How to Write and Promote Content Without Making SEO Mistakes

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October 2, 2016

How to Write and Promote Content Without Making SEO Mistakes

Competing in the SEO market for content marketing is no walk in the park. There’s a ton of competition and Google can by a tough overseer to impress. But if you can avoid making common SEO mistakes, you’ll gain a big advantage over your rivals and give yourself a big boost with the all-important Google rankings.

Here’s a list of 6 frequent SEO slipups content marketers make and how to avoid them

Misplacing Your Content

No matter how awesome your content is. If it doesn’t have a home that attracts a sufficient amount of links that lead directly back to your website then it’s probably not going to generate much traffic for you. Setting up your content on platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn will probably cause your content to go to waste since your external links will lead to intermediary sites. It will be competing with a whole bunch of other sites’ links, causing the links to your site being no-followed.

Additionally, using third-party sites like Buzzfeed or Washington Post will be a tough go for you. Due to the amount of other sites’ links you’ll be competing against on their page, not to mention their restrictive editorial guidelines. Even if Buzzfeed publishes an amazing list article that you’ve put together, it won’t do much for you SEO wise since the site doesn’t permit direct links to your site.

So how do we work around this?

Simple. If your goal is to build link authority, forget about the social media platforms and third party sites and place it on your own website. You have to be sure that you publish a high-quality content, first of all. You can do it by yourself or you can ask to help such services as Get Academic Help. This way you can just focus on driving all traffic to your site . And your readers will be exactly where they need to be when they’re ready to give you the conversions you’re looking for.

Be Outcome-Focused, Not Activity-Focused

A lot of content marketers are smitten with the idea of following whatever tasks are listed as an SEO “best practice”. They’ll build their to-do list around whatever activities they’re told are the way to go.

The problem though is that many of these tasks will do very little, if anything at all, to enhance your SEO. For example, meta descriptions do nothing to improve your rankings. And yet they’re often prioritized as something that significant time must be spent on.

Thus, your strategy should be centered around doing whatever will lead to your desired outcome. By locking your focus on a bright, shiny goal, you can use all of your time and resources to achieve it. While filtering out the stuff that would be a busy-work distraction at best or could knock you off course at worst. The best part of this being that once you hit a particular goal. You can set up your next goal and begin operating with a clear purpose towards that.

Make Sure Your Target the Right Audience

While laser-focusing your content marketing towards your ideal customers might seem like the obvious thing to do, you’ll be making a big mistake with regards to your SEO. What you need to understand? Is that it’s not your potential customers that make up the critical part of your audience. It’s the people who have the most influence online under Google’s ever watchful eye.

Of course, this doesn’t mean relevance goes out the window. Obtaining links from online studs in industries totally different than yours most likely won’t do you much good. However, if you can create entertaining content that captures the interest of those visiting these big sites, you’ll have a good chance of drawing lots of visitors. Who’ll be intrigued by what you have to offer when they hit your site.

Pushing For “Likes” over “Links”

Are you’re implementing social media into your content marketing strategy? Then you’re totally missing the boat in you aren’t applying the concepts of successful SEO to it. SEO has to be the backbone of all your marketing and getting a bunch of retweets, likes, and shares aren’t going to do a thing to pump up your Google ranking.

You want the links.

The central focus of your social media marketing should be to entice bloggers of influence to link to your website. Doing things that are simply cute or entertaining without gaining new links from them are essentially a waste of time as far as SEO is concerned.

Not Connecting With A Power User

The more heavy hitters you can attract to your site, the better your link building will go. So hooking up with power users – bloggers, journalists, social media butterflies, celebrities – with big followings who can provide you with links that can attract serious traffic is a tremendous way to boost your SEO.

And the best part is that you don’t need to win over a bunch of them.

In fact, if you can just snag one power user you’ll be well on your way to impressing Google and shooting up the rankings.

Before you go big game hunting is that attracting a power user can be challenging. You should be ready to compensate a power user. Could be cash, could be favors. Since very little in this world is free and you need to know how to locate these power users to even have a shot at winning one over. One way is to consult your SEO consultant if you have one, who may be able to point you in the right direction. Or may already have a connection to one. While another way is to seek them out on the various social networking sites and attempt to build a relationship through there.

Not Selecting the Right Keywords

What might be a highly effective keyword for one business could be a complete dud for another?

An example of this would include using generic keywords. That draw in visitors going with global keywords when your business only caters to a local crowd. Or keywords that might hook in visitors only seeking free info but have zero interest in purchasing anything.

Early on at least, your aims should be to go with keywords. That specifically match your service and the audience you’re aiming for. This will help you attract an audience that is already interested in what you’re selling. Which should, in turn, cause your Google rankings to rise. The flip side of this is that as your business grows, you could begin to optimize with keywords that will appeal to a broader audience.

How to Keep All Your Data Safe (Hard Drive, Mobile Devices, And More)

Maitreya Patni

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October 2, 2016

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How to Keep All Your Data Safe (Hard Drive, Mobile Devices, And More)

Is your data truly safe? Even if you’ve installed cybersecurity and anti-malware software, your data may still be at risk. It takes a number of precautions to ensure total data security, but maybe you think you don’t need to worry about data loss. Regardless if you’re an executive, student, or homemaker, data loss can negatively affect your way of life. It’s everything on your computer.

Take a minute to look at your documents folder or explore your cloud storage. What’s on there? Music? Your kid’s homework? A short story you’ve been working on? Company records? Can you afford to lose this information? Why wait until it’s gone to worry if you can live without it or not, take the steps necessary to protect your data now to avoid total disaster later.

In case of emergency: If you do suffer unexpected data loss, you’re not totally without a life preserver. There are companies that specialize in quick hard drive recovery, such as the Toronto data recovery service Secure Data Recovery. Specialists take your hard drive into what’s called a “clean room” and the engineers carefully reconstruct the damaged files, and hopefully can recover that which is important to you.

Proactive Ways to Secure Your Data

Data isn’t just found on a computer’s hard drive; it’s found on mobile devices, networks, social networking sites, and more. The following outlines some methods for protecting your data no matter where it’s stored. These are your best practices for protecting your identity, credit, and those files that are most important to you (photos, music, and important documents, such as tax paperwork).

Cybersecurity and anti-malware software: you should be running your cybersecurity suite daily. You can have your systems do this autonomously by scheduling daily runs. You can have it run overnight while you’re sleeping. Make sure to download cybersecurity on all your devices.
Make regular backups: You should be backing up your data regularly; this includes making backups of the data store on your mobile devices. If something happens, such as you’re hacked, you can simply upload the backup file and move on with your life.
Use removable disks to save your most important data: Save your data to an external hard drive or other removable disk. Store these disks in protective areas away from dust, dander, fire, and water.
Use strong passwords: You want your social media and other online engagements to stay protected? Use a strong password and change it often. The best passwords are at least eight characters, feature upper and lowercase letters, and feature numbers and symbols. Use a different password for each login; that way, if a hacker is able to determine one of your passwords, he won’t have access to all of your online accounts.
Always log off: Especially when using public computers, it’s essential that you log off from social media and anywhere else. For personal computers and devices, use a password or immediately shut down the device when you’re done with it.
Use encryption and avoid unencrypted websites: Avoid surfing websites that don’t have “https” at the beginning of the web address. Https is the secure version of “http.” It means that the connection is encrypted, and that means third parties can’t intercept the data sent between you and the site.
Update everything: Don’t wait to update iOS, Android, or your computer’s operating system. Operating system updates are the most important and shouldn’t be put off because they come with bug fixes and advanced security. Also, it’s important that you update your applications and any software you have installed.

Remember: if you do lose data, all isn’t lost; however, why wait to see if data can be recovered when these methods are proven to protect it now? Do your best to employ all of these strategies, and avoid any connections that aren’t secure. Encryption is your best friend and cybersecurity is your greatest protector.

\Remember: if you do lose data, all isn’t lost; however, why wait to see if data can be recovered when these methods are proven to protect it now? Do your best to employ all of these strategies, and avoid any connections that aren’t secure. Encryption is your best friend and cybersecurity is your greatest protector.

10 Negative Beliefs that Guarantee Blogging Failure

Maitreya Patni

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September 20, 2016

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10 Negative Beliefs that Guarantee Blogging Failure

There are some negative beliefs that usually hunt most of us. And it is OK. It is normal to feel unsure sometimes in such competitive environment, such as the blogging. But it doesn’t mean that you should allow these pessimist ideas to take over your mind and stop you from becoming a successful blogger.

The problem is that many of these beliefs can pass unnoticed or as a natural thing to consider under the circumstances. So to avoid that you fall into this trap, let’s list ten of the most common negative ideas that can guarantee blogging failure if they aren’t dissolved on time.

#1 – I am no expert; I shouldn’t be writing about it

The famous impostor syndrome is the first negative belief that we will point out here. It is true that you have no PhD in what you are writing about, but let’s be honest: who does? Most of the bloggers never been to any university, and several of them had very average jobs before becoming a blogger. And it has never stopped them from learning their craft and making money out of it.

#2 – There are too many blogs out there

Yes, it is true. There is an enormous number of blogs out there nowadays. But have you ever stopped to check their quality? How many of them are really good and offer reliable content? How many of them are taken seriously enough? You know the answer: not many. So if you are managing your blogging career with professionalism, you are among a VIP group.

#3 – It requires technical expertise to run a blog (and I know zero about it)

No, it doesn’t. You can have a blog, and get your blog on the first page of Google Search with little or no technical experience. You can also create great content and prepare an amazing design. And all you need to do is to read tips from experts and follow them to the dot. There are also plenty of automating tools, online services, and templates ready for you. Simple like this.

#4 – It takes too much time to keep it up-to-date

I won’t lie to you. Blogging requires dedication. But the worst part is the beginning when you are learning and building an audience for the first time. Then you can relax a bit and make improvements here and there. And you can always open space for guest bloggers so they share the burden with you in exchange for a byline.

#5 – It requires too much money to keep it up-to-date

Here is an affirmation that you can erase from your mind forever. The cost to keep the blog is the same that you had to create it in the first place. No more, no less. Of course, you might want to make improvements or buy tools to automate parts of the process. But it means that you are setting yourself free for new projects, so it is a win-win scenario.

#6 – I am not a good writer

And who is? Even published best-seller authors have their doubts about the quality of their writing. And this is why they rely on editors and proofreaders to perfect their work. So why can you do the same? If you feel that you need help, just go ahead and hire a freelancer or an agency to check your posts. No need to feel bad about it. You always can find some help in your writings. Just want to be creative and your brain will do the rest.

#7 – I will never make money out it

You will or you won’t. It depends on how hard you want to work on ways to monetize your blog. But there are many bloggers out there making small fortunes per month, and they aren’t lying. You just need to find the best method according to your audience and go for it.

#8 – Analytics are too complicated

If you have ever had a look at Google Analytics or Google Webmaster Tools, you might have found them complicated at first sight. But if you took the time to look for any tutorial online, you know that it isn’t that bad. It is just a question of understanding the lingo and then choosing which data is more relevant to you. Soon, it will become your second skin.

#9 – I will have to write until exhaustion

No, you won’t. As said above, there is a lot to write in the beginning, but then it settles in. You will know every single aspect of your topic, and your writing will run more smoothly. And also as mentioned before, you can always invite people to become guest bloggers. Even your visitor can generate content for you if you provide them with the right tools.

#10 – Being afraid of criticism

Criticism is a problem the fear of many aspiring bloggers. They think that people will hate what they write and that they will become a meme to be mocked about. But while it is not possible to make everyone happy, you won’t be making everybody unhappy either. Rest assured that if you do good work, you will have much more followers than haters.

The bottom line

As you can see, it is very easy to get rid of the negative beliefs above. Just stick to your guns and go ahead with your blog idea. You are sure to be successful if you are willing to remain optimistic and ready for working hard.

11 Pitfalls That Can Throw Off Your Writing Dynamics

Maitreya Patni

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September 20, 2016

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11 Pitfalls That Can Throw Off Your Writing Dynamics

Your writing dynamics are a combination of the effectiveness of your writing along with your ability to create written works efficiently. It doesn’t matter if you are a novelist, poet, blogger, copywriter, or journalist maintaining good writing dynamics is important. Unfortunately, there are some creeping bad habits that can throw you off your game. The best way to avoid these is to be aware of them. Then, be vigilant.

Blowing The Ending

Many writers can produce perfectly insightful works when it comes to the beginning and the middle of their pieces. Unfortunately, the ending is often another story altogether. Whether it’s the final chapter of your eBook or the last couple of paragraphs of a blog post, neatly summarizing things can be tricky.

Some writers attempt to leave the conclusion off altogether. Others make the mistake of repeating points that were already made. Instead, try to show how each item you have presented adds up to prove your initial assertion.

Overusing Certain Words And Phrases

Every writer has certain go-to words and phrases that pop up throughout their writing. On one hand, this can become a part of your voice. On the other hand, taken too far this can make your writing predictable and repetitive.

One thing to consider is taking some of your writing and Pasting into a website or tool that generates word clouds. There are plenty of these available for free. This will produce a word cloud that lets you know the words that appear most in your writing. If a few words really stand out, consider using an alternative every once in a while.

Using The Passive Voice

The increasingly, common use of the passive voice has the effect of making writing seem weird and a bit stuffy. Using this technique can cause writers to seem as if they are trying to sound more academic and intellectual than they are.

If you have this habit, break it ASAP. Editors really look down on this, and it does make your writing quite ineffective. In fiction, If you choose to write in the passive voice, you are taking power and interest away from your characters.

Overuse of Adverbs

Remember that a powerful verb is always better than an adverb combined with a weaker verb. Think about that. Doesn’t this: “She sprinted across the lawn just in time to prevent the toddler from walking in front of a speeding car”. Sound better than: “She ran quickly across the lawn just in time to prevent the toddler from walking in front of a speeding car”.

If you are tempted to use a word to supplement a verb, stop and look for a verb that doesn’t need to be supplemented. In nearly every case, your writing will be more powerful, and you will communicate more effectively using fewer words.

Skipping The Editing And Proofreading Steps

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing about something easy and trivial. And it doesn’t matter if you are a subject matter expert. It doesn’t matter if it’s a quick piece that you could turn out in your sleep. No piece of writing should be released for consumption without going through some sort of editing and proofreading process. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner writing an essay for college or a published author, everybody needs an editor.

Misunderstanding Your Audience

If you fail to research and properly understand who you are writing for, your work can come off more than a little tone deaf. The last thing that you want to do is to explain basic concepts to an advanced audience. You also don’t want to make the mistake of assuming that a general audience has advanced knowledge of a particular subject.

Then, there’s the matter of tone. If you use humor or pop culture references in your writing, it is very important to ensure that those things will be well received and understood.

Writing For Word Count

It feels like you’ve been writing for hours. You’re tired, and you cannot think of one more word to say on the matter. So, you hit the word count checker. Bad news, you’re a hundred words short. At this point, you’re probably tempted to go back and add in filler words and sentences to just to be done with things. Unfortunately, this rarely turns out well.

Instead of trying to fit in some extra words here and there, try finding an example that you can add. Other options are to include more detail to instructions or to add some dialogue.

Failing to Write Everyday

Writing talent is like a muscle. If you fail to use it, the ability atrophies. By writing at least a bit every day, you stay on top of your game. This makes it much easier to stay productive when you have deadlines to meet. Even if you don’t have any active deadlines, daily writing is your key to honing your craft and perfecting your voice.

Lacking Brevity

Ernest Hemingway, one of the most respected authors of all time, was known for writing that was both powerfully brief. He didn’t waste words, and he got right to the point. It’s very important to monitor your own writing for throw away words and sentences that add nothing to your work.

Censoring Yourself

A writer’s keyboard can be identified by the faded letters and smoothly worn spacebar. One key that should not have the same amount of wear and tear as the others, is the backspace. This is because deleting things should largely be left to the editing stage of the game and not the writing stage. Don’t censor yourself during the writing process. You could end up killing off a great idea that just needs a bit of polishing.

Use of Jargon

Unless you are truly dealing with industry insiders, it is rarely a good idea to use jargon or buzzwords in your writing. In the rare instances where you cannot get away from doing this, be sure to adequately explain what each term means.

Conclusion

Stay in practice, pay attention to detail, write for your audience instead of yourself, and be creative. These are the things that will keep your writing dynamics on point.

10 Tips and Tools to Humanise Your Company Blog

Ecbert Malcom

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September 20, 2016

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10 Tips and Tools to Humanise Your Company Blog

You probably have heard all this about humanising your blog, so your target audience will engage with your brand. As a consequence, it will increase your traffic and your conversions.

But how to do in practical terms, you wonder. Because, at the end of the day, you have a company, not a child. And it makes you think that you can’t humanise it, no matter how hard you try.

Thankfully, here is a list of tips and tools that you can use to achieve this goal. And, yes, they have all been tested and proved by experts.

#1 – Tell how the company was founded

One great way to create an emotional connection between your company and your target audience is by writing an article about its foundation. Tell them all struggles you went through, what challenges you faced, and how many times you considered giving up. Also tell any funny details, and how you manage to overcome every problem you encountered. Then leave them with a life lesson and a story of success.

#2 – Show the production process

Your customers will love to know how the products and services that they buy are created. Show them how it works as if you were talking about assembling a toy or something else that is fun. And take the opportunity to create an open channel about it. Let them ask questions and be curious about your secrets (if there is any). It can become a memorable conversation.

#3 – Interview your team

Your company is not a person, but it is made by people. So if you want to humanise it, you should bring your team to the scene. Interview them and share with your customers why they are so important to the company. Highlight their skills and tell interesting stories about how you met them for the first time. But also share more personal things that can show them as an interesting person – with their permission, of course.

#4 – Add user-generated content

Content generated by your clients and customers is another great way to boost engagement. Let them write posts about your brand, how they use your products, and what they think about your services. Yes, you can check them before publishing it, but censorship won’t help you much here. You would rather let them free to be honest and surprise yourself with the compliments you will get. Also you can use professional content using website ratings to find them to generate high-quality content for your purposes.

#5 – Forget about stock images

Stock images are a cheap way to get professional images, but they aren’t famous for creating an emotional connection. People know that you aren’t the one on the photo and feel a bit betrayed by it. On the other hand, real photos from your facilities, team, products can be more expensive, but they will pay you back for sure.

#6 – Add videos

Videos are also well known for creating engagement. They wake up emotions and trigger the brain to create connections – so we tend to remember what we see longer than what we read. So any of the suggestions above can be transformed from a written post to a video instead. You can showcase your portfolio, interview clients and your staff, and much more.

#7 – Use informal words

One thing that companies are usually concerned about while blogging is about their choice of words. They think because they are a business, their tone should be cold and formal. But they couldn’t be more wrong. People wants to hear from people, and you will sound like a robot if you choose this way. So don’t be afraid of being funny or informal – your clients will be much happier if you do so.

#8 – Answer your comments and reviews

Another thing that you should ensure that you do is to answer all your comments and reviews. Each one of them should be taken care individually and with all care, even the negative ones. It will show that you care about what it is said about your company and show that you are more than interested in having a conversation with your clients.

#9 – Sign with your name

Here is a precious tip, ignored by many companies: you should sign your blog posts with your name. Create a byline with a real and nice photo of you, so people will know who is writing those texts. And tell a bit about yourself, professionally and personally. It will make them feel much more comfortable and interested to read your words, for sure.

#10 – Build relationships

Last but not least, you should always focus on building relationships with your audience. Every time that you are about to create an article, you should consider how they can interact with it, and which resources you can provide so they can use your blog to engage in conversations. And not only with you but also with other customers so that they can share their experiences, for instance.

4 Simple Reasons Why Websites Need Responsive Designing

Web Development

jamesjones

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September 16, 2016

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4 Simple Reasons Why Websites Need Responsive Designing

I wonder what screen you are reading this on. Laptop perhaps? Or maybe it’s one of those jumbo sized displays? Or you could be thumbing down with your smartphone. Do you love the experience?

From modern perspective, responsive designing makes it possible to help you view websites seamlessly as you change devices. Before the advent of the cellphone revolution with advanced web browsing capabilities, website designers never had to design their websites for multiple screens. Desktop monitors looked generally the same and with some minor tweaks, they could run them on any monitor connected to the internet across the planet. But with factors such as screen size, pixel resolution, click versus touch, support for Adobe Flash, optimized markup and others in play, web designers had to up their game.

Responsive Designing

With mobile phone sales trumping desktop merchandise every year, you need to improvise your website designing strategy if you intend to garner revenue with Search Engine Optimization. This calls for tweaking your archaic desktop-centric website (if you still run one) and emphasise on making it more nimble and able to run on cellphones of any screen size or operating systems.

Here are four advantages that Responsive Designed Websites bring to the table:

#1 – One site to rule ‘em all!

Generally known as “mobile only” sites, websites often create a separate website designed for phones and transfer users who are approaching them from the smaller devices. Though it does work to a certain extent, where this plan falls apart is in content disparity. Mobile websites are skinned to cover just basic features and the user may find himself at a loss. Besides, managing multiple websites is a pain!

Better stick with creating a website that can be universally accessed by smartphones and desktops alike.

#2 – Super flexibility

With content moving freely across screens of multiple dimensions, responsive website designing allows intuitive movement and ease of movement. As newer devices with screen sizes are launched into the market in the near future, your websites will be able to scale itself to its dimensions.

#3 – Excellent User Satisfaction

Content remains king but User satisfaction is what counts as success metrics. Responsive websites ensure that the user remains satisfied despite which device he/she uses and provides seamless quality website for his/her consumption of information.

#4 – Keeps costs down

Responsive websites do take a while to stitch together but they tend to outlast their compatriots longer. Which means support, patches and updates can be uploaded at the same area than multiple websites. With an optimised and responsive website, the user gets his information faster which makes his/her life easier.

Why we love a responsively designed website?

Any website regardless of its responsibilities or goals will greatly benefit from efficient designing. If it runs fluidly on all screens, that results in easier navigation and happier users. The durable nature of this strategy is incredibly efficient and the cost effectiveness a crystal clear advantage.

Is your website capable of running fluidly across all devices?

Content Creation Tools For Your Blog to Make Your Content Rock in 2016

Maitreya Patni

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August 23, 2016

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Content Creation Tools For Your Blog to Make Your Content Rock in 2016

Consistently and continuously creating new high-quality content is hard! I mean, how are you supposed to come up with new stuff all the time? You’ve got a life. You’ve got a family! And you know what? You don’t even really need to. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll need to do so most of the time, but some of the time you can do something which your readers will love just as much. What am I talking about? Content curation, of course.

Because if we’re happy with one of your great articles, we’ll be ecstatic if you can point out ten articles that you find particularly impressive. What’s more, because content curation doesn’t require quite as much creativity (just finding the right sites) you can spend just that bit more time working to build your audience by to make one of your posts absolutely smashing, so that you end up getting that featured blog.

Now who can argue against that, right?

Trap.it

The first time you use this tool it will seem useful, but not that special. You’ll search around, find some interesting content, store it and head out the door.

It’s when you come back that it really starts to work its magic. Because while you’re away, Trap.it does not sit idly by. Instead, based on the choices you made the last time, they’ll go ahead and start curating more information for you as well. Yup, that’s right, the program learns what you like and then starts looking for it on its own. Kind of creepy, but a fantastic time saver.

Triberr

Where can you find content that you can curate? Well, obviously, by looking at other curated content! Triberr is fantastic for that. Here bloggers and influencers come together and curate content for each other, so that you can find fresh ideas, fresh perspectives and entire new categories of stuff that you didn’t even know existed.

Storify

This fantastic app allows you to build a social newsroom where several people can conjointly work on a project in real time. Yup, that’s right, no more email chains where you’re not sure what’s been done and what hasn’t. Instead, you’ll all have oversight and be on the ball by using Storify.

Feedly

Of course, just being able to work on a story collectively isn’t enough. You also need to find the material you want to use. That’s what Feedly is for. With this phenomenal app you’ll be able to find the content you need so that you can curate it and turn your story into something that really knocks your audience’s socks off.

Quora

Sometimes you can ask Google and sometimes, when you don’t know the exact keyword or the jargon that people in the profession use, you need somebody who actually understands what you’re after. In the latter case, look no further than Quora, where a phenomenal group of very smart people offer up information and ideas.

So got a question you can’t find the answer to? Don’t be surprised if you’ll get the whole answer and a whole lot more by asking Quora.

Pinterest

Yes, you’ve probably heard of it. Heck, you probably use it, but have you thought about using it as a curation tool? In case you haven’t, then you’re truly missing out as this fantastic social networking site really lets you explore every idea in depth and in width as well (no, I’m not sure what that means either).

The great thing here is also that you can rely on other people to find the really interesting stuff out there, which you can then share around – though perhaps the people would like to be credited (or at least thanked).

Learnist

Another great tool that allows you to create boards or collections based upon keywords. What makes Learnist stand out is that the people collecting the information are real leaders in the industry, which means that you can be sure the information you’re reading is right at the bleeding edge.

And that’s what we’re all after, isn’t it? Because with staid content we can be pretty sure our readers won’t stay on our site for very long.

Curata

Another example of machine learning in action, Curata becomes more and more useful the more and more you use it. In this way your search results will become ever more accurate and you’ll have to spend ever less time throwing out the stuff you don’t really need.

SlideShare

Whether you want to look for presentations to plunder for information (a strategy I’ve effectively used numerous of times myself) or if you want to put your curated content into a slide (which just ads that little bit of zing to your site), SlideShare is the way to go.

There are 70 million professionals that use the site, who’ve created 18 million slides over 40 different categories. Now that’s a lot of information!

Last words

Oh my! That is a lot of tools, isn’t it? And when I first started out I didn’t know where to begin either. There is a lot of stuff out there. If it all seems a little overwhelming, don’t despair. The best place to start it to find out what you need. Do you need to find information or do you need to organize it? Can you trust the experts or is your niche too specific for that?

Will it help if the program learns or do you think that will just make it more likely that you’ll miss out on the stuff that really matters? Once you’ve answered these questions you’ll be in a much better position to figure out which tool to use.

That not quite good enough? Then hit up your network! No doubt the people you interact with have some experience both with these tools and content curation. They’ll be able to give you a good idea about what will work better for you and what won’t. So try asking them.

Still don’t have the right answer? The just go for the one with the coolest name. It might not be the most effective strategy, but it’s not like your marrying it – and so you can always change it up later.

9 Types of Content That Will Boost Your Blog’s Traffic And Engagement

Maitreya Patni

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August 22, 2016

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9 Types of Content That Will Boost Your Blog’s Traffic And Engagement

You work hard to churn out a few decent blog posts each week. You’re doing all of the right things. Your posts are well written, you use lots of visuals, and you focus on content that is trending both in your niche and in the lives of your audience. Still, traffic is sluggish and most of your posts don’t receive more than a couple of comments. It could be that you need to punch things up with the right type of content. Take a look at the following nine items, and consider adding them to your regular rotation.

1. Lists

If you’ve read any articles about best practices for writing headlines for your posts, you probably know that putting a number in your title is a great way to attract readers. The main reason for this is that people love to read list posts. They especially love to read top ten lists. So, if you can round up a list of similar things to rank and review for your audience, that post is probably going to earn you a boost in traffic and engagement.

2. Infographics

People love infographics. In fact, they are the most shared content format on the internet. The appeal is easy to see. Infographics take information and ideas and then convey them in a way that is easy to digest and visually appealing. The only downside is that the tools used to create infographics do take a bit of time to master. Once you’ve gotten past the learning curve though, you’ll find it’s pretty easy to generate infographics on a variety of interesting topics. If the process still seems too complex, curation is always an option.

3. Educational/How to Posts

If you want to create both traffic and engagement, teach your audience how to do something, show them how something works, or explain a concept to them. People love posts that they can use to solve a problem, or to gain a better understanding of something. In fact, even if they never attempt something on their own, how to posts earn social shares, comments, and traffic.

4. Inspirational Stories

Whether it’s your story or somebody else’s, people love posts that touch the heart. In fact, that’s blogs such as Upworthy and Omeleto are so popular. The create and curate content that is full of uplifting and inspiring stories. In fact, even if you don’t follow these blogs yourself, you probably come across these posts in your newsfeed because they are shared so often.

5. Case Studies

One way to boost traffic is to earn trust and build credibility with your readers. Including case studies in your blog is an excellent method of accomplishing this. What’s so appealing about case studies? It’s simple. On the internet, anybody can say anything that they want. You can claim that your product is the best thing ever. You can insist that your opinion is the correct opinion. Depending on the level of trust you’ve earned, there will be some people who will take you at your word, but others won’t, until you provide proof. Pony up a case study, and your audience will have the evidence it craves. You will fare even better if you can find a content creation tool that can help you create a visual display of your case study.

6. Video Content

If you can take any of the other types of content on this list and somehow incorporate that content into a video, you have a sure winner on your hand. In fact, if you want to get the most bang for your content buck, consider going back through old posts to see if you can create updated versions using video. Your followers who are visual learners will appreciate it, and they will be more likely hit the share button to recommend your post to others.

7. Ask Me Anything Posts/Influencer Content/Roundups

While it’s not technically a blog, Reddit is a website that contains hundreds of ‘subreddits’ which are essentially communities where people interested in specific topics post content, comment on that content, and then rank one another’s posts. The hottest topics are then curated to the front page. One type of post that you will almost always see on the front page is the ask me anything (AMA) this is where someone who has earned the interest of others fields questions from readers. Any kind of influencer content is going to boost traffic. If AMA posts aren’t your thing, you could try bringing on an influencer in your niche to write a guest blog, or bring a group of willing influencers together to do a roundup.

8. Reviews

Before they make a purchase, take a trip, or even go to eat at a restaurant, many millennials will seek out the opinions of others. Consider writing reviews on services, products, even publications that relate to your niche. Then, apply a ranking system to those reviews

9. Thought Leadership

Be bold! Make predictions. Have strong opinions about your industry and express them without fear. Let
people know what you think about the state of your industry at the moment and what you think needs to be changed. Then, back those opinions up with credible data and meaningful anecdotes. You may receive from blowback and criticism. That’s okay. You’ll create lots of engagement and you’ll see an influx of traffic to your blog. If your thoughts and opinions bear fruit, you’ll also earn trust. Remember that people don’t react to milquetoast content, they usually just scroll past it.

Embrace the above types of content and give one of them a try the next time you sit down to create a blog post. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.

A Beginner’s Guide to Securing Data Using the Right Tools

Tricks

Maitreya Patni

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August 22, 2016

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A Beginner’s Guide to Securing Data

Encrypting data shouldn’t be seen as an activity only for those that have something to hide. We all have sensitive, important data that shouldn’t be accessed by other individuals whether it falls on finances, medical records, or simply data that doesn’t need to be known. Data is valuable which means we need to keep it protected; to do so we need to take the precautions and understand how it’s done.

The info included in this article covers the basic in the scope of cyber security but it’s actually more than enough to keep your average, sensitive data out the prying hands of the general population — considering that while you’re reading this you may be in that “oh crap, when’s the last time I’ve done these?” moments.

Here are some things you should be doing, pretty much right now, to keep your digital information safe.

Using the Right Tools

Hardware is especially important when it comes to the security of your data because physical theft is the easiest way to lose your information. You could turn your back while at a shop and off someone goes with your laptop. You could be caught off guard in a crowd and suddenly your phone is swiped. Securing hardware is just as important as locking down the software.

There are a few things you may want to consider:

· Keeping important backups on an encrypted flash drive so that important, private information remains in your control and can’t be accessed.

· Using a laptop lock or even a metal, mesh insert for your backpack to stop individuals from snatch and grabs or slicing into your pack.

· Security systems if you are in an office environment – a combination of locks, cameras, detection units, and responsive security systems services.

Physical and online backups to secured hard drives and cloud-based accounts will want to be done but remember that individuals may physically enter the location so it’s always good to be safe.

Get Offensive

Great defense also needs a great offense – in terms of security this means that you should be proactive with protecting your information through the use of due diligence and appropriate software such as firewalls and anti-malware/virus programs.

Pro options will provide you with greater protection but the free options from the following are more than enough to deter would-be attackers most of the time:

· Malware-Bytes

· Avast Antivirus

· Panda Antivirus

· Kaspersky Total Security

· Avira Free Antivirus/Mac Security

These have been tried and tested extensively so you know you’re starting your data protection strong by keeping the malicious activities out.

Other forms of staying secure would be to use no-script plugins to prevent scripts that are often exploited and injected into sites to gain access to your computer. Ad blockers and anonymous browsing through Tor and encrypted email are also an important thing to consider based on the type of information you may have.

Due Diligence

Perhaps the best way to protect your information is to simply be on guard and do your due diligence when interacting with websites and others while on the Web (and in the real world).

Due diligence comes about through:

· Digging deeper into official documents to find the legitimacy of a business or individual

· Checking reviews, scam reports, and experiences before clicking through or making a purchase

· Not taking promises and claims on face value – having them explain in further details

Phishing is all too easy when the person is under distress or do not fully understand security policies; social engineering is usually the easiest way to extract important, private information which could be used in a malicious manner. Knowing the common techniques of phishing and staying diligent when browsing the Web, interacting online, or even talking to others in the real world will shut down a vast majority of attacks on your information and data.

All-in-all a combination of great hardware, up-to-date software, and general understanding & diligence will keep your data and information safe when you’re using the Web and in contact with others in the real world. Never let your guard down when interacting with new websites, files, or people because the moment your guard is down is the moment when you make the mistake.

Content Creation Hacks: How to Quickly Create Shareable Content

Maitreya Patni

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August 20, 2016

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Content Creation Hacks: How to Quickly Create Shareable Content

You need good content, and you need it right now. There are plenty of reasons why you might have an urgent need for content. If you’re new to content marketing and are just now creating your presence, you want to create engaging content quickly. You might have also been distracted by other, pressing business needs and simply gotten behind on creating good content. No matter what your reason is, these content creation hacks will help you go push out great content that your audience will be eager to share.

Get Your Users to Create Content For You

If you need content created quickly that will also be shared, crowdsourcing is definitely an option to consider. Crowdsourced or user generated content is exactly what it sounds like. You give your followers an incentive to share pictures, videos, stories, or advice that is relevant to your brand. That incentive can be tangible, such as access to premium content or a discount offer. It can also be something as simple as recognition.

One of the most successful user-generated content campaigns was Starbuck’s White Cup contest. Consumers were invited to tap into their creative sides by drawing on their coffee cups, snapping a picture, and submitting the results. The prize was that the winner’s cup would become the basis for a new Starbuck’s cup.

Of course, that might not be fast enough for you. In which case, you might consider a technique that has faster turnaround time. For example, you could come up with a daily theme and ask your followers to submit content related to that theme. For example, ‘Tuesday Tips’ could be a recurring theme where you share tips from your audience that are related to your products.

Modernize Old Content

Creating content from scratch is great, but you’re looking for faster solutions. So, why not consider rebooting your old content with some new features, or repurposing it into something new. One possibility is to text old blog posts and modernize them by turning them into infographics. How to posts can be turned into instructional videos. You can even mine your files for content that you’ve never made available to your followers. Check out your old PowerPoint presentations, for example, you might have something in there that could be uploaded and shared.

Another option is to take old content and make it relevant for today. Maybe you posted an outstanding blog post a couple of years ago. You could do a 2.0 version with information that has been updated. If you’ve previously posted an interview or a news article, you could share a brief follow-up. People really like, ‘whatever happened to’ stories. You never know what might become of content that you’ve decided to revitalize.

Find Great Content to Share

Don’t dismiss curation as a viable option when you need to get content out to your audience quickly. Yes, you will benefit the creator of that content as much as you benefit yourself, but this is a great way to bulk up thin content offerings. If you find the right content to curate, you’ll get more visitors to your social media pages, and that will result in more focus on your original content as well.

Knock Out a Few List Posts

‘Listicles’ might have more than their fair share of critics, and let’s be honest there are lots of lame list articles out there, but they are useful. First of all, they are hugely popular. People will read them, and they will share them. In addition to this, you can knock out a list post pretty quickly. After all, people aren’t looking for loads of details when they open up a top ten list. They just want the rankings and a little bit of information.

Use Tools And Resources to Create Shareable Content Quickly

Sometimes, the trick isn’t really a trick at all. You simply have to either become better at doing something or leverage tools to help you create content more efficiently. A well-selected tool can make it easier for you to produce content, proofread and edit that content, publish that content, and promote it. You can also use tools to create stunning visual content that is sure to get shared. You can also use tools to help you curate content Here are just a few tools that can help you get your content out to your audience quickly.

Pinterest – Pin interesting content quickly to share with your followers later
AllTop – Find the top trending stories, from a variety of sources, covering a wide array of topics
Apester – Create interactive content that creates engagement and gives followers an incentive to share
Smart Paper Help – A great 3rd party content writing service to help you get blog posts, articles, and more to your audience quickly
Easel.ly – A web-based tool that you can use to create the most shared type of content of all, infographics

Create a Social Media Quiz

Which Disney princess are you? Do you know how to keep your computer safe from hackers? Which television mom are you? Where should you go on vacation this year? These aren’t just random questions, they are topics of social media quizzes. If you spend much time on social media at all, you probably see the results of these quizzes posted by your friends and family members quite frequently. This is because an interactive content is extraordinarily popular. It’s also easy to create. Find the right tool, and you can create and share a social media quiz that your audience will love. Just be sure to find a balance between creating a quiz that is interesting and that highlights how you are capable of solving your audience’s real world problems.

Conclusion

These content creation hacks are great options if you have an urgent need to create, distribute, and promote content quickly without sacrificing quality. Before you know it, your audience will be engaged and eagerly clicking the share button.