You are reading the article How To Develop Content Blog Standards updated in December 2023 on the website Cattuongwedding.com. We hope that the information we have shared is helpful to you. If you find the content interesting and meaningful, please share it with your friends and continue to follow and support us for the latest updates. Suggested January 2024 How To Develop Content Blog Standards
If you’ve seen one blog, you’ve seen them all… unless. Once in a while, you’ll stumble across a blog that breaks the mold of the masses. It is unique, engaging, and entertaining. It is a blog that standouts, and deserves the attention. But what makes this blog a beautiful outlier?
Over 70 million blog posts are published every month on WordPress. That’s a lot of content, but a lot of the content looks and sounds the same. Few real, authentic blogs exist in the saturated digital environment.
Maybe it’s because this replicated copy is the best version for blogs to currently live within?
Definitely not.
I equate most blog standards to being like sheep — aimlessly following the pack.
via GIPHY
However, let’s say you are hearing the alarm bells sounding off. You recognize the need to reinvigorate your blog with a shot of individuality. Here’s your guide to resurrecting your blog from the crips of conformity.
The Writing Standards
First and foremost, we need to examine the writing that makes up your blog. This is the bread and butter of your blog, and it must be good. No matter how “pretty” or “cool” your blog looks, if the writing is below adequate, then it isn’t worth a whole lot.
Users visit blogs to be entertained and informed. If you’re writing isn’t achieving that, you need to go back to the drawing board.
via GIPHY
Welcome to the drawing board! Let’s discuss some jumping-off points to help you craft copy that keeps the reader’s eyes open.
Add Value
Be Honest
Your blog should be a representation of you and/or your organization. Be true to what makes you unique. Don’t curtail to industry voices and trends that don’t align with what makes you, you. You’re going to feel better about what you produce, and in the long run, it will pay off with a more in-tune audience.
Focus on Your Niche
Blogs that too widely place their attention can confuse audiences, and dampen growth results. Ensure that your writing falls under the umbrella of what your niche entails.
Dedicate Time
Good writing takes time and critical thinking. And research, research, research. Don’t wing it. The average blog post takes 3 ½ hours to write. Why? Research, drafting, editing. Rome wasn’t built overnight. Your blog shouldn’t be a quick task done at the 11th hour.
Storyboard
Try reading a book with misplaced chapters. It ain’t going to work, friend. Even though blogs are 1/1000 the length of a novel, they still require an outline. Beautiful words are lost in bad sentences. Don’t ruin your writing with disorganized story construction.
Paragraphs and Word Length
Short paragraphs read quicker and easier. Use white space, it feels better to the eyes. Keep margins short, and don’t let text run all over the screen. Ensure your blogs are always hitting at least 250 words, preferably around 1,000.
Consistent Voice
Audiences attach themselves to blogs because they like it. Plain and simple. But often a consistent voice has a lot to do with this. People enjoy knowing what they are getting. We are creatures of habit. Pick speaking voice, and run with it, Forrest!
The Design Standards
Okay, now design. A blog should provide the reader with an experience, not just some text on a screen. Think about your favorite book. Odds are you enjoyed that story because you felt like you were gaining some type of real-world experience from it.
A blog should immerse the reader into the content, supplemented by visual aids. In doing so, we are elevating engagement and interactivity. Here are some elements you should consider when developing your blog standards.
Commitment
It is important to commit to a theme and aesthetic for your blog. In some ways uniformity is good, this being one of those times.
Images and Video
Images and videos are proven to enhance user experience and blog engagement. Creating and incorporating these types of assets add an additional dimension to a blog, and also help boost SEO favorability.
GIFs, Animations, and More
Depending on your industry and tone of voice, you will determine what custom assets best fit. However, a blog should consider incorporating GIFs, animations, memes, infographics, and more in order to highlight important information.
Custom Headers
Having custom, consistent headers at the top of your blog helps visually stimulate readers from the get-go. It introduces the blog topic and often sets the tone for what is to come. These headers help draw readers in and differentiate yourself from other blogs.
Custom CTAs
Arguably the most important aspect to your blog is the CTA. You’re writing a blog for a reason, what is it? Collect newsletter sign-ups? Demo requests? Scheduled appointments? Whatever it is, having a custom CTA helps better focus the reader’s attention to this call-out, and convert better.
You're reading How To Develop Content Blog Standards
What Does It Cost To Develop New Software?
Technology is the cornerstone for nearly every business in the world today, and the software you use often determines whether or not your business will be competitive in your field. It is vital, therefore, to invest in your company’s software development. The cost of software development depends on a variety of different factors. The complexity and size of the project, the technology used, and even the geographic location of developers are reflected in the final price.
The cost of software developmentThis is defined by the logic of software and the number of various features it has. Note that not all features have the same cost of implementation. Push notifications and video calls, for example, have vastly different costs because of the complexity of code and time required. Complicated real-time data analytics with multiple permission levels will require different resources than, say, a fitness app with a calorie calculator.
To provide a frame of reference, here are some of the common features of software development, along with the approximate time and cost of implementing them (based on a rate of $25 per hour).
Search: $300 to $500 over 12 to 20 hours
Push notifications: $625 to $875 over 25 to 35 hours
Login: $750 to $1125 over 30 to 45 hours
Edit profile: $1125 to $1500 over 45 to 60 hours
Payments: $1500 to $1875 over 60 to 75 hours
Calls: $6500 to $9250 over 260 to 370 hours
Applications are also a cornerstone of business in recent years, and the cost will depend in part on the software included in your business’s mobile app. The average costs of app creation are as follows.
A minimum viable product: $5,000 to $20,000
A simplified app: $20,000 to $60,000
An average-scale app: $60,000 to $150,000
A complex, full-scale mobile app: $150,000 and above
These numbers depend on the company and even on individual projects. These are just rough guidelines of what to expect at this hourly rate. Some teams don’t even use such estimates and evaluate purely on a case-by-case basis.
There are many different kinds of software aside from those consumers regularly interact with. Depending on your business, you may require software packages such as PEO (payroll and employee recruiting) software and CRM (customer relationship management) software. You can either develop these systems internally or subscribe to them through a third-party system, which can also vary in cost. Weigh the pros and cons of each option before determining which would be best for your company. [Read more about the business cost of keeping software updated.]
Factors that affect the cost of software development 1. The sizeBefore describing a software’s size, we first need to understand the definition of a screen in this context. A screen is a page, open menu or anything that a user sees after they make an interaction. For example, a Login page and a Change Password page are two different screens with different functions. In this context, the size factor is straightforward. The more screens the software has, the more the project will cost.
In general, small apps have somewhere in the range of 10 to 25 screens and run upwards of $75,000. Larger projects with 50-plus screens can cost $250,000 and up.
2. The designCustom design makes your software stand out and more pleasant to use. Long gone are the times of lime green text on black backgrounds (although it certainly is an aesthetic used to this day). UI/UX is what makes the application user-friendly — that’s what the “U” stands for.
The design process can be complex, depending on how extravagant you want the elements to be and how many iterations it will go through. The best designs aren’t created perfectly from the start. They are developed after several feedback-and-redesign cycles. In addition, the number of high-quality custom images will drive the price up.
Bottom Line
If you want many complex elements in your software, such as high-quality custom images, the UX/UI design will go through increased iteration cycles that drive up the cost.
3. Platforms supportedTake into account how many platforms you want your software to work on. If you want a mobile app, do you want it to work on iOS and Android? Maybe you require a cross-platform solution. A desktop tool has its own nuances, as do purely web-based services. All of this will be reflected in the price.
4. TechnologyThe stacks of technologies aren’t equal as well. Some applications can be written in a single API. Others require front-end development done in one programming language, the back end in another, and they need to work together seamlessly. This correlates with the complexity of the project since different features often require different technologies.
5. The development teamThe number of people working on your project directly correlates with its cost. It is the same principle if you are paying for a dedicated team. The time of each developer, QA-engineer and project manager costs money. It’s as simple as that.
The type of software development team you have affects their cost. If your organization has a specialized IT team already on the payroll, then you will spend substantially less money for software creation. However, their ongoing wages can add up and cost more in the long run. Not to mention, many existing teams don’t have the necessary knowledge or enough people available. In that case, you can augment your staff with a dedicated team or outsource the process. Outsourcing is the most expensive option, but the quality of the project you receive will also be higher. When choosing your software development team, ask them relevant questions about the development process and the software itself.
6. The team’s locationThe development team’s location also has an influence on the price. Rates differ drastically depending on where the team is based. In the U.S. you can pay up to five times more for the same job done somewhere else. The key is to figure out a balance between cost and quality.
7. Ongoing maintenanceSoftware is never truly complete. It’s always possible to add new features, improve performance, and fix unnoticed bugs. This is the benefit of time and material payment plan that we’ll discuss later in this article. You don’t have to wait until you get the final product to request changes
There is a saying in the industry that you should multiply all costs threefold. That’s largely the result of people choosing the fixed-price payment model when they don’t have a clear vision of the project in mind. The product they get is different from what the client envisioned and then they need to spend extra.
The best payment model for software developmentThe two most common payment models are fixed price and time and material. Which one is more suitable for you largely depends on the size of the project and how defined your needs and requirements are.
Fixed priceThis option is better suited for projects with clearly defined requirements that aren’t subject to change. In short, you pay the entire development cost upfront. This can work for many clients but has more risks attached. It’s easy to lose control and communication with the team will be limited. Also, it’s not uncommon to face delays when working on a large project. This model is more suitable for small and simple projects.
Tip
If you have a small, simple project with clearly-defined requirements, pay all of the development costs upfront.
Time and materialThis is the more flexible method of the two. Payments are made incrementally instead of in a lump sum upfront. Depending on the agreement, you can pay every two weeks, every month or whatever time period is preferred. This approach allows for more control over the team and the development process as a whole. You can see the project whenever the payment is made. This way, you’ll be able to check the reports, ask for extra features, and make other suggestions.
Additional reporting by Andrew Kurilo.
How To Block Chatgpt From Using Your Website Content
There is concern about the lack of an easy way to opt out of having one’s content used to train large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. There is a way to do it, but it’s neither straightforward nor guaranteed to work.
How AIs Learn From Your ContentLarge Language Models (LLMs) are trained on data that originates from multiple sources. Many of these datasets are open source and are freely used for training AIs.
In general, Large Language Models use a wide variety of sources to train from.
Examples of the kinds of sources used:
Wikipedia
Government court records
Books
Emails
Crawled websites
There are actually portals and websites offering datasets that are giving away vast amounts of information.
One of the portals is hosted by Amazon, offering thousands of datasets at the Registry of Open Data on AWS.
The Amazon portal with thousands of datasets is just one portal out of many others that contain more datasets.
Wikipedia lists 28 portals for downloading datasets, including the Google Dataset and the Hugging Face portals for finding thousands of datasets.
Datasets Used to Train ChatGPTChatGPT is based on GPT-3.5, also known as InstructGPT.
The datasets used to train GPT-3.5 are the same used for GPT-3. The major difference between the two is that GPT-3.5 used a technique known as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF).
The five datasets used to train GPT-3 (and GPT-3.5) are described on page 9 of the research paper, Language Models are Few-Shot Learners (PDF)
The datasets are:
Common Crawl (filtered)
WebText2
Books1
Books2
Wikipedia
Of the five datasets, the two that are based on a crawl of the Internet are:
Common Crawl
WebText2
About the WebText2 DatasetWebText2 is a private OpenAI dataset created by crawling links from Reddit that had three upvotes.
The idea is that these URLs are trustworthy and will contain quality content.
WebText2 is an extended version of the original WebText dataset developed by OpenAI.
The original WebText dataset had about 15 billion tokens. WebText was used to train GPT-2.
WebText2 is slightly larger at 19 billion tokens. WebText2 is what was used to train GPT-3 and GPT-3.5
OpenWebText2WebText2 (created by OpenAI) is not publicly available.
However, there is a publicly available open-source version called OpenWebText2. OpenWebText2 is a public dataset created using the same crawl patterns that presumably offer similar, if not the same, dataset of URLs as the OpenAI WebText2.
I only mention this in case someone wants to know what’s in WebText2. One can download OpenWebText2 to get an idea of the URLs contained in it.
A cleaned up version of OpenWebText2 can be downloaded here. The raw version of OpenWebText2 is available here.
I couldn’t find information about the user agent used for either crawler, maybe it’s just identified as Python, I’m not sure.
So as far as I know, there is no user agent to block, although I’m not 100% certain.
Nevertheless, we do know that if your site is linked from Reddit with at least three upvotes then there’s a good chance that your site is in both the closed-source OpenAI WebText2 dataset and the open-source version of it, OpenWebText2.
More information about OpenWebText2 is here.
Common CrawlOne of the most commonly used datasets consisting of Internet content is the Common Crawl dataset that’s created by a non-profit organization called Common Crawl.
Common Crawl data comes from a bot that crawls the entire Internet.
The data is downloaded by organizations wishing to use the data and then cleaned of spammy sites, etc.
The name of the Common Crawl bot is, CCBot.
CCBot obeys the chúng tôi protocol so it is possible to block Common Crawl with chúng tôi and prevent your website data from making it into another dataset.
However, if your site has already been crawled then it’s likely already included in multiple datasets.
Nevertheless, by blocking Common Crawl it’s possible to opt out your website content from being included in new datasets sourced from newer Common Crawl datasets.
This is what I meant at the very beginning of the article when I wrote that the process is “neither straightforward nor guaranteed to work.”
The CCBot User-Agent string is:
CCBot/2.0Add the following to your chúng tôi file to block the Common Crawl bot:
User-agent: CCBot Disallow: /An additional way to confirm if a CCBot user agent is legit is that it crawls from Amazon AWS IP addresses.
CCBot also obeys the nofollow robots meta tag directives.
Use this in your robots meta tag:
A Consideration Before You Block any Bots Blocking AI From Using Your ContentSearch engines allow websites to opt out of being crawled. Common Crawl also allows opting out. But there is currently no way to remove one’s website content from existing datasets.
Furthermore, research scientists don’t seem to offer website publishers a way to opt out of being crawled.
The article, Is ChatGPT Use Of Web Content Fair? explores the topic of whether it’s even ethical to use website data without permission or a way to opt out.
Many publishers may appreciate it if in the near future, they are given more say on how their content is used, especially by AI products like ChatGPT.
Whether that will happen is unknown at this time.
More resources:
Featured image by Shutterstock/ViDI Studio
Live Blog: Apple’s Q1 2023 Earnings Call
While Apple’s previous quarter included the opening weekend of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales, today’s numbers include the bulk of the sales in the United States and the initial sales of the new models in key markets including China. Today’s reported numbers do include the first sales numbers for the iPad since Apple began shipping the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, and the first Mac numbers since the Retina 5K iMac went on sale. Apple Pay will also be an area of interest for listeners as the mobile payment service only launched the day of the last quarterly conference call.
Investors and analysts will have an opportunity to ask Tim Cook and company questions during the earnings call, and we’ll be listening closely to bring you coverage.
– Earnings report is live!
– Welcome music is also live for any listeners. Follow along at home or refresh for highlights from the call here. Should begin at the top of the hour.
– To recap, $74.6 billion in revenue and 74.4 million iPhones.
– Apple up in after-hours trading:
– 7 minute warning!
– Here we go. Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak first, followed by Apple CFO Luca Maestri, then questions.
– Cook speaking now about interest in Apple products reaching an all-time high, notes record breaking iPhone sales for the quarter
– More than 34 thousand iPhones sold per hour, Cook says
– 1 billionth iOS device sold, a space gray 64GB iPhone 6 Plus says Cook, kept at Apple now
– Talking Swift language now, dev tools downloaded 11 million times
– HealthKit in 600 apps, Cook says
– Over 30 automotive brands delivering CarPlay in 2023, expects HomeKit products this year
– About 750 banks and credit unions signed to bring Apple Pay, $2 out of $3 spent using contactless payments made with Apple Pay
– Apple Watch shipping in April, Cook says based on current development rate
– Talking IBM partnership now, recapping apps released with IBM last year, says another 12 apps will be released this quarter in three new industries (healthcare, energy & utilities, and industrial products) bring app total to 22
– Talking ConnectED and Product(RED) projects for education and World AIDS Day, says Apple’s donation for RED set a new record
– Luca Maestri talking now, recapping earnings numbers
– Says supply and demand balance reached this month for iPhone
– 447 Apple Store locations, 182 outside of United States, planning to have 40 Apple Store locations in China by mid 2023
– Company has $178 billion in cash
– Question time!
– First question about currency: Luca says Q1 growth revenue would have been 4% higher without currency fluctuation
– Now asked about adjusting product pricing, Luca says prices usually adjust during new cycles with exception being massive shift in Russia leading to mid-cycle adjustments
– Question about iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus mix, Cook won’t break out numbers but says iPhone 6 most popular iPhone last quarter, says some geographic areas prefer iPhone 6 Plus but not consistent around the world
– Cook asked about iPhone sustainability given previous quarter, Cook says Apple bullish on iPhone going forward
– Apple Watch question about timing and expectations, Cook says his expectations very high, he can’t live without it, Apple making great progress on development of it, many developers writing apps for it
– Cook says Early 2023 means first four months, Mid means next four months, Late means last four months…
– Online revenues in China more than sum of the previous 5 years
– Cook asked about iPad forecast, Cook says short run won’t see miraculous change but optimistic about future based on first time buyer rate
– Gene Munster asking about update on Apple TV and the living room, Cook says over 25 million of the current product sold, up from 20 million in April 2014, now talking Apple Pay, Cook says shocked how many merchants were able to implement Apple Pay during the holiday season, says this is the year of Apple Pay
– On iPhone growth, Cook says a small fraction of install base has upgraded (in the mid teens) so far, Android and non-smartphone owners big opportunity
– Cook says working with IBM helps facilitate creating specific apps for industries, will help drive iPad in the enterprise
– That’s a wrap! Replay will be available on iTunes shortly.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
5 Reasons No One’s Reading Your Blog Posts
Today, good enough isn’t. Not when millions of posts are published daily. Not when today’s average post is 1,054 words; requiring anywhere from three hours to an entire day to write.
Right. Like you’ve got that kinda time.
And yet, you still need results. You can’t afford to grok around in the dark, looking for the light switch as your posts continue to relish in obscurity.
No one can.
Chances are, your information is good. Facts are all there. But it’s not compelling enough to get people to sit up and take notice.
Here are five reasons why (along with how you can fix them ASAP).
Reason 1: There’s No Compelling ‘Hook’The pretentious-sounding “lede” in journalism is what gets people to bite. It’s the compelling narrative, fact, stat, or story at the beginning that literally hooks people into reading the rest of the piece.
When done correctly, it builds anticipation to read what comes next. Here are three decade-old techniques to do just that.
1. AnecdotesJon Morrow makes me weep like a little baby. Or at least, his posts do. Like this one: On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas.
The entire introduction is a story. It’s about the doctor telling Jon’s mom about his condition. The one that he’ll have to face his entire life and battle daily while bound to a wheelchair.
He masterfully builds suspense, adding in awkward pauses and compelling dialogue before finally bridging the gap between how this anecdote relates to the post topic.
As a result, the reader gets lost. It’s virtually impossible to read the few opening lines without finishing the entire piece.
Go on — I dare you.
2. Start on the Opposite Side of Where the Post EndsJon’s post also delivers on this second approach to writing hooks. It starts in a completely different place from where it will end.
There’s misdirection. You think you’re getting one thing, only to discover the opposite is true, which breaks the expectation you had in mind.
Sometimes that means making unlikely comparisons between two things. Like, say, Professional Chefs + Sales.
Other times that means picking a contrarian viewpoint. Like, United Airlines was Right to Forcibly Remove Disgruntled Passenger, leaving his face bloodied and battered. (Okay, I added that last bit.)
The point is that each misdirection catches you off guard and forces you to pay attention.
3. Lean on the AngleThe topic is what you’re writing about. The angle is what side you’re picking. How you’re conveying the topic at hand.
Example: This post’s topic is (generally) about blog post mistakes. But the angle is about how you can’t afford to be making these mistakes.
For various reasons. Based on stats. Etc. Etc. Re-read the introduction to see how it works.
Reason 2: You Ain’t Tellin’ StoriesSeth Godin called us all liars back in 2009. Since then, every marketer loves waxing poetic on the virtues of storytelling.
Only one problem…
No one’s telling any stories.
Why do 400-500 blog posts fail? It’s not because Google prefers long-form. It’s not like people really sit around and want to read thousands and thousands of words.
But short stuff often falls flat because it skips straight to the point. There’s no build up. No seduction. And as a result, it’s not appealing to people who lack your curse of knowledge.
Facts tell, stories sell.
Or how ‘bout those epic, 5,000-word skyscrapers. Impressive in size and scope, no doubt. I’m sure it took hours and hours to compile the research.
But the writing… well, not so much.
Guaranteed peeps are bouncing within the first 1,000 words (or “Saving it for later” — aka never — on Pocket or Evernote). Launching into dry, technical details without building the proper foundation drastically reduces the number of people interested in consuming what you’ve pored over.
The antidote is storytelling: opening with a compelling narrative that sets the context to get people to emotionally ‘butt in.’
“Made to Stick” is about making ideas, well, stick. Turns out one of the best ways is through storytelling. And specifically, by using one of these three tried-and-true plots:
The Connection Plot: Think Romeo & Juliet. “Love conquers” and all that mushy stuff. Somehow, someway, two opposing forces are brought together from the unlikeliest places.
The Creativity Plot: Think “Da Vinci Code”. A crazy (outlandish) puzzle, solved with ingenuity in unexpected ways.
Facts don’t resonate until you’ve built up the proper foundation with readers. Storytelling helps set the context.
Reason 3: Freestylin’ Instead of Following Proven FormulasThe short-lived hit TV show, “Revenge“ debuted in 2011. The first season’s story arc focused on a heroine who wanted to avenge her father’s wrongful murder. So she pretended to be like the people who were responsible in an effort to gain their trust and then completely destroy them all from the inside.
OK, so the plot lines were a little ridiculous. And the acting so-so.
But… that made for one interesting premise, right?
Of course, it did. This isn’t the first time you’ve heard it. In fact, it’s been around for centuries.
“The Count of Monte Cristo” was originally published in 1884. It featured someone who wanted to avenge their false imprisonment and take revenge against the three people responsible.
Turns out that people like formulas they’re familiar with. So if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Storytelling in a blog post should often follow the PAS formula. This age-old copywriting framework has been used for decades and decades to lure readers in.
Here’s how it works:
Problem: Your blog posts aren’t getting the readers they deserve.
Agitate: But it’s only getting tougher; requiring more time and effort than ever before.
Solution: Unless… you fix these five little issues.
Reason 4: You Lack a Distinct Voice & ToneMailChimp is wholly distinct. No one else looks like them online. No one else sounds like them, either.
Inside the app, Freddie pops up with all sorts of quirky tidbits. Like, for example, the time he referenced alcoholic Vervet monkeys.
Apparently, that’s not a coincidence but a well-planned strategy. Each new writing hire has to go through their style guide, voice, and tone.
That way everyone knows exactly how Freddie should walk and talk and sound.
Then there’s Stone Brewing company. Their tagline? “You’re not worthy.”
The label on their Arrogant Bastard ale literally says, “This is an aggressive beer. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth.”
Um… OK?!
Putting down your customers doesn’t seem like a smart move. And yet, it’s risen to become the 10th largest craft brewer in the U.S.
Zagat says their headquarters in San Diego county is, “The place to be if you’re a beer geek.” And they’ve been rated as ‘World Class’ by both RateBeer and BeerAdvocate (the two snobbiest sites for beer snobs).
They have a distinct style. It’s definitely not right for everyone. But that’s also why it works for those who enjoy it.
In a world full of nameless, borderline tasteless beer, they stand out head and shoulders above everyone else.
Blog posts are no different. Millions published each and every day.
That brilliant topic you’re to write about? It’s undoubtedly already been written about. Probably hundreds of thousands of times.
So how are you going to make it stand out?
Reason 5: You’re Not Interrupting Well-worn PatternsAn ‘open loop’ will introduce one story or point. It will build anticipation. But before relieving that tension, it will open up another parallel story.
Think back to your favorite TV show or novel. Something unexpected happens. You’re dying to find out the fallout. But then they cut to a commercial break, and open with a completely different story. That forces you to keep watching until the end to see how it all comes together.
That same ‘pattern interrupting’ technique works online, too.
Something unexpected, shocking, or surprising forces our lizard brains to sit up and take notice. When an ‘information gap’ is created, we’re biologically driven to fill it. Curiosity, can indeed, kill the cat.
That’s also why polarizing headlines are considered the most powerful, according to a study of 69,907. Or why asking a question (without providing the answer) can raise email responses to 60 percent.
Here’s a perfect one that caught me recently from Drift:
Not using lead forms is like blasphemy in today’s digital marketing realm. It makes absolutely no sense. Sounds crazy! So of course, I had to read it.
Here’s another. Imagine you’re scrolling down chúng tôi reading all the various blog post titles. They’re all written by savvy marketers using the same ‘playbooks.’ So they all look and sound the same (for the most part).
Until this next one catches your eye:
Sure. The first and third ones look interesting. But it’s the middle one that catches your eye.
It’s short. All lowercase. And vague or mysterious sounding compared with all of the other alternatives you just scrolled past.
ConclusionJust getting your blog posts read today is an achievement in and of itself. It’s an uphill climb. Each and every day. Just to get a few measly eyeballs on your latest masterpiece.
The good news is that a few simple tweaks can make all the difference.
Start with a more compelling hook. Add a few more stories. Stick to a proven formula. Use a distinct voice and tone. And don’t be afraid to break a few patterns.
It takes a little bit of extra work. But the results will be worth it.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Pixabay
Screenshots by Brad Smith. May 2023.
Technorati Vs. Google Blog Search: Which Is Better?
Robert Scoble recently raised an interesting question on his blog: Which blog search is the best of them all? According to Scoble, Technorati seems to trump Google blog search because it includes information that Google Blog search does not, and offers more search results when you punch in a specific term.
Other users in the discussions have suggested that Technorati index is slow and ignores certain blogs even though they are updated regularly. Dave Sifry is doing a commendable job by personally troubleshooting specific URLS that are not indexed in Technorati, so if your blog is not getting indexed properly.. you might want to head over to Scoble’s blog and give Dave some additional work. 🙂
Google’s Matt Cutts soon chimes in with his thoughts on the debate:
Technorati – Multiple Search Filters are Useful
I personally use both search engines because both of them have specific functions not found in each other. For example, Technorati allows you to filer your search results according to link authority. This allows you to find out what the big or popular blogs are saying about a specific topic.
Interestingly enough, I’ve noticed that if you don’t want spam in your search results, simply set the filter to either blogs with some authority or blogs with a lot of authority. This guarantees that your search results do not include splogs. The downside is that you’ll overlook all the blogs with low link counts.
By also offering the ability to sort results according to language means that you’ll be able to easily access the international blogosphere. For example, I usually use this function to find out what bloggers in other countries think about chúng tôi my personal blog which sees 50% of its readers from parts of Asia and Europe. While this filter seems to not have received much attention, I can anticipate its usefulness when you run a weblog or magazine and want to geo-target a specific reader market.
Google Blog Search – Alerts and The Ability to Designate Time
The strongest feature that Google Blog Search offers is the ability to sort material according to specific time frames. For instance, if I wanted to find fresh content from blogs, I would set the published time frame to either the last 12 hours or even the last hour depending on the topic. The combination of Google Alerts and feed subscription also makes keeping track of specific topics a very convenient process.
I’m actually glad Scoble brought up this topic because it is a catalyst for users to offer their feedback on what they would like to see from each blog search engine.
What do you think of Google Blog Search and Technorati? Do you favor either one over the other, and why?
Update the detailed information about How To Develop Content Blog Standards on the Cattuongwedding.com website. We hope the article's content will meet your needs, and we will regularly update the information to provide you with the fastest and most accurate information. Have a great day!