“Boost Your Blog #6: Optimize Menus and Sidebars” plus 1 more

Boost Your Blog #6: Optimize Menus and Sidebars

Posted: 03 Sep 2011 10:04 AM PDT

Continuing our discussion of things you should be doing right now to improve your blog, today’s tip is:

6. Optimize your menus, navigation, and sidebars

One task that I think many of us could benefit from on a periodic basis is a critical review of menus and navigation areas on our blogs.

I include myself in this—recently it hit me that on my photography blog I wasn’t promoting my ebooks in my menus. I just had one menu item pointing to a very dated page that was no longer relevant. I swapped the photography ebook sales page link in and again saw an increase of traffic to that landing page.

Ultimately, it’s about working out what actions you want readers to take when they visit your blog and then making sure that you’re calling your readers to those actions in prominent places on your blog.

Are you doing this? Can you optimize your menus and sidebars further?

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Boost Your Blog #6: Optimize Menus and Sidebars

Stand Up to Live Before You Sit Down to Blog

Posted: 03 Sep 2011 07:03 AM PDT

This guest post is by Peter G. James Sinclair of MotivationalMemo.com.

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”—Henry David Thoreau

I often reflect on the lifetime of experiences that I've tasted since landing on planet Earth to find myself in the arms of my mother.

Those experiences have in fact been the fuel that has ignited the written word that flows from my pen to the page, and from there, through the agency of my Motivational Memo blog into the hearts of men and women from 155 nations to date.

For unless I have lived it, there is no way that I have any authority to write it.

My response, whenever facing a particular challenge in my life has always been, “Well, at least it's given me another story that I can write about.”

To be an expert, not an ex-spurt

When I write I never want to be the guy who is an “ex”' or a “has-been” who is going to usher forth a “spurt.” Not an endearing picture is it?

If I'm going to write anything, or in fact do anything in my life, I want to position and prepare myself to become a guru, a leader, or an expert in that chosen field.

How does this come about?

I first sit at the feet of the experts who have gone before me and become their student. I become whom I associate with.

At first I may be as raw as the next guy, but in time, through continued study and practice I will find my voice and then begin to be recognized as an authority in my own right.

And if I have anything to “spurt” I trust that it brings life and refreshment to those who choose to partake of what I've learned.

To live, to write

We all have a story to tell and the blog medium is a wonderful place to express this. So go live first, and then return, even the same day if you wish, and recount what you have learned.

Speak about it and put it in audio format.
Communicate it through the use of video.
Share the written word with me, for we then become richer from the lessons you teach, the principles applied, and the experiences gained.

Write of your experiences, not of the experiences of others. Sure, use their experiences or their wisdom as your stepping stone, but then spring forth fearlessly with your own fresh voice and interpretation.

I don't want to just hear the musty voices from ages past—as good as they are. I want to hear your spin. I want to ponder on your yarn. For herein lies the new insight and the sparkling discovery that adds value to our lives as we partake of this wondrous feast.

Long live your wonderful “communicated” life

So allow me to shout loud and clear, “Long live your wonderful life!”

May your life be recorded in a flourish of words—deposited into your unique blog—that in years to come will provide the springboard for yet another virgin writer to grasp hold of and spring forth on their own adventure of intellectual and spiritual discovery.

Share with us one recent experience that you have had, and are just bursting to share with the world through your blog.

Peter G. James Sinclair is in the “heart to heart” resuscitation business and inspires, motivates and equips others to be all that they've been created to become. Receive your free copy of his latest eBook Personal Success Blueprint at http://www.motivationalmemo.com and add him on Twitter @PeterGJSinclair today!

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Stand Up to Live Before You Sit Down to Blog