Do You Guest Post For Free Backlinks Only?

If you ask 10 people who are up for the guest posting; "What is your main aim for writing a guest post?". I am sure at least 7 people will have free backlinks in their mind.  If free backlinks is not set as prime goal; it will at least feature in first three goals. So is guest posting is all about getting free backlinks? If that was so Google must have banned free backlinks building trick long time ago....!

Keyword Planning - The Easiest Way To Do It

If you are reading this post; then you have somewhat interest in blogging and hence you know what a keyword is. The real trick is how do you do it. There are a lot of software available on internet which either offer keyword planning for free; on monthly subscription base or by one time purchase of the software. But the best software in my view is Google Keyword Planner itself. It's free if you have an AdWords account. And even to Register for an AdWords account is free. Once you have your AdWords account you can plan your keywords for any targeted country and any search criteria like minimum CPC and minimum search numbers.

So Let's See The Keyword Planning In Images

Open Google AdWords home page and login with your gmail account you used to make AdWords account. You will see Tools and analysis dropdown menu. Click and select "Keyword Planner."

[caption id="attachment_880" align="aligncenter" width="595"] Getting Started[/caption]

This will open the below page. You will have different option like to get traffic estimate; to get ideas for new keyword and ad group. All SEO work is based upon keyword planning depending upon search volume. So we will select 2nd option which is get search volume for a list of keyword.

[caption id="attachment_881" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Select Search Volume Based Planning Option[/caption]

Once you click it; you will be sent to the following page:



You shall add all your keywords chosen for keyword planning area  in the white square. In the targeting box you can add the countries for which you need the analysis for. You can run the analysis either on Google alone or Google and search partners (Google Images, Google Shopping, Google Maps and all). Once these data is fed you can click on "Get Search Volume" button. (Negative keyword is for Advertisers who does not want their ads on specific content related site. for ef Nikon advertiser does not want his ads on sites containing Canon Review word.)

For Explanation purpose we will do the search for "SEO Services", "Nikon Camera" and "Proxy Server". This targeting is set for US and UK and on Google only.



This is what we got when we clicked Get Search volume.



 

You can see in the results image that people search Nikon Camera in UK and USA 22,200 times and there is high competition between advertisers for this keyword. It's CPC is somewhere around 0.62$ (my AdWords is based on Indian rupees; I came to this figure after I converted it to USD). Same way proxy server is the keyword which people search 1,35,000 times and it's CPC is almost 2.85$. SEO services has the highest CPC among these 3 keywords and so there must be high competition for ranking this keyword in Google too. The CPC for Proxy Server is almost 19$ and more.

Similar way you can get traffic estimation for the keyword in your country or the targeting country. You can also get the keyword and ad group idea from the similar tabs o the page. You can filter CPC thing here too. But as this is AdWords page; CPC is nowhere mentioned; suggested bid is more or less similar to CPC of AdSense.  Suggested bid could bit higher than the actual CPC for you; as Google has his commission added in bid.

I hope this free Keyword Planning Tool helps you get more and more keyword ideas for your website and blog. There are some more keyword tools too; but why not pick something which is Google's own and a free tool. Let us know your views on the keyword plan explained here; do you think it is worth usable or not? Subscribe for our coming article "Blogging Tip - How 90% Newbie Blogger Use Wrong Keywords."

5 Things to Check before Publishing Your Article

What does an ideal article have in it...?

At least few million new posts are being published everyday. But there are only a few who make it on the top charts. That does not mean those posts are not good; but they lack something or other thing. Thoughts are okay, but when they are reproduced on keyboard you should have some things in your mind. It is very essential that your article has that minimum requirement; so it is accepted. Any post must fulfill 5 minimum requirement listed below to make it to the charts. Let's explore them one by one.

1) Does your article make any sense?

Always ask yourself, "Why this post should be published?" If your work is having good information which can be benefit online community of any niche, group or class. If it is beneficial you should publish it or else you should amend your work accordingly. Sometimes the information is old and not useful at all. For eg, Barack Obama scores big in second term as president...This might be good topic and work but not required at this point of time. So, always think whether your work is needed or not. It is good not to post anything than posting un-necessary stuff.

2) Check your Spelling and Grammar.

Is your work making sense...? First and foremost thing you should check is that your work is free from typo and grammatical errors. This sends very negative message to the visitor about your credibility. Always have a check of your work for these things. There are tools available online to check your grammar online. This is very effective tool which can highlight any spelling, grammar, punctuation mistake in your work. It is always good to get it checked online as well as by you.

3) Have you done proper formatting of the post.

If your article is having a lot of bold and italics it can distract your visitor. Always have simple yet effective formatting for your site. It is advisable to highlight very important word or sentence of the post. But you should avoid highlighting too much words which might not be necessary. Same thing applies to bold, italics and strike-through.

4) No Duplicates Please...!

Google does not like to see the plagiarism. It is very essential that you check your work for matching phrases and lines with the online content. Sometimes only few words can come as copy cat but still they can harm you. Google does not rank plagiarized pages and you can also get other penalties. This step becomes very vital when you are getting content written by someone else. Few people take this as short cut and they usually send you sub-standard work. Always get your work checked on copyscape or smallSEOtools.

If it is your work and few phrases are matching, you should change them using proper synonyms.

5) Use SEO to push it up the ranks.

SEO is very important for blogs. If you are following SEO practice have a last check before publishing your article. Some changes are not permitted after publishing. Like, you are not allowed to change the URL of the page after the post is published. So, it is advisable that you always have an eye on your SEO work before you go for publishing or scheduling.

These are 5 basic yet essential things you should check before you publish any article on your blog. There are more things to be considered, but these are the most basic and most important ones. We will surely have more light on each of these in the following articles soon....!!! Please leave your valuable comments and let us know what you feel about our work. We want your opinion to make this blog more and more interesting for you.....!!!

Top 5 Advantages of Blogging (Apart From Making Money)

Blogging is bucks, what else?

"Blogging is a tool which is being used by a lot of people to earn money."....If I say this sentence in my post, it is simply outdated. Probably, every person who knows what is blog knows this. So what other benefits are there which are directly attributed to blogging. Blogging can get you money that is universal truth (let it be cents or thousands that depends on your input), what else it does in parallel. Let's see how it can affect your personal, social and academic graph.

1) That wasn't me. 

If a TV star earns few thousand dollars a day, people know him head to toe. No doubt they become celebrity and they get fame. But in getting those things, they compromise their social life. How many times have you seen your favorite actor buying his son an ice-cream on a beach. Their social life is trapped in Twitter or walls. That can be avoided by blogging. For Example, Huffington Post on an average is making 27000$ a day on Adsense alone. This is the biggest blogging earning by a blog. Still the owner of this blog has been able to hide behind and he can have a life of a normal person. He might be famous to all bloggers but he can certainly enjoy vacations when and where he wants.

Though this guy has not hidden his true identity, in blogging that is absolutely possible. You can stay anonymous and still make money. Don't you think this is very good tool for people who blog. You can write with ghost name and enjoy the life of a normal person.. :)

2) Work when you want and where you want.

It is not possible for everyone to work when he or she wants. Blogging allows for this, you can have enough content in scheduling and you can just relax for that much time. Same way you can have liberty of working where ever you want. You can take the city break and write your blog on the beach only for one month. You can always plan your work and have the most of the life. I know some bloggers who work 3 months or less and remaining time is just watch over and vacations.

3) 50$ is all you want to start blogging.

Starting to blog is not the hardest task of lifetime. You require minimum investment when it comes to money. If you know basic computer and adaptive to learn, this is for you. You can get domains free on hosting plans which are offered on less than 50$ an year basis. You can get free themes for your blog. You can always customize your blog if you know HTML/CSS and if you don't know WORDPRESS has all in it for you.

So, this is the correct time for you. If you know something on one topic, you can start your own blog. Internet is full of information, you can always gather more info and post on regular basis.

4) Earning as well as learning.

Blogging is a very good platform for you to learn so many things. You can have a bigger circle as you grow in blog world. You can always interact with fellow bloggers, your post commentators and see how other webmasters are doing. It is day to day learning process for you and you can have great sense of satisfaction with this. No other job offers you this much learning as this. And you will be your own judge here. So blogger world is a great place for you to learn.

5) Make your CV look strong.

Suppose you are a student in mechanical engineering, and you have a blog on cars. You have shown your expertise in that blog. Don't you think this can help you if you are applying for a job in a car company after the studies. Lot of companies now ask their prospective employees about their blogging experiences and whether they can blog or not. So, if you have a very good blog with good daily visitors you will always outweigh the fellow interviewees. Start using blog as a tool to strengthen your CV, this can bring more shine into it.....!!!!

There are so many benefits associated with blogging other than making money. We have just tried to bring in your attention only 5 which we think are important ones. You can always comment to our blog and have your say on any topic. Subscribe to us for more and more tips and tricks to come.....!