3 Productivity Wordpress Plugins To Easily Improve Your Blog Content

Guest Post - Our host is Annie Wallace, in this post Annie lists and reviews three plugins for Wordpress that can help your blogging productivity.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Wouldn't it be nice if running a blog was easy? You could just hop on and feel inspired immediately, knocking out posts and having everything work out smoothly with limited stress and effort. We could all have blogs and fit it into our regular lives like a glove. Then enjoy all the benefits of having a successful site with tons of readers enjoying the content provided.

The sad truth of the matter is that this is never the case. It is a great deal of work to run a blog, and it takes a lot of time. Which is why so many people burn out before they really get started, unable to work it into their busy schedules despite the dream of owning a successful social hub.

If you want to know the trick to a good blog, it is weighing high quality content with productivity. You have to be able to remain consistent, without compromising the helpfulness of what you post. A balancing act that can be hard to maintain. Unless you have a few tools to assist you, that are designed to bring out the best in you.

There are many Wordpress Plugins out there, especially now that blogs have become so prevalent as sources for official news and content. But these three are definitely the best I have found.Click Here To View Full Post >>

How To Use IFTTT For Blogging And Internet Marketing

Guest Post - Our host is Matthew Woodward , In this post Matthew 'Winner Of The ProBlogger One To Watch In 2013 award'explains a popular new tool he is sure will help Bloggers called IFTTT.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

As any internet marketer knows, time is money! We are busy folks with a never ending to do list so anything that can help us save time is essential.

What Is IFTTT?

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a fantastic free tool that lets you connect web services so they can talk to each other.

It works like this-
Click Here To View Full Post >>

Top Social Media Tips For Bloggers In 2013 And Beyond

Guest Post - Our host is Chris Hickman, Social media is a huge part of Blogging from social traffic to SEO.In this post we look at how Bloggers can best use social media in 2013 and beyond.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

There are several paths that bloggers and marketers take in order to increase links and web traffic. Social media is one of them. Five popular social media sites are taking the web by storm: Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. This article will explain how social sharing enhances SEO (Search Engine Optimization) through link building and strong social signals. There are actionable tips provided in this article that explain how readers can use social media to drive traffic to blogs and websites.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

A Fresh Look At How To Make Money From Your Blog

Author - Our host is Raducu Roman, an ever popular subject for bloggers is "How to make money from my blog" in this post we take a fresh look at the topic.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

If your a blogger or you might be among those few, who don’t have a blog yet but they’re eager to find out what’s all about and ready to start one.You have probably heard great success stories about how a blog helped many people to improve their financial status, or helped entrepreneurs to develop and to brand their personal businesses.

Either that's the case, or you're someone who has something new and great to share with the world, you should or actually must nowadays have a blog of your own and start self-publishing (blogging) and self-marketing (social media).

Know Your Audience

Start by identifying your audience, what problems they face and most important what can you do about it. The thing with blogs is that everybody can write one, but most certainly just a few will get revenue from it. And there's a simple explanation for that: you have to put value in what you write. If your posts are relevant to your followers meaning that by writing them you reach your audience's needs, the chances are that your blog will be successful.

One way of finding your niche (and one of the most popular) is to ask yourself what do you like/know most ? In what area of interest are you feeling most comfortable talking about? After reaching a conclusion you then need to put that against what will most likely answer to a reader's problem. Once you've climbed the three this far, you can start enjoying the fruits. From the plethora of monetization models available, you'll find below a handful of solutions that will make your blog sell.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

5 Headline Formats That Are Sure to Attract Readers

Guest Post - Our host is Debbie Allen, here Debbie has some great suggestions on choosing headlines for your blog posts.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

The goal of every blogger is for their blog posts to be read by hundreds or thousands of readers. But in most cases, that only happens in a dream world. The reality is that many articles are posted only to gather dust.The reason is not because the posts are poorly written or even because they are not interesting. In most cases, the reasons these posts do nothing more than sit around being unread is because the writer neglected to give the article an effective headline.

Without an effective headline, an article will do little to attract readers, much less get them to read the post. As everyone has heard repeatedly, content is king, but if you can’t get readers to read beyond the headline, they will never know that you have provided quality content for them.In effect, this can create a negative image in their minds, and therefore, it can potentially impact your business in a negative way. On the other hand, the more readers you have who continue to return to and read your work, the more likely your profile is to soar.

Headline Formats That Work

Click Here To View Full Post >>

Giveaway - Enter to Win a WordPress Theme or a Joomla Template

We’ve teamed up with TemplateMonster to offer 5 premium web page designs for free. We hope you will find the giveaway useful, especially those of you who love WordPress and Joomla. Please, read on to learn more about the prizes and how to get them.

Important - This Giveaway has closed we will have a new giveaway soon.

About TemplateMonster

TemplateMonster is a US based web design company offering a huge choice of WordPress Themes, Joomla templates, Magento themes, osCommerce templates, HTML templates, Flash templates, and many other products. What is also important is that TM provides 24x7 support for their clients.

What Can You Win?

- one of five templates from TemplateMonster (it can either be a WP theme or a Joomla template)

Note: you can choose from more than 1800 WordPress themes and more than 1000 Joomla templates which are available at templatemonster.com.


How to Win?
Click Here To View Full Post >>

Battle Of The CMS Heavy-Weights In 2013

Our host is Robert, last week we looked at the Best Blog Platforms so to continue in that theme we will look at the best Content Management Systems.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

When preparing to launch a website, one of the main questions one will ask – Which content management system should I use?

There are various Content Management System (CMS) options available for new website; but the most well-known names today are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla! All these 3 CMS are open-source software formats, free to download and use, as well as easy to customize. Each has a broad range of add-ons, themes, plug-ins, templates and extensions. Each CMS has their own loyal user following. And of course, all 3 CMS have their share of pros and cons.

Let’s try and better understand them and see which is the best choice for you in 2013.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

The Top 5 Reasons People Aren't Reading Your Blog!

Guest Post - Our host is Amy Harris, Amy is trying to get to the core problem of why people are not reading your blog.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Building a great blog is hard work. It takes hundreds of hours of your time and an unrivalled dedication to your subject. But what if, after all of that hard work, no one ever visits your blog? Or worse, you get streams of traffic but none ever stays or engages?

After all, you write for the outside world and you want them to hear you. Whatever your reason for starting and maintaining your blog, it can be disheartening to feel you have worked for nothing. But don’t worry. There are some very common reasons why people aren’t reading your blog and this article will help you address common blog issues and allow you to enjoy a growing readership.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

Choosing Your "Mentor" To Become A Writer: Whose Works Can Inspire And Teach Writing

Guest Post - Our host is Martha Buckly, in this post Martha takes and in-dept look at mentors in writing and as a bonus look out for the inspirational writing quotes at the foot of the post.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Often times one of the hardest things to deal with as a writer is a blank page. When faced with it you may find yourself looking for inspiration just about anywhere-your neighbors, the kids, the backyard, and of course the Internet. A good Google search can be your best friend when the first paragraph of your piece seems almost impossible to conjure up.

And in addition to these assistants, at some point or another a writer may also crave the support and inspiration of other writers. This is a pretty common occurrence. It may happen just due to the commonality of occupation, similar recounts of obstacles and victories, or just the overall connection that is present when you share the same experiences as someone else.

Likewise, the opportunities to connect are numerous.Sometimes it may be through a circle, group or forum, or a more personal encounter such as a writing buddy, friend, coach or mentor.

Choosing a mentor

Click Here To View Full Post >>

Ride The Reddit Wave: How to Maximize Traffic To Your Blog From Reddit

Guest Post - Our host is Logan Harper, in this post Logan looks at how to get traffic to your blog from the popular social network Reddit.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

What is Reddit?

If you’ve seen the front page filled with hysterical gifs and shared life-exposed memes to your friends, then you’ve Reddit. Not only have you read it, but also maybe used it to generate buzz for your brand or product or even as simple as having the quote of the day at your office.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, you may be saying: I haven’t Reddit.

Well, similar to most social media sites, with Reddit you create a profile, join a community, and start sharing. However, unlike sites like Twitter and Facebook, where content and descriptive text is presented to you in real time news feed, Reddit is focused on presenting you with the highest rated content. This community is unique in that it is a self-monitoring social network, where your upvotes are translated into “karma”, the headline is the hook, and the content is the punch line. “Trolls” beware: there is a downvote as well. In this democracy style platform, you want to get as many upvotes as possible.

How do you use it?

Click Here To View Full Post >>

The Changing Face Of Back Linking And Traffic

Guest Post - Our host is Daniel Vassiliou, in this post Daniel uses his experience as a professional writer and link builder to explain Back linking and traffic is an ever changing field.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

I lose track of the conversations I have with marketing agencies, looking to hire my services as a link builder, who only have one goal in mind. Build links, whatever the cost, and the more the merrier. Of course they all know about Penguins and Pandas, oh my, and are quick to add things like, “high DA”, or “PR over 4”. The trouble is I don’t think they have understood quite how dramatically the SEO scene has changed, and still is changing.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

10 Tools You Can Use To Create Awesome Infographics

Guest Post - Our host is Jamaica Sanchez, infographics are a great way to convey a message or tell a story here we have the 10 best tools to make your own infographics.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

As cliché as it sounds, a picture is worth a thousand words. Now infographics are trending than ever. The boom of website using graphics to convey further information has astounded many. Less people want to read lengthy content with only plain text, especially if the article is about statistics and behavior comparison of different groups and concepts. Infographics help readers to visualize and enhance their understanding on the idea or message given by the article. In this post, we will share 10 tools that you can use to create awesome infographics.

10 Best Infographic Tools

Click Here To View Full Post >>

Blogging On MySpace An Alternative Option

Guest Post - Our host is Robin Mckenzie, In this last post we listed the 10 most powerful Blogger platforms so today we decided to look at an alternative from the main platforms.Robin will walk you through keeping a blog on the social network MySpace.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Blogging on MySpace (Explained)
Click Here To View Full Post >>

10 Top Powerful Free Blogging Platforms In 2013

Guest Post - Our host is Robert Espinosa, starting with the ones you may be familiar with to some you may not have heard of Robert lists the best platforms for bloggers.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Blogging has turned out to be a powerful tool to share thoughts and ideas on the topics that you are passionate about. Moreover, keeping a blog is the best way to polish your writing skills, drive traffic to a website and maintain good relations with the customers. If you are not in the condition to buy your own hosting right away, you can opt for a free blogging platform.

If you have decided to setup a blog, but cannot make up your mind about which blogging site is right for you then check out these well-known and most stable free blogging platforms that offer their users with many advanced features. These blogging sites usually come with both free as well as premium plans.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

3 Tips To Write World-Class Bullet Points For Your Blog Posts

Guest Post - Our host is Cameron Smith, in this post Cameron tackles the obscure yet important subject of bullet points.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Recently I’ve been working on jazzing up my skills when it comes to sales letters and capture pages…

In other words, I’ve been staring at my screen a lot, listening to some pretty cool trainings about how to improve my writing to the point where I can persuade a higher percent of people to buy my stuff.

Pretty much one of the most important skills to learn out there, and I want to share a few insights I’ve had (or at least what other genius people have flat out told me to do!)

One running theme I’ve run across is the importance of being able to write killer bullet points.

I know, that may seem like an obscure topic and skill to work on, but here me out.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

Using Humour To Increase Your Blog’s Traffic

Guest Post - Our host is DCMontreal, in this post he explains how putting smiles on faces can add readers to your blog.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

We’ve all heard it said that laughter is the best medicine. Some studies have even shown that women think that funny men are smarter and more honest than more serious guys, and may even find them more attractive. But while enjoying a good chuckle every so often for our overall well-being, let’s not overlook the fact that humour can also be an effective tool in drawing visitors to your blog.

There is a long history of written word humour; I suspect even some of those cave wall drawings may have been pretty funny all those centuries ago – the cartoon B.C. draws on that theme. Humorous novels, plays, and certainly films abound – the fact is, people like to laugh, some would go so far as to say laughter is essential to being a well-balanced person. Bloggers have several methods and styles at their fingertips to help out with the mirthful posts. Here are two of my favorites.

Good Old Fashioned Prose

Click Here To View Full Post >>

Blog Owners : Respect Your Guest Bloggers !

Guest Post - Our host is Jessica Velasco, in this post Jessica represents Guest authors giving a no holes barred message to us blog owners.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

I’ll give it to you straight, right from the beginning.If you are a blog owner, this post might rock your world.If I seem snarky, well…I am. I’m frustrated. I think I speak on behalf of a great many guest bloggers.

Blog owners, please listen carefully.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

Google+ Today For Tomorrow’s SEO

Guest Post - Our host is Samantha Priest, it's been some time since Google added social signals to their algorithm here Samantha looks at how you can use Google+ to boost your blogs SEO.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Over the last few years, the significance of social media in SEO has increased manifolds. If you are really serious about obtaining the top positions in search engine results, you should devote adequate time building your social media influence. Search engines like Google have taken several big steps to integrate social media with search engine optimization. Google’s social network Google+ (or Plus) is, therefore, one of those social networks that you can never ignore. The kind of influence you build on Google+ will play a vital role in ranking your site in SERPs.

But do you know how to boost your site’s SEO with Google+ ?

Though the roll out of Google+ has also led to a lot of debate as to whether it has the potential to last, it’s quite evident now that the social network is making its present felt quite strongly in Google search results.

One thing that you should always remember is that Google+ should not be treated in the same way as Facebook or Twitter. In order to improve the SEO of your web properties, you should treat Google+ as an indispensable web marketing tool. And it’s just the right time (as the competition is yet to build) to increase your Google+ usage and create an online presence that supports your website’s SEO.

Here are some of the best tips to follow.
Click Here To View Full Post >>