We’ve heard it over and over again; “Find Your Voice” or “Break Through the Crowd” and as much as I agree with all of them; human nature loves to mess with our heads no matter how many motivational quotes we see on Twitter or inspirational cheer-leading we receive from other bloggers or associates.  It’s sometimes difficult to glare into the abyss with doubt as to whether or not your voice matters, of if you can indeed pop your head up and be seen in your chosen niche.

If we follow our little mouse buddy in these images, I’ll bet you can relate when stepping into the realm of the big cats, if you will.   What really matters is not how small we feel in the blogosphere, but how hungry we are to get what we want out of our blogging efforts, whether that is to simply spread a message, make money online or just have the freedom to write and connect with others.

Back to our hungry friend…whether he knows the big cat can swallow him whole or not, matters little to him.  All he knows is that after watching the leopard live the way he does, he wants a little bit of the action and goes for it.  Same mentality should go into our blogging efforts in the sense that there is a desire to chase and no matter where that desire lies, there are different ways and different thought processes available for us all to get there.

How hungry are you?

Each time I receive such messages, I sit and ponder a bit and wonder what exactly was going through my head when I ‘voluntarily’ opted in on a list feeding me information on something that has never interested me, nor would it offer any positivity to my business or myself.

In most cases, at least with my experience in using email marketing tools such as Aweber, there is a distinct and obvious process that forces your subscribers to validate and accept the sign-up request.  Technically speaking, this is a safety net for both the owner and the subscriber of the mailing list.  The owner is release from liability from being a ‘spam’ artist through a reputable marketing solution and the subscriber must pass through a validation step in order to receive the messages from a valid and worthwhile source.

I know I’m not alone when I feel the build-up of frustration come along when I’ve been involuntarily signed up for a mailing list, simply from being guilty by association.  There have been many times when folks that have left the company that I work for have decided to “move on other new and exciting endeavors”, only to find out that they’ve tried to start an online business and use their former employer’s address book as the first phase of sign-ups, albeit involuntarily.

Respect Your Mailing List, and Your Own Reputation
The Holy Grail to many bloggers is the almighty new subscriber to their mailing list as in most cases, subscribers equate to potential connections and conversions.  When blogging for income, each subscriber is a potential customer or new client interested in the products or services offered by the blog owner or business.  Therefore, it makes sense to provide the utmost respect to those that have chosen to sign-up.

Each message that is sent out to the members of the mailing list is an extension of the blogger’s reputation that is to be delivered to the inboxes of those awaiting the next big announcement or product release.  If subscribers being to be abused in anyway, this could spell disaster for the blogger or company that has sent the message if the delivery of that message is pushed down the throat of those not expecting it.

Stop the Madness
When you sign up for most of the larger email marketing companies, you are tightly bound to legal service agreements with the selected organization and possibly under state and national laws (at least here in the US).  Respect those guidelines and avoid being “that blogger” that only adds to the ever-growing frustrations of spam.

What Say You?
Have you been hit by the unsolicited opt-in and if so, did you simply unsubscribe or take a ‘unique’ way of handling the unwelcome email harvesting campaign?

First of all, if you own (or have owned) an iPhone, the steps needed to take a screenshot on the Android does take a bit more effort; albeit…a LOT more effort and setup, but once you get things setup the first time, the process isn’t that painful down the road.

Requirements

• Android Phone (I’m using the HTC Droid ERIS)
• Android SDK (Software Development Kit)
• Compatible Operating System (Windows, Linux or Mac OS X (Yes, I’m a PC…for now)
• Patience…

Configure Your Android to Enable USB Debugging

1. From your Android, go to Settings –> Applications –> Development
2. Ensure that ‘USB Debugging’ is checked

Software Installation Steps (For Windows Install)

1. Download and unzip the Android SDK package
2. Open the newly unzipped contents and run “SDK Setup.exe”
3. Plug Android into USB post and install the driver from the ‘usb_driver’ folder
4. Ensure that Java is installed on your system
5. Execute the ‘ddms.bat’ file with the Android SDK folder under ‘Tools’
6. Once the ‘Dalvik Debug Monitor’ is open, ensure it can read your Droid
7. To take a screenshot of your Droid, click on ‘Device –> Screen capture’

As long as everything went well, a screenshot of the current view on your Droid should popup like so:

Thanks for reading and let me know how it goes!

After his own life investments offered the realization that average is not a pathway to happiness, Nathan made the conscious decision to pave his own way to life enhancement and during time in Afghanistan while in the military, he broke ground on building his Digital Empire.

Nathan’s Message Behind 10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog
There are many different viewpoints on blogging and how people can be successful in offering content and ideas based on their chose market.  However, in almost every one of these differing ideas, the one common factor follows the ideology of, “Content is King”.  Continuously generating valuable and unique content is the keystone to any successful blog and one of the main points that Nathan attempts to push is that when it comes to managing your Empire, monetization should not be the barrier keeping you from realizing your goals.

The first hurdle Nathan helps us get over is that, Making Money Online from your own efforts is not a bad thing.  If you have been one of the fortunate to link your blogging efforts to your true passion in life, why not find a way to support your livelihood while sharing your own message with the world?  If your message rings true to others and you are able to make an unbreakable connection with those looking for the answers to the questions that they have, more than likely, they are willing to pay you for those solutions.

What You Will Learn in 10 Ways
Nathan covers ten of the most effective and efficient ways to monetize your blog, now!  Nathan has offered up his insight based on his own trial and error and shares those experiences in a way where new bloggers will not only learn how to monetize your blog, but also why you should use certain tools and and services.  This goes a long way in teaching bloggers to understand the guts of the process rather than just being told to “go sign up for an account with XYZ, and slap their code on your blog”.  Here is a quick list of the 10 ways to monetize your blog per Nathan Hangen’s free E-Book:

• Understanding that blog monetization is not evil
• Introduction to Google AdSense advertisements to make money on your blog
• Placing AdBrite advertisements and offering ad space on your blog
• Affiliate sales via Commission Jungle by offering related products and services
• Offering products and a referral offering via LinkShare
• Partner up with heavy hitter, Amazon.com for affiliate ideas
• Selling ClickBank offered information products related to your niche
• Link up to eBay auctions and offer them on your own blog
• Use private affiliate programs through products you already use and trust
• Selling your own products to spread your message and offerings

What I Liked About 10 Ways

Straight Forward Delivery – If you happen to follow Nathan on Twitter, you know that Nathan is not one to pull punches.  If he likes or dislikes something, he will definitely make it known and you can bet that he also backs up his opinions with detail reason and passion behind those opinions.  The way he delivers his insight in 10 Ways to Monetize is true to Nathan’s fashion in such, although he offers his picks on how to monetize your blog, he follows up with useful and valuable detail on how each specific path worked for him.

Detailed Overviews – New bloggers will find valuable insight in not only how each covered tool or service works, but how to sign up for each service and information on how each one pays out.  It’s obvious that Nathan has spent countless hours honing and dealing with his own trial and error in an effort to optimize the use of each tool and those details can offer some comfort to the new folks looking to start out.

Priced Right for New Bloggers – Nathan’s 10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog is FREE!!!!

Conclusion
Much like any E-Book out there available for download, one may beg the question on whether or not another E-Book is worth downloading and investing time into reading it over.

As with anything else…it depends.  Are you a new but serious blogger looking to venture into the world of blog monetization, or are you a hobby blogger simply enjoying the ability to share your words, but not looking to make a career out of it?

Many bloggers start out with full intention of adding a new stream of income or two via their blogging efforts however, what I’ve learned myself is that blogging is not what makes the cash start to flow in.  You can generate all the content in the world that would solve each and every problem that you market runs into, but without monetizing via affiliate or selling product, your blog is not truly a business entity.

If you are looking to start making some money with your blog, then I recommend that you download your copy of 10 Ways to Monetize Your Blog now, and start making money online today.

Of course, if you’re already making enough money through your blog to pay some of the bills, then Nathan’s book probably won’t offer you much information than you may already know or are using on a day-to-day basis as it is.

After about three months of only completing maybe, <5% of the calls we made or received, we bit the bullet and canceled out because I simply couldn’t justify paying for a service that loved to hang up on family and clients during important calls. </endrant>

We went back to Verizon and bought the Android driven phone, specifically, the Droid ERIS, and we haven’t looked back since.  To be honest, even if the rumors are true and the iPhone comes to Verizon, I’m not switching, sorry Steve.

Since I own and author several blogs, I have different email addresses tied to each one; including a main contact address and a Twitter address assigned for Twitter access.  I’m not on the computer all the time, although my wife would beg to differ, but I do have my phone with me 99% of the time so it makes sense to configure my phone to let me know when I have new emails.  I’ve missed contacts and delayed response time since I didn’t have this setup for some time, so I can attest how important it is to have continuous contact opportunities in order to run your business.

Configure Your Android for Email Access
First off, I use and recommend HostGator.com (aff) for hosting WordPress.com blogs; as such, I will cover setting up the phone’s mail connection using their email settings, however, the steps are very common among many hosting providers.  You may need to track down your providers email settings such as POP3 and SMTP servers, but again, the overall process is a simple one.

In most cases, Droid owners already have a valid GMail account tied to the phone in order to use the Market and receive personal email.  To use external (Exchange or IMAP/POP3) email providers, we can use the built-in Mail app.  Once launched, as long as there are no pre-existing accounts set up, you will see the ‘Choose a mail provider’ screen:

For the sake of the tutorial, we’re going to use ‘Other (POP3/IMAP)’ for our desired provider so press on that particular option.

Moving on, we land on the ‘New account’ screen where we add our email address and password.  In most cases, your password will either be the main password you use to login to your hosting account, or if you have created a separate password specifically for the email account, go ahead and use it here:

In order to establish a connection with our mail servers, we need to provide the server login and server paths to gain access to our email inbox.  Again, using the information made available by your specific hosting provider, grab the required information, specifically the incoming POP server name:

Scroll down a bit to configure your security information (I prefer to use SSL for added Internet security):

Press ‘Next’ and the Droid will verify your incoming settings, and will let you know if there were any issues connecting:

Similar to our incoming email settings, we need to configure our Droid to where it knows what server to hit to pull messages from.  Within the ‘Outgoing Server Settings’ screen is where we do just that.  Your SMTP (or outgoing) server name might be different so double check that value before moving on:

Again, like the incoming settings, also ensure that your security settings are set:

Press ‘Next’ and your outgoing settings will be verified prior to moving on the final configuration screen.  You can set your Account Name to an identifier that will let you know what account this is for if you manage multiple accounts.  Press ‘Finish Setup’ and we’re done with the configuration.

Once the account has been verified, configured and saved, you can go into your Mail application (not GMail) and check to make sure your are receiving and sending mail through your Driod!

Look at this…I got an email from fellow blogger, Dragonblogger! Thanks dude!

Conclusion
That does it, if everything went well, you should now be able to send and receive email from your Droid while on the go.  Now, unless you forget your phone when you run out, you can still remain in contact with your customers, clients or monitor any other email based notifications if you’re nowhere near your laptop.

Enjoy!

]]> http://www.richwallace.net/setup-hosted-email-android/feed/ 0 http://www.richwallace.net/review-qwitter-unfollow-notification-service/ http://www.richwallace.net/review-qwitter-unfollow-notification-service/#comments Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:24:37 +0000 Rich Wallace http://richwallace.net/?p=1632 Many folks that are on Twitter are very concerned about their following/follower counts for any number of reasons.  Maybe you are a blogger looking to connect with other bloggers to help push your own message out, hold conversations and participate in debates or to plug-in to the Twitterverse to receive near real-time updates from your favorite news network or sports team.

Whatever the reason, Twitter is a hot topic in keeping up to date with many interests and managing personal connections.  Bloggers can utilize their Twitter accounts to broadcast their latest article out to their followers and can announce the next information product that is being released.  Twitter can indeed be a huge factor in managing traffic building, as long as your follower count is growing.

Hey, My Follower Count is Heading South!
Whoops, the magic number seems to be dwindling a bit…what did you do!??  More than likely, you did nothing wrong since your Twitter account is yours to do with as you please, but human nature proves that no matter how much positivity you try to put out there, you’re simply not going to please everybody.  This is where the almighty unfollow comes into play, or maybe the block is thrown down and that connection is potentially lost for good.

Wonder NO MORE of Who Dropped You
Qwitter is an opt-in service that allows you to submit your Twitter username and an email address that can be used to receive a daily update of fellow Twerps that have unfollowed you for that day.  Now, I’m not condoning that the service be used to cyber-stalk your walkaways, but if you have that bug of curiosity nibbling away, this can give you an idea of what types of folks you are not exactly connecting with.

At one point, the service went as far as offering your last Tweet that was published before someone unfollowed you, but they ended up removing that feature as the reasoning was too vague.  After all, people may not unfollow you simply over your last Tweet.

Who Can Use Qwitter?
Qwitter subscribers are typically businesses, consultants, proprietors or individuals who closely monitor their social media reach. There are also many subscribers that are just curious. Ultimately, Qwitter is tool for those seeking to round out the data they receive concerning their Twitter accounts.

Pros

• Sends off a daily email of people that have unfollowed you on Twitter
• Allows you to see which followers removed you, and include a link to their profile
• Pleases the curiosity of those that have unfollowed you

Cons

• May promote Tweet-rage by questioning reasons for unfollow
• Does not offer stats and trends (may be available in ‘premium’ service)
• Could introduce Social Media Anxiety; who likes to be unfollowed?

Conclusion
As a blogger looking to expand my own voice in the blogosphere, obtaining relevant and targeted readers is a fairly high priority in managing my online presence.  When it comes to Twitter, users can establish a direct connection and manage conversations with followers and with those they are following.  That critical part of the equation is golden and Twitter can support that process very well.  The idea behind Qwitter may be seen as a great idea for some, but for others, it’s not exactly a top ten tool that must be kept within the entrepreneurial toolbox.

What Do You Think?
Do you have interest in knowing who exactly decided to unfollow you on Twitter?  When your follower count drops, do you get that uneasy feeling, or do you just laugh it off and move on?  What do you think of Qwitter if you’ve used it?

One of the basic plugins I use on my blog is, WordPress.com Stats and although I do use several others, such as Google Analytics and others, WP.com stats is the first graph I see when I fire up the blog.

During some theme tweaking I had been doing on the blog here, I finished up cleaning up the footer to add in my links and site map then called it a day.  I put out a couple of new posts that I had hoped would bring in some traffic, yet when I logged into the blog, my stats chart had been reading zero hits for the day.  I didn’t think much of it as it was still early and I hadn’t performed any post promotion and shrugged it off.

After some light promotion and article submission work, I checked again a few hours later and still nothing came back with any new hits.  I started to become a bit discouraged and checked my Google Analytics account and sure enough, the site was lit up with new hits; so why wasn’t my stats showing as such using the WordPress.com stats plugin?

After some poking around and digging back in to my footer code, I noticed that the wp-footer line was nowhere to be found.  Surely, id’ I’m using plugins that are built for WordPress, I must have that line sitting somewhere.  Luckily, as take this as a reminder, I backed up my footer file prior to making my changes and after comparing the two, my backup did indeed have the wp-footer line in place; but I had unintentionally removed it in my own changes.  Whoops.

I figured I’d just verify my findings and after receiving the virtual b-slap from Google, sure enough, the plugin requires the missing line of code that I had removed.  Once I added the line back in, the stats started to show up again.

So, if you’re having similar issues, make sure you have the following line of PHP code in your Footer.php: <?php wp_footer(); ?>

Now, if I can just figure out how to add in that line of code that will automatically brew my coffee in the mornings, I’m set!

Not that I’m sitting here watching the official stats, but the average number of new blogs that start up per day is sitting somewhere between 40,000 – 50,000.  That’s a lot of virtual soapboxes if you ask me and although I can appreciate that many people have such a desire to write and pass along their stories, what staggers me is that only about 0.01% of them stick around long enough to receive any recognition.

Why Are So Many Bloggers Giving Up?
At one point, blogging was only done by those “damn kids” that started hanging around the coffee shops with their laptops and Mega-humongous Gravity Pulling Ultra Charged Latte’s.  Some of them found success in either locating many other folks that liked what was being shared, or they even found a way to make a pretty damn good living by blogging.

Today, we see many people running blogs that have been able to leverage their efforts into shifting away from cubicle life and working for themselves, some making well over six figures per year.  When people see this, there is an immediate sense, “Screw them, all they do is write…I could do that with my eyes closed!”

Fair enough…but when the starry-eyes newbie bloggers fire up their free blog over at WordPress.com, or what have you, the reality may start to set in much sooner than expected.  Both newbs and veterans do share a similar path as again, when starting out there is an internal barrier that stands between the blogger and the rest of the world.  That barrier fluctuates between the feeling of Hope and Expectation, which is not at all a bad thing, but it can make or break the next potentially famous blogger.

Hoping:  Many bloggers fire up that new post template looking to spray out a message of positivity and value to the masses.  Without playing on the side of competition, human nature kicks in and we believe that our way is the right way. No matter what the chosen target demographic is, bloggers hope to reach out and connect to those that will be willing to see the world though similar eyes and build on that following.

Expecting: Let’s get real…expectations are not to be pie in the sky or glittery unicorns when it comes to blogging.  It can be extremely difficult to have your lone voice heard while treading water in the sea of voices.  The anxiety of putting your word out there can be harrowing in the sense that bloggers may hope to change the world, but there is an expectation that the message will simply veer off to the frontage road of the Information Highway or worse yet, bloggers feel that their story is not important enough to be heard.

Hope for the Best, Expect the Worst
All in all, bloggers can only hope for the best and expect the worst when starting out…I’ve been there and to be honest, I’m still there every time I sit down to write.  I’ve been involved in blogging for about six years now, but nobody knows who I am or what I may have to offer the rest of the blogosphere.  I could be a professional, but I didn’t take the correct paths back then, but we all live and learn.

You may see TONS of blogs promoting such topics as, “Make Money by Blogging”, “TOP TEN Common Blog Mistakes” or, “How I Make Money While Sipping Mojito’s“.  Now, some of these blogs are being written by true professionals that have walked the path well before many of us ever heard of the word, blog.  Others, unfortunately, see the pros making money talking about a subject and feel that the only way to enhance their online career is to follow those pros down to the exact letter of what they’ve done.

In the long run, there’s nothing wrong with blogging with hope, as this can be utilized as a motivational tool to actually get the work done and generate quality content.  Expectations should be offered great respect and bloggers should keep that bar lower than the level of hope that is mixed in with the efforts.  Some bloggers sit down to author what may be considered an intensive, life-changing article that the world must read, now!  That sets an extremely high expectation that is susceptible to being crushed, when the post stats come back with less hits than the post about the family cat taking out the screen door.

What Say You?
When you first started blogging, how did you balance your Hopes vs. Expectations when publishing your content?  Have expectations ever outweighed the hopes or vice-versa?

“Blogging” is Not Defined by Writing Skills
When I started out, I felt that I was a terrible writer.  I wasn’t exactly considered a “Wordsmith” and my personal vocabulary isn’t one to be impressed with.  I don’t throw out many eye-catching article titles nor do I use glitter-words to spice up my posts.  If I had any number of English Majors reviewing my blogs, they’d more than likely petition to never see me write again.

Why this is a good thing is because regardless of how ‘immature’ my vocabulary may be, I consider myself an average Joe and I reach out to other average Joe’s (and Jane’s) and I’ve learned that I don’t need to pretty up the words in order to deliver the actual message.  When it comes to blogging, you have to consider the joys of SEO and tie in some valuable search engine fodder, but more importantly, your words need to have even more value to the eyes of your readers.

Writing Ability and Beautification Does Not Tell the Story
The last thing I want to do is condescend the writing abilities of anybody based on the fact that it is the story, and not the grammar superiority that hits home.  I’ve read hundreds of blogs in my own online career and there have been some very painful blogs out there to consume.  However, although it may require some effort to comprehend a sentence, the underlying message that those bloggers are sharing is what matters; not necessarily if they used “their” or they’re”, correctly.

Many bloggers have ventured down different information delivery mediums such as video blogging or developing podcasts to get their message out.  Sure, the most common medium is written posts but as long as you break beyond your own limitations and destroy those anxieties enough to realize that your story does matter, make it work for you in whatever way you’re comfortable with.

Everybody Starts Somewhere
If you read any of the A-listers, you may immediately envision a fear of not being able to ever be “that good”.  Here’s a secret…even the A-listers had to start somewhere.  More than likely, you’re in a very similar or better position than they were years ago.  Compare this to one of today’s popular and famous athletes…do you really think they were born with their given skill?  Do you believe that the pros didn’t have to spend hours and hours of practice, trial and error and failure before they made it big?

The same thing is true when it comes to blogging; sure, you probably passed your required <insert language here> courses, but that doesn’t make anybody a professional writer.  As much as I would like to say that I could help everybody, it doesn’t mean that you will fire up a blog and become a professional blogger overnight.  Blogging takes practice, keep at it and although you may not improve much on your actual writing skills, who cares?  Learn to tell the story that you have inside of you, that’s what truly matters.

Takeaways:
They myth of believing that you cannot be successful at blogging is indeed a huge myth, but it’s just not worth placing that hurdle in front of you by your own hand.

• Writing skill is not as important as sharing the message
• Grammar is useful, but connecting is critical
• Participate in varied mediums to get your story out
• Nobody is perfect
• The Pros weren’t born with a keyboard in hand

There are many other myths out there that have caused potentially successful bloggers to stop dead in their tracks.  Either that, limiting beliefs in writing ability prevent those from breaking through into a satisfying blogging career.

Telling a Story
When it comes to blogging, regardless of what the subject matter of the next post is going to be about, it’s imperative that every post tells a story that others can easily connect with. That story can either offer enlightenment, information or solve a nagging problem for others that involved in a similar interest, thereby finding your blog that can offer such benefits.

When Pixar goes out to tell a story, not only do they paint a picture, they construct a masterpiece each and every time they go to work. That image is put to life by lifelike characters that either have similar paths to walk, or completely different outlooks on a single issue. The perfect example of how bloggers can really make a difference in showing passion in their work is to use the “Toy Story” approach.

Setting the Scene
Toy Story sets the scene by showing the innocence of a young boy playing with his toys much in the way most children do at that age. As he is pulled away from his toys, the room is scanned and we see a bunch of toys lying around, left in the state in which they were last placed by Andy, the young boy. There are many different kinds of toys including some of the classics that most of us had way back in the day and there are of course, new ones that are still nice and shiny intermingled with one another placed in different, yet somewhat ‘harrowing’ scenarios.

Apply to Your Blogging
Don’t simply rely on the title of your post to attract eyes, although catchy and baited titles do help, make sure you begin to paint the picture soon within your post. Layout the scenario, describe the challenges and create the image that you want your readers to really ‘see’ beyond the words on their screen.

Trigger the Storyline
After a short time of viewing the environment, the toys suddenly pop to life and begin to interact with one another. After some quick name drops and one liners here and there, we are quickly thrown into the storyline that places us right in the middle of the upcoming challenges that are included in the lives of such toys. Once we hear that Andy is expecting an extremely busy and present packed birthday party, the story comes together when all of the main characters discuss the anxieties and concerns of any ‘new additions’ to the toy box.

Apply to Your Blogging
You’ve set the precedence of the post and laid out the overall scenario with basic but introductory information that begins to pull your readers in. This point is the make-or-break phase where your reader will either decide to hang on or click out…don’t let them click away before you trigger your storyline.  Start to hit on the main topic with the challenges that you are about to solve for your readers and then hit them with the how you will solve those challenges.

Pluck the Heart Strings
What Disney and Pixar are masterminds at, is playing on the emotions of the viewers. There are many different examples of this in the movie including the symbolic part of the movie when Woody is brushed aside and felled to the ground by Buzz’s spaceship packaging. We’ve come to connect with Woody as the ‘head toy’ in Andy’s room and when the entrance of a newer, shinier toy comes in to challenge the ranks, there is a bit of a feeling of abandonment anxiety introduced into Woody’s world.

Apply to Your Blogging
Readers are looking to connect, period. I’m not saying to go out and play the role of the victim, rather, play the role of an authority of your chosen market in explaining in great detail as to why your readers need to visit your site and visit often. Open up as much as possible and share your own challenges with your readers and in some way, show them how you’ve overcome the similar challenges that your readers are running into. Don’t be afraid to be emotional and let your passion to help your readers display heavily through your blog.

Feed Their Emotions
Quite possibly, one of the most hard hitting stories told in the Toy Story series is portrayed in Toy Story 2, when Jessie the Cowgirl relives her story about the time her owner, Emily, grew up and moved on with out Jessie. Those three minutes told such an emotional story that although you knew it was from the perspective of a toy, the guts of the story has been known to generate many tears from the eyes of thousands. This story grabbed onto the fear and anxiety of being left behind; something that is a common fear of many.

Apply to Your Blogging
Again, I’m not condoning the style of taking advantage of your readers nor am I asking bloggers to make their readers cry. Quite the contrary as the main reason people are searching for certain blogs is how to solve a problem. My main blog, The Bipolar Spouse, is based on some of the difficult challenges that come along when managing a relationship with one afflicted with bipolar disorder. This topic is rarely ‘entertaining’ and it does tend to become depressing sometimes to write my posts, but I’m fulfilling a need for many that are in such a scenario. Readers of that site are looking for answers, hope and strategy and based on my experience, I’m able to provide those answers and they are emotionally connected to the blog.

Conclusion
If you are truly looking to push a message out there and connect to others that share your same desire, the main take-away is to constantly tell the story of your passion. Your articles should always maintain an ever increasing link between the rest of your articles and keep your story going, which will pull your readers deeper into your blog, finding common ground and making an unbreakable connection with you. Sure, SEOs tell us to write for the search engines, but the search engines aren’t going to help you meet your personal goals, only your human readers can.

What Say You?
As a blogger, are you really pushing your message with real emotion in such a way where you are inviting your readers to truly connect? How can bloggers improve their emotional output to increase trust and authority and also to better provide the needed answers to their readers?