So are you taking advantage of current trends in your blogging? [ 2:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

First let me wish you a Happy St Patrick’s Day the day on which the whole world is Irish for at least the day. That is part of the point of this post.

Catching a hot trend can often be helpful when you are looking for ideas for your latest blog posts. Sometimes you actually need to go searching for hot trends, but I would bet that most of the time you are already aware of what is hot without even opening trends.

For example I could have written my post for today a month ago and know that as today is St Patrick’s Day anything with a slant towards…

• St Patrick
• Leprechauns
• Shamrocks

or similar items will be hot today. They are every year. Any holiday that is popular can be a good topic.

Likewise for a US audience anything that ties into the big start of the NCAA basketball tourney today or “March Madness” would be a good way to slant things.

If you check the screen cap from trends you will see the following in the right column related to St Paddys Day.

• guinness
• st.patrick s day
• shamrock
• corned beef and cabbage recipe
• four leaf clover

And there is a result for the NCAA with bracket predictions. All of these would be expected even last month.

There is no surprise that the majority of the hot topics has to do with the trouble in Japan with the nuclear reactors and related topics. These are not predictable like the earlier items mentioned for today.

They can be a good hook though if they relate to your topic.

Will you always be able to do this?

No you won’t. When you can do it and it makes sense you should. It can be helpful with drawing new readers because the top trends are attracting attention and when you can ride on that and have it make sense with your topic, you are more likely to go viral on the social sites.

What do you think and have you used this in your own blogging? Leave your comments below.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog traffic, japan nuclear reactor, march madness, st patricks day, trends

Quickly find quality blogs to comment on [ 3:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Blog commenting can be an effective way to generate back links and attract traffic to your site. Previously, I have discussed using a feed reader to find on topic blogs to do that and then taking part in the conversation. You can read about that in a previous post at “Finding blogs to comment on“.

Sometimes it can be hard to find quality blogs that are on topic to comment on.

Here is another way to find great blogs to interact with that doesn’t need to take all of your time. Before we continue first this warning.

Smart bloggers are active on Twitter and tend to share other bloggers quality posts. You can use this to your advantage to find great new blogs to take part in the conversation.

Here is how you can add this to your arsenal of tools and not take all of your time. After all we all have limited time.

First you should be using a Twitter app that allows you to create filters like Tweet Deck does. (At least as long as Twitter keeps allowing it, but that is another topic.)

When you find a quality blog, follow that person on Twitter and put them in a special column so it is easy to see what they are mentioning.

Take a few minutes a couple of times a day to go visit the blogs they are mentioning if the title interests you.

If you like the post and can add to, take the time to comment on it. Retweet it to your followers. Add that person to your Twitter followers and to your special column.

Now you can see what that person is retweeting and if they point you to quality posts you keep them in your special column. If not or if they are posting crap (it happens) just remove them.

Do this on a regular basis and you will gradually expand your reach and be surprised at some of the things you will find and how rapidly you can expand your reach.

As long as you are adding value with your comments, this can be a very effective way to attract more readers and find people to network with that are in your niche.

A few minutes a day can greatly expand your reach.

How do you find blogs to comment on? Leave a comment and let me know.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: blog commenting, bloggers, blogs, traffic, twitter

Was working on my Friday Freebie this morning for subscribers and as I put it together I had an epiphany (you know when the big light bulb goes off in your head and you smack your forehead and say why the H### haven’t I mentioned this before thingy.)

Yes as I was putting together a free report on press releases I realized that I don’t think I have ever mentioned them here. Have used them but just never mentioned them here.

Press releases are a great way to generate traffic, interest in your blog and backlinks.

You can use them any number of ways to promote your blog. If you…

• Change the look of your blog
• Get a high profile guest blogger
• Create a new product you are selling from your blog
• Guest post on a high profile blog

or anything else that you do that might be newsworthy. If you do then think about doing a press release and mention your blog in it.

Think that writing a press release is too much for you? Grab the free report I just put up a a Friday Freebie and use it.

So today’s question is have you been using press releases for your blog? How have they worked for you if you have and will you try them if you haven’t? Leave your comments and let me know. May be a topic worth more space if there is an interest.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: forehead, light bulb, press releases, subscribers, traffic, writing a press release

One thing that starting the Sunday Goodies has done is to make me extend my reach. more. Sharing with others can be a great way to do that.

The majority of new blogs I find that end up being featured come from someone’s recommendation. Usually on Twitter but it does take some effort. (I know a big surprise.) But I work hard to keep it to a minimum.

So how do I keep expanding my reach?

When I find a good blog post on a new blog to me, I add the author to my Twitter account. Not just an add but they get moved to a category in Tweet deck for the people that I want to highlight so I am less likely to miss anything they tweet.

Monitor that person and see if they recommend other quality content. After a week or so you have a real good idea if they are active in retweeting others or not. If all they do is self promote they get removed.

The reason is that people that write content I like tend to interact with other quality writers on the same or similar topics. Some I know already, but often their recommendations lead me to another quality resource that I can follow too.

This again leads me to add that new person the same way and keep expanding my circle again and again.

I add their blogs into my feed reader the same way. Usually someone that has a post that gets my attention the same way continues to add quality content.

Occasionally though you find out that the post that attracted me was an aberration. About 10% of the time it fits the “even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while” scenario and then it is easy to remove the feed from my reader.

After all the biggest thing I strive for is to save time yet find quality resources. Expanding the people I truly pay attention to on Twitter and add quality blogs to my reader makes it easier to extend my reach and build a quality list of people to interact with.

Spending a bit of time each day can really multiply over time and you will never lack for quality content to help your Twitter followers or to find blogs to take part in the conversation.

Beats the tools that just find blogs to comment on because you build a constantly expanding list of others that are on topic. I find it leads to more traffic from those blogs when you do comment because instead of searching for keywords you have found blogs that resonate with you.

Odds are your content will resonate with those readers too. This leads to more traffic and an ever expanding reach for your content to people that are already interested in it.

That’s my thoughts. What are yours? Leave your comments below.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: acorn, blind squirrel, blogs, followers, quality content, quality resource, twitter

We all want more traffic. We all work hard to increase the number of visitors.

This can be through a blog commenting strategy, social bookmarking, guest posting, article marketing and many more things.

Targeted traffic is the key.

The funny thing in going through my stats, some of my busiest days traffic wise are my slowest days for the things I want to happen.

You do have a list of what you want your visitors to do? Don’t you?

So what do I want to happen when people visit my blog?

For me I would like people to subscribe to get updated, make comments and take part in the conversation and follow links to recommendations whether they be resources or affiliate links.

Am I getting interaction on my blog is the real key.

Unfortunately most days that I get a lot of traffic from certain sites like Stumble Upon and Digg the amount of interaction goes down.

When I say goes down I mean overall it goes down not the percentage of visitors interacting going down.

Yes, even though traffic may be double, less people subscribe, less people comment and less people follow any links.

Now I have looked at the various posts when this has happened and so far have not found a pattern but will continue to look.

My questions is are you seeing the same thing? More important though is are you tracking your results to know if this is happening with you? Inquiring minds would love to know

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: article marketing, blog, funny thing, inquiring minds, interaction, stumble upon, traffic, would like people

I think everyone understands the value of building an email list through your blog. There are a number of plugins paid and free to help you do this.

Andy Fletcher just released a new one, Digi List Builder, that I bought on a WSO the day it launched and then tested it on one of my niche blogs. It significantly increased the signup rate so I have added it here.

I need to edit some of the graphics to personalize it to me yet.

Now, for those that are unfamiliar with Andy, he is the person who created the WP Syndicator plugin that I have found so useful for building backlinks. A rare combination of someone that is a good programmer and a better marketer.

The results have been very good and it has a feature that I really like. Once someone subscribes it removes all of the opt in forms.

So if you have not signed up it will show the form in multiple places but once they do you no longer interrupt them from reading with the opt in form.

You can set them to show in multiple places such as the sidebar, the end of the post, the footer of your blog or even a delayed light box pop.

Treating your existing subscribers differently than your new visitors is very powerful and a great way to improve the relationship you have with them.

Now I am guessing that it works on some type of cookie so of course it is not 100%. Nothing is but it is feature I have not seen before and definitely one I would like to use here.

Currently there are 9 days left at the WSO price of $27 but after that like Andy has done in the past it will go up significantly.

Check out Digi List Builder if this will fit your business or blog. I did.

Technorati Tags: andy fletcher, email list, footer, marketer, rare combination, sidebar, signup rate, subscribers, wso

Love them or hate them Google has some neat tools you really should be using. One I overlook too often is Google Trends.

This morning I opened it up and there is a listing for Cartoon characters on Facebook images.

It has become the thing to do to change your image in Facebook in support of and to speak out against child violence.

Now if you are writing anything about Facebook, social marketing or even like I am using Google Trends to find topics you can hang on to the coat tails of this current trend.

Now that is just one example but it is driving a lot of searches right now. Looking at the top 20 searches quite a few of them are also cartoon characters as people search for the right image for their profile.

Something I plan to do more of is make it a habit to check there before I start writing and see if any of the current hot topics fit or can be used as a twist in what I am doing.

If they can I will add the twist and if not it just took me a couple seconds and you never know what idea will come to you.

Definitely worth the couple seconds it takes to look before you get started writing. What’s hot with you? Leave your comments below.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: cartoon characters, Facebook, google, google trends, hot topics, traffic

Amazing what you can find when you pay attention. Started seeing some tweets like “Best of.. post name url ” on Twitter. When I looked closer I saw at the bottom from Tweet Old Post.

So I went and checked in the plugin directory and saw a plugin by that name. Read about it and decided to try it.

Regular readers know that I love anything that recycles or repurposes content. This fit the bill perfectly. It automatically will randomly pick an old post and tweet it at a schedule I determine. Works like a charm.

Now to be clear there are two things you need to have to use this plugin and have it be of value.

1. Lots of quality evergreen content
2. An active Twitter following

It won’t work for you if a lot of your posts are time sensitive or if you are not active on Twitter.

If you are though this can be a great way to point traffic to some of your older posts automagically. And I love automagical things.

It is easy to set up and you can set the minimum and maximum date ranges and how often to tweet posts. It does it randomly for you.

As Twitter gets indexed this should not only be sending instant visitors that follow you from Twitter but doing some deep linking to your older posts too.

Definitely a tool to consider if you meet the qualifications above.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: backlinks, traffic, tweets, twitter, wordpress plugin

One way to draw more subscribers is to have a contest. Make it worthwhile for people to publicize your blog.

You need a reason to do it and here is an example that you can check out and look at for ideas.

Barbara Ling is redoing her blog at http://www.BabrbaraLing.com.

Right now all she has is a maintenance page but she is working hard on getting some publicity for it.

She has created a fan page where you can guess what the new theme will be and have a chance to win one of her products.

So she is running people through her Facebook Fan Page to get the noise started about her new theme. This should be worth following to see what else she will add to her contest as she unveils the new look of her blog and looks to increase her visitor flow.

If you are looking to generate extra traffic to your blog think about what type of contest you can have to generate extra buzz.

Remember to add in things like Twitter, Facebook and blog posts to allow people to win extra chances to win and have a reason to promote you.

And for those that missed yesterdays post I am still looking for ideas on themes that you like for my upcoming make over on a few of my blogs. Just leave a comment about what you like here and why. I appreciate your input.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: Barbara Ling, blog contests, blog theme, blog traffic, Facebook, twitter

5 Ways To Increase Your Blog Traffic [ 3:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Copyright 2010 – Mike Paetzold – All rights reserved

Here are 5 things you can do to increase your blog traffic.

The first and one of the easiest is to make sure your blog is set up properly. Using a plug in that allows custom title tags like All In One SEO can make a huge difference in how the search engines rank your content. Having a quality ping list that gets pinged each time you post is another easy item to setup.

Both of these are one time efforts that will continue to pay off for you in the long run.

The second way to increase your blog traffic is by commenting on other related blogs. It is important to actually be taking part in the conversations there.

It is even better if the blogs you are commenting on are do follow and use the Comment Luv plugin that will allow you to create backlinks to your internal pages.

This takes some time and effort but will ultimately allow you to get more visitors.

The third way to increase your blog traffic is through submitting articles. If you are blogging regularly you are already creating content. It is easy to adapt this content into article content that you can use for article marketing.

Another way to generate backlinks to your blog which will help you to get higher rankings in the search engine leading to more traffic.

The fourth way to increase your blog traffic is to add a podcast of your content. It is easy to do with WordPress. Just add a podcasting plugin like Podpress and read your blog posts.

With free software like Audacity you only need a microphone and your computer to create the necessary mp3.

Submit your podcast feed to the various directories, particularly Itunes and you get access to another audience for your blog content and back links to your blog.

The fifth way to increase your blog traffic is to use your content to create videos. It is easy to do. Create a power point of your blog post and read it.

You can use Camtasia or even one of the free video software products available makes it easy. Submit your video through Tube Mogul and you can easily create more ways for people to find your blog.

These are just 5 ways to get more blog traffic and there are many more. Keep up to date with this blog and find even more covered here regularly. Check out Sunday Night Cash Plan and get step by step help on exactly how I do this regularly.

Here is the video from this post.

About the author

Mike Paetzold got started blogging in 2003 and has become an expert on using WordPress. He has become known as The WordPress Guy. After being an under ground niche marketer using his blogs he has surfaced to share some of the ways he uses blogs to enter various niches profitably. If you would like help in building your business check out my coaching offer.

Technorati Tags: article content, article marketing, audacity, back-links, blogs, podcast, power point, search engines, title tags, traffic