These resource-type blogs are referred to time and again by people in their niche.

People continually link to the blog’s content, even months or years after the content has been published.

These kinds of blogs tend to get massive traffic from the search engines.

What is it that separates the typical blog from these resource-type blogs? How can you turn your blog into a dependable resource? Read on.

What Makes a Blog a Resource

The key to turning your blog into a resource is to make sure that your information is both dependable and comprehensive.

That means your old blog posts can’t contain any outdated information. Whenever it covers a topic, it has to address it from all angles. The advice it gives has to apply today, even if it was written three years ago.

How can you possibly manage that?

Develop the Habit of Going Back Through Your Blog

Every three months or so, spend a few days going back through your entire blog. That’s right. Your entire blog. Even if you have several hundred pages of content, go through each and every post by hand.

Update any old information. For example, say you run a blog about how to setup a website. You recommend using a platform that has long since been outstripped by WordPress.

Remove all references to that outdated platform. Update the article so that all the information it contains is up to date. Someone who reads that article today should get just as much value out of it as someone from several years ago.

Update any examples on your site with more recent examples. For example, if you talked about “tell a friend” scripts in the past, today you’ll probably want to replace that with references to Twitter and Facebook.

Create a Directory for Your Site

Break your site down by categories. Again, with the example of a site about how to setup websites, you might break down your content into:

- How to choose a domain
- How to choose a web host
- How to create good content
- How to generate traffic
- How to design a site
- How to make money

For each of these categories, create a directory page that lists all the resources these categories. Unlike a blog’s standard category pages, this directory is designed to be highly user-friendly.

List your pages either according to user popularity and quality or in the order that someone who’s going through a process would need to read them.

This makes it a whole lot easier for people to find what they’re looking for on your site. These directory pages will also get linked to a lot as treasure troves of information for specific topics on the web.

Improve Your Internal Linking

Every page on your website should have a “related posts” section. This makes it easy for people to continue to browse your site.

Whenever you briefly touch on a topic within an article, try to link to another article that goes into that topic in more detail.

One easy way to automate this is to use Pretty Link Pro. You can just tell Pretty Link Pro what words on your site you want to create links from and it’ll do it for you. For example, you can tell PLP to create a link to your post about buying a domain name whenever the phrase “buy a domain” is mentioned on your site.

If you do all these things, your site will become not just a blog but a resource people refer to. People will send other people to your site as a solution to their problems.

Make sure your information is timely. Make it easy for people to access your content. Link to more details within your content. Every three months, go through all your past content and update everything to bring it back up to date again.

- Derek

photo credit: tanya_little

If you run a blog, one of the most important stats you should check is how often people come back to your website.

If you find that the vast majority of your visitors don’t come back to your website, you might want to ask yourself:

Why?

Is there something you could do to improve your return rate?

Is there a reason your readers aren’t returning?

Let’s dive into the “returning visitors” question in more detail.

Where to Get Returning Visitor Data

To get your returning visitors data, log into your Google Analytics panel and click on “Audience” then “Behavior” in the left sidebar.

The most interesting data will be under “Frequency vs. Recency.”

Here you’ll not only be able to see what percentage of your visitors came back, but also how often your visitors came back.

Do people visit once or twice then never return? Or do some of your audience members return time and time again to read your new content?

This data can tell you a lot about whether or not you’re doing a good job.

If you find that you have a low visitor return rate, what can you do about it? These are four of the root causes, along with the solutions.

Reason #1: You Repeat Yourself (Or Somebody Else)

If someone reads your content and thinks to themselves: “I’ve heard this before” then you’re probably dead in the water.

If you’re copying ideas from other people or re-hashing things others have said, you’re going to miss out on a lot of your audience.

The same can be said for your own content. If you’re just saying the same things again and again in different words, you’re going to lose your audience.

The answer? Write only when you’re inspired. When you come up with a bright new idea, get it on paper immediately.

Reason #2: You Don’t Solve Their Problems

Some blogs can be incredibly informative, but at the end of the day they just don’t solve your problems.

Take the example of someone giving financial advice.

Blog #1 might be written by a very well informed professor. He shares economic theories, tax laws and various other kinds of information about investing. However, at the end of the day, if that information can’t be turned into solid investments, it’s useless to the reader.

By contrast, Blog #2 might be written by a hedge fund manager who doesn’t provide nearly as much information. But the manager is consistently able to give advice that generates a high ROI. The result? The blog gets major traffic.

The bottom line is this: Identify the core problems of your readers and solve them.

Reason #3: You’re Not Posting Regularly

In order for a blog to succeed, it really, absolutely needs to have a regular posting schedule.

People need to get in the habit of checking your blog regularly.

If you’re not posting regularly, people won’t check it regularly. It’s really that simple.

Try to have at least a blog post or two scheduled in advance at all times. Whenever you write a new blog post, just add it to the back of your “queue.”

Reason #4: You’re Not Fun to Read

Finally, if you read like a dry academic textbook, chances are people won’t want to read your blog.

Remember that people tend to read blogs in their spare time. They read blogs after school or after work, when they’ve already had to tax their brains all day.

Yes, you want to give them solid information. Yes, you want to help solve their problems and yes, you want to give them new ideas. But make sure you present it in a fun way.

The best way to do this is to let your natural personality shine through. Use language that you’d use in your every day life and don’t filter what you write for your audience. Some will love you and a small portion of your audience might get offended; but you’ll certainly make an impact.

Change these four things about your blog and your visitor return rate will quickly improve.

- Derek

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

If you run a high traffic blog, you might be tempted to create a forum to help facilitate the growth of your community.

Stop right there.

Before you even think about creating a forum, it’s important to realize just how big of a commitment you’re making.

Yes, owning your own forum has massive benefits. However, if you manage it poorly, it could spell the end of your business.

Here’s an in depth analysis of the pros and cons of creating a forum for your blog.

Make sure you carefully consider both sides before taking the plunge.

The Benefits of Creating a Forum

The benefits of creating a forum are many fold.

First of all, you get a lot of traffic. People who become regular members of a forum will return to your site at an incredibly high frequency.

Someone who just reads your content might just visit your site twice a week. By contrast, someone who’s an active member on your forum might visit the forum several times a day.

You get a ton of auto-generated content by having a forum. Your users will create tons and tons of content for you, without you having to write a single word.

That auto-generated content will in turn bring more search engine traffic. The more content you have, the more page views you’ll also get. You’ll have people staying longer on your site, as they’re getting more value.

You also get a massive credibility boost. If you’re the owner and administrator of a large forum in your industry, you’ll naturally have a lot of clout. People will seek you out to do deals with you and just about everyone in your industry will answer your phone calls.

In short, a great forum is a business, traffic, retention and sales powerhouse.

The Drawbacks of Creating a Forum

That said, creating a forum also has several big drawbacks.

First of all, having an empty forum just looks absolutely terrible. If you can’t get your forum past the “momentum point,” where there’s enough posts and users for users not to leave because your forum is empty, then you’re doomed.

If you have a website with a dead looking forum, that automatically kills much of your credibility. Even someone who was considering buying from you in the past might then change their mind.

Furthermore, launching anything in the future becomes harder. If you launch a forum today, then shut it down in a month, next month when you try to launch a contest, people are less likely to participate. Your ability to lead your followers will diminish.

Finally, there are drawbacks even to a successful forum. One big one is management issues.

Even if you have moderators, administering a forum can be a real headache. There’s often politics involved. There might be theft or fraud if people do business on your forums. You have to carefully monitor the overall culture of the forum to make sure it’s going in the direction you want it to.

Some extremely successful forums, such as the Copywriting Forum and Steve Pavlina’s forum have both shut down not because they failed, but because their owners just didn’t want to spend all their time and energy on forum politics anymore. And it’s usually not something you can outsource.

Should You Launch a Forum?

The bottom line is this: You should only launch a forum if you’re at least 90% sure it’ll succeed.

Launching a forum is a high risk high reward proposition. If you get everything right, it can pay off handsomely. If you make a mistake however, it can be a very expensive experiment.

There are less risky ways to build traffic in the beginning. Wait until you have a sizable list and sizable following before attempting to build a forum.

Then study up on how to seed a forum, how to cultivate initial users and how to create the image of a buzzing forum even before there’s a lot of activity. Have a solid launch plan before you put your forum into action.

Comments, questions, feedback?

- Derek

photo credit: oxfordian.world

Do you find yourself struggling to find time to blog?

Perhaps you work a full time job.

Maybe the majority of your time is taken up by kids.

Or you’re running several smaller businesses and projects at once.

Or perhaps you just have a lot on your plate.

Whatever the case may be, there are ways around this problem.

Don’t let lack of time prevent you from creating a world class blog.

Here’s what you can do to consistently churn out great content – Even if you have a hard time finding the time.

The “One Paragraph at a Time” Process

Instead of sitting down to write a blog post all in one go, do it paragraph by paragraph in your spare time.

If writing a whole blog post might take an hour or two, doing one paragraph might just take 5 to 10 minutes.

Do a paragraph right when you get out of bed. Do one before lunch. Do one when you have a lull at work. Do one before bed.

Write your content on Google Docs or WordPress so you can work on it whether you’re at home or at your word computer.

One of two things can happen with this method.

Either you’ll end up writing your blog posts paragraph by paragraph in your spare time; or you’ll hit a “flow” every once in a while and end up writing a lot more than one paragraph.

Either way works.

Dictate and Transcribe

Another way you can get around lack of time is through dictating and transcribing your posts.

The best way to do this is to sort your thoughts out first, before dictating. Trying to come up with a post on the fly with dictation can be a little tough. You might want to write a brief outline beforehand.

Then, in your car or while you’re walking to work, you can just dictate your post. Zero time is taken by the writing process.

There are a few different ways you can do the actual transcription.

The iPhone Siri’s voice recognition technology is top notch – Much better than just about any other software in its class. Another contender is Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is a lot more complicated to use, but was widely considered a winner before the Siri hit the market.

You can also just hire a transcriber off eLance.

Use Guest Posters

If you have a hard time writing your own posts, why not have a guest poster do the work for you?

Go on to MyBlogGuest.com and look for a few guest bloggers who fit the profile.

Make sure that they have the expertise and background to talk knowledgably to your audience.

There are hundreds of bloggers out there who would love the opportunity to write for you. The main challenge is quality control – Making sure that whoever’s writing for you is capable of great content.

Write Only When You Have a Great Idea

Finally, you can reduce the amount of time you need to spend blogging by only blogging when you have a great idea.

When you have a great idea, the words flow. You type quickly and you easily transfer the ideas in your head into words.

When you’re trying to write because you’re trying to stick to a posting schedule or feel like you have to produce content, it’s a lot harder. That’s when writers end up staring at the screen for hours.

Give yourself permission to only write when you really have a great idea. That’ll prevent a lot of wasted time spent on writer’s block.

Plus, your content will likely be better at the end of the day.

How do you find time to blog? If you have any tips, please share in the comments!

- Derek

Posting regular videos on your blog is one of the top ways to gain traction in a market, get more people to follow you and deliver value to your audience.

This technique was scarce just a few years ago. Then Gary Vaynerchuk came along and popularized the technique, citing his success in turning WineLibrary.tv into a multi-million dollar business as an example.

Today, many top blogs use regular video in their marketing. For example, SEOMoz, perhaps the most well known SEO agency in the industry, does “Whiteboard Friday” once a week. Mixergy, the most famous “entrepreneur interview” blog does video interviews daily.

If you’re also interested in doing weekly (or even daily) videos, you’re likely going to run into a few challenges. These five tips will help you launch your regular video efforts successfully.

Tip #1 – Built a Base of 10 Fallback Videos

Before you launch your video posts, create at least five, preferably ten videos.

These videos are your fallback. If you have a sick day, you can post from your fallback videos rather than skip a post.

Having 10 videos also commits yourself emotionally to the task. Once you’ve done 10 videos, you’re much less likely to stop doing videos if thing get tough.

Tip #2 – Learn to Use Prezi

I’m in love with Prezi. Before Prezi, you essentially had three options: Screencasts, you on camera or PowerPoint.

Screencasts are great if you have step-by-step demos to do, but after doing a few screencasts chances are you’ll run out of step-by-steps you can do.

You on camera is a valid option, but it’s not great for presenting detailed materials.

The downside with PowerPoint is that it’s extremely dull. Their transitions are outdated and as a whole the software just doesn’t draw people in.

Prezi has more or less completely replaced PowerPoint for me. You can create dazzling, fun to watch videos in minutes. I’m a huge fan.

Tip #3 – Wear the Same Clothes

This is an odd tip. Yet it makes a difference.

If you can film all your videos in the same clothes, you’ll create a sense of continuity. People who “chain watch” your videos will get more of a concrete feel of who you are.

Imagine if someone watched 10 of your videos. In the first, you’re wearing a white collared shirt. In the next you’re wearing a ripped black T-shirt. In the third you’re in a suit a tie. By the end of the 10th video, their sense of who you are will be vague.

On the other hand, if you’re in the same suit and tie in every video, people will easily get a solid grasp of who you are and what your image is.

Tip #4 – Expression is More Important Than Words

Whether you’re appearing on video or if you’re just the voice behind the slideshows, your *expression* matters.

Expression is how much emotion your words carry. It’s how passionate you felt when you recorded. It’s also how passionate your audience will feel when they hear you speak.

Do multiple takes when you’re shooting your videos. Get yourself amped up before recording. Really feel your words when you say them and aim to hit your audience not just in the head, but in the heart.

Tip #5 – Get a Rock Solid Opening Sequence

Just a 5 second sequence introducing your logo or your brand in the beginning of a video can really change your overall vibe.

It’ll say to people that your video is professionally made and that you put a lot of effort into your video.

It can be something as simple as an animated slide-in with music or something as complex as a 3D logo. You can get very professional looking video intro sequences made for your brand on Fiverr.com

These five tips will help you create weekly video posts that truly rock. Now go out there and make some killer videos!

Questions? Feedback?

- Derek