Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Content editing service

So you’ve got yourself a website. Perhaps it was one built by us. Perhaps you did what a lot of people have done and got yourself a cheap Wordpress website that looks identical to millions of others. Great. Now you want to tell people about it, right? Now you want to “get to number one on the Google”. Perhaps you just want to keep your customers and visitors interested so they keep coming back.

What you really need is engaging content. Prominent calls to action on your home page, regular news stories or blogs. Engaging e-newsletters. The problem is that this is not only time-consuming, it also requires creativity and a good grasp of the English language (i.e. knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re”).

Datapartners can help you out. We are launching a new content editing service. This includes updating basic site content to focus on key words, regular blogs or articles, e-newsletter content and even providing stock privacy policies and cookie policies which are now mandatory for the majority of UK sites.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in, please visit our content editing page to read more and view our very competitive prices.

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Getting other people to write my blogs

The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 9 of 10

The thing with blogging is it requires both a passion to write and, ideally, literacy. Unfortunately not everyone can come up with new material on a consistent basis and, more worryingly, few people in this world are literate.

There’s nothing worse than reading a badly written essay full of spelling mistakes and no punctuation. It also won’t help your readership if people have to try and decipher gibberish masquerading as English.

So what can you do if you want to start a blog but don’t have the inclination or skills to do it? Well you could get someone else to write them for you. This was briefly covered in the “can I make money from blogging?” post last week. There are professional writers out there who offer their services (like me for example). You might also want to consider opening up your blog and allowing other keen bloggers to become contributors. For most people, blogging is a hobby so, if it’s a subject they are interested in, they may be willing to do it for free. Guest blogging is also a good way of expanding your reach. If you ask a contributor of another successful blog to write something for you, they are likely to share it with their followers. Likewise, if you offer to write on another blog, you are sharing your wordage with a whole new group of people. It’s all about networking.

Wednesday, 7 September 2016

What about vlogging?

The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 8 of 10

Something that is becoming increasing popular these days is video blogging, or “vlogging”. The most successful “vloggers” appear to be attractive lesbian couples making videos discussing their mundane every day life, interspersed with the occasional kiss. In all honesty most of them probably aren’t even lesbians but are just a couple of attractive females who realise that 99% of the internet traffic is made up of horny men who like looking at pretty girls kissing, and are simply cashing in on their desperation. Fair play to them.

So is it worth vlogging if you’re not an attractive fake lesbian? If you feel comfortable in front of a camera and aren’t afraid of people making fun of your face then it’s probably worth considering. I personally don’t like being in front of a camera on account of my face and the fact I hate the sound of my own voice. I’m also much more comfortable and can get a message across much more clearly using written words. Some people may find it easier to convey their message via spoken word.

Also it does usually require a bit of video editing which involves buying some software or downloading some free software that will no doubt infect your machine with Trojans and all sorts of hideous internet diseases. Depending on the material, you may also need some additional software. For example, if you want to vlog about something that requires giving a visual demo, you may need to invest in some software that allows you to record your browser.

With the huge reach of Youtube, plus the fact a lot of people prefer to watch something rather than read (because let’s face it the majority of people can’t read) it’s definitely a worthwhile option.

If you become a fake lesbian, you’ll get plenty of visitors.

Tuesday, 6 September 2016

What benefits does blogging have?

The Datapartners Blog about blogs: 7 of 10

Blogging has many benefits. As well as the therapeutic effects of writing (I usually feel much better after a good old fashioned rant) the benefits to your business or website can also be greatly helped with regular blogs.

For starters there is the visibility in search engines. Everyone wants to get found on Google. The best way to get found on Google is to have lots of good quality content and many back links to your site. Enter the blog. If you are regularly blogging, you are submitting more and more content to Google’s index. There more content you have out there, the more chance there is of people finding it and potentially clicking further in to your site. If you have links back to your own website, the more chance there is of people following them. Also, the quality of relevant back links and referrals will have a positive impact on your overall ranking in Google.

It also helps gets your name out there. When used in tandem with the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter it can increase your exposure if people share it. Rather than just coming to your site from a single source, people will potentially get to you from a number of different avenues.

It can also help establish authority. A blog like this is providing free advice. Becoming an expert on a particular subject is likely to get you a following with people who are interested. Again, regular updates will keep visitors coming back and reading, and logically looking into your services in more detail. Of course this is the seventh of ten planned blogs on the subject of blogging and I’m mostly talking bollocks. Still, it’s useful advice.

Monday, 5 September 2016

How do I promote my blog?

The Datapartners Blog about blogs: 6 of 10

If you want to make money from blogging or use blogging to sell your products and services, it’s important to make sure people know about it. If blogging is going to be used to promote yourself, the idea of promoting the thing that you are using to promote your products and services may seem like a bit of a pointless step.

The reason it isn’t is because it actually is quite easy, providing you have something worth saying. By simply using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and generally annoying your friends and associates, you can start to spread the word and get people visiting your blog. The beauty of viral marketing like this is it’s absolutely free and very effective.

Of course you can also pay to increase visitors. Something like Google AdWords or Facebook or Amazon adverts are the most obvious ways. You can also pay some of these stupid companies who will suddenly boost your hit rate by a million percent or get you a thousand new Facebook likes and Twitter followers overnight. You’d be a fool if you did this though because all those accounts are dead links and won’t actually be real people.

This does all take time and requires you to regularly post about it multiple times in multiple locations but, the more content you have, and the more you promote it, the more visits you get and generally speaking the higher natural listing you may get in Google.

This coming from a blog that gets relatively few hits because I never promote it. Do as I say, not as I do.

Friday, 2 September 2016

Can I make money from blogging?

The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 5 of 10

So you’ve got your blog, you’ve got good content, you enjoy writing. Now you are thinking “hey, I’d like to do this for a living. Can I actually make money from writing?”. The answer, simply, is yes.

In truth, making a living out of blogging is very difficult unless you have an enormous fan base (and I’m talking millions of views a month) or you are getting paid to write blogs for other people and are charging per blog or per word.

The most obvious ways of making money from a blog are by sticking adverts on them. Google AdSense is the most popular choice and you earn money every time someone clicks on an advert on your site. As mentioned above, however, you need to be getting a large number of visitors to make any sort of money. To put it into perspective, one of my small personal blogs receives about 2000 page views/ad impressions every month and I am making on average £2 per month from it. That’s not going to allow me to retire early so, using a bit of basic maths, it’s safe to assume that if I had 20,000 visits a month, I might make £20 per month, 200,000 might earn me £200 per month and 2,000,000 page views per month could earn me £2000 per month, which would be an average salary. Of course if I was getting two million page views a month on one site I’d probably need to spend all the money I earned on a bigger web server.

Another way of making money is through some sort of affiliate scheme. Amazon offer something like this whereby you can place product adverts on your blog and when a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. Again, however, they only give a 5% commission (up to 10% over a certain threshold) so the amount of money is likely to be minimal.

Other ways of making money are offering your own products and services on your blog. Do you need a new website? Then visit www.datapartners.co.uk and we’ll quote you happy.

Thursday, 1 September 2016

How often should I blog?

The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 4 of 10

Do you know someone who talks a lot? Do you want to punch them in the face? Or do you perhaps know someone who doesn’t say much and trying to converse with them is like the proverbial blood from the stone conundrum? Do you get to the point where you can’t be bothered with them any more?

The same principle applies with blogging. You may have a lot to say but do people need to hear about it every five minutes? Flooding people with constant updates will probably start to annoy them after a while and will likely stop reading. On the flip side if you don’t do it enough people are likely to forget all about you.

So how often should one post? Well given that between 2014 and 2015 I published less than half a dozen posts on this blog, I probably shouldn’t comment. However, because I’m one of these people who never practices what he preaches, I’d say that at least one a week is optimal. I’m currently doing a “one a day” challenge for two weeks on this blog and that’s probably not excessive either. Again, the subject matter will depend greatly on how often you will be able to blog. For example, one of the publications I write for is a satirical news site and it’s based on relevant stories so it’s only really possible to blog when a related story comes out. Trying to write posts for the sake of releasing something would probably not work because it wouldn’t be relevant to anything.

Conversely, I know a guy who is a huge Star Wars fan and does at least one video blog per day on that - usually ranging from 2 minutes to 10 minutes each depending on the subject. Given all the thousands of books, comics, films, TV series and general nerdy fanboy material there is out there, the guy will probably never run out of material. He also has about a quarter of a million subscribers so it’s fair to say he’s doing it right.

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

What should my blog contain?

The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 3 of 10

Once you’ve established why you want to blog and what your blog is going to be about, you need to consider your target audience. The subject matter and the type of people who will be reading it will affect what you put in your blog. The way you write it will also make a difference to the types of people who will read it and keep coming back.

For example, I keep my blogs relatively light-hearted and quite often make fun of consultants and other inherently stupid people. Therefore, the chances of a serious consultant enjoying my blog are slim, unless they are the rare breed of consultant born with a sense of humour and a personality. In fact the chances of a consultant being able to read is slim so forget everything I just wrote.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, content. While some blogs contain humour, it’s only worth doing that if the subject matter allows it and if you are actually funny. Don’t try to force it otherwise it almost inevitably has the opposite effect.

Images and video can also bring a blog to life. Certainly photos are the first things people notice on any website so if you’ve got a nice, bold image, it will almost certainly draw the viewer in, meaning there is more chance of them actually reading your content. Personally I use very little in the way of imagery on this blog because I rarely have use for it. However, I also write articles for other publications where images and photos are much more relevant (news sites and profile sites for example).

Perhaps embed a related video. Either one you made yourself or sharing someone else’s video. People are more likely to respond to something visual (like photos and video) because reading is more arduous for people (especially consultants).

So there you go; Your blog should contain words, photos, video and some light-hearted and easy-to-read material. Pretty obvious really. This blog was a bit pointless… I’d probably make a good consultant...

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

How long should my blog be?

The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 2 of 10

Guys, have you ever actually asked a woman whether size matters or not? Me neither but I’m sure different women would give you different answers. The nice ones will lie just to make you feel better about yourself.

Anyway, the point is that it’s the same answer to this question. Some people like short and sweet, others like it long and substantial. In truth, it doesn’t matter how long a blog is, as long as it’s good quality. If a blog is badly written, it’s less likely to get much in the way of interest. Unless it’s so badly written it goes viral for its utter ridiculousness, but you probably don’t want that.

Having said all that, I would personally never want to write a blog longer than a thousand words. This is because I wouldn’t want to read a blog that is over a thousand words. If I wanted to read copious amounts of text, I’d read a book. On the flip side, I wouldn’t personally write a blog that is less than two hundred words. This is because anything under two hundred words is barely a sentence.

It’s really a matter of preference but I’d say a good guide was between 200-1000 words. As long as the content is good and engages the reader.


This blog is 242 words. Oh and for the record, I’m hung like a genetically modified horse.

Monday, 29 August 2016

To blog or not to blog

The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 1 of 10

Before embarking on a blog, you need to ask yourself why you want to do it. Do you have something to say? Do you enjoy writing? Are you literate? If the answer to any of those questions is “no” then you probably shouldn’t do it.

One of the reasons I haven’t done much in the way of blogging lately is because I haven’t been able to think of anything worthwhile to write about. Partly because of a lack of inspiration and partly because I’ve been busy. For a blog to work, you really need to post on a regular enough basis to keep your readers active, but not too much that you end up pissing people off. Rather than posting crap just for the sake of it, I personally haven’t bothered.

If your blog is more of a personal journal whereby you are sharing random thoughts and events of everyday life, then you’re more than likely going to have more to say. Blogging in this way is quite therapeutic. Writing your thoughts down is a good way of getting things off your chest and sharing it with the world is equally so. Caring is sharing and all that bollocks.

If your blog is more business oriented, you need to ask yourself if it’s right for your business. Also, is your writing style suitable. For example, my blogs are very light-hearted and often involve mild sarcasm, swearing and insults directed at celebrities and other annoying turds. This sort of behaviour wouldn’t sit well if I worked for a stuffy, boring, corporate company because they have a pompous image to maintain. Also, not all businesses have enough happening to warrant a regular blog. For example, I would personally find it hard to write a relevant blog for a company selling, say, wood because there is only so much I’d be able to write before I ran out of things to say, or started writing irresponsible posts involving sexual innuendo.

My business is quite easy because there is a lot of change in the web industry and there are a lot of relevant related topics like computers, software, hardware, other websites, new technology and countless other things.

So basically if you want to seriously consider starting a regular blog, ask yourself whether or not you have enough to say and if you think what you have to say will be of interest to others. Providing you have adequate knowledge of your chosen topic (or topics) and can keep it going for long enough, then you should definitely give it a go.

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

The blogging challenge

For someone who is very keen to promote the idea of blogging and general social networking to my customers, I’m painfully aware I don’t do anywhere near enough of it myself. This is partly because I’m too busy trying to encourage other people to do it and also because, having written several books and managed numerous different blogs covering a wide variety of genres, I never find time to write a company blog. I’m also inherently lazy.

Blogging is great but is it for everyone? A blog, like any form of written work, should be worth reading. That means it should be either informative or entertaining, or both. There’s only so much a single person can write that is useful and informative without getting repetitive. It’s not always possible to be entertaining either. I mean seriously, you try writing humour into the subject of web design and content management systems. It’s harder than listening to a Justin Bieber song without wanting to rip your own face off.

Anyway, to encourage myself to blog more, I am setting myself the challenge of writing one blog a day for two weeks (starting Monday and excluding weekends because, you know, I have a life) on the subject of blogging. These blogs will cover the following topics:

To blog or not to blog
How long should my blog be?
What should my blog contain?
How often should I blog?
Can I make money from blogging?
How do I promote my blog?
What benefits does blogging have?
What about vlogging?
Getting other people to write blogs
What are the best blogging sites?