Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

- Malcolm Forbes

Education is power.

It allows us to reach new heights and achieve near-impossible things as individuals and collectively as a society.

But sometimes we bloggers forget to educate our readers at extremely critical moments.

I’m not talking (necessarily) about our content – we usually do a pretty good job at educating our readers there.

I’m talking about introductions, calls to action and the other places where we expect our readers to know what to do.

Most of the time, however, they don’t have a clue.

In this post I’m going to introduce the SPELL IT OUT technique for educating your readers.

Hopefully by following these tips you’ll increase conversions, subscribers and your loyal following.

Why are these ‘education moments’ so important?

In terms of blogging, this stuff is so important because of one word.

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Something a lot of bloggers don’t realize is that how your posts are presented is often just as important as what they say.

It sounds crazy but it is true.

Humans are very visual creatures. And we are also very judgemental and impatient.

Imagine rocking up to a job interview in flip flops and shorts. They wouldn’t even listen to your credentials.

Imagine going speed dating and having a big booger hanging out your nose. It wouldn’t matter how funny and charming you were.

Finally, imagine trying to give speeches with a stutter like this one.

Blogging is a lot like all of these examples: you have to make good first impressions and then you have to keep people interested and engaged with the way you deliver the content.

Let’s jump in.

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I really love online marketing that focuses on capturing loyal, focused email subscribers. In my first year on Blog Tyrant I got over 4,000.

And one of the things I noticed was that the type of post structure I used had a real impact on how many people subscribed by email.

Let’s take a look at five link bait post structures that really get people motivated to read, share and eventually give you their email.

Is link bait a dirty term?

I know a lot of bloggers think that link bait is a little bit dirty, perhaps a bit black hat.

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If you want people to read your blog you need to give them valuable, useful content.

If you want people to become loyal to your blog you need to give them an authority statement.

In this post I want to talk about what exactly an authority statement is and how it can have a dramatic impact on your blogging career.

I’ll also show you a few examples of people who have done it extremely well.

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photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

Okay so I’ve been blogging for a long time now. I’ve sold a few blogs for around $20,000 and manage to work full time from home.

But there is something (read: a lot of things) I’m still not sure about. Something still bugging me.

Long vs short posts.

In this article I want to do a bit of an analysis on long vs short blog posts and which is a better idea and why. I’d really like your own opinion on this one to see what has worked for you.

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photo credit: Le Red Barron

If you want to succeed at blogging you need to increase your output. It doesn’t have to be a lot of posts per say, but you do have to hit certain levels of work production.

And blogging is not just writing posts. It is researching keywords and topics, editing, tweeting, commenting and so on. There are a lot of things to get to.

In this post I’m going to talk about a few strategies I have used over the years to skyrocket my blogging output. Some of these tips helped me to sell a blog for $20,000 in the first year.

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photo credit: BinaryApe

A few days ago I published an article about selling. Some people thought it was about a con man. Perhaps they were right.

Either way, the article resulted in me losing quite a few of my much-loved subscribers – some of them sending me nasty messages about how unethical I was.

So, at the encouragement of my good friend over at Lion5 I decided to write a short follow up post about controversy, risk and lost subscribers. The last paragraph contains a statement I want you all to help me with.

Oh, and Scott, I’m waiting for you analysis of this photo.

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photo credit: Shandi-lee

I’m a self-employed 26 year old who has a tendency to get stressed, anxious and panicked – even during the the smallest of life’s hiccups. Beneath my steely exterior and chiseled, move-star jawline is a scared little boy.

Early on in my life I knew I’d have to figure out some techniques for beating stress.

Now, I am not saying that I have mastered these. Far from it. But I am saying that they have helped me. And as I know a lot of you lovely readers out there deal with bouts of stress and anxiety I thought I’d write a bit of an off topic post and talk about some ways bloggers, business people and everyone else online can beat stress when you just don’t feel like its possible.

And I’m going to do it by telling you why you are stressed.

HELP ME: I need your help on this one guys. If you know of any really good stress beating methods please leave me a comment.

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photo credit: telmo32

Did you know that you have less than 1.5 seconds to convince a reader to stay on your blog? Internet traffic is notoriously impatient. And it is getting worse.

This means that what you put above the fold is more important than ever. In fact, it can be the difference between the success and failure of your blog, website or squeeze page. In this article I am going to show you a few things I know about how you can take advantage of impatient traffic by manipulating where stuff appears on your blog.

SPECIAL NOTE: Make sure you read (or skip) to the end as I have a special announcement to make that will help a lot of you with this issue.

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photo credit: Nrbelex

I heart Google. I really do. They have created the most incredible search engine that has not only allowed the easy acquisition of information, but allowed me to work from home running online businesses that I love. For years they have sent me hundreds of thousands of visitors to dozens of sites. But things are changing. The latest trends are showing that Google’s now taking your traffic for themselves.

In this post I am going to show you what I’m talking about and then discuss a few ways that you can ensure your blog survives.

How is Google taking my traffic?

The first part of this post needs to be dedicated to the idea that Google is taking your traffic. And we need to start by reminding ourselves that it is actually Google’s traffic. You see, Google is a website too and, although they are built around sending people to useful websites, they are also interested in increasing traffic levels on their own website. In that respect they are just like any one of us.

So how are they taking traffic?

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