A lot of beginner bloggers do a heavy about of sinning when they first start out…

I’m not saying they’re bad people, it’s just that they are committing nearly all of the deadly sins that bloggers need to look out for.

“But wait, aren’t there 7 deadly sins?”

In the religious context, yes, but as a blogger, there are really only 5 sins you need to worry about…

1.) Gluttony

“What does gluttony have to do with blogging?”

Simply put: when you “consume” too much and don’t create some kind of output, you are being gluttonous.

For bloggers, this comes in the form of information rather than things like food.

The over-consumption of information is dangerous, it leads to someone who is always out on the prowl for the newest trick or tactic, but who has never put them into practice.

This is especially important if you read a lot of “blogging about blogging” blogs (hey, I’m just being brutally honest, as usual).

It’s not that they don’t provide value, it’s that they can get you captivated in the “ooh shiny” mentality, getting caught up in the so called ‘latest and greatest’ when you should be busy implementing a solid foundation of techniques that work, including things like creating great content and writing guest posts to promote that content.

2.) Greed

A lot of bloggers are susceptible to this sin, hell, even established bloggers are suspect.

So, what is it about greed that can really hold a blogger back?

First of all, greed often has people putting up invasive advertisements & promoting crappy products, all the while not maintaining a focus on building a thriving audience.

Your readers are not commodities, they can be loyal customers if you treat them well, and brand advocates if you treat them very well.

They are also people, would you want to be treated in misleading ways on another person’s website?

Of course not, so don’t promote filth with an affiliate link just to make a quick buck, and don’t throw up advertisements on your second week blogging: build an audience, build an email list, and treat people with the courtesy that they deserve, there’s much more to blogging than making a quick buck.

3.) Pride

This sin is a surefire way to failure.

“My content is so good, I don’t have to promote it, the quality will do the talking!”

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but here’s two things why that won’t work:

1. You are probably overrating how good your content is (it’s your “baby”, you’re bound to see it differently)
2. There is a ton of great content on the web now, businesses often have content strategists that work on just their blog (like I with my posts on the HelpScout blog)

The overall point: It’s a competitive market; scratch that, a hyper competitive market, in almost every niche!

There are people who are paid to do what you are trying to succeed with, how can you hope to compete?

Great content is now the price of entry, NOT the defining factor for a successful blog.

So, how can you market your content without being a sleazebag?

You’re reading a method right now: write for other blogs in your space, that one should be obvious to you if you aren’t totally new.

You also need to be creating content that’s easy to plug into conversations.

You needn’t be afraid of emailing people about a new piece of yours if it relates to them in some general way, such as if they are in the same industry.

Want to know how I got Neil Patel, a guy with 100,000+ follows, to tweet about my article?

I asked him!

Crazy, ain’t it?

I told him that I had this planned as a guest post for his site, but thought it went with my brand better.

I also (via email, the best social network) asked if he wouldn’t mind sharing the piece if he enjoyed it.

He tweeted it within the hour, he’s a nice dude!

You shouldn’t be badgering the same people every time to you post something new, but reaching out to new folks from time to time will do amazing things for your blog’s promotion, trust me.

4.) Sloth

Oh man, this one can get a lot of people.

I’ve had people email me about their struggles with their blog, and when I got to visit it, they haven’t posted in 2 months!

That’s an extreme example, and sometimes it’s more insidious: people who are posting regularly, but doing nothing to market their content.

Sometimes, it might even be necessary to have a “1:1″ ratio for posts, or an “80:20″ ratio for marketing vs. posting.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I’m saying that posting 1 guest post for every post on your blog can be the ideal way to actually build an audience.

I’m also saying that, in some cases, spending upwards of 50, 60, 70, or even 80% of your time marketing your posts can be the way to go.

As a new blog, you should be focusing on creating a unique angle and outstanding content: don’t worry about posting once a day, that’s a load of bull.

Instead, create posts that are worthy of promotion, and spend the next week promoting the hell out of them (and your blog in general) with guest posts, emails, networking, etc.

Sounds goofy, but people far more experienced than me will tell you the same thing.

People like to think great content promotes itself, and that’s true, but in such a crowded place as the internet, who’s going to get the ball rolling?

The answer: you.

5. Envy/Lust/Wrath

I’ve combined the last 3 sings because they all relate to one thing (in my eyes)…

Caring too much about what other’s are doing.

It’s easy to get envious of others reach & audience, lustful of their income, and even angry that you cannot seem to do the same.

But such is business, and such is life.

Everybody has to start from square one in some fashion or another, and worrying about others does nothing for your own projects.

It’s okay to “observe” others; learning from people who’s advice you actually trust is a great way to skip having the same failures as them.

Be wary though: in the world of online marketing, there are some seriously shady characters.

What to be weary of: “Quick” fixes to anything, bizopps that target people who are total beginners in business, software that promises the world, people selling shady SEO techniques, anything that makes a process you know to be a lot of work (like building a successful blog) look easy; if it looks too good to be true, it’s a scam.

Over To You

Do you commit any blogging sins?

How do you plan on “repenting” and getting back to business?

Thanks for reading, I’d love to see you down in the comments!

Gregory Ciotti is the founder of Sparring Mind and a regular columnist for DailyBlogTips. Download his free ‘Conversion Psychology’ e-Book today to learn the science behind increasing conversions.

First of all keep in mind I don’t support or see as a positive thing the massacres that happened in Central and South America when Spain, Portugal and other European nations started colonizing the continent. Quite the opposite. That being said we can still learn from their strategic and military choices, and that is what this post is about.

Hernán Cortés was the Spanish general who was responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire and sub-sequent colonization of the Americas by Spain. His military technology was far superior, but the Aztec outnumbered his men, and they were fighting for their lives (i.e., as motivated as you can get…).

In other words, he needed something to motivate his men to fight eagerly as well, else there was a chance they would be defeated.

That is why when he arrived at the shores he gave orders to burn and sink all the ships that brought his men. He wanted to make it clear that retreating was not an option. If the Aztecs were fighting for their lives, well, so were the Spanish men now. And as you might remember from history classes, it worked.

Bottom line: sometimes you need to burn the ships and the bridges behind you to make sure you’ll give all you’ve got.

Here are some examples of how this might apply to startups and websites, even if at a smaller scale:

• Renew your domain for 10 years, so you tell yourself that this is for the long run.
• Invest $1000 on a design for your website, so you tell yourself that if you stop working on it you’ll lose that money.
• Once your online business starts making some decent money consider quitting your day job, so you tell yourself that now your websites need to pay your bills.

What about you, are you willing to burn the bridges?

If you still haven’t seen the piece on The Verge where they slam some Internet marketing gurus pretty hard, well, grab some popcorn and visit the link below, cause you are in for a treat (whether you agree with the opinions of the article or not).

The post is titled Scamworld: ‘Get rich quick’ schemes mutate into an online monster, and it runs for thousands of words with a very comprehensive view on the matter.

Just to give you an idea on how they didn’t hold any punches: there are pictures and videos of some pretty famous Internet marketers (e.g., Frank Kern and Mike Filsaime) all over the article, with explanations of how they “scam” people out of their money. Here’s a quote:

When you first discover Internet Marketing, whether online or at an event like this, it’s tempting to overthink things. Internet Marketers like to make their industry appear complicated to the point of obfuscation. In reality, things are pretty simple.

“The product is really irrelevant,” Frank Kern tells an audience of Internet Marketers on one of his many videos floating around the web. “Now, that’s not to say that you can’t, or don’t need to, or should not make an absolutely kick-ass product. That is not what I am trying to tell you at all. But we should never put the cart before the horse.”

Later in the same video, he explains that “the market” (what people are willing to buy) is the most important factor when developing an information product, and not whether you’re actually qualified to teach someone about a subject.

If anything, Internet Marketing is a form of “pure marketing” that exists often without the complication of an actual product. Rather than develop something useful, Internet Marketers create something out of thin air: likely a worthless e-book, or some sort of coaching session that consists of a semi-regular phone consultation.

There’s even a graph showing who is connected to whom, like they do with the Mafia and other criminal organizations…

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with everything that is on the article, but I find it pretty interesting that mainstream tech publications are starting to take an interest on the Internet marketing world, and if they are shady stuff out there I think it’s positive to see it exposed.

Check it out and take your own conclusions though.

Do your posts seem to be a loose collection of ideas, in no particular order?

When I’m coaching bloggers, one common problem that comes up is a lack of structure. During the drafting process, many writers simply sit down and type whatever comes into their head. That’s fine for a warm-up … but it’s not a very efficient way to create a blog post.

Think of structure as the underlying framework for your posts. With a strong frame in place, your post won’t sag in the middle or have bits falling off at the edges: it’ll be easy for you to create, and easy for your readers to take in.

How to Structure Your Posts

Every post needs three key elements:

• Introduction – this hooks the reader and introduces the topic
• Main body – this explores the topic, often with subsections or several bullet points
• Conclusion – this rounds off the post and gives a call to action

When you edit your next blog post, check that your introduction is present, and that it does a good job of hooking the reader. (If you’ve written a list post, for instance, don’t just jump straight in with the first item – give the reader some context for the list, so they have a reason to read it.)

Check, too, that you have a conclusion: bloggers often leave this off. Your conclusion doesn’t need to repeat everything you’ve said in the post, but it does need to make the post feel complete. You could end by encouraging people to try out an idea from the post, or by asking them to leave comments about their own experiences.

The main body of your post is the section that needs careful structuring. Some simple ways to do this are:

• Use subheadings to split the post into sections of roughly equal length
• Use numbered items to create a list post
• Use numbered steps to create a “how to” post
• Use paragraphs that build up towards a particular point

As you’re planning your post, think about what subheadings or list items you might use, and try writing them in different orders to see what makes the most sense for you and for your audience.

And if you get stuck … try looking at posts on some of your favourite blogs. See how they’re put together: look at the introduction, the conclusion, and the main body of the post. You could use that framework for a post of your own.

If you have any good tips on structure, or any questions, just pop a comment below.

Author: Ali Luke writes a regular column for Daily Blog Tips. If you’d like to take your writing or blogging further, join her weekly newsletter, and download your free guides Ten Powerful Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Stronger and Ten Easy Ways to Attract Readers to Your Blog … And Keep Them There.

A couple of weeks ago I published a post explaining the basic process you need to go through if you want to become a YouTube partner, which allows you to display ads and monetize your uploaded videos. My buddy John Chow followed that post up with an explanation of his approach to YouTube monetization, which is quite different.

In his post titled How to Make Money on YouTube John explains that in addition to the money he makes from the ad impressions on the video he also earns by placing affiliate links in the description of the videos. In fact he mentions that the affiliate links earn much more than the video ads.

Brilliant huh?

Obviously in order to make this work you need to plan a bit. For instance, John usually links to products he is talking in the video itself, so viewers will be more likely to become interested, click on the link and make the purchase. If you check his post you’ll be able to see screenshots from his videos, which pretty much shows how it’s done.

Once your affiliate links are set you’ll need to work on getting people to watch your videos. The first step here is to get a bunch of videos uploaded and to become a YouTube partner, as this increases your chances of getting your videos ranked high. Not sure what kind of videos you should create? Check out this post with 10 video blog ideas.

Second, don’t forget that SEO works with YouTube videos as well. For instance, you could link to your video page from your blog, from guest posts, from blog comments and so on. This should boost your rankings both inside YouTube’s search and Google’s one.

Third, don’t forget to leverage social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Pinterest) to give an extra push to your videos. This part will work well if you have some viral element on your videos (e.g., rants, humor, how to stuff).