Follow these 3 ways to see your blog explode with traffic.

If you want your blog to find its way out of obscurity, we have to fight for our own audiences. We have to earn our authority.

You won’t build authority by copying another writer — even a very good one — but you can improve your influence by following these 3 proven practices.

1. Act against your own self-interest

When you have an agenda, people take what you say with a grain of salt. It’s like a mother saying her boy is the smartest child on the block.

You can dissolve some of this skepticism by, at times, acting against your own self-interest.

This was the objective of the 1960s ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach when selling the world’s ugliest car: they flaunted its dysfunctions.

When you mention weaknesses before strengths, you lower resistance to arguments and generate more belief.

2. Try the “convert effect”

Consider these two different people:

An all-star high school and college athlete who grew up thin and confident, raised by Olympic-caliber parents. A timid soul who struggled with obesity his whole life and grew up in a family more interested in barbecue than barbells

If both people tout the same fitness program based on eating french fries and sprinting up a 40-foot ladder for 7 minutes every day, who would you believe?

No question you’re going to choose the second person. He is more persuasive because he didn’t start out as a fit athlete — he converted to that status after starting life as a coach potato.

3. Play hard to get

Most customers expect you to say things to please them. They may even sense a little desperation. A little bootlicking. And they blow you off.

This is one of the reasons I don’t suggest you say “I’m flexible”when in negotiations.

Say that, and your opponent will suspect you’ll do anything for money. She’ll suspect you don’t care about quality or integrity. In other words, you can be bought … cheaply.

You do your prospects and customers a greater service when you maintain your independence and integrity, defending your hard work and turning down requests.

People will see that you actually have their best interest in mind because you’re not falling over yourself to kiss their bottoms.

Fascinating headline selection process that will take your blog to the top.

Establish Trust with supporting facts and figures, or maintain a consistent (yet engaging) style your readers can count on.

When you have a solid structure, it’s easy to include fascination triggers and connect with your audience emotionally.

A focused strategy for your first 50 words and a cohesive outline for the rest of your content will not only make it easier for you to write, they’ll help you create engaging content that’s easy to read.

Humans are drawn to problems. They attract our attention, but they also produce stress and anxiety. That’s an important benefit for you when you develop your content because it positions you to present a solution.

But, you need to go beyond identifying a problem and get your readers to connect to the emotions behind the problem.

Brian Clark demonstrates this with his post, Site Sensor: Website Monitoring for Content Marketers and Online Entrepreneurs.

The problem of “website downtime,” by itself, isn’t so compelling, but he agitates the problem by demonstrating that website downtime leads to lost sales and cranky customers calling you out on Twitter and Facebook.

What’s the emotional focal point? Alarm, fear of conflict, and loss. The emotional connection is the trigger.

Our emotions are fluid. Robert Plutchik’s famous wheel of emotion shows us how multi-faceted emotion really is. Alarm may simply start as apprehension. As the emotion intensifies, it leads to fear and then terror.

You don’t usually admire others unless you already accept and trust them.

First, you accept their opinions are valuable. Then you trust them as an authority, which leads you to admire them for their accomplishments.

It’s no different if we’re talking about developing trust in a product or service. I accept that your product or service will help me with my needs, I trust you to provide a useful product or service, and I admire you or your business when you meet my expectations.

As you create content that matches the problem with the emotion, you trigger interest through fascination cues and build a relationship through emotional connection in your writing.

Each emotional step your audience takes with you is a little “yes.” This is essential in the process of building any relationship.

So, how do you find the emotional trigger behind the problem? Look at the feelings the problem produces:

Alarm: You’re afraid of losing customers.
Prestige and Alarm: You’re afraid of losing a coveted award.
Trust: You want to convince your customers with stats and social proof.

Once you’ve identified the emotional focal points behind your problem, you’re ready to write a compelling headline that will tap into the appropriate fascination trigger.

the solution mirrors and resolves the problem.

If your content doesn’t deliver the solution and resolve the problem you present, you’ll start to fascinate but end up falling short and frustrating your audience by not completely resolving the problem. the solution mirrors and resolves the problem.

If your content doesn’t fully deliver the solution and resolve the problem you initially present, you’ll start to fascinate but end up falling short and frustrating your audience by not completely fixing the problem.

Let’s take another look at Brian’s Site Sensor example:

The problem: Your site has been down.
The agitator: More than an hour has passed, and you don’t have a clue until you hear from cranky people on Twitter and Facebook.
The solution: When your site is down, you’ll get an instant notification via email, SMS, or iPhone app.

Even if you’re a customer, you may not be familiar with the extent of potential website hosting issues. You know sites go down sometimes, but Brian shows you just how bad it can get.

Once you’re aware of the danger and seriousness of the problem, he swoops in with the solution, relieving your fear, stress, and anxiety.

If the solution doesn’t mirror the problem, there’s no stress relief.

You can test your content to see if the solution you offer matches the problem. It’s as simple as holding them side-by-side and asking yourself, “Do they match? Does this solution directly resolve this problem?”

Want more traffic on your blog? Guaranteed proven traffic driver.

In this post I’m going to show you how to get more traffic to your blog.

Let’s dive right in…

The #1 Struggle Online Business Owners Face Today…

Traffic…

I probably don’t need to tell you that traffic is the lifeblood of any online business.

No traffic, no leads.

No leads, no sales.

No sales, no business.

Even if you already get “enough” traffic, I can guarantee you that you have the potential to boost your traffic by 2x, 3x, or even 10x from where it is today.

The Right Content is:

Content that generates traffic, leads and sales.

Content that gets you traffic from Google.

Content that establishes YOU as an expert.

Because when you do that, everything changes…

When I discovered how to create The Right Content, everything in my life and business changed.

Whether you own an e-commerce site, run a digital marketing  agency, sell software, or if you are a full time blogger, you need content that brings in targeted traffic.

In other words, traffic that will convert into leads and sales.

you need to rank for keywords that your customers search for every day.
Most content published today isn’t designed to maximize shares, traffic and customers.

And, yes, that even includes most “great content”.

Because there’s a BIG difference between “great content” and The Right Content.

And once you know what that difference is, and how to leverage it, you’ll be ahead of 90% of your competitors.

Unless you describe your target customers as “influential bloggers and journalists”, your target audience isn’t going to share your content.

And if they don’t share your content, you’re not going to increase traffic to your website.

Using the power of fascination to drive explosions of traffic to your blog. Seo optimization

Online content marketing is mostly about making a connection with your target audience and building worthwhile relationships with others in your niche. Seo is needed. Since the fact is you invest time and effort into your writing, you want to see tangible results.

what if your posts aren’t getting the engagement you need to take your digital media platform to the next level? How can you create content that deepens your connection with your readers?

The answer might lie in the reason why we take in certain information, while overlooking other content.

Emotions overpower intellect when we make decisions

Emotions almost totally control our decisions and experiences. For instance, when we run into trouble or experience a strong emotion like fear, we tend to obsess over it. We can become irrational or worse.

our fear overshadows and prevents logical thought processes. When the problem is relieved, we’re free from the constraints of our emotions. We’re more open, agreeable, and compliant. We’re able to think rationally again.

Everything starts with emotion. Memories affect our thoughts and opinions; feelings affect our moods and behaviors. The human limbic system is the gatekeeper for all higher thought processing and evaluation.

To build relationships with your audience, you have to first connect with readers on an emotional level.

Because when emotion is missing, we’re not really engaged.

If readers aren’t interested and engaged, they’re not likely to keep reading. And even if they do read your content, they’re not likely to digest it; it’s less likely to make an impact on their lives.

You don’t want them to eat your content without absorbing the nutrients, so how do you get readers to absorb your writing?

You need to fascinate them.

Fascination is a magnetic force

Fascination has the ability to produce intense focus — that feeling you’ve lost track of time since you’ve been completely drawn in to one activity. Fascination enables you to get the emotional response you want.

Bestselling author, brand consultant, and Authority Rainmaker keynote speaker Sally Hogshead, commissioned The Kelton Fascination Study and found there are seven basic facets to fascination.

Alert (or Alarm) creates urgency. It screams consequences, danger, and loss. It’s the screeching tires that flood your body with adrenaline, the Hells Angel parked next to you, and the police sirens behind you. It focuses on what is most feared, not what’s most likely to happen.Mystique arouses curiosity with unanswered questions. It’s bait pieces, limited access, and unsolved mysteries. Alien abductions and D.B. Cooper. The Bermuda Triangle and Taman Shud.Passion ignites sensory pleasure or experience. It’s emotional, expressive, and animated. Passion uses all five senses. It’s the food blog with photos making your mouth water, the Occupy movement, and divisive issues.Power exercises authority and control. It’s a command over people, circumstances, and self. It’s the man with the gun, people with leverage, and military might.Prestige says, “I’m better than you.” It’s one-upmanship, using symbols of hierarchy, rank, and achievement. The luxury car signaling affluence, your coveted award, and the backstage pass. Innovation (or Rebellion) defies absolutes. The bat suit and the first horseless carriage.Trust builds loyalty with repetition and reliability.It’s about the familiar and predictable — the safety and comfort of routine. It’s a pristine track record and consistent performance. Warren Buffett and Amazon 1-Click.

Anytime we’re drawn to something, fascination cues are at play. For writers, using these cues may make the difference between forming an emotional connection with your readers and your content falling flat.

Is it time to legalize marijuana? The honest truth on the issue.

Marijuana used to conjure up the image of a strung out, spacey hippy, saying “Wow, man, that’s cool”. But, the times are indeed rapidly changing.

Millions have died from cigarettes, yet they're still freely sold at stores. Alcoholhas been the root cause of countless deaths due to liver disease, diabetes anddementia with almost 10,000 killed from drunk driving alone in 2011, yet it can still be purchased. Every 19 minutes, someone in the US dies from a prescription overdose. Who has died from marijuana? No one. There is not one confirmed case of someone dying strictly from pot.  Twenty states and DC have legalized medicinal marijuana, while Colorado and Washington state have legalized it for recreational use as well. More states are soon expected to follow suit.

Consider that over 100 million Americans have smoked pot once -- that's 41 percent of the population. Twenty six million or 10 percent, claim they've used it during the past year and fifteen million or 6 percent claim to be regular marijuana users.

Here are four popular misperceptions:

Marijuana is addictive: No, it is not for the vast majority of smokers. I discuss that in detail here.

Marijuana causes brain damage: A meta-analysis of 15 studies found that moderate, daily use does not cause brain damage. Heavy long term use does cause a “very small impairment inmemory and learning”. But any drug can be abused with resulting negative sequelae.

Marijuana makes you lazy and unmotivated: If someone is lazy and unmotivated before using weed, they will remain lazy and unmotivated after. The so called “amotivational syndrome” ascribed to pot smoking has never been proven.

A guide to updating your old blog posts. You can triple your traffic instantly.

One of the first steps to creating adaptive content is becoming aware of the content you already have. This is why we encourage you to audit your site.

But before you dive into a full-blown comprehensive content audit, it might be possible to make your job a little easier by first dealing with all of the expired content.

What exactly is expired content?

It’s those old sales pages, obsolete product pages, and other outdated content. The pages you’ve forgotten about in your archives that desperately need some attention.

You’ll know where some of this content is off the top of your head. To properly attend to other pages, you may just have to walk through your archives.

Now, this might take an afternoon or longer, but as Sonia said in her article on content audits, there are a number of benefits to knowing what’s in your archives.

Why should you fix old, broken content?

There are a number of good reasons why you shouldn’t ignore old, broken, and neglected sections of your website.

Here are three benefits of attending to expired content:

Keeps your site light. True, the more pages on your site, the wider your reach in search engine traffic. But search engine bots will also require more bandwidth to crawl your site. As Stephanie Chang writes, “You don’t want to risk wasting your crawl allowance having bots crawl pages that are thin in unique content and value.” Keeps your site fresh. Expired and old information communicates to search engines (and your audience) that your site is stale.

Enhances the user experience. A well-groomed site enhances a user’s experience because he won’t stumble across inaccurate information or waste time reading two blog posts when one would suffice.

What exactly should you do with this content? You have four options for fixing each piece:

Leave it alone. If it’s still accurate and necessary information, then you might find good reasons to leave it alone. Did it earn a lot of inbound links? Continues to drive traffic? Then it might be worth keeping. However, the big disadvantage with this option is that traffic to stale content often bounces — and bounces hard — which ruins the user experience. I would suggest you leave expired content alone if it can’t be fixed with one of the options below. But more than likely you can find a way to improve it.Redirect it (301). This is the most sophisticated option, but it has to be done right. Do not redirect to your home page. Google hates it, and it drives visitors nuts. The goal with redirects is to point the expired page to another page that is as close as possible in style, intent, and category. You want to match the original user intent as much as possible with the new page. A redirect preserves any link juice, too. This process, however, can be labor intensive.

Delete it (404). This is the lazy man’s way to deal with expired content — and it’s a horrible idea. It wastes any incoming links, irritates the search engines, and upsets users (even if you do have ahip 404 page). Remember, 404 pages are appropriate for people who mistype a URL. They are not a way to deal with expired content.Improve it. This is hands down the hardest approach, but also the best. Look at a page and ask yourself, “How can I make this page better?” You might need to update a page if the information on the page is no longer accurate, or consolidate it with another page if you see an overlap in content between two pieces. Perhaps you need to update an outdated event or obsolete product page, instead of deleting them.

Can You Resist Clicking These 3 Headlines? (One is So Good I Had to Copy it Right Away)

Your headlines are the tentacles that pull people into your blog. More then your content itself, your title is what brings browsers to your content.
Without a compelling, thought provoking, and interesting headline even the best content is likely to go unnoticed. Meanwhile a great headline can bring popularity to even subpar content.
You should be aiming to envoke emotion with a headline. Ask a question that will inspire further thought. For instance, Are u making the mistake of not planning for retirement is going to perform better then how to plan for retirement. You have to remember the importance of interpersonal relationships in the online world. Many great possibilities are created by the advent of the internet. You just have to be savy, smart, and interesting.
As far as blog posts go, anyone can publish one so its important that you understand that in order to become popular you have to stand out by creating useful or entertaining content that engages your readers. When people are reading they want to know what's interesting before they lose focus on the issue.
Don't give up on your dreams just understand and accept that if you know your good enough then you have to work enough. If you don't enjoy writing then blogging is probably not for you. It takes passion mixed with knowledge to make a blog a success. If you put effort into making the best content that you can while using effective promotional techniques that success is almost a certainty.

Headline 1.) the best content for your blog. If your struggling to generate traffic you need to read this.
Headline 2.) why are you not building an audience for your blog? 2 common mistakes your probably making.
Headline 3.) Why you need to plan your future early. Don't put it off too late.

As you can see all three headlines envoke emotion and further thought. Which is essential if you plan to gain readers.