HOW TO CHOOSE AN AWESOME BLOG NAME (5 TIPS)

So, you want to start a blog? Great! But wait…do you have a blog name picked out yet? Choosing a great blog name is important and it’s not something you should come up with in a rush. The last thing you want to do is choose a blog name and then regret it down the road. So, it’s important that you take the time to come up with the perfect name for your blog. Plus, your blog name doesn’t only need to make you happy, it also needs to delight your target audience; it needs to be catchy and memorable enough to attract readers to your website. Picking a great name for your blog doesn’t have to be difficult though. Check out these 5 tips for how to choose an awesome blog name. 1. Know Your Niche and Target Audience First and most importantly, you need to know exactly what your blog is going to be about and who your target audience is in order to choose a good blog name. Because of course, if your blog is about gardening and your target audience is gardening beginners, you wouldn’t want to name your blog “Daily Cup of Joe”—it wouldn’t make any sense. Instead, consider using the keyword “garden” or “gardening” in your blog name, like the popular blog Garden Therapy does. Choosing a blog name that’s relevant to your niche will help your target audience find your blog easier. And while choosing a catchy, relevant blog name is important, it’s also important that your blog name isn’t too narrow. For instance, if you start a travel blog called “Exploring Europe,” what happens when you want to travel to other countries? Choose a blog name that represents your content but at the same time allows you a little room to grow. 2. Study Your Competitors After nailing down what your blog is going to be about and who your target audience is, it’s time to start gathering inspiration for an awesome blog name. One of the best ways to get inspiration for your own blog name is to look at examples of existing, successful blog names. For instance, if you want to start a food blog, make a list of your biggest competitors and study what makes their blog names so awesome. Check out this blog name: Budget Bytes. This blog name is great because it immediately lets people know that on this blog you can find recipes for smaller budgets. After studying the blog names of your competitors, you’ll begin to understand what makes an awesome blog name and it will give you some ideas for your own blog. 3. Brainstorm a List of Ideas Now it’s time to put on your thinking cap and start brainstorming blog name ideas. Think of the keywords you want to use in your blog name and come up with a bunch of fun word combinations. The more ideas you come up with, the better. Even if most of them aren’t winners, you never know what word combination will spark your imagination and lead to you create a catchy name. You can also use a domain or blog name generator to help you come up with some interesting word combinations. With a domain name generator like Nameboy, you simply enter a keyword and the generator will provide a huge list of name ideas in an instant. As you can see using the keyword “fitness” Nameboy generated some cool names you could use for a blog like First Fitness, Pick Fitness, Fitness City, and more. If you find a blog name that you love on Nameboy, you can also check domain availability with Bluehost and get the domain instantly. 4. Follow Blog Name Best Practices Remember, you’re not just naming your blog, you also have to choose a matching domain name. So, in order to pick a great blog name, you also need to follow domain name best practices. When someone wants to visit your blog, they need to type your domain name into their web browser’s address bar. To make that process easy for them, here are some best practices you should follow: Keep it short and memorable Make it easy to spell Avoid mixing numbers with words Avoid using hyphens When your blog name is easy to remember and easy to type, your readers will have no problem finding your website. 5. Get Feedback From Family and Friends After you’ve done some research, brainstormed some blog name ideas, and followed domain name best practices, you should be able to come up with a number of great names for your blog. Some people will find one stand-out blog name, making their decision super easy. On the other hand, some people might have a few good options, making it hard to decide which blog name they should ultimately choose. So, to help you make a decision and make sure your blog name idea is actually awesome, run your ideas by your family and friends. Getting feedback from your family and friends will help you make sure your blog name makes sense, is catchy and memorable, and that it accurately represents who you are. Over to You That’s it! With these tips, you can come up with an awesome blog name that represents you, your content, and your audience perfectly. Now that you’ve got a great name, it’s time to announce your new blog to the world and start blogging!

WORDS THAT LEADERS LIVE BY

Take a new approach to success! Let words of wisdom from innovators, entrepreneurs, and businesspeople motivate you to achieve the extraordinary.

“You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do.” -Henry Ford

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” -Peter Drucker

“Every single human becomes great when they set goals that inspire their heart and soul.” -Roxanne Emmerich

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” -General George Patton

“Every time you fail, you get a piece of the answer as to how to succeed.” -Derreck Kayongo

“Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” -Dolly Parton

“Life begins as the edge of your comfort zone.” -Neale Donald Walsch

"I am looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." -Warren Buffet

"It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do." -Steve Jobs

"Recognise efforts; reward results." -Catherine Meek

11 REASONS WHY YOUR SEARCH RANKINGS ARE DROPPING

Let’s take a look at rankings and the role they play in the SEO game. There is no doubt that they factor greatly into the overall success of your business. Rankings direct traffic to your site which leads to emails, phone calls and ultimately sales.

It can be a frightening experience when your very first business initiative plummets without any reasonable explanation. You were the king of the hill, holding court over search engines and sales figures alike.  Now all of a sudden the flow has stopped and you’re left wondering what went wrong. You can sit and meticulously obsess about the specifics but if you want to know how to fix things then you’ve got to follow the path already taken.

The mountain you are attempting to climb has already had visitors before. All you need to do is follow a few simple tips and you can take the trail already marked and avoid unnecessary pitfalls.

While rankings are not the only tool with which to measure your SEO they are a good place to start. There IS a reasonable explanation why your site has fallen and I’m going to lay it all out for you here today. If you want to know the 12 most important reasons that your rankings drop then follow me!

Tracking Wrong Rankings

New technology is allowing users to speak their queries into search engines and the trend is towards full sentences. This is spilling over to typing queries as well as natural language is taking hold of the market. If you’re only tracking a few keywords in your rankings, then perhaps you need to broaden your horizons and go with the natural flow. Expanding your tracking efforts to reflect user’s habits is very important in the development of your business and your SEO will reflect how well you pay attention. Here’s a tip: take a look at your keyword strategy and update it to incorporate current phrases and new up and coming keywords.

Fluctuations Happen

Don’t fret too much about your SEO report and Google Rankings. It’s important to pay them mind as it applies to your company’s general well-being. However, the specific results can vary greatly depending on the computer, location and time. It’s normal for Google rankings to fluctuate. Other variables come into play as well which can impact your overall picture. If you’re having trouble understanding discrepancies in your rankings, then you may just need to chock it up to the Google Dance and let other more important parts of your business occupy your time and attention.

New Website

A new design is much like planting a seed in the garden. It takes time for it to grow, sprout and eventually blossom. You need to expect that the launch of a new design will lead to a clear drop in your rankings. Your readers are accustomed to looking out for a particular logo or branding design that allows them to identify your service. What you’ll be fighting against is a hesitation in giving up what’s old and familiar but after 1-2 months you’ll slowly see them come around and even go so far as to appreciate your new design over the previous one.

You may wish to put a proper 301 redirect plan into effect to minimize any significant drop in rankings and ensure that your site is well-optimized prior to launch. The main thing to keep in mind is that keeping things fresh and new takes courage and you need to expect that things will drop before they really take off. The lull before the storm so to speak!

A New Design On Your Website

Patience will get you through many a crisis and you must learn to take the dips and falls with ease. They are merely bumps along the road. Make it a priority to heavily invest in best practices SEO. This will protect you when your first web design crashes or your redesign effort plummets in the rankings after holding a coveted spot for several weeks. Failure is just as much a part of the journey as success.  Broadening your perspective and keeping the long run in mind means taking a hit or two here and there. Your creativity and ingenuity may list you as number one but if you suddenly take a fall and drop a rung or two, keep your cool and let it roll off your shoulders. It’s just a momentary loss and recovery simply means reaching for the next bar and pulling yourself back up towards the top.

Very Low Quality Links

As a strategy to secure traffic and subsequent subscriptions, companies fell mercy to a unique niche business that offered to create multiple links for bottom basement prices. The market was flooded by low quality links that often led to dead space and the term search engine spamming was born.

In an effort to rectify the situation, search engines such as Google continually update their systems in a hope to discourage this practice. Google mandates that you must make every effort to clean up unnatural links pointing to your site.  Where this is not feasible then you have the option of disavowing the links you deem unfit.

Lost Good Links

Losing high quality links often has a direct impact on your rankings. Your job is to gain back yardage by refocusing your efforts towards building and attracting high caliber links to your site. Here’s where amazing content can certainly come into play.  You may even think to use a series of helpful tips. As long as your reader find values value in what you have to offer then you’ll be sure to have their attention. By honing in on quality as it pertains to content, you begin to build a solid platform by which you inspire confidence and credibility within your readership.

Hosting Can Affect Rankings

You get what you pay for! When you invest in a reputable company to host your content you are making a deposit into your future. A server that understands the meaning of quality and is not overwhelmed with the demands of 5000 other websites is what you want working for you. The user experience directly impacts how well you rank amongst search engines. Browsers appreciate those sites that allow for easy navigation with quick page load times. Keep this in mind when making all important choice of which platform to host your material. Quality does come at a cost so invest in your business and allow yourself to ride the wave to success!

Competition

Competition stops for now man or website as the case may be. SEO is an integral part of your business and must be seen as a continued investment in your overall success.  There is only one first prize. Due to constant updates and revisions websites are continually vying for that sacred spot at the top of the heap. Competition pushes us all to excel and dig deeper but it also means that your site will never be fully optimized without the continued input of SEO experts and professionals.

Google Update

It’s best to follow the rules! Google is constantly updating their server to improve the overall user experience. With this often comes new protocols that require compliance. Those that don’t adhere to the new system mandates will not be supported by Google and parish at the hands of negative rankings.

In order to avoid such a fate, be sure to follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines and comply with white hat SEO tactics. If you keep best practices in the forefront, steady traffic will be your reward for now and three years into the future.

The Google Honeymoon Ended

It’s not uncommon for a relatively new site to experience quick popularity combined with very high rankings. Like many things, reality begins to set in overtime and the honeymoon period draws to a close. It can be disconcerting when you experience a high such as this only to be followed by a drastic fall that leaves you in awe. However, this is to be expected and it’s just simply a natural part of the process. Where you land is most probably a more realistic reflection of your ranking capability. Not to say you won’t advance but just that this is your real base camp with which to begin your trek up the side of the mountain.

Google Sandbox Effect Started

New sites are constantly rising and falling. While staying on the top is exhilarating, being allocated to the proverbial sandbox can make you feel like you’ve been sent back to kindergarten and need to relearn the basics. And perhaps that’s exactly what needs to happen. When you’ve been through the storm and have experienced first hand the Google Sandbox Effect it’s time to re-evaluate your strategy. Put your efforts into creating great content and looking for high authority incoming links. It’s a good idea to start slowly with low competition keywords and give Google the opportunity to witness your transformation for themselves. Everyone eventually leaves kindergarten and the sandbox just a temporary stomping ground!

Now I hope you have learned a little bit about what not to do! The above mentioned mistakes are extremely common however this is only a short list to give you an idea as to where to begin. The rest is up to you! Please share your thoughts and ideas below. We want to know where you’ve gone wrong and help us make the journey easier for those that continue to walk in our footsteps!

TIPS FOR TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR FINANCIAL DESTINY

When you change your mind about something, you change your experience of it. If there is any room for growth in your finances right now or you have a desire to grow your business, then it is time to grow your mind by expanding your thinking. By creating a mindset for wealth, you begin a revolution in your experience of life. 

 

Here are seven tips for taking charge of your financial destiny: 

 

#1) Take responsibility for your current situation.
Realize that you are where you are due to the sum total of your actions, as well as your non-actions. To the extent that you blame your financial situation on the economy or any other external circumstances, you give up your own power to shape things exactly the way you want. Let go of any reasons or excuses, and instead focus on the results you are committed to producing now. 

 

#2) Realize that it's all you!
Regardless of the state of the economy there are always people who do well financially. So what separates the people who do well in any circumstances from those who do not? Their thinking. Your financial circumstances are a reflection of your thought patterns, perceptions and beliefs. Some people complain that it takes money to make money. I don't have any so I never will. But successful entrepreneurs realize that money is created by good ideas. One great idea can practically become your license to print money.

 

#3) Understand that having money requires focus on money
Many people have been taught to think that they should not focus on, or care about, money. In many circles it is even considered taboo to talk about it. In life you get what you focus on, so you either pay attention, or you pay with pain. When you don't pay attention to your finances, your habits of spending, saving, investing, working or handling money, then you pay with pain. Begin to pay more attention to every aspect of financial well-being and you can start to powerfully navigate your financial future.

 

#4) Recondition your financial pleasure centers
People who live their lives without much money have often been conditioned from youth to associate pleasure with spending. Those who do have money have often been conditioned to associate pleasure to saving and investing. They actually link pain to spending! That thought pattern results in accruing wealth. Change your internal associations and you can change your behaviors to ones that result in financial security. Multi-billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said that it's easier to make money than it is to spend it. 

 

#5) Increase your financial vocabulary
Your language determines what concepts are available to you. This is a surprising concept to some people but think about it if you don't understand the terms of the stock market or the language of real estate, how can you make educated investments? Increasing your financial vocabulary will expand your thinking, and therefore open you up to new possibilities and money-making opportunities. You can increase your financial vocabulary by reading financial magazines, newspapers and annual reports.

 

#6) Utilize winning financial strategies
There are effective financial strategies and ineffective financial strategies. One effective financial strategy is to recognize the value of money and measure financial expenditures based on return on investment. By measuring financial expenditures vs. opportunity cost, or the cost of not investing the money elsewhere, you may find that you begin to curb unnecessary or wasteful spending.

 

#7) Find a financial mentor
Who you are today is to a large extent based upon who you modeled when you were growing up, however, it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. If you feel that your finances still have room for growth, study someone who has the kind of success you desire and model the specific behaviors and beliefs that got them there. This is one of the most powerful actions you can take to immediately close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

 

Your decisions determine your destiny. Taking charge of your financial destiny can be as simple as making the decision to put each of these tips into practice. Commit to even one of these and I promise you, you will become aware of just how much power you really do possess to achieve your financial goals in spite of what anyone says about economic conditions.

- Christopher Howard