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

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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?
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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.
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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.
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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

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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?

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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.
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