Build A Better Blog Day 1: The Elevator Pitch

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So, I finished the bonus week from Darren Rowes' Build A Better Blog and I went into the 30 day program.

The first day's task is to make an elevator pitch. 

Here goes:

We Cherish Our Authors,
We Love Our Readers.

Yeah, but how do we cherish our authors? In what way do we love our readers? That could get kinky! Authors and readers...

Sounds like a fetish dating site. Anyway...

Okay so here's the real goal...a real elevator pitch.

My blog teaches authors about the flip side of publishing. 

How's that? Make any sense? What do I mean by flip side of publishing? I mean I'll tell you what other publishers don't want you to know. Like how you can publish a book by yourself. 

So the action item is--make an elevator pitch for your blog. Put it somewhere so readers can know what to expect from you!

Task 7: Breathe Life Into An Old Post

Photo taken by me! Stephanie McKibben

Simple! Go back and update your old posts! 

This option is not necessarily for me on Nose Droppings, but my author blog and publishing blog--maybe. 

This one requires a bit more time. I like going through and correcting errors. It gives me a chance to see my own opinions way back when. 

Sometimes my opinions change. 

It did give me the thought to add to the side bar some links such as "our mission" or "Learn how Troll River Publications began..."

I tried and failed because I need to learn more about how to do that on Weebly. 

But this also gave me the idear that I could update a topic from yesteryear and make it a "I've changed my mind" type of post. That would be interesting to link to an old blog then see how you changed your thinking. 

Link to Task 6

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Link to the Beginning

Task 6: Review Calls To Action

Photo Credit: Parker Fitzgerald via Compfight cc

My ego that was saying, we've done this! And...We totally have this covered!--went hiding at this topic.

I knew I've been missing this. 

- Clickable Buttons (that actually went somewhere)
- Subscription Boxes
- Navigation Links
- Social Media Butttons
- RSS Feed Links
- Email a Friend Link
- Invitation to Readers
-Your contact Form

Okay, so it wasn't as bad as I thought. It's a work in progress. I added Feedburner. Have the social media links and getting the others on there. Navigation Links are everywhere. Have my RSS Feed up. Not too shabby. Okay. 

Again Darren explains what these things are (kinna) in the book. But if your a blogger that's been doing research, you know what these are. One thing I want to add is a html button--meaning a code where other bloggers can put your button on their site so other readers can find you. I was thinking of giving something away, like what Author Marketing Club does, for those who pin my button on their blog.  

Any other suggestions?

Link to The Beginning

Link to Task 5

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Task 5: Get To Know Content SEO

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This section of the book explained a little bit about the importance of: 

- Categories
- Tags
- Meta Tags
- Meta Keywords
- Meta Descriptions
- Custom URL's 

I went into the back end of my blog thinking...I've totally got this! And...turns out I forgot to SEO my blog. Huh. Fixed now!

Boy did I think of some doosies! There was much fun and snickering with filling out the Meta Keywords with But For You, Yes. I mean how much fun can you have with this cover:

Available at Amazon

Oh, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what people searched under Cougar Bait in the Coffee Shop!
End result--people are creative!

Link to task 4

Link to the beginning

Task 4: Make Sure Your Posts Are Easy To Find

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See this face? It's my--you must be joking--face. Okay, dude. I'm not sure where you're going with this. SEO?

NOPE!

Today's task ws about how readers find all your good & old stuff. Okay, I did what he said, kinna, I didn't understand...so I checked out...differences between tags and categories.

Here are some blogs I found:
Lorelle on WordPress - thank you Lorelle! I'm not on WordPress but maybe some of you are. But she explains it best for me.

Goggle - always trying to help and giving me that Wikipedia feel.

Blogging Basics 101 - thank you Melanie Nelson! She helped me understand a bit better when I was saying Categories and tags...Bulls***

But hey, I'm not bringing in the cash moola with my blog so WTFDIK. I might care more about it one day and I realize that I may not be able to do EVERYTHING the book says. And oh, by the way this is the book that's giving me a lot of great advice on blogging...

ProBlogger Build a Better Blog

Link to TASK 3

Link to the BEGINNING!

(see...I remembered Task 3-Interlink Old Posts)