Content/Writing

Four E-Books Your Blogging Friends Will Love: A Gift Guide for Bloggers

November 27, 2011 By Melanie Nelson 1 Comment

Whether you’re looking for ideas for your own Christmas list or trying to figure out what to buy for your blogger, you’ll want to check out this list of four e-books bloggers need to read to help them build successful blogs. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginning, intermediate, or seasoned blogger, each of these [...]

Filed Under: Content/Writing, Ebooks for sale, Helpful Blogging Links, Making money, Marketing/Branding, Organization & Productivity, SEO/Search Engines Tagged With: blogger gift guide, ebooks for bloggers 1 Comment

What to Do When Someone Steals Your Blog Post

September 26, 2011 By Melanie Nelson 26 Comments

If you’ve ever found your articles reprinted without your permission — and I’m talking more than what’s considered fair use — then you’ll love today’s article. Ang England explains what scraping is and how to approach a website that’s stealing your content. (Hint: You may be able to turn it into a lucrative opportunity!) Please [...]

Filed Under: Content/Writing, FAQ Tagged With: content theft, copyright, DMCA, scraping 26 Comments

Planning Your Blog Posts With an Ebook in Mind

July 5, 2011 By Guest Poster 13 Comments

One of the benefits of writing an ebook is the ability to create an additional product from work and research you’ve already used elsewhere. I love re-purposing high-quality content and presenting it in more than one format. With that in mind, I want to give you some tips for planning blog posts with the goal of eventually creating an ebook.

Filed Under: Content/Writing, Making money, Organization & Productivity Tagged With: e-book, editorial calendar, writing an ebook 13 Comments

Write Blog Posts that Get Noticed

May 24, 2010 By Melanie Nelson 8 Comments

Ask any blogger how to find blogging success and she’ll answer with write well. It’s cliche, but it’s true: content is king. Your blog design, brand, and attitude are all important, but the bottom line is this: any amount of success requires good content. And writing strong content is rarely a quick thing. It takes [...]

Filed Under: Content/Writing, Getting Started Tagged With: editing, online writing, writing tips 8 Comments

How do I format recipes on my blog?

April 6, 2010 By Melanie Nelson 2 Comments

Reader Question: I have trouble with formatting recipes and getting the columns lined up. I usually do several lines of ingredients and amounts and hit return. Then I will highlight the ingredients and amounts and click on the bullet feature and then un-do it. Then is when the ingredients come together, but they are not [...]

Filed Under: Content/Writing, Design, HTML, Uncategorized Tagged With: blog post formatting, format a recipe, HTML table, using blockquotes, using bulleted lists 2 Comments

What is the difference between blog categories and blog tags?

February 15, 2010 By Melanie Nelson 4 Comments

When I talk to beginning bloggers, I’m asked all sorts of questions. One I received this week was what is the difference between tags and categories? The obvious way to answer this is to define both, of course, but beyond that, I want to explain why you need both, how to name them, and how [...]

Filed Under: Content/Writing, Definitions, FAQ Tagged With: blog organization, blogging advice, cannonical tags, define blog categories, define blog tags, seo 4 Comments

Understanding the New FTC Guidelines: Your Questions Answered

October 8, 2009 By Melanie Nelson 11 Comments

If you’re blogging professionally or even semi-seriously you’ve likely heard about the new FTC guidelines regarding bloggers and how we disclose any relationships with companies who have paid us to endorse or review products. As is usually the case when something changes, rumors and misinformation are swirling. This article seeks to give you a basic [...]

Filed Under: BB101 News, Content/Writing, FAQ, giveaways, Helpful Blogging Links, Making money, Marketing/Branding, Product Reviews, Social Media & Networking Tagged With: blog advice, blogging rules, downoad FTC guidelines, FTC, FTC regulations, new FTC guidelines, Richard Cleland 11 Comments

What is HARO and How Does It Work?

October 7, 2009 By Melanie Nelson Leave a Comment

Finding sources for a news article is hard when you don’t know where to look or if you don’t have contacts within an industry. It’s also hard to contribute your knowledge on a given subject when you don’t know who needs your help. Enter HARO, which stands for Help A Reporter Out and is a [...]

Filed Under: Content/Writing, Definitions, Social Media & Networking, Traffic Tagged With: blog advice, finding experts, finding news sources, HARO, Help A Reporter Out, Peter Shankman, tutorial Leave a Comment

Recap: Setting Blogging Goals

August 19, 2009 By Melanie Nelson 1 Comment

Today I’m re-posting an article consisting of notes I took from an interview Darren Rowse (Problogger) did last summer with The Blog Squad about setting goals for you blog.

Filed Under: Content/Writing, Getting Started, Marketing/Branding, Traffic Tagged With: blogging goals, content is king, finding a niche, problogger interview, self-promotion, setting blog goals 1 Comment

Beginning Blogger Checklist: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Blog

June 8, 2009 By Melanie Nelson 26 Comments

Blogging Basics 101 explains 5 of the most common mistakes beginning bloggers make. These mistakes are almost a right of passage, but why waste that time with mistakes you can easily avoid?