored on a daily basis. If you can write great content and stick to these tips to maximise your rewards, then you’re going to have a lot of success with guest blogging.