Business Blog Wire

David Airey recently held a contest.  Alisha at SoftTechReviews.com, a software and technology reviews blog, won one of the prizes: free business blog help from me.  I spoke with Alisha by phone last weekend and dumped a wagonload of pro blogging tips on her.

I will briefly share my best blogging tips or Alisha here and invite you to give her your suggestions as well.  Please don't hesitate to ask me to clarify my quick notes!

Who is Alisha at SoftTechReviews.com?

Alisha is a work-at-home mother who wants to have her blog make money.  She has Web design experience as well as WordPress experience.  Wendy, Char, Dawud and other work-at-home parents slash entrepreneurs, meet Alisha.  Alisha, meet the world!

What About SoftTechReviews.com?

It's less than 6 months old.  Alisha currently monetizes it with a mixture of AdSense, Text Link Ads, PayPerPost sponsored posts and some affiliate links.  The SoftTechReviews RSS feed has about 15 or 20 FeedBurner subscribers at the moment.  Alisha has been posting about once a day.  The site has a PageRank of zero for now and only a few backlinks.  About 50 visits and 100 page views occur at the blog each day – so, about 3,000 page views per month.

My Blogging Tips for Alisha

Planning / Time Usage 

- Set daily, weekly and monthly blogging goals based on several key indicators such as number of published posts, traffic and feed subscriber levels, number of backlinks, number of comments

- Plan time use based on when you are most productive during the day; split your writing / design / promotion / advertising / research times up into planned chunks

Social Media Optimization / Post Writing

- Leverage StumbleUpon and Digg to drive traffic; write several posts specifically catering to each crowd

- Write for the audience who wants to know what software / tech products to buy 

- Establish yourself as an expert tech reviewer with in-depth, original, definitive reviews that include and synthesize other published reports

Design / Layout 

- The design is already excellent; don't fix what ain't broke 

- Search bar at top right could move down and be replaced by an ad

- Email subscription box could fit in top link bar (Alisha's done it – nice work!)

- "Popular This Month" could become "Most Popular" and scoot up higher on right side (Alisha did this too!)

Advertising

- Ads are placed well and don't need to change for the moment; test several automated banner ad networks for now; try for CPM or affiliate deals for now

- Make "Advertise here" link to a separate page on your blog 

Research / Networking 

- Take time daily to meet and befriend bloggers in your niche; link to their posts, comment at their posts, email them, ask them questions, offer them tips, etc.

- Study regularly at top-notch blogs and forums; network with other bloggers there as well; subscribe to feeds for blogging tips and software/tech news

The Bottom Line 

- Ultimate keys to success: provide unique value; develop personal relationships; constantly improve; work hard; work smart

What Blogging Tips Do You Have For Alisha? 

I'll check in with Alisha at the start of November to see how she's doing with SoftTechReviews.

Do you have any helpful suggestions for Alisha?  Anything stand out at her blog that you think she could improve?

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