We’ve been writing (and promoting) long-form content for years now. But is its popularity finally on the wane?
If you’re a blogger, journalist, marketer, or writer you’ll know about long-form content and the booming popularity that it’s experienced over the last few years.
Much research points to the fact that this longer format has positive effects on sales, loyalty, sign ups and much more.
But in an age of video, changing search algorithms, and fading attention spans, it’s smart to check in and see whether it’s still doing its job.
Let’s take a look.
If you run a blog or website you’ve probably heard about SSL certificates and the idea of moving your domain from the old http:// to the secure https:// version. It’s a very important topic.
In fact, this is something that will affect the security, performance and even the search engine rankings of your blog.
Today we’ve got a huge post filled with information about how to get an SSL certificate and HTTPS for your blog, including why people are moving, what Google has been saying about it, and even a detailed checklist on how to get it done.
This is a pretty complicated topic and so I’ve gone into lots of detail to try and make it as pain-free as possible. Have a read and jump in the comments if you’re still unsure.
Note: You’re going to want to press Control + D on a PC or Command D on a Mac so as to bookmark this article for future reference.
Making money from your mailing list is one of the most sustainable income solutions for an online business. Why, then, are so many bloggers afraid of it?
When I talk to new bloggers I regularly hear complaints about how they don’t want to “sell out” by promoting something to their mailing list. They feel like it dirties the integrity of the blog.
Well, there are a few ways you can make ethical money from your mailing list, and I think it is something that all bloggers should look at doing more often.
I’ve always been really interested in web design. In fact, one of my first online businesses was a small web design studio that helped local clients get a basic web presence and start ranking on Google.
But a lot has changed since then, and many are wondering if we still need web designers in an age of free drag-and-drop WordPress themes, cheap A/B-testing software, heat map insights, etc.
This is a massive topic about a huge industry that employs millions of people and so I want to treat it with a bit of caution and respect. I also want to avoid the ire of designers who are thoroughly sick of the old “Do I need a web designer?” debate.
Let’s jump in anyway.
The comment count on Blog Tyrant currently sits at 19,975. With any luck this post will tip it over to the 20,000 mark, something I never imagined possible.
This seems like a nice milestone to write some reflections on how we got here, and what it has meant to me personally.
I’m really not sharing this number to brag, but to take some time to share some tips and thoughts that will hopefully help some other bloggers out there. And also to say a heartfelt “thank you“.
Let’s jump in and take a look at how you can get more blog comments, and how you can make the process more rewarding and beneficial for everyone involved.
Here at Blog Tyrant we place a lot of emphasis on getting email subscribers and building a mailing list that is engaged, happy and active.
We also like to share practical and tested strategies for bloggers to try out themselves, and sometimes that means sharing the things that don’t work so well.
Today we’ve got one such example.
A few weeks ago we changed the lead magnet from an eBook to a free training video and the results were way worse than expected.
Let’s take a look at what went wrong.
Some important figures say that we should stop guest blogging.
It all goes back to an announcement from Google’s Matt Cutts about how the links that you acquire through guest blogging will no longer be all that useful and could, in some cases, actually do some harm to your blog’s SEO practices.
Since then we’ve seen guest blogging change to the point where a lot of new bloggers feel like it’s too risky to do any guest posts at all.
I myself have opted out of things like “expert roundups” where a bunch of quotes are collected to make a big post about a certain topic, each person with a link back to her or his site (I’ll talk about that more below).
Let’s take a look at whether or not guest posting is still a valuable strategy, and how bloggers should approach it without getting stung.
Last Updated February 2nd, 2018
Blogging is just so 2005. Why bother…?
Every now and then someone stumbles upon Blog Tyrant and leaves some feedback a little bit like that. What is perhaps interesting is that I don’t entirely disagree with them.
And that got me really thinking about what blogging is and whether or not it has passed it’s use-by date as a concept in the age of video, podcasting and perhaps even virtual reality.
Don’t worry, this is not another Blogging is Dead post but rather a bit of an examination of what blogging should do in today’s modern world, and how we should think about our industry.
Let’s take a look.
I’ve always been a little skeptical of Facebook ads and boosts.
Partly this is because I’ve never been very good at running them, and partly because I’ve never felt like the traffic on Facebook was as “buy ready” as Google’s.
So what happened when a boosted post of Blog Tyrant’s received over 500 shares?
Well, the results were quite mixed and, as you’ll see below, there are quite a few lessons and ideas that I wanted to write about here because I’m sure someone out there is going to be able to do something useful with the information.
I’m not sharing the number to brag, but just to show you the kind of results that can be achieved (or not achieved!) with a simple paid promotion.
Shall we?
Almost every entrepreneur uses email throughout the day, but not that many know how to mitigate risks, make it more efficient, and take it to professional levels.
Whether you are negotiating a new deal, making fresh contacts, or trying to build a mailing list to sell your products, there are a few tips you should know to maximize your chances of success.
And as someone who receives a lot of emails from individuals and mailing lists, it’s clear there are a lot of people out there who aren’t using email as cleanly as possible.
Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years on how to send, manage and work with email. I hope they help you and, as always, please leave a comment below if you think the list is missing anything important.
