 Image credit: Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels The start of a new year can signal a time for big changes in your life. If you own a blog, it's a good time to begin thinking about ways you can improve it. One idea that springs to mind is the concept of broadening your content.
What does this mean? In essence, you seek ways of offering your readers more content in different ways. Instead of posting similar blogs every week, perhaps you look for ways to branch out and offer other forms of content. Here are a few ideas to whet your appetite: Video content Start adding videos to your blog as a way of giving people fresh content. Human beings respond well to videos, and it's a great way of reeling in a new audience. People may start visiting your blog that never would've gone on there before. It also opens a new revenue stream as you can upload the videos to a YouTube channel and potentially earn ad revenue. You still talk about similar things, but the video format lets you try new ideas. You can have other people in the videos, serving as a great way of interviewing others. It can be a podcast format, or you may want to make 'how-to' videos that are easier to follow than a blog. Or, you could even repurpose old content in the video format, getting more out of it! Ebooks For the most part, blog posts are short-form content. Even a 2,000-word blog post is relatively short-form, particularly when compared to things like ebooks. An ebook gives you a chance to cover topics in more detail and really dive deep into things. So, perhaps you should start publishing some? If you have topics that demand a lot of work and attention, an ebook can be a fantastic way of covering them. Plus, it serves as a marketing tactic to drive people to your blog and get them on a mailing list. You can work with a CGI company to draw up a product 'photo' of your ebook, then use it in adverts. Basically, people will see the book, and be inclined to click it. From here, you promise them a free download of the book if they just provide an email address. Instantly, you will gain lots of emails, which helps you market your blog and grow your audience. Alternatively, you could sell the ebooks for a small price, as a way of making more money. It depends on how much work went into the book and if you think it's worth selling it for money. Either way, ebooks are another way of broadening your content. Guest posts Last but not least, you can diversify your content through guest posts. Invite other bloggers to post on your site, offering your readers fresh insights and ideas. While they're still reading blog articles, the content itself can be very different from yours. The topics may be similar, but the style and angle of the writing give them something new to enjoy. Broadening your content is a smart way of keeping your audience engaged and entertained. It stops them from getting bored with the same old stuff, while also helping you draw new readers to your blog!
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 Image credit: Burst on Pexels Your blog is a place where people come to read interesting content and regardless of genre, a lot of blog sites can end up turning into full-time businesses. It’s important to think about the ways that you can improve your blogging, whether you’re still in the early days of your blog or if you’ve managed to finally go full-time with your blog. Here are four ways to improve your blogging business.
Define Your Audience When you’re blogging as a hobby, paying attention to your audience’s demographic might not necessarily be on your radar. Perhaps you’ve been writing for a while and write for the enjoyment of the topics you cover. It might be that you write for a specific industry, and you know somewhat about what your audience likes and doesn’t like. When you’re blogging professionally, it’s important to define your audience because the more content you create that your audience likes, the more views it’s going to get. When you look at your analytics, it’s worth implementing Google Analytics if you haven’t already implemented it on your site. Whatever host platform you use, it’s likely to give you at least some degree of knowledge on who your audience is and what they like and don’t like. Look specifically at things like bounce rates, which tell you how long they stay engaged on your website and specific pages. Get Promoting Every Aspect Of Your Business When you’re a business, you need to be promoting yourself from every angle. Whether it’s promoting the content via your personal social media pages or through paid advertisements on other high-ranking websites. Try to promote in every way you can, even during those occasions where you might be invited to conferences or events. These custom printed banners can be a great way to showcase your work and who you are as a business and individual. Never be ashamed or afraid of promoting yourself! Network With Other Bloggers Networking with other bloggers is important because there’s a lot that you can learn from other people within the industry. For example, if you’re just starting off in the industry, then you may find that networking with bloggers who have been established for a while, have plenty of advice to give you. You also never know who might be able to help you on your way up the career ladder of blogging. Always be grateful and appreciative of others you meet and collaborate with. You don’t know someone until you meet them properly. Focus On Quality Not Quantity Quality is a lot more important than quantity when it comes to blogging. Your audience wants to read high-quality content and not something that’s been thrown together without much thought. If you do that, then you’re likely to lose your following and your loyal followers are the ones that are the most important. Improving your blogging business is important and so it’s good to use these tips to help get the most out of it where it’s possible.  Image credit: Thabang Madnsela on Unsplash In an age where the average attention span is thought to be worse than that of a goldfish, doing nothing could be the secret to happiness (and success). Never have those two little words “I’m bored” been uttered so much by all ages than in 2020. The Sun has more on why boredom could be the key to success...
 Image credit: Jason Yuen on Unsplash Every Christmas, Ryohei Ando gathers his family together for a holiday tradition. Just like their father did as a child, his two children will reach deep into a red-and-white bucket and pick out the best piece of fried chicken they can find.
Yes, it’s a Merry KFC Christmas for the Ando family. It may seem odd anywhere outside Japan, but Ando’s family and millions of others would never let a Christmas go by without Kentucky Fried Chicken. Every Christmas season an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to fried chicken from the American fast-food chain, in what has become a nationwide tradition. You can read about this KFC Christmas event over at BBC.com!  Image credit: Pixabay on Pexels A blog is a great way to generate revenue from advertising and product placements, as well as an effective way for companies to increase engagement and secure high SEO rankings. However, if users aren’t returning to your blog more than once, you won’t reap these rewards. To increase your online success, take a look at the top reasons that stop users from coming back to your blog:
There’s no new content If you don’t update your blog with fresh, new content regularly, there’s simply no reason for users to return. A high bounce rate may signify that users are checking your blog and immediately going elsewhere when they realize nothing new has been posted. If you want to ensure users keep coming back to your blog, you need to give them a reason to return, so be sure to upload new content on a regular basis. It takes too long to load Page loading speeds have a major impact on user experience and SEO rankings, so it’s vital to optimize them. From switching your web hosting provider to using a different content management system, there are various ways to keep page loading times to a minimum. Remember – page loading speeds should be low on all devices, so be sure your site performs optimally on a range of devices and operating systems. It doesn’t work on mobile devices If your blog doesn’t load properly or doesn’t look visually appealing on mobile devices, then you’re going to miss out on website traffic. The majority of web users now rely on mobile devices, which is why Google introduced mobile-first indexing. While it’s important to ensure that your blog is functional on desktops and laptops, mobile functionality should be your top priority. The content is repetitive If you’re churning out the same content week after week, users don’t have a reason to keep returning. Being innovative and creating original content that excites, informs, or entertains is vital. Creating a content schedule is one of the most effective ways to ensure your posts are varied, particularly if you tend to cover similar topics. Posts take too long to read If your blog only features long-form content, then it might be time to change things up a little bit. While longer posts do have their advantages, users don’t always have time to read an in-depth article. By combining shorter posts with alternative formats, like video, images, and infographics, you can ensure that users are able to enjoy a variety of posts every time they visit your site. Increase the Popularity of Your Blog If you want to boost your business or generate income via a blog, it’s vital to cultivate a loyal following. By producing unique and original content, you’ve got the basis of a great blog. However, it’s vital to promote your content via social media, PPC ads, and SEO if you want to increase your reach. By doing so, you can engage your target audience, monetize your content, and give people a reason to keep people coming back for more.  Image credit: S O C I A L. C U T on Unsplash Social Media Marketing can be a real headache for plenty of people just starting out and while one guide you read will tell to do something one way, you can guarantee another guide will tell you the complete opposite! But the good people over at The Guerrilla Agency have 'the' guide for you!
 Image credit: Hive Boxx on Unsplash How do you know you've reached a turning point in your life? How can you recognise that maybe you need a change? Entrepreneur Europe has 5 signs for you...
 Image credit: Magda Ehlers on Pexels Getting older shouldn’t be something to be frightened of. With older age comes the possibility of having more time for yourself, a greater appreciation for your family, and opportunities to explore new challenges and adventures! To make sure you’re as prepared as you can be, check out these tips:
1. Prioritize your health Getting old can be a seriously joyous thing, but enjoying your life to the max is easier if you’re healthy. So, taking regular exercise (you can even do it from home thanks to online courses and programs) and eating well is all part of the package. After all, you want to make sure you’re in tip-top condition while you’re off exploring, don’t you? 2. Be organized Ensuring all your documents and plans are in a safe place is one of the kindest things you can do. This means that no matter the scenario, a trusted person or loved one will have all the paperwork they need. This will take a load off your mind, and you can move on to enjoying more exciting things! 3. Pick up new hobbies Your latter years are a great time to spend time on new hobbies and skills. Exercise your brain and indulge passion projects that you’ve always considered. Have you always wanted to try fishing? Is salsa your thing? Do you think you might want to speak French? There are so many online and offline courses out there to choose from. And if that’s not your thing, then it’s time to get out there and try it on your own. 4. Upgrade your home Making a couple of sensible changes to your home can make all the difference to your comfort in the years to come. That doesn’t mean moving straight into a bungalow or installing a stairlift, but it does mean making a few adjustments. Consider including a few pieces of handcrafted pieces, like Crown Furniture, to create an environment that’s safe, chic, and easy to use. 5. Mindfulness matters Keeping your brain supple is key, but so is keeping your mental health strong. Practicing mindfulness can be a great way to live in the moment and help relieve any stress. It also has the benefits of lowering blood pressure, improving sleep, and generally improving all-round health. To get started, you can choose from a number of apps and courses. Hopefully, you will enjoy the benefits of decreased stress and anxiety and improved focus. 6. Try yoga It’s true that falls pose a danger to older adults, so to mitigate the risk, try picking up yoga. It helps strengthen core muscles and works on balance and flexibility. Not to mention, it’s a very calming and healthy activity. Adding yoga into your routine is a great way to keep yourself fit and healthy, well into older adulthood. Hopefully, this article has given you some tips and tricks that will help you ‘age well’ and enjoy your later years.  Image credit: pixelcreature on Pixabay When you’re running a blog for your brand, the number one priority should be producing good quality content that has value to the readers, and also helps to contribute to your goals, whether it’s growing recognition or generating sales. But what about when you’ve successfully done that and notice a post taking off, outperforming both your expectations and your other posts? Should you simply let it enjoy the spotlight or is there some way you can capitalize on it? Make sure it leads to something good
If you haven’t already connected your successful post to something that translates to value for your business, now is the time. You can use it to increase blog traffic by following up on it if that’s your aim. However, for many businesses, their mind is going to be on conversion first and foremost. An edit after it has taken off, just slipping in a call to action towards the end might be all that it takes. Grow from it First of all, find out whether or not your content is evergreen. This means it’s not likely to lose value or purpose over time, rather than being particularly pertinent in a moment in time. It doesn’t always work, but you can work with content writers who can find new ways to iterate on that content over time, adjusting it to suit different business periods or topics, for instance. Convert it into even more engaging content Aside from making your content evergreen, you can also look into translating it into forms of media that tend to be even more successful. If a text post version does well, just imagine how well it might work as an infographic or, better yet, a video. Turning a good post into a video isn’t simply as easy as reading it out over imagery, but working with a professional video production agency can help. The better you translate it from one form to the other, the more likely it is to keep the momentum going. Build a personal brand off of it Not only does the brand of the blog, website, or business benefit from a really great and insightful post. It can help position you, the writer, as a person of authority, as well. If your post goes viral due to the insight it offers, then you can seek out other media opportunities, such as guest posting on respectable publications or attending talks. Adopt elements of that post in others If a post does well, it’s often not only because the topic hit the nail on the head for the audience. There’s a good chance it was written and formatted in a particularly engaging manner, as well. To that end, try to find what was great about your post and take elements to incorporate in other posts. You can even try different combinations of stylistic, language, and formatting choices, keeping an eye on your analytics to see if it results in a bump in engagements. A post that gets a lot of reads, generates conversations, or even goes viral is an opportunity just waiting to be taken.  Image credit: geralt on Pixabay Developing a new product is the cornerstone of any successful business, especially startups. You need to create something that meets the needs of consumers while also turning over a healthy profit for you. Getting to that point, however, can be a challenge. Building a product isn’t just a matter of getting out there and doing the work - it requires time and patience to get right. The failure rate for new products and services is notoriously high. In some quarters, it is north of 90 percent, meaning that that majority of new products on the market fail. So what’s the key here? How can you nail your product development cycle and deliver something that will generate substantial profits? Start By Satisfying A Need New products don’t just emerge out of the ether - they come from the fact that they solve problems that consumers have. We already have a highly sophisticated economy, churning out millions of different goods each year for these needs. So there is a lot of knowledge already about what customers want. The market is already excellent at determining their needs and satisfying them. Any new product, therefore, needs to fit into this context. It must understand how the market is currently failing consumers and how the new product can compete. And it needs to improve on whatever is already out there in some way. The most successful products, therefore, aren’t always something entirely novel. Instead, they find a way to improve on an existing formula while preserving their competitive advantage. Find Out How Much The Opportunity Is Worth You might have an excellent idea for a niche product, but if the market for it is small, you might not make a return on your original investment. Ideally, you want to figure out which market segments are most likely to consume whatever you build. Then you need to determine whether you will generate sufficient revenue for it to be worth your time.  Image credit: Mohamed _hassan on Pixabay User research platform, Userzoom, says that companies should try to understand the needs of users before building a new product or service and then validate prototypes. This approach helps to reduce risks and ensure that there is a feasible market out, therefore, for the products when you finally decide to scale.
Working out the size of the opportunity is, therefore, vital. You might have a product that a particular niche wants, but if there are too few people, you’ll ultimately wind up out of pocket. Figure Out How You Will Develop The Product The best way to work out how to develop a product is to look at how the market operates already. Look at the methods that companies already use to ship new goods and services to their customers and actually make it happen. Ask yourself the following questions:
Test Your Prototype In As Many Ways As You Can Prototypes are an essential stage in producing a successful product. They are the point where you find out whether you will be able to deliver something the market will accept or not. Companies tend, however, to look at their products through rose-tinted glasses. They see them as to how they want to see them, rather than how actual customers will. Regular people are the harshest critics of what you sell. If there’s a slight weakness or flaw, they’ll find it and let you know in online reviews. Prototyping, therefore, is your opportunity to wipe out as many of these concerns as possible. Be brutal with your product. Test it to its limits. If you find a flaw, plot a course of action to fix it. Ask yourself whether the product is robust enough, fast enough, or sufficiently flexible. Be honest with yourself about whether it offers customers enough features, or if there are too many. Also, question whether you can deliver it to the market on time. Many companies work to strict time constraints. There is a window of opportunity that they must exploit if they want their enterprise to thrive. If they miss it, then the profit opportunity will vanish. A prototype, therefore, could have all the bells and whistles imaginable. Still, if it is going to take years to bring to scale, then it is not fulfilling the needs of the business. Long development cycles are often what kills new companies. The chance for the product to shine passes. Figure Out How To Position The Product Once you’ve designed the product and studied your market thoroughly, the next step is to position it ready for launch. Companies need to have a good sense of where their product fits alongside the other options available in the marketplace. Positioning the product is essential and usually requires some pretty savvy marketing. For instance, is your product designed for a premium audience? Or are you looking to target people on a budget? Does your product offer superior technology than its competitors? Or does it do the same thing, but at a lower price? Finally, how will you use your brand image to sell the product? Will you use a value-driven approach where you talk about the broader benefits of your product? Or will you tap into different customer philosophies? Remember, your advertising doesn’t have to focus on product features. Instead, you can simply focus on how your company makes people feel. Coca-Cola, for instance, doesn’t talk about the high sugar content of its drinks. Instead, it just associates its brand with having a good time.  You can post as much inspirational and motivational stuff as you can but sometimes, taking a look into what the real world looks like for someone that dedicates their day to being the best they can will have a bigger impact. Mark Wahlberg revealed his daily routine back in December 2018, this followed after Wahlberg was named the highest paid Hollywood actor in 2017. BBC News had the story back then..
 While your blunt friends might come across as a little embarrassing from time to time, overall they’re probably the best friends you have. They come in handy for a number of reasons and are almost always there when you need them, aren’t they? Awareness Act has a great feature to tell you more!
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Author - Chris
Author, Editor, Creator of Learn Develop Live Archives
January 2021
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