Do you include photos on your blog and website? Photos and graphics can add to your blog or website in a big way. But what you don’t want to do is to create graphics or post photos that are poor quality.

Every digital asset that you put out online reflects back on your brand and your business. The quality of your pictures and graphics is important if you are trying to improve your brand presence.

To create great photos, start with a great picture. The quality of a photo is primarily due to the quality of the original photo. But there is another factor that greatly influences the quality of your photographs: editing.

Photo editing is the best thing you can do to improve the quality of your photos that you want to post online. But what tool should you use to edit your photos? PhotoShop by Adobe is probably the most famous and well-known tool to edit photos. But it is expensive when compared to other programs. So many people decide not to spend the money on the full program.

10 Free Online Photo Editors to Check Out

If you’d rather look into free tools, check out the following ten free tools for photo editors.

1. Photo Shop

Adobe Photo Shop has a free version of their famous photo editing program available on their website. You can try out the full version of their program there and decide if you want to purchase it.

Adobe has now offered an online version of their program known as Adobe Creative Cloud that gives you access to Adobe Photo Shop, Adobe Premiere video editor, and up to 20+ applications that you can use to create and edit professional photographs.

You can check out Adobe’s deals at the above link. Adobe Creative Cloud is available for individuals for up to $69 per month, depending on the number of applications you want access to.

2. Aviary

Aviary is another product by Adobe.com and they offer a free online photo editor that you can use to edit and upload your photos right on their site. It is built as a mobile app so you can download the app and use it with your photos that you take on mobile devices, as well.

It boasts plenty of filters and embellishments that you can add to your toolbox to create the best photos possible for your blogs or websites.

Adobe offers Aviary to seamless integrate with their other photo editing programs such as PhotoShop and others so you can sign in with your Adobe ID to do more with your photos.

3. FotoFlexer

FotoFlexer is another free online photo editing app that allows you to create and edit photos on the fly. FotoFlexer allows you to get photos from your Facebook, Photobucket, or Flickr accounts and bring them in to edit on their platform. It has an easy look interface that starts you off easily by uploading a photo and works with several different platforms.

It also lets you work with shapes and text and other features that can help you improve the look of your final work.

4. Pixlr

Pixlr is a well-known tool and app that allows you to edit photos for free. You can do basic photo editings such as cropping and re-sizing and apply unique photo effects. The basic version is free, but the paid version offers more functions such as creating an item from scratch or tweaking an existing photo.

5. Free Online Photo Editor

The Free Online Photo Editor, as its name implies, offers a way to quickly edit photos that you have on your hard drive and save them as a finished file. Some of the effects you can do with this program include Red Eye Removal, Sepia, Enhance, Sharpen, and Polaroid Effect.

It is simple to use and doesn’t do some things that the higher end programs do, but it’s a great simple solution for quick fixes if you need to save or upload and enhance a photo quickly and easily.

One added plus with the Free Online Photo Editor is that you can hit the “order” button and order a canvas print of the photo that you created if you would like a physical copy of it.

6. PiZap

PiZap is another free tool that allows you to edit, make photo collages, and more. It has plenty of filters that allow you to apply various tints and colors. It has a design tool that helps you to make cards and flyers, as well as many other items from your photos. For online bloggers or site owners, you can use this tool to edit and refine your photos, adding accents and filters. Then you can upload it to your site or blog.

One of the things users like best about the PiZap photo editor is that it doesn’t require you to have any knowledge of photo editing to use it. It has far fewer features than PhotoShop, but it still offers quite a bundle of tools for free editing.

7. BeFunky

The BeFunky photo tool lives up to its name by offering a variety of 147 photo effects that can be done with one click. You can crop and resize quickly and easily. You can get a premium upgraded account for $9.95 that will add priority processing and photo storage.

8. Photo 505

Photo 505 is a cool free tool that works magic! Well, it seems to. Just go to the site and upload a photo, then choose an effect that you want to apply to your photo. There are some artistic effects to choose from. It’s a fun application that will allow you to create some unique photos from your original picture.

9. Big Huge Labs

Big Huge Labs offers another cool free editor that allows you to add some effects you can’t find elsewhere. You can create all sorts of media projects such as movie posters, magazine covers, and more.

10. Canva

Canva allows you to use their online editing tool free of charge. Edit photos, add stickers, special effects, and more and then purchase the file for $1 in most cases. Canva is a popular platform that lets you also design book covers and other items without any standalone software applications.

These tools should help you get started experimenting with photo editing without putting out a fortune in cash to do it. In addition to each of the editing tools above, be sure to check out our list of recommending sites for royalty free images for blogs.

You may see RSS feeds in various places on the web from time to time. RSS stands for “rich site summary.” Few people even know what the acronym stands for because we usually see it in the acronym form. RSS is a format for delivering web content that changes frequently.

Blogger.com is one site on which you’ll find the RSS feed option. When you share your RSS feed, you’ll make your blog available automatically via an RSS feed all over the web that is searchable.

What type of sites should use RSS feeds?

As a blogger, you may wonder if it is beneficial for you to use RSS feeds with your blog or if they are still used by bloggers. If you have a news-related site, a regular publication that has changing content, or other online content that is dynamic in nature, you may want to use RSS.

In addition, you can allow your regular followers and readers to easily find your blog to see the latest content that you have posted without having to go directly to your blog URL and search for the latest content. By advertising the RSS feed URL to your regulars, you may be able to pull in more readers and repeat visitors to your blog or website due to the way that RSS works.

As an Alternative for Newsletters

If you have a regular email newsletter that you send out to your viewers and readers, you can use RSS to replace or supplement your regular email newsletters. If you use the RSS link and promote it to your readers, they will be able to see new content without having to join your mailing list.

Of course, if you want to generate leads and create mailing lists, you will also want to continue getting subscribers to your mailing list. The best idea is to promote your RSS for “changing content” to give your readers updates, while also offering them something more substantial when they subscribe to your blog or website.

RSS is still used by some well-known sites such as Yahoo News and other online sites that have rapidly changing content. Use Feed Reader software if you want to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and have them displayed for easy retrieval.

Using a feed reader gives you a way to keep up with your favorite news sources’ feeds, as well as offering this option to your own readers to keep up with your content. You have to find sites that syndicate their content to see which ones are running an RSS feed. Then you can add these to your feed reader to keep up with all of them at the same time. Some platforms allow you to have an RSS feed automatically.

Should you use RSS on your blog?

If you’re debating with yourself about whether to use RSS for your blog or not, I’d say just do it! It sure can’t hurt anything by allowing your regular readers to view your updates. And it may allow you to reach more people via the search engines than not doing so.

Use every tool that you have in your arsenal to increase your reach, whether it involves old technologies like RSS feeds or one-armed robots that cook your dinner for you. It really doesn’t matter whether the technology is old or new. All that matters is that it works for your goals. So blog away and include an RSS feed in your contact information or on an obvious place on your blog.

Offering a “rich site summary” to your viewers just might be the missing piece in promoting your blog even more!

No matter if you are using a free blogging platform like Blogger.com or WordPress.com, or even have a self-hosted version of WordPress running on your own hosting, setting up an RSS feed for your site is still a great idea.

Freelance writers and bloggers understand the importance of checking their work and site content for errors. There are many aspects of writing including creative content writing, the use of figurative language, an organization of thoughts, and grammar, to name a few. While Grammar is the mechanical side of writing, it is just the vehicle that writers use to make content readable and to improve the communication. In short, Grammarly has become a blogger and freelance writer’s best friend when it comes to create content even better than you had originally planned for.

In other words, when your writing is grammatically sound, you will be able to communicate your ideas in a better and more concise way. Your readers tend to like copy that is readable and easy to digest. Using words that are awkward or too advanced can throw some readers while being too simple with your wording can insult your readers’ intelligence. Grammarly can make suggestions on all of these situations and suggest wording that is better suited for your blog.

Whether you are writing an academic paper, a white paper, or a blog post, it is important to find some time-saving tools that will allow you to edit your copy quickly and easily so that you can focus on your content, rather than the Grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Grammarly.com offers a free tool that allows you to have an AI smart editor with you at all times. The basic editor is free, but you need to upgrade to the premium version to get the full features.

With the premium editor for $39.95 per month, you’ll be able to use Grammarly in the following ways:

1. Spelling and Grammar check

Run an automatic smart “AI” spelling and grammar check. Grammarly will automatically run a scan on all of your document and show you the critical errors and minor errors that it discovers so that you can fix them. It produces the errors as a “red text” item on the right margin across from the text in question. It will automatically offer recommendations and suggestions as to how you can improve your writing in that sentence or phrase. Just click on the red text to correct it, and the text will be corrected. You can choose not to correct it if you choose. Sometimes this is necessary since Grammarly does not take into account some unique phrasing or exceptions that good writers use that circumvent normal Grammar rules and standards.

Some of the errors it finds will have to do with punctuation; others may involve capital letters, the use of phrasing, spelling, or grammar rules. All of these are important when you are writing professionally or writing a blog that your readers will read. While writing content for a blog is a different situation than a term paper for a college English class, most of the same rules apply when it comes to sentence structuring, grammar, and context.

Grammarly tends to side with academic text standards that are derived from APA and other standards, so bloggers will just need to use their judgment if Grammarly suggests corrections you don’t want to make. Blogging is informal writing, so it’s okay to deviate a bit from the rules for the sake of style.

Still, Grammarly is an excellent tool to have because it will make corrections that are considered mainstream standards of grammar that you need to have correct when writing professionally.

2. Chrome Extension

Using the Grammarly Chrome extension is a great way to keep Grammarly with you online. As long as you are signed into your Google account on Chrome, you’ll see the Grammarly editor automatically appear within the document you are working on. You may see a swirling red or yellow dot at the lower right-hand corner of your document. Just click on this, and it will take you into the Grammarly editor to make your corrections. To enable Grammarly for Chrome, just sign into your Google account and enable Grammarly for Chrome. You can download the application for Chrome when you sign into your Grammarly account when you first download it.

3. Plagiarism check

You can go into the Grammarly settings to find the plagiarism option. Turn this on or off to enable or disable the plagiarism check within your Grammarly editor. If it is enabled, it will run a plagiarism check to check for similar wording all over the web and return the results. While there are natural similarities in wording between web writers, you want to make sure that your blog does not copy the ideas or text of other writers. If the duplicate copy is found by Google, they may drop you in the rankings.

You can’t afford to risk this is you are running a blog as you need to be original in all of your ideas and blog posts. Grammarly allows you to use their automatic plagiarism checker to check your content for originality.

4. Grammarly for Windows

Grammarly for Windows allows you to install the application for Windows so that you can click on the application from your desktop. For offline bloggers who like to use offline editors first for blog posts, you may find this feature beneficial.

5. Grammarly for MS Office

If you use MS Office or Office 365, installing Grammarly for MS Office (from the Grammarly website), will allow you to use its tools on your MS office projects. This includes PowerPoint, Excel documents, and MS Word. This is an important tool to use for your MS Office projects to make sure your presentations are of the best quality before presenting them to a group.

To see a full summary of all Grammarly features in action, be sure to check out the short video below.

Best Features of Grammarly

The automatic functions of Grammarly make it the most enviable tool for writers and bloggers available today. It is built with extremely smart technology that can detect the most common grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors and allow you to correct them in editing.

Some writers prefer to wait until they are finished with their document before they go into Grammarly to see the errors they need to correct. However, Grammarly can automatically show you the errors as you go. As you are writing a blog post, if you have Grammarly for Chrome enabled (for online platforms), you'll see the mistakes that Grammarly finds underlined in red.

Just click on the word that is in the red, and you'll see suggestions for the correct wording or spelling. It's also a good idea to run another check once you have completed the post so that it will find the other errors you need to look at.

Grammarly for Social Media

Another great feature that comes with Grammarly is the social media compatibility. Grammarly is designed to work efficiently with most of the most popular social media platforms including the following:

• Facebook
• Gmail (email programs)
• Pinterest
• Twitter
• eBay
• WordPress
• Reddit
• LinkedIn
• Blogger
• Trello

With so much compatibility with the major platforms, you can use Grammarly on any site that you produce content for. This can go a long way toward improving your content for your target audience, no matter what platform you are writing for.

Grammarly or Common Sense?

There is an argument against tools such as Grammarly.com because people say that it takes the choice away from the writer on which words to use. While too much automation is a real possibility in our day of AI and smart software, Grammarly is a highly-efficient tool that saves writers a great deal of time in finding the errors that it might take you much longer time to do on your own.

If you're a writer or a blogger and you want to save time on your posts to make sure you are producing the best quality, Grammarly offers a fast and efficient method for checking the quality of your work. Just remember that, in the final analysis, you can decide on whether you will take the suggestions of Grammarly or not.

As stated before, there are times that you should deviate from some of the rules of academic Grammar, especially when writing a blog that is often written in a playful, unique, or creative way that doesn't always follow the standards of academic prose.

However, Grammarly is packed with automatic editing features that save writers hours and hours of time by doing a lightning-fast grammar check to find all of the errors within a few seconds!

If you're a website owner or blogger and you want to make sure that you are creating quality content without having to call up your high school English teacher to check it for you, Grammarly is the best tool you can find on the web.

If you want to learn more about Grammarly or check out all of the features and versions for yourself, go to Grammarly.com.

Grammar is not the most important thing in writing. Writing engaging content is the most important. Even Will Shakespeare is known to have deviated from the rules from time to time. But then, Will didn't have Grammarly. If he had, he just might have used it to save time to write more tragedies!

When it comes to blogging, you need to have a plan in mind before you get started. This is something I continually talk about on this blog. With more than a billion active sites on the internet today and more than 300 million of them being blogs, it’s no longer a matter of just creating content — now it’s more about the promotion of that content. At the same time, it’s also been reported that 72% of all sites on the internet today are created with WordPress. These are some staggering numbers, and with more websites and blogs being created every day, it’s extremely important for bloggers to understand what it takes to find success online.

To help with this process, today we are going to look at what it takes to create a blog with meaning and purpose, while also zoning in on increasing traffic, revenue and brand growth. Be sure to follow through each of the actionable tips below, while also checking out each of the referenced guides and articles in the process. These will each help with the overall success of your blog.

Niche Down and Have a Blog with Purpose

Many people have different reasons for starting a blog. Some people like to have their own little spot on the internet where they can talk about what’s going on in their lives or what they are passionate about. Others will start a blog for their brand or business, while others have the goal to try and make some money online. No matter what the reason is for starting a blog, the important thing is that you niche down as much as possible.

With so many active websites and blogs already online and creating millions of new articles daily, your own blog will never be able to compete on a generic scale. A great example of this would be if you wanted to focus on sports. Instead of writing about your favorite sports team or players, it would be best to focus on something more specific, while also providing a service or value in the process. Niching down from ‘sports’ to ‘sports training’, then a level even deeper to ‘basketball jump training’ is a great example of how you can start a blog focused exactly on what someone is looking for. At the same time, this type of targeting also allows for easier monetization and marketing of your blog.

Create an Online Course and Monetization Strategy

When it comes to making money with a blog, you have plenty of options to choose from. Google Adsense or Media.net are one two common methods for newbie bloggers, but the problem with this method is that you are going to need a lot of traffic to your site in order to make any decent money. At the same time, everytime someone clicks on your Google Adsense ads, they are going to be leaving your site. This might be fine if you have a general content and audience blog, but not so much if you have a site where you are selling services or trying to obtain new customers.

With more bloggers focusing on their passions and selling their expertise as a service or online course, this is where the big money is starting to come in. To learn more about this process, I recommend you take a look at this guide from Neil Patel on the best ways to sell courses online. This is something I’ve personally been getting more involved with, as the blogging and make money online space is huge and new people are entering the industry all of the time. With such a demand in place, it means there is going to be a requirement for online learning and training material at all levels (from beginners to advanced users). This is something all bloggers should consider when selling courses online, always making sure they have all audiences covered so they can secure themselves as an authority within their space.

Analyzing the Competition: Creating Better Content and Ranking Higher

If you want to compete in the world of blogging and online business, you are going to need to always keep an eye on the competition. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through the use of website analyzer tools. Such tools will allow you to keep an eye on the competition and see where they are ranking in the search results. At the same time, you can also analyze the performance of your own sites as well.

With all of this in mind, it’s also important to make sure your site is creating quality content that is not only better than the competition, but also better in value, SEO standards, and probability to get linked and referenced from other sites. To get an idea of what the best type of content that is currently out there, simply search Google for whatever keywords or terms you would like to rank for. It’s very likely that all of the first page rankings are really high-quality stuff. Analyze each of the sites rankings, then see how you can create even better content. For example, if some sites online have text and images, why not create an infographic or an original video to better compliment your content. Content with visuals gets up to 94% more views. Always keep this in mind when trying to outperform the competition. Once this is done, be sure to put in the necessary outreach and promotion to get some quality backlinks and mentions from other relevant sites in your niche. If you follow this process through step by step, you will start to see your site content rank higher in the search results and rise against the competition.

Personal Outreach is the Key to Winning the Blogging Game

As mentioned earlier, the world of blogging has changed a lot over the years. It’s no longer a game of whoever creates the most content is going to win, now it’s all about the promotion of that content and who can do it better. A great example of how to create killer content for your blog that will continue to bring in new traffic, backlinks, and ROI for several weeks and months to come, is through the use of expert roundups. The concept of these posts is simply to make a list of 30+ industry experts and leaders within your niche, ask them all a question and then compile all of their answers into one big mega post. You can see an example of one we did here for best web hosting services.

While the concept is easy enough, it’s the outreach process that is quite time-consuming. Not only is it a matter of building a list of experts to contact, it’s also an issue of cold emailing each of them and building a quick relationship. This process can be done manually, or through any of the many email automation and follow-up solutions currently out there. To get the most out of your email outreach and content creation efforts, be sure to follow up with everyone who has participated in your expert roundup after the post goes live. This will help with the actual social sharing of your content, while also allowing your blog to reach new audiences and followers from each of the experts you’ve featured in your roundup.

It’s also important to note that email outreach isn’t just done for expert roundup style posts, it also works extremely well for infographic marketing, outreach to PR and media editors, requesting interviews on other sites and also for creating new business relationships or blogging partners. If you are still looking for ideas on how to create better content than your competition, be sure to run through this list of seven content creation ideas that are working well in 2017.

Becoming a successful blogger takes a lot of work. You need to create a website, come up with unique ideas, produce high-quality content regularly, and publish it so that your audience can find and engage with it. If you ask any blogger, they’ll tell you that this is no simple feat.

When it comes to blogging successfully, one of the most important steps is picking the right blogging platform. A blogging platform is more commonly referred to as a content management system (CMS) which basically means, some system that allows someone to easily facilitate the creation and publishing of content on a website.
As you compare different blogging platforms, one term you’ll come across is “open source.”

The term open source refers to the proprietary nature of software. Open source means a software’s source code, the thing that makes it operate, is provided to anyone that wants it. This is particularly useful for businesses that want to build on a framework. Open source code allows developers to see inside the machine, so to speak, and find ways to improve the code and build applications off it.

With regards to blogging, there are open source CMS platforms like WordPress and Drupal that have grown more and more popular over the years. These CMS platforms have become an integral resource in the blogging ecosystem because of their ease, affordability, versatility, and support. If you’re looking for a CMS platform to blog on, here are some reasons to consider one that is open source.

An Open Source CMS is Much More Affordable

Most bloggers don’t have a budget to spend on developing a website, let alone a functioning CMS. A number of hours, money, and headaches that go into building an internal CMS are more than any one person should invest. Thus, a nice, affordable alternative would be to use a free open source CMS like WordPress.

Not only is the main platform free, but it comes with thousands of free and affordable website templates that can be easily added to the WordPress interface. Because it’s open source, developers have been building applications and themes on the platform for several years. This means you have a wide swath of options and should have no trouble finding a free or affordable solution to any of your website needs.

An Open Source CMS is Versatile

Not only can you get more bang for your buck on an open source platform, but the CMS you work within will have substantially more options. In addition to the basic economic principle that more competition means better pricing, more competition also drives innovation.

As it relates to CMS, open source platforms like Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress allow developers to build applications directly on the source code. This flexibility lets entrepreneurial minded coders build plugins or applications that process requests, improve user experience, or solve some functional problem. WordPress alone has 43,000 free plugins for its interface, many of which solve potential problems that you may encounter on your blog.

An Open Source CMS Has Support

One of the reasons many people avoid open source solutions is that they don’t think that the developer will provide any support and they’ll be left trying to work within someone else’s mess. Open source CMS platforms couldn’t be further from this conclusion.

Some of the biggest online communities are based on open source platforms. WordPress, for example, encourages developers to join their community and improve their core code, the design of their backend, the mobility of their platform, and plugins among other functionalities.

As you start to work on an open source CMS you’ll be able to use the seasoned community to help troubleshoot any issues and resolve your questions. This is particularly useful for bloggers that don’t have experience with web development. You can lean on the community to help find solutions and plugins to help facilitate your needs.

Blogging is a rewarding pastime and potential revenue opportunity, so many people are starting to look into what it takes to start their own blog. Before you ever think about writing your first blog post, you have to decide on a website and platform for managing your content production.

This is where open source CMS platforms have their value. You can easily set up a blog on an open source CMS within an hour and the plethora of themes and plugins give you all the options you need to build the perfect blog. So, when it comes time to pick a content management system for your blog, you should look at one that is open source.

Of the many different ways to create something of your own on the internet, a blog has to be one of the most fun and effective options out there. At the same time, there are actually many ways to accomplish this, such as creating a site with a free platform like Blogspot or going with a professional hosting plan and domain of your own. No matter what option you choose, blogging is something that will grow over time as you put more effort and focus into it.

With billions of active websites and blogs on the internet today, the process is easy enough to get started with, but who wants to just start a site and stop there? To create a blog that really stands out from the crowd and can turn into much more, you will need to have a content creation, marketing plan and monetization play in the process. This is something we continually talk about on this blog, but not so much the associated costs that may come with them.

The good news is that many of these costs will be low for bloggers in the beginning, so there is no need to look for outside funding or getting a loan. Instead, many of these initial costs are simply placed on personal credit cards, or even a business card if you have one. For newbie bloggers and those without a business, the initial investment for starting a blog is usually under $100 a year, so there is no need for concern when first getting started. However, if blogging is something that you are planning to get more aggressive and professional with, content creation and marketing costs may soon add up. If this is the case, you may want to think about forming an LLC and picking up a business credit card. With so many different cards on the market today, it’s easy for anyone to get approval, then also have the ability to increase their spending limit as their credit history improves.

With all of this in mind, now let’s take a look at five different expenses every blogger is eventually going to come across.

Web Hosting and Domains

Before starting a blog, you will need to decide if you want to go the free or paid route. With a free blog through a platform like Blogspot or WordPress, you are going to be limited on your site options and won’t have complete ownership over your content. This is specifically why we don’t recommend going with a free hosting platform.

At the same time, the costs associated with a blog that you have complete ownership over, set up with a shared hosting plan and a domain name are quite minimal. In most cases, a domain name is only going to run $10 per year to register, while web hosting plans start around $3-$7 per month depending on who you go with. When creating your hosting account, most providers will offer a big discount on longterm plans, so be sure to factor this into your costs as well.

Premium WordPress Theme

As with many options and features that are found with blogging, you will often have to decide between free and paid options. Having a great looking site is another cost that you will have to bring into the equation. The good news is that WordPress makes it extremely fast, easily and often affordable to have an amazing looking site, while not having to spend a lot of money in the process.

Through the WordPress Theme Directory, you can choose from a number of free WordPress themes for your site. However, free themes also have their own downsides, as they might be slow, clunky in coding or even unsafe for your site. We recommend going with a premium WordPress theme provider like MyThemeShop, which costs less than $80 per year, which also gives you access to more than 50+ different themes and plugins on their site. Blogging.org is actually running off one of their themes right now.

Outsourced Content Creation

Again, choosing between the option of free and paid — content creation is something that is going to play a pivotal role in the success of your blog. While anyone can create content for their site, it definitely does take a time investment. If you are going to blog for a brand or business, you will also want your content to be professional and read well.

When it comes to content creation, you have a lot of options to choose from. You can hire someone directly or use a content creation marketplace like TextBroker or Contentmart, where you can posts article jobs for other freelance writers to complete. Depending on the word count and quality of writers you want to hire, the average cost per word is usually in the .03 to .20 range.

Building a Mailing List

When looking to grow your blog and build a mailing list, this is one area that you will definitely have to invest some money in. Again, as with most areas of blogging and starting a business online, the costs are usually low in the beginning, then increase as your needs grow.

Aweber, MailChimp and ConvertKit are three of the most popular list hosting companies in the world today. They each have their own pricing plans in place, but most are under $29 a month for lists up to 1,000 subscribers in size. The great thing about the costs associated with a mailing list, is that these low investments are usually dwarfed by the earnings and ROI that can be generated from sending out mailings to your list.

Social Media Marketing

With over two billion users across all of the major social networks, it’s extremely important to focus on this area of promotion for your blog. While most site owners and bloggers will rely on free traffic methods by simply posting updates and shares to their profile pages, the real value comes into play if you have some advertising money to spend.

One of the most effective ways to set this up is through Facebook Advertising, which offers advanced demographic targeting and various ways to grow out your fan pages as well. It’s also important to note that nearly all social network have some type of advertising platform in place, but they also have low daily spend requirements as well. This means you can get started with as little as $1-$3 a day to see if paid social media marketing is a good option for your blog.

My Recommended Tools and Solutions to Maximize Blogging Results

As someone who has personally created a wide range of blogs and have successfully turned many of them into authority sites, I know what tools and services work best when it comes to effectively creating content and marketing your site. For a full list of my recommended tools and solutions, be sure to check out these blogging resources.