Sometimes your brain needs a little boost. So, it is helpful to take a few minutes, chill out and color. After you finish you will probably have some blogging ideas. Give it a try. Just click on the link below and you will get a FREE coloring page done by Ray Horner Jr. in a pdf format. It will print out .
Baby Boomer Brain Booster Coloring Page
The Blogger platform so often gets overlooked when setting up a blog for the first time or if you are a veteran blogger. Yet it is surprisingly simple and part of the Google family. I find that the platform has several advantages.
I just set up a blog on vintage jewelry. Because I have a jewelry shop on Etsy I have a page link to the store. I also found a way to easily utilize my Ebay Affilate link. I am not going to add Adsense until I have more content on the site.
I am forced to post more content on this site because I need to be approved by Adsense and as I post more about vintage jewelry I AM LEARNING and keeping the good old grey matter working.
Do you have other reasons you like Blogger and what are the links to your Blogger Blogs?
You may already be tweeting but how about tweeting your blog posts? Well before you can tweet your blog posts you have to know how to blog. Are you ready to learn how to blog?
Well, friends, we’ve reached the end…the end of my little series, that is.
In Part 1, I discussed the importance of keyword research before writing and publishing a blog post.
In Part 2, I provided some best practices on where to include those keywords in your blog posts.
Now, in Part 3, I’ll provide some tips that I’ve learned over the past few months about how to drive traffic to your website once you’ve completed the above steps.
But first, a question?
Were you popular in high school?
Were you the popular cheerleader or jock who everyone wanted to hang out with? You know, the one who got invited to every party and activity?
If you were, I envy you!
Granted, I had friends, but definitely didn’t fall within the cool crowd.
But that was then…and we’re in a new age: the Internet age! And the good news is, the game’s changed!
Whoo-hoo!
So today, I’m going to show everyone who reads this post how they can be cool and popular online.
Is it easy?
No. It WILL take work, but it’s doable! And the rewards can be fantastic!
Good question.
Let’s delve into that topic with another question:
Thinking back to those popular kids in high school, how did you know they were popular?
Maybe they were nice?
Maybe they dressed in the coolest, hippest fashion of the time?
Maybe they knew all the words to the latest popular songs?
What exactly did they do or say that clued you in that they were popular?
Perhaps the famous quote by John Kuebler will provide a hint: Show me your friends and I will show you your future.
The playwright Euripides also provides a clue: Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
Thinking back to the question above—how did you know they were popular?—the obvious answer to tell that those kids were popular was by the quantity of friends they surrounded themselves with.
So, there it is in a nutshell. They had friends. And lots of them!
But what does that have to do with driving traffic to your website?
Well, if you want to get traffic to your website, you’ve got to be popular on the web!
How?
Just like in high school, you knew the popular kids were popular by the number of friends they had, the same principle applies to the Internet!
Image courtesy of suphakit73 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Here’s the secret: search engines like Google recognize how “popular” your website is by the number of links from other websites that point to your website.
Show me a website that ranks high for a particular keyword in Google, and I can pretty much guarantee that that site has a fairly high number of links, also known as backlinks, pointing back to it from other websites from around the virtual world.
There are many ways.
I’m going to focus on two in this post:
So, what’s guest blog posting?
Well, it’s what I’m doing here! I don’t own Blogging for Boomers, Rosie does!
Though my website lies elsewhere in the virtual world, Rosie was kind enough to invite me to come on over here and do a series of guest posts.
What does guest blog posting do?
Several things.
Guest posting allows you to build relationships around the web. (Hint: make friends! The more you have, the more popular you become!)
Also, when you guest post on another blog, it allows you to create a link or two back to your own website.
As an example, say you have a budding blog centered around the topic of vintage auto restoration.
Head over to Google and perform a search like the following:
Auto restoration “write for us.”
What does this search operator do?
Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It returns websites centered around auto restoration and that allow guest bloggers to post on their blogs (hence “write for us”).
Here are some other searches you can use to find blogs that allow guest bloggers on their sites. We’re still using our example of auto restoration as your business. You can replace “auto restoration” with keywords that are related to your own blog.
Those ought to get you started!
And here’s a hint, when you provide a blog post for another site, make sure it’s your best stuff! Show the world what you know about your topic! Sock it to ‘em!
You’ll make new friends along the way (becoming popular!), you’ll build credibility with a new audience, and you’ll get a sweet link (or two) back to your own blog.
What’s blog commenting?
Actually, I feel another story coming on!
Once upon a time there was a new website owner/blogger who wanted to start making friends around the webosphere.
He started commenting on blogs that were related to his own website, and who had audiences he was trying to reach as well.
One day he left a comment on a blog about blogging for boomers. Someone named Rosie noticed, replied to his comment, and invited him to post a blog series on her website.
The end.
And it all started with commenting on a blog!
Commenting on blogs simply means finding those blogs that are centered around topics similar to yours and then visiting them and posting comments at the end of posts.
It’s that simple, but I have a STRONG word of caution.
The first rule of commenting is when guest commenting make sure you enter “quality” comments.
Do NOT, under any circumstance, simply write “Nice post. Thanks.”
Just don’t go there!
When commenting, make sure your comments are heartfelt and really provide VALUE to the comments section. Provide a comment that offers a new point of view, or affirms through your experiences how you relate to the points that were made by the author.
In other words, provide quality comments.
You never know what might happen. You just may receive an invitation to guest post on that blog.
I did!
Moments before I created this post I saw a posting on Facebook from an online friend, who I have never met in person, has had quite an influence on my blogging over the years. Her name is Beverly Mahone. She is a baby boomer who has helped to unite other baby boomer women online. Recently she shared her new book with her online friends and even had a free download.
Now, you have to know that Beverly will not just promote her book but because she shares her skills she will provide information on HOW she promoted it because she is also a extraordinary journalist. She has created online communities for other women to share their expertise.
When I took a break from working this morning I saw an answer from another online couple to a question I had about Pinterest. This generous couple, Wesley N Laurlee saw one of my “pins” to an Ebay listing on Facebook and instant messaged me with some tips.
Now there are many other baby boomers that are “struttin” their stuff online. They are not just doing mindless gossip but sharing tips, expertise, help with caregiving plus more. We have come a long way baby boomers from that water cooler.
What are you doing online that you used to do around the water cooler?
The other day an exercise teacher told the class that we would develop muscle memory if we kept repeating certain exercises. My question was “What if your muscles get dementia. But what she said made sense and I have started sharing that concept in my blogging classes. The more you blog the more you really do remember and can blog faster with less pain.
Try it. Set a goal today to create at least seven (7) blog posts in the next five (5) days. You can send me the links, if you wish, and I will visit. That helps to increase my comment memory. (smile)
Take care
Grab a cup of green tea and check out this video from a business blogger presenting at a WordPress conference.
One of my good friends Heidi Caswell has an awesome blog called WordPress 101 for Baby Boomers. Now, I am not going tie up your time talking about it. I want you to visit and soak up some of these powerful video tutorials.
My eye is on the tutorial on What to do if Your Site gets hacked. Why? Because I have had a few sites hacked and you feel so violated. Uggh.
So, trot on over and learn, learn, learn.
Of course, I plan to post more from this site that is so good it should be illegal. Ha
When is the membership site coming Heidi?
The blog, Baby Boomer Entrepreneur, has a blog carnival you don’t want to miss. Sometimes it helps to not only connect with other baby boomer bloggers but to know what is going on in the baby boomer blogging world. Take a few minutes to read the current blog carnival. Enjoy!
I’m back to blogging. Yes, caretaker duties have slowed me down. Plus, I am doing Ebay and Etsy to increase my retirement fund. But blogging just should not be stopped. Don’t you agree?
I am convinced that we baby boomers should keep a pad and pencil, Ipod or IPad around to jot down blogging post ideas. When we do get our hot hands on a computer keyboard we should try to create a post from some of our ideas. But, that all sounds good when your eyes and body are not tired.
Tonight I decided to upgrade my version of WordPress and some of the plug-ins. Time to get back to blogging. I will not give up! I am a baby boomer and we know about resilience.
Yet, we all need encouragement from each other. So, if you noticed that I have not blogged in a few nano months please encourage me. I will also try to encourage you.
Have a great weekend.