Tips for Running a Successful Blog:

Let me save you some time. Here are the 5 most surprising lessons I learned:

1. The world owes you nothing

The cold, unfeeling universe does not give two shits about you or your writing.

Anyone can walk into a bookstore and pick from Shakespeare, Pratchett, JK Rowling and a million more. Tell me (a) is your writing more deserving of attention and (b) how would anyone even know?

This may sound dispiriting, and it's meant to. We live at the center of our own private universes, which can fool us into thinking the world responds to our merits, as we see them. If you believe this, you're in for a lifetime of tear-stained keyboards.

If you acknowledge the truth, you can arm yourself accordingly.

2. Give people a reason to care

You are in competition with every other distraction on the Internet. Your beautifully written sonnet must joust for attention against Miley Cyrus with a kitten.

If you want an audience, don't write for yourself. Forget yourself. Start with:

• Who am I writing for?
• What can I do for them?
• Why should they care?

Let's say you're writing for casual bloggers. It's not hard to think of things that casual bloggers might struggle with ("How to win your first thousand followers"), find entertaining ("My blog cost me my job, wife and kids") or inspiring ("How my blog got me a date with Natalie Portman"). Start there.

3. Hook emotionally

Brilliant intellectuals can appreciate content on a purely intellectual basis. For everyone else, there's urgent news, sex, themselves, gossip and sex.

You know when you feel compelled to click on a link? You don't have time to thinkabout it. Hooks are entirely emotional:

• Scary & urgent - "Terrorists will attack your town, tomorrow"
• Big names - "A day in the life of Tony Stark"
• Self-interest - "How to win your dream girl"
• Sex-appeal - "The hottest babes in tennis"
• Trendsetting - "The show everyone is talking about"

These emotions can be conveyed in a headline. Your headline is where you will win or lose most of your audience. A title in a tweet is judged and dismissed by 99% of your audience before they see another word; ensure yours punches them in their emotional face.

4. Edit as much as you write

Editing is a superpower which can turn charcoal into diamonds. Most people seem content to shovel coal.

Don't mistake editing for proof reading. Editing is where you take your work apart in a blender, rearrange, rewrite and rethink everything. Everything. At a minimum, you must edit for:

• Verbosity. Nothing will kill attention faster than excess words. Like these. For example.
• Confusion. Your readers may not speak English as their first language. They may be bouncing a baby on their lap. Don't make them think any harder than they have to.
• Predictability. If someone can guess your next sentence from the previous one, you have a delicious unicycling mongoose. Avoid cliche, add sparkle.

I personally spend 2-3x as much time editing as writing. It makes all the difference.

5. Build a platform

If you're searching for an audience, it doesn't take long to realise that the famous get most of the attention. The mistake is to assume this dooms you to failure. You just need to become slightly more famous.

It's slowest at the start, which is where most people give up. My writing did nothing for 4 months; later that year I had 4 million views. Write continuously, and test everything you can think of. Think of it like tuning a radio.

To win in the long term, your platform must efficiently convert readers into followers. Forget likes and tweets; followers are what you're after. Best of all, start a mailing list - it's more work, but you'll have far higher engagement than you'll ever get from Twitter and Facebook.

If you write something and it doesn't clearly encourage people to follow you, you're playing the wrong game.

Some writers may find all of this a bit dirty. Well, yes. Unfortunately, it's also how people work. You must appeal to their nature before you can win them over with your writing. Otherwise, no-one will even know what wonders they're even missing.

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How to Use Google’s Keyword Planner to Get More Traffic to Your Blog:

There are a number of reasons why people start writing a blog. Some want to simply get their thoughts out to the world while others use blogs to earn money from things like referrals and Google AdWords.

No matter why someone writes a blog, they always want their work to be seen by as many people as possible.Increasing traffic to a blog is both an art and a science, and there are a number of tools like attractive web design that can help bloggers achieve this goal.

The most straightforward of these is to utilize Google’s Keyword Planner to target things that people are searching for and write in a way that optimizes specific words and phrases.

The Basics

The best free way to get more traffic to your blog is to get on the first page of the results that people see when they search in Google. However, doing so can be incredibly difficult for certain keywords, and this is particularly true for those that will make people a lot of money when visitors click on related ads.

Even if people are able to get a blog post on the first Google results page, the location where it appears still matters. Individuals who are searching for something on Google are much more likely to click on the first link that comes up, and the chances of people visiting your page decrease the further down that the link to your blog appears.

Luckily, Google Keyword Planner helps people evaluate what web users are searching for and their likelihood of ranking well. It gives people an idea of the type of competition that they will be facing when targeting certain phrases. In addition, it allows them to search for what are known as long-tail keywords that may be easier to rank for. These are longer related keyword phrases that people search for that other bloggers and website owners may have neglected to write about. This makes it much easier for individuals to get higher rankings and more traffic to their blog.

The First Steps

When people begin to think about the keywords that they would like to optimize for in order to bring more traffic to their blog, they should make a list of the general topics that they write about. Many blogs feature lists of article tags that help keep them organized and direct users to content that they may be looking for, and this can be a good place to start. It’s best to try to come up with as many general categories as possible as this may be a big help later when actually looking up keyword competition and frequency of usage.

From there, bloggers should begin to think of keywords and phrases that are relevant to the content that they write. They should make a list of specific keyword phrases that are pertinent to their blog. These can be as long or as short as people would like, but blog owners should try to put themselves in their readers’ place and think of things that they would be searching for. They should also keep in mind that shorter and more common phrases can often have a lot of competition, and this makes them harder to rank for.

Bloggers should do some research about what keywords are already bringing in traffic in addition to analyzing those that show up in the related searches suggestion section at the bottom of Google’s results page. It may also be helpful to look at what keywords competitors are ranking for using tools like SEMrush. This will allow bloggers to get an idea of what other sites are ranking for and can potentially expand the list of keyword phrases to use in their writing.

Using the Keyword Planner

After people have developed a list of the search based keyword phrases that they think will increase traffic to their site, they can begin systematically analyzing them using the Google Keyword Planner. This will tell bloggers exactly how many people are searching for specific keyword phrases and the number of other sites where they appear. This will give you an idea of what the competition is like for specific keywords and will help you eliminate things from the phrase lists that may be difficult to rank for.

Google Keyword Planner will also show people when phrases are not commonly searched for, and it can give people an idea of which phrases that they probably should not highlight in their blog posts if they are specifically looking to maximize traffic. However, keywords that people do not search for often generally have less competition, so it is often easier for people’s blog posts to get on the front page if they use them in their content.

The Bottom Line

Google Keyword Planner can be an excellent search keywords tool to help people increase traffic to their blog by targeting specific phrases. However, people should not forget that the best way to get more visitors is to produce high-quality content on a consistent basis. The Keyword Planner is a great guide in helping people find specific phrases to use, but bloggers should ultimately be focused on increasing traffic bycreating a loyal following of people who enjoy reading their work.

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What Is Customer Loyalty Worth?

ave you ever wondered what makes a customer loyal? Have you ever tried to create a loyalty program to manufacture a greater bond between your brand and your customers? One last question for ya. Does your loyalty program or ones that you've seen others offering, look more like bribe programs?

To a lot of retailers a customer retention strategy is commensurate to a loyalty program that offers financial rewards. Like any business, Retail marketers employ these rewards programs because consumers follow a predictable and measurable path to repeat purchases. CEOs and CFOs love predictable and measurable consumer behavior. However, we are seeing indicators that consumers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied by the similarity of these programs among the businesses which use them and their lack of compelling benefits. Here’s the thing. As we become accustomed to a higher level of service, which is a key differentiated for businesses, the client / consumer becomes accustomed to that level very quickly and it takes more to wow us. After all we are fickle and if the difference is just money, we will gladly switch our loyalties to rival companies which offer even bigger rewards.

Now the real secret to building even deeper connections with your customers is to follow the smartest retailers who have shifted their thinking of client loyalty not as a new or separate program but as a corporate strategy. Successful business marketers are insightful and empathetic to the marketplace. They put themselves in their customers’ shoes to fully understand their perspective and then serve those customers with genuine passion. These brands not only create customers, they create raving fans with enough emotional loyalty that they will act as brand advocates, ambassadors and promoters. These raving fans will go out of their way to spend more, pay premium prices from the brand even when other retailers and products are readily available.

Online merchants have the unique opportunity to nurture emotional loyalty by alleviating the pain points of traditional shopping and capitalizing on the strengths of digital e-commerce to deliver exceptional shopping convenience and personalization.

Customer Loyalty is Imperative to Business Survival
As more consumers live online rather than merely get online, there is a shrinking pool of new consumers for the online marketer to target. This obviously makes retaining  your existing customers that much more important.

An internal study performed at Google shows that current consumers give little thought to moving from site to site to compare products and prices. They call this the zero moment of truth. As much as 88% of consumers are researching items online and then buying the items at a physical store. That figure is from Accenture, April 2014. The shopping decision cycle has lengthened as there is more information to research. As a result, consumers are more informed and they want a valid reason to remain loyal.

One way to keep me loyal is to have a great website that delivers what I want on the device I happen to be using at any given time. Google recently announced the heightened support and weight of “Responsive” Web Design or Mobile Friendly websites. This is in response to the trends that Google sees from the online community and their device usage. I see many marketers are still adjusting to this reality as well. Sadly, the blogs were all on fire about mobilegeddon rather than talking about how to use it to retain customers.

It really ticks me off actually. When I see a new promotion and it’s only for new customers and the only way to get any perks for my loyalty is when I complain and am ready to leave to another competitor. Now I am eligible for a great discount. Has that happened to you? When will businesses truly understand that loyalty programs that rely solely on price promotions do not drive true loyalty?

A study performed by the Center for Retail Management at Northwestern University illustrates the buying power of loyal customers. In the study, it states that 12% to 15% of consumers were loyal to a single retailer. What is fascinating is that those customers generated 55% to 70% of company sales. Does anyone remember the Pereto Principle? The 80/20 Rule?

Rewards vs Loyalty
As can be seen (hopefully) with rewards programs, customers may continue purchasing from you only as long as the reward is available to them to the point of diminishing returns.

As you have read countless articles and seen various whitepapers, you may come to the same understanding that consumers are capable of forming strong emotional bonds with brands, similar to how they feel for friends, relatives or loved ones. I know that I attend an event twice a year at a certain resort in Scottsdale and every time I drive by, I now have a warm heartfelt feeling come over me. It has nothing to do with the resort, however they are the secondary recipient of by loyalty as I will come back and spend money just to soak up the good feelings. I have the same level of loyalty to a couple of stores where I am treated practically like a member of the family rather than just a customer. If you think about it, I am sure you can picture a business you feel the same way about. You may find yourself even promoting that business to your friends enthusiastically.

Earning Authentic Loyalty
An authentic loyal customer is not created through a program delegated to a person in the marketing department. Rather, it needs to be a part of a company’s culture. It must be second nature and flowing like the lifeblood through the business’ operations and procedures.

So what can a retailer do that will generate the kind of energetic loyalty that many only dream of? Let’s take a look at a brand which is successful at this and follow their lead so we can have a better grasp of how they get customers to say No Thanks to competitors. 1st I can think of Apple. They have a culture that clearly nurtures strong loyalty to their brand. Apple made their products with simple designs that impact our lives and better yet, the products are easy to use and they work without a lot of hassle or need for added plug-ins or downloading extra drivers. Bottom line, it’s the product 1st. Start with a great product or service that delivers better than the competition. Next create an inclusive customer experience that creates a sense of belonging to something special that isn’t offered anywhere else.

What does that look like? As customers remain loyal, let’s say on the anniversary date, they can get entered into contests to win rewards. There can be customer chapters organized by geography with specific events just for each group strengthening the community as well as the bond with the brand. This goes beyond the old newsletter that I doubt gets much attention anymore as everyone’s email is overflowing with clutter as it is.

Another thing that will go a long way is to offer the same special discounts not just for new customers but also the loyal customers who have been loyal after a certain period of time.

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HOW TO INCREASE ALEXA RANK OF YOUR BLOG:

How to increase alexa rank of your blog, Steps to efficiency of Alexa Rank of your own website or Blog – the more important instructions and thoughts to be followed.

After Google Page denotes the Rank modifications the measurements that are given a greater importance is the Alexa Rank. The Google declared a few days back that it might not modify the Google Page Rank at any cost. So, to track the improvement of the blog the measurement is continue to modify on every day basis as of now is only Alexa Rank. There are different measurements are good such as the Domain Authority and Page Authority, Moz Rank, Quantcast and so once which are more accurate but these metrics update once in a month. The most inspired thing about the Alexa Rank is that it secures more important modifications for day. This is the reason why it has attracted all the Bloggers and Web Masters over the web. Everyone keeps an eye on this Alexa Rank to check if their rank is improved or not.

CHARACTERIZE TO INCREASE ALEXA RANK OF YOUR BLOG OR WEBSITE

The more Believe me most of the people judge named of a blog or a website just by viewing the Alexa Rank. The people also give a very high importance to Alexa Rank. A blog with good Alexa rank secures more Banners and Sponsored ranks.

WHAT IS ALEXA RANK?

The blogAlexa.com described them self as a “web information company”. They rank every website and blog based on their traffic and some other factors. This Alexa Rank gets updated daily. Lesser the number better.

WHAT IS SCENARIO OF MEASURING ALEXA RANK ?

You are willing to pick after reading “How Alexa Ranking is measured in a world wide web bloggers?“

Alexa.com is measuring your website’s traffic is one of the most unfair surveys around. Why?

They only record those hits which pass through their systems. That means your visitors either have to Install Alexa Toolbar on their browser or you should put an Alexa widget/plug-in installed on your blog.

That means the websites under the niche Blogging, Technology will have a better Alexa Rank is not.

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HOW TO USE META TAGS IN SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION:

What the description about Meta Tags?

How to Use Meta Tags in Search Engine Optimization, Meta tags are the set of codes that can be used in the webpage that are help to produce to the information to improve search engines. There are no uses but they can help to provide the improvement of traffic for the website.

About Meta tags

What is the significance and impact of Meta Tags?

Meta tags are not having so much needed for website ranking they can provide help to improve more traffic from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask etc. Meta Tags provide data of the search engines about your site/blog. Meta tags provide the index of the website that it contains according page wise. Then they used to grasp the information very easily.

Modify: The best Meta Tags for blogger blogs as a result of research completed by me. This Meta tags helps to the keywords automatically to increase the capacity of search engines such as Bing, Yahoo etc.

Paragraphed structure to discussing how to give Meta Tags?

Step 1:

• First of all log in your Blogger account and from the Dashboard of your account go though the semantic shown as Template->Edit HTML->Proceed.

Step 2:

• Need to go and by click 3 to search the following code

Step 3:

• Attach by select paste from op up menu the following codes just under the above code.

• Site Keywords‘name=’Keywords’/>

• Change the red portion of the above codes with your blog information.

Step 4: 

• Save your changes are your desired location.

Now you are to go include the Meta Tags then the Analyzer used them to test your blog Meta tags.

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Top 20 High PR Free Dofollow Blog Directories Of 2015:

Do you know what is the important and effective ethical way to increase your posts rank in SERP ? well, we all know that there out bundles of technique to handle this job but the most prominent and White hat SEO technique is submitting your blog to top dofollow blog directories to get quality backlinks and excellent ranking in google. In modern ara there are thousands of dofollow blog directories on the web which could help to bring your posts in first position in major search engine results. How these dofollow blog directories work. First we have to find out the most popular and high PR directories website and then get registration to submit our blog or website.

However if you have a quality content blog then you can easily take place in their marketplace. Now all these directories will give us do follow back links which could help to maximize the blog PR and also bring our blog at the top rated pages along with posts. So in today article we will show you the top 20 most popular High PR Free Dofollow Blog and Directories of 2013. 
 What Are Blog Directories ?

I know you might have familiarized with the concept of blog directories. Let me explain little bit what are directories how they work and what is the importance to use top blog directories. Blog directories are simple dynamic websites which contains bundles of related and unrelated other blog and categorized in specific group. By related and unrelated we mean we can register any niches blog or website into directories. 

Getting approval in any top directory we could have a chance to get thousands of backlinks, more chances to have voice communicate with professional bloggers and make hands to the globe. So getting approval in top high pr directories is not difficult if you give a little time to try for the below given directories.

List Of Top 20 High Pr Free Blog Directories Of 2013

So after a lot of effort our editorial team have compiled a list of most popular and top socialize blog directories which will give you the quality backlinks and will let you attend in the blogging arena. So before waste your time in finding out the top high pr directories for your blog let check the below list of Top High PR Blog Directories.

1. scirus.com
2. infomine.ucr.edu
3. envirolink.org
4. freeprwebdirectory.com
5. ilovelanguages.com
6. lanic.utexas.edu
7. boingboing.net
8. dmoz.org
9. elecdir.com
10. sitepromotiondirectory.com
11. aboriginalcanada.gc.ca
12. accesseric.org
13. ananzi.co.za
14. archivd.com
15. atomenabled.org
16. bestfreetemplates.org
17. deca-press.net
18. directory.ac
19. femina.com
20. findtech.com

   So this was some of the most popular blog directories list for the year 2013. One thing i forgot to say, the most interesting thing that i am gonna tell you. Some of the above directories contain .edu which deliver splendid results. These directories do not approve any blog or website so easily, However they could approve you fast if your blog has quality contents and give more value to your visitors and readers. So make sure you must customized and optimized your blog before getting approval in into such directories.

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How To Check Referral Traffic In Google Analytics

With the introducing of new layout inside google analytic tool a lot of changes occurred and replaced all the search engine and social media options with advance tools. Google officials working constantly on their products to make them better and more user friendly. Recently the interface of google ad words tool has been also changed by Google which becomes now one of the finest keywords tools for bloggers. However, the addition of new prominent functions in google analytic tool, it becomes so complicated for bloggers to use and manage its functionality. In past we could have easily find out to check referral traffic from google analytic to see the traffic statistics. But with the addition of all these additional features, it seems quit difficult for bloggers to check traffic statistic. Yesterday one of our users asked me, how to use google analytic to check referral traffic. So in this article i will guide you, how to check referral traffic in google analytics.

How To Use Google Analytics To Check All Referral Traffic

There is no rocket science in using google analytic which replaced by a new interface. Following are the basic advance options included with prominent features. The old structure of google analytic has gone and replaced with professional look. Now It provided several category for the users where each category labeled by sub advance options which are easy to use and easy to check traffic statistic . Most of features added only in Standard Reportsection which contain on the follow options which you are seeing in the below screenshot.

 Tracking Referral Traffic From Google Analytics

In this section you will learn with easy steps how to use properly google analytical tool to check all your referral traffic coming from external websites. To find out this option inside google analtyic you will have to follow the below simple steps.

Go to Google Analytic and Click on your desire website >>>  Now scroll down and click onAcquisition option seeing on the left side of the dashboard >>> Below the Acquisition you will see referral traffic option click and then check your traffic from certain periods by changing dates from the above calender. That is, Congratulate you have done almost:

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List Of Top 100+ High PageRank Dofollow CommentLuv Enable Blogs:

Why every one is going behind the blogs for commenting  who enabled commencement system. Is it worthy for blog or website? Does it help in increasing blog traffic? Is this play an important role in  increasing blog page rank, if so why should we not follow bunch of blogs who enabled this splendid features. What we can get from these high PR dofollow commentluv blogs or website. There are many reasons to discuss why most of bloggers have been always habit to cross large-scale destination for leaving valuable comments at commentluv enabled blogs. Because this one of the finest and ethical way to build quality backlinks as well as help in increasing Page rank of the blog. Basically, this features are freely available at WP platform where a user can easily handle to enable commentluv option on his/her website so for the readers to get maximum comments.

So it would be the golden chance for WP users to get maximum comments by enabling dofollow commentLuv option. Readers want backlinks while you are getting the advantage of readership. So, in today's posts i have compiled a list of 100+ high pagerank dofollow commentluvenblogs of 2014. Select your own choice blogs from the list and do start commenting with polite manner so that to get both quality backlinks and readership.

Why To Get Attendance In High PR Dofollow Commentluv Blogs And What Are The Basic Advantages ?

It is obviously necessary for each and every blogger to get attendance in some of the below mention blogs. You will not only get quality backlinks but it would also help to boost the blog traffic as well as page rank in no time. for better user experience, Try to make valuable comments on some of the most popular commentluve enabled blogs constantly upto two and half months and then judge your Page Rank in next update you will be probably feel a major difference in your PageRank.

Now it will have been increased several numbers. Means, if it was 3 in past and after drawing a lot of valuable comments this time it will be obviously from 5 to 6. SO, if you are curious to know who are the top 100 high pagerank blogs with commentluv enabled option then you have come to the right place.

Major Advantages

1. Help to Boost your Traffic: 
2. Help to draw quality backlinks:
3. Help in making solid readership with bloggers:
4. Help in increasing pagerank of a blog:

I hope you would like to spread bundles of comments, if you read the above para in great attention. To make this work more easier for you. I have brought a large collection high page rank dofollow commetnluv enabled blogs which will probably increase your traffic and page rank by commenting in polite & good manner. Let come and join this free gallery of more than 100+ commentluv blogs.

List Of High PageRank Dofollow Blogs With CommentLuv Enabled
PageRank 6

http://w3blog.dk

http://www.currybet.net

http://www.socialtimes.com

http://links.org.au

http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/blog

http://gaming.psu.edu

http://www.problogger.net

http://weblogtoolscollection.com

PageRank 5

http://www.bloggingtips.com

http://www.bloggingbasics101.com

http://growmap.com

http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog

http://www.blogussion.com

http://www.basicblogtips.com

http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog

http://kikolani.com

http://www.comptalks.com

http://comluv.com

http://www.seobythesea.com

http://www.intenseblog.com

http://www.zigpress.com

Page Rank 4

http://zapworld.in

http://tips4pc.com

http://blog.2createawebsite.com

http://freebloghelp.com

http://ariherzog.com

http://www.techgeeze.com

http://www.thebadblogger.com

http://www.famousbloggers.net

http://www.techlila.com

http://www.techtricksworld.com

Page Rank 3

http://thattechchick.com

http://www.iblognet.com

http://keepupwiththeweb.com

http://www.techwork.dk

http://techatlast.com

http://www.techbappa.com

http://techchunks.com

http://www.technikant.com

http://techiezlounge.com

Page Rank 1

http://www.crunchyhub.com

http://www.bloggingcage.com

http://kathydobson.com

http://www.thechefscookbook.com

http://www.techpatio.com

http://www.techifire.com

http://www.techbucket.org

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Analyze Your Blog Traffic And Competitors For Free - SimilarWeb:

No doubt dozens are free online tools available on the web for bloggers when they came to analyze their blog traffic statistics. Most of the time we are using few limited online tools with which might be well aware all tech geeks and bloggers. While in my case, i have been using google analytics and woorank since 2012. Meanwhile i did not find any useful tool by which we can calculate blog traffic and competitors accurately. However, there are various splendid paid online tools which could be help in bringing your competitors and give all the possible results regarding to the blog traffic statistics. However, sometime you must be worry, what to do ? Where to go? if we need to check the blog current visitors analytic and competitors at the current time without registration and much more. In such situation i have a solid solution which can be more useful to fulfill your desires. So here i am going to present you one splendid website (SimilarWeb) by which you will quickly access all the rights which you are manually handle in google analytic. So, in today's article we will show you how to analyze your blog competitors and traffic by using SimilarWeb online tool.

What Is Similar Web And How Does It Work

To give you a brief idea. Similar Web is an online website which provides a single tool for checking both traffic and competitors. This tool work similar to google analytic. While google analytic needs registration, installation of ID on the template but here you do not need to have registration or other any access authority. So it would automatically show all the traffic related data, Referral traffic, Social media and much more. Its mechanism is so simple. Just go to the website. Enter your desire blog link and then see the whole visual graphic of your blog whole background.

How To Use Similar Web For Analyzing Blog & Website

Do'nt look here and there. Here is a complete guide, which will show step by step how to check active visitors, Traffic and your competitors. Lets come and follow the below step by step guide.

1: First of all go the SimilarWeb from here.
2: Put your Blog url in the searchbox and hit the enter.

3: Check your Blog visitors Visual statical graph data

4: dd your competitor blog to know how is the winner.  You can also add multiple competitors. See the below screenshot.

5: Compare the results. The fist one will be always the Primary blog which want to do competition and the alternate will competitor blog often comes below the primary ones. To give you the illustrative view see the below screenshot.

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How to Make Money with Your Blog;

You want to make money, right? Of course you do. Everyone wants and needs to make money. So you started a blog since you've heard its an easy way to make cash, but you're not quite sure how to actually make money doing it. Or maybe you already have a blog and you€™re exploring ways to monetize it.

No matter which group you âre in, making money with a blog whether its a hobby blog or a business blog is possible. Its not a get rich quick ordeal, but if you do it right, you could make enough to support your family and more. Lets dive in and see how you can make a profit with your blog.

Monetize with CPC or CPM Ads

One of the most common ways bloggers make money is through placing ads on their site. There are two popular types of ads:

• CPC/PPC Ads: Cost per click (also called pay per click) ads are usually banners that you place in your content or sidebar. Each time a reader clicks on the ad, you're paid for that click.
• CPM Ads: CPM Ads, or cost per 1,000 impressions,” are ads that pay you a fixed amount of money based on how many people view your ad.

Perhaps the most popular network for placing these types of ads is Google AdSense. With this program, you don’t need to be in direct contact with advertisers; you simply place the banner on your site, Google chooses ads relevant to your content, and your viewers click on the ads. There are countless similar programs available if you find that AdSense doesnt work for you, such as Chitika, Infolinks, and Media.net.

Sell Private Ads

Working with advertising networks isn't your only option when it comes to selling ads. If you end up with enough traffic, advertisers may come directly to you and ask you to place their ad on your site. You can also contact advertisers yourself. The biggest difference from the above mentioned option is that there  no middle man, which means you can set your own ad rates.

Selling private ads can come in the form of banners, buttons, or links. You can even make money writing sponsorship posts where you write about or give a review of an advertiserproduct or service. Another option is to write an underwritten post or series, which is where you can write about any topic, but the advertiser pays for a Brought to you by mention in the content.

The ways you make money with this can vary. For instance, you might charge a one-time fee for a link within a post. If you're hosting banner ads, you might charge your partner monthly.

Bonus tip: To maximize your income, you can also choose to sell sponsorship space in your newsletters, pod casts, and videos.

Include Affiliate Links in Your Content

Affiliate marketing is also another great tool for monetizing your blog. Here how affiliate marketing works:

1. An advertiser has a product he wants to sell. He agrees to give you a commission from each sale if the buyer is coming from your site.
2. He gives you a unique link that tracks your affiliate code. That way, he knows when a buyer used your link to make a purchase.
3. You include your affiliate link on your site. You can do this directly in the content or through banner ads. If a reader clicks on your unique link and buys the product you've recommended, you earn a percentage of what s/he purchased.

You can utilize affiliate marketing through ad networks like Amazon Associates, or you can create private partnerships with advertisers and businesses with an affiliate program.

Sell Digital Products

If you rather not advertise other peoples products on your site, or if you're looking for another stream of income, consider selling digital products. This can include items like:

• eBooks
• Online courses/workshops
• Images, video, or music people can use in their own content
• Apps, plugins, or themes

Just remember that if you're going to choose one of these avenues that you make it relevant and useful to your readers. A lot of bloggers make the mistake of assuming they're developing a product their readers need; listen to your readers first, and then create a digital product that will meet their needs.

Use it as a Content Marketing Tool for Your Business

It also possible to sell physical products on your blog and to make money that way. Instead of thinking of it as making money from your blog, however, think of your blog as a content marketing tool that will drive visitors to your business website.

The possibilities are practically endless when it comes to developing a business blog. You could sell hand-made products, books, manufactured products, and so much more. Or you might already have a business and decide to start a blog to convert loyal customers.

Lets say, for example, that you refurbish and resell used smartphones out of your home. You could use a blog to attract visitors to your website where you list your current phones for sale. Your blog might cover topics about DIY refurbishing. On one level, it seems counter intuitive because you want people to buy your phones, but it also helps you build a brand and gain recognition. Social media guru Jay Baer explains the concept on Copyblogger:

I was at a conference a few years ago, and this is where I first sort of started thinking about this concept, and their founder, Robert Johnson, was speaking…

He said, Well our best customers are the people that think they can fix it themselves.

But eventually you are going to get out of your depth either on that project on a project down the road, at which point who are you going to call? Are you going to call somebody randomly that you discovered on Google or are you going to call the guys who you just watched their logo in the corner of a 14-minute instructional video?

This concept can also be applied to services in all types of industries. For instance, if you offered electronic repair services as opposed to physical products, you could still use the same blogging concept to increase brand awareness and convert more clients.

Sell Memberships

Another option to make money is to sell memberships to exclusive corners of your website. For instance, a career blog might charge $10 per month for users to gain access to their job board. A start up business blog might sell memberships to their forums where people can get personalized advice about their business.

The key here is that your exclusive membership has to be more valuable than something your visitors can find for free somewhere else, so be sure you're developing something of value and worth the price.

Use it to Build Your Credibility

Blogging to build credibility can lead to many money-making opportunities. For instance, lets say you start a blog in the finance industry. People start reading your content, and your blog becomes very popular. You're now a recognized figure in the finance industry.

Once you have that authority, people might approach you to co-author a book on debt management, or you could charge to speak at conferences or to run employee financial training days.

This certainly isnt a direct form of making money blogging, but it has worked for many well-known bloggers, and it can work for you, too. If you're looking for a direct revenue stream, popular blogs have sold for 4-7 figures (sometimes more) by selling their branding and content.

Bonus Tips

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that making money blogging is not possible by putting your site up and letting it sit there. The you build it, they will come mentality doesn't work here, so be sure you're willing to put in the time. Most bloggers don see a spike of income for several months (sometimes years) after starting their blog. Before you dive too deep into blogging, remember these little bits of advice:

Create Quality Content

You're not going to make any money from your blog if people dont read it. After all, your readers are the ones who are going to make you money, whether they re clicking on your ads or buying your products. Always put your readers first.

Dont Spend Your Time Exclusively on Your Blog

Developing a successful blog has a lot to do with building relationships. That can include relationships with sponsors, affiliate partners, or simply other bloggers who will direct traffic to your blog. Be sure some of your time is spent on forums and other blogs (or whatever works for you) to build these relationships and your blog.

Dont Be Afraid to Experiment

Not all of these tips and avenues of income are going to work for you. Dont be afraid to tweak your methods to see what works best for you and your readers.

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