When new bloggers first start out, there’s a natural tendency to write a quick test post as the very first blog post. While there’s nothing wrong with that, definitely don’t leave it up online for the world to see. Which begs the question… what should your very first blog post actually be?

Of all the things your first blog post *could* be, don’t waste the opportunity. All new blogs need any advantage they can so providing the right content from the start is important for gaining reader loyalty.

Your first blog post should answer the reader’s question “Why am I here and what’s in it for me?”

1. Introduce Yourself Briefly

Every new website needs an introduction, but most new readers won’t care to read about your life story if they’ve never heard about you before. Harsh, I know. Keep it brief – very brief.

The most important thing to do is tell readers what your brand is about.

If you have a personal blog, mention 2 or 3 highlights of your life that others would find interesting, whether that’s personal or professional in nature.

For magazine-style blogs like Inscribd, give a “7 second pitch” what your brand stand for and what it can help readers achieve.

Picture yourself at a dinner party with some friends and acquaintances. They ask you what you are working on at the moment. You have 7 seconds to excite those listening into visiting your blog.

If you can’t pitch your blog in 7 seconds or less, you need to refine your topic or focus on the most important themes.

This can help you figure out the tagline of your blog – a very brief description in just a few words.

2. Video Post

What better way to get people excited about your new website than by showing people how excited you are through video ?

Readers who can see an authors face and speaking style can develop a real human connection that will lead to reader loyalty and keep them coming back.

Give your “7 second pitch”, introduce yourself as a real breathing human being, and encourage readers to subscribe to your newsletter.

3. Step-by-Step Guide

Do you know something that not many other people know? Do you have knowledge to share that is incredibly valuable?

Why wait until post #2 or #3 to offer your expertise and guidance to readers. Launch right into it and make your first post incredibly valuable and share-worthy.

Step-by-step guides offer tremendous value and you will be rewarded for your efforts. Make the post truly awesome.

4. Expert Q & A

Interview an expert in the field. In fact, why not interview one of your fellow bloggers who are already established. They will not only give you valuable insight into the world of blogging, but will be able to answer key questions that would interest your readers.

Determine the most important questions that your readers want answered and try email several experts in your field.

Remember though, even the nicest people can be time-poor, so you’d like get a better response to 3 or 4 questions rather than 20. Keep your questions brief, focused and on-topic.

Not only will you be providing value to your readers, you will also be making potential strategic connections with influential people in your niche.

5. Case Study

Provide in-depth analysis about an aspect of your niche. This could be a business, product or person. Be thorough and get to the bottom of the problems and solutions available.

Case studies are also share-worthy and generate natural links from other websites. Providing unique analysis that others would find interesting can go a long way to establishing your credibility in the field.

Bonus Idea: Turn your case study into a ‘how to’ guide and offer it as a free eBook for reader to download.

6. All Of The Above

The above 5 ideas are all separate and unique unto themselves, but I started writing this post with the idea of suggesting to do ALL of the first 5 ideas together as one huge, valuable, share-worthy, incredible first post that will firmly put you on the map!

Sounds too extreme? Extreme is good! Extreme is unique. Uniqueness is remarkable and remarkable posts get shared, commented on and linked to.

As a first blog post, putting together all of the above ideas into one single page could be the initial push to make you and your blog the authority figure in your niche and keep readers coming back for more.

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DMOZ, the Open Directory Project, has been around since the very early days of the Internet and garners an enormous amount of respect and authority from Google and other search engines. It is widely known in SEO circles that having a DMOZ listing is a major milestone.

If you’ve never heard of DMOZ, it’s a directory curated by humans. That means there is no automatic process going on in the background when you submit your website. Your website is checked by a real-life, breathing human-being before being added to the directory.

"The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors."dmoz.org

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DMOZ submission is free and your DMOZ listing will be permanent once accepted.

DMOZ Listing

Achieving a DMOZ listing is like getting a big thumbs up that your website is legitimate, trustworthy and not illegal or scammy. Google and other search engines are always looking for signals to determine whether your website is trustworthy enough to show up in the search results.

So, when Google sees this ‘thumbs up’ DMOZ listing, your website will get a nice boost in Google rankings. All other search engines also scan DMOZ for new additions and will add them to their own index.

Getting your website listed in the DMOZ directory is a big deal. It’s also quite difficult.

Reasons For DMOZ Directory Rejection

DMOZ is edited by real people. Each person is responsible for a fixed number of categories. For example, an editor who happens to have an interest in gardening could be the editor of the personal gardening category.

Categories are very important to DMOZ and you’ll need to give deep thought to the correct category your website falls into. Failure to pick the correct category will result in frustration and MONTHS of lost time.

Months? What?! Yes, months. After submitting your DMOZ listing, you’ll need to wait at least 2 months for an editor to review your submission.

If the editor rejects your listing, you will NOT be notified and no reason will be given. I’m not taking a swipe at DMOZ or the editors. We just need to accept that’s the way it is.

Common reasons for rejection:

1. You’ve chosen the wrong category,
2. Your website is a duplicate or contains duplicate content from another website,
3. Your website contains illegal content or primarily advertising,
4. Your website is still “under construction”,
5. The title submitted is deceptive or does not match the website title,
6. The description submitted does not accurately describe your website,
7. You’ve submitted your website too many times in a short period.

What it boils down to is this: be honest with your submission, make your website as complete and professional as possible, and choose the right category.

Picking the correct category should not be taken lightly because this would be hurdle number 1, and arguably the most important.

Choosing DMOZ Listing Category

Let’s start at the homepage.

You need to drill down into the appropriate category until you have reached the most narrowly focused sub-category to describe your website.

Obviously, I can’t tell you which category your website should be in, but I can give you a few pointers.

1. Locality

If you run a local business or cater to an audience within a specific region, you should choose a regional listing.

Drill down to your country and state level, for example, let’s focus in on Victoria, Australia.

Then choose the most appropriate category that describes your business or website.

In our example, I’ve chosen to go down the garden path (pardon the pun).

In this example, we’ve found an appropriate category for a landscape gardener who services the region of Victoria, Australia.

2. Category Focus

If your website does not fall into a regional category and your audience is more worldwide like most of us bloggers, the best thing to do is search DMOZ for similar websites.

See which category your competitors and colleagues are listed. This will give you a good idea where you should be listed too.

Inscribd is listed in the category Business : Small Business : News and Media : Magazines and E-zines

If you want to list your blog, search for weblogs to see more categories that your website may fit into. It largely depends on your blog topic.

DMOZ Submission

So, you’ve found the correct category for your DMOZ listing and you’re ready to submit.

At the top of the category page, click on suggest URL. If this link does not exist, you have not focused your category enough.

Read every word of the submission page and make sure everything you submit is honest and the best way to describe your website.

Remember, it may take at least 2 months for your website to be reviewed by a human editor, so you must be patient.

You will not be notified if you are rejected or accepted.

After 2 months, search for your website on DMOZ to see if it’s been listed. If not, give it another week and check again. Don’t be impatient.

But if too much time has passed, let’s say 3 months, you can submit again. Try to choose a different category this time but make sure it is still a great fit for your website.

Best of luck! Let us know if you get a DMOZ listing!

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How To Get More Email Subscribers The Stupidly Simple Way

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If you’re not collecting email subscribers to your blog in one way or another, you’re missing out on very real marketing opportunities.

Collecting email subscribers allows you to notify readers when you have posted a new article, thereby bringing a flood of visitors back to your website.

These repeat visitors not only click on your advertising, but also solidify loyalty to your brand name

Getting more email subscribers means you have more affiliate marketing opportunities to sell a product and earn a commission each time you do.

It’s very easy to see the benefits of having an ever increasing number of email subscribers to your blog, but the real problem is getting them

We looked at a case study from Nikki In Stitches who tested out two different forms for allowing visitors to subscribe to her newsletter.

It becomes clear very quickly that using a pop up lightbox is enormously beneficial to increasing subscriber numbers.

Sidebar Email Subscribers Form

In her trial, Nikki used a common form in the sidebar of her blog to collect subscribers. It is out of the way and unobtrusive to the visitor.

This form received 643 subscribers during the test period.

Lightbox Popup Email Subscribers Form

As a part of the same trial taking place over the same time period, Nikki also used a pop up lightbox to intrude the visitors view and ask directly for them to subscribe.

While this form may seem obnoxious, it worked exceptionally well!

This pop up form received 7473 subscribers during the same test period!

The pop up lightbox drove a 1375% more subscribers than the sidebar form. AMAZING.

It’s very clear from this case study that using a lightbox such as Popup Domination has an enormous benefit to increasing the number of subscribers to your blog.

If you are not collecting email subscribers yet, you should start immediately. Integrating email services like AWeber, iContact and MailChimp into your pop up form is simple enough with Popup Domination that works as a WordPress plugin.

Email Subscribers Form Placement And Frequency

It’s clear that the placement of your subscriber form has a big impact on the number of subscribers you will receive. A form higher on the page will do better than one lower down.

Using a pop up gives incredible results but can become annoying for frequent visitors to your blog.

Make sure to configure your pop up lightbox to only display X number of pages, or once every 48 hours (or more).

Other Lightbox Pop Up Uses

You don’t have to display only an email subscriber form in your pop up. How about including:

• Facebook page like button,
• Twitter follow button,
• Links to your top-rated blog posts,
• An introduction video

Do you have a pop up subscriber box on your blog?

Disclaimer: Links to 3rd party sites included within this article denoted with /go/ in the URL may result in commission being earned if you decide to make a purchase.

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Multiple business credit cards are widely used to fund project start-up costs, pay bills, pay debt and fund day to day expenses. On average, two business credit cards are used by small businesses, often with co-owners having access to one each. Cut that in half!

Having multiple credit cards may suit very large businesses. For the rest of us, we would be prudent to think about having only one card.

When a business owner is asked why they have several cards, they will usually give the standard answers that they are building a good credit score, earning different types of rewards or making it easy to purchase items for the business.

But are those reasons good enough? No, they are actually reasons why you should only have one credit card for your business.

Still need convincing? Let’s go into more detail.

Lower That Red Flag

When you apply for different credit cards, a red flag is raised on your credit report.

It can look suspicious to some creditors, causing them to think you may be in financial difficulty and need to borrow your way out of it or that you are going to commit fraud.

It is recommended to check your credit report frequently to make sure your credit history doesn’t throw up any red flags that could negatively affect your chances of obtaining credit or loans (both business or personal).

While neither of these may be the case, when you make inquiries about obtaining multiple credit cards, your credit and financial history is looked at more closely than you might realize, which could lead to a reduction in your credit rating.

With one card only in your possession, you are keeping things nice and simple for the credit companies and they are less likely to seek out the deepest darkest secrets in your past.

Annual Fees

Almost every credit card known to man has an annual fee attached to it. The annual fee is charged regardless of whether you use the card or not.

Some fees can be over $100 depending on the type of card you choose. Credit cards which offer rewards generally have a higher yearly fee to help offset the cost of giving away freebies.

Cards which are not rewards based have a smaller annual fee. When you have only one business credit card, you are already saving money by only having to pay one annual fee.

Maximise Rewards

Some credit cards offer a points based rewards system where the more you spend, the more points you earn.

These points can be ‘cashed in’ for a variety of rewards such as travel, goods and services.

By having multiple credit cards you are spreading your point building ability thinly, increasing the time you will have to wait before you can claim any rewards. Using only one card enables you to increase your points balance and get rewards quickly.

Reduce Theft

Credit cards are a form of cash advance. You are buying without having to part with the cash until later.

But like money, they too can be stolen. Having multiple cards which you have to keep tabs on, increases the likelihood of credit card theft occurring.

This could be physical theft of the card, somebody retaining a copy of the card number for illegal uses or unauthorized purchases where one of your staff members uses a work credit card for personal use.

Former Congresswoman Melissa Bean said,

“Credit card numbers aren’t just data. In the wrong hands they can wipe out someone’s life savings, wreck their credit and cause financial ruin.”

Having one card puts you in a better position to know the exact physical location of the card and who has it.

It is easy to check purchases too as you only need to check one monthly statement.

Fuss Free Record Keeping

Credit card billing statements are a wonderful way of keeping track of all your business expenses. This is because card statements give a paper trail of when, where and how much was spent during a transaction.

Having multiple cards makes this a tricky process, especially if cards are used to pay off other cards by ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’.

However, by only having one business credit card you will make your monthly bookkeeping easier and quicker to complete. You could even end up saving money on accountant’s fees as they would not need to search for information from different sources.

Control Spending

Using multiple credit cards for business expenses can be very costly.

Are you sure you are not paying more than you need to? Having multiple cards makes it harder to keep track of what is being spent, especially if different staff members have their own cards.

Who is to stop duplicate items being purchased, bills being paid twice or more business lunches being eaten than necessary?

Having one card with one responsible person reduces the amount of wasteful or unnecessary spending. They will be able to keep tabs on who has it and what they are using it for.

Unless you have a very large business or are willing to take unnecessary financial risks, it is wise to only have one credit card for your business to use and check or repair your credit history once or twice a year.

After all, everything that is purchased using a credit card needs to be paid back and nobody wants to hand over hard earned money if it could have been avoided.

Disclaimer: Links to 3rd party sites included within this article denoted with /go/ in the URL may result in commission being earned if you decide to make a purchase.

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