In this digital landscape, crafting compelling content is both an art and a science. Whether you’re a seasoned content creator or just starting your journey, mastering effective strategies and generating innovative ideas are key to captivating your audience and achieving your goals.

Join us as we delve into the topic of content creation strategies that will inspire, inform, and empower you to create content that resonates, engages, and leaves a lasting impact. From brainstorming techniques to storytelling secrets, unlock the potential of your creative genius and take your content creation prowess to new heights!

Unleashing Your Content Creation Potential

Crafting captivating content requires a blend of creativity, strategy, and audience insight. Explore these effective content creation strategies to fuel your creativity and engage your audience:

1. Understanding Your Audience

Unlocking Insights: Before diving into content creation, it’s crucial to understand your audience inside and out. Conduct thorough research to uncover the demographics, preferences, pain points, and interests of your audience.

2. Brainstorming and Ideation Techniques

Creative Spark: Tap into your creative reservoir with effective brainstorming and ideation techniques. Whether it’s mind mapping, freewriting, or collaborative sessions, explore different methods to generate a wide range of content ideas.

3. Crafting Compelling Storytelling

Narrative Mastery: Storytelling is a powerful tool that can elevate your content from good to exceptional. Develop narratives that resonate with your audience’s emotions, experiences, and aspirations.

4. Optimizing for SEO and Engagement

Visibility and Impact: Effective content creation strategies go hand in hand with SEO optimization and audience engagement. Conduct keyword research to discover relevant topics and optimize your content for search engines.

5. Multimedia and Visual Content

Diverse Formats: Diversify your content strategy by incorporating multimedia and visual elements. Experiment with videos, infographics, images, podcasts, and interactive content formats to cater to diverse audience preferences.

Conclusion: Elevate Your Content Creation Journey

Congratulations, you made it to the end of our post exploring different content creation strategies and ideas! As you embark on your content creation journey, remember to:

1. Know Your Audience: Tailor your content to meet the needs and preferences of your target audience.
2. Fuel Creativity: Continuously seek inspiration, experiment with new ideas, and nurture your creative spark.
3. Optimize and Engage: Combine SEO best practices with engaging storytelling to maximize reach and impact.
4. Embrace Diversity: Explore diverse content formats and channels to reach and connect with a broader audience.
5. Measure and Iterate: Monitor content performance metrics, gather feedback, and iterate your strategy for continuous improvement.

With these strategies and ideas in your toolkit, unleash your creativity, inspire your audience, and make a meaningful impact through your content creations!

The post Unleash Your Creativity With These Content Creation Strategies appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Free writing is not about perfection or polished articles; it’s about letting your thoughts flow freely, without judgment or inhibition. Whether you’re a seasoned writer looking to overcome blocks or a beginner seeking to tap into your creative potential, free writing offers a liberating and rewarding experience.

Join us as we delve into the principles, benefits, and techniques of free writing, empowering you to break through barriers, discover new insights, and elevate your writing to new heights.

Unleashing Your Creative Flow with Free Writing

1. Understanding Free Writing

Definition: Free writing, also known as “stream of consciousness” writing, involves continuous and unstructured writing without concern for grammar, spelling, or punctuation. It’s a method of letting your thoughts flow freely onto the page, allowing ideas to emerge spontaneously.

Purpose: The primary goal of free writing is to bypass the details that often inhibit creative expression. By suspending judgment and focusing on the act of writing without constraints, free writing enables writers to access deeper thoughts, insights, and emotions.

2. Benefits of Free Writing

Creativity Boost: Free writing stimulates creativity by encouraging divergent thinking and exploring unconventional ideas. It fosters a mindset of experimentation and innovation, leading to unique and original content.

Insightful Discoveries: Through free writing, writers often uncover unexpected insights, connections, and perspectives. It provides a window into the subconscious mind, revealing thoughts and emotions that may not surface in structured writing.

3. How to Write Effectively

Setting the Stage: Create an optimal environment for free writing by finding a quiet space, eliminating distractions, and setting aside dedicated time for writing. Consider using soothing music or “white noise” to enhance focus.

Starting Point: Begin a free writing session by setting a timer for 10-15 minutes. Choose a topic, word, or phrase as a starting point, or simply write about whatever comes to mind. The key is to keep writing without pausing or editing.

Embracing the Process: Emphasize the importance of embracing imperfection and letting go of self-criticism during free writing. Encourage writers to write quickly and freely, allowing ideas to flow without overthinking or self-editing.

Review and Reflect: After the session, review what you’ve written without judgment. Look for recurring themes, interesting ideas, or surprising insights. Use these discoveries as inspiration for future writing projects or to explore topics in more depth.

4. Tips to be Successful

Consistency: Incorporate free writing into your regular writing routine to cultivate creativity and improve writing fluency. Aim for daily or weekly free writing sessions to maintain momentum and reap long-term benefits.

Open-Mindedness: Approach free writing with an open mind. Be willing to explore unexpected thoughts, emotions, and associations that arise during the writing process.

Non-Judgmental Attitude: Practice self-compassion and suspend self-judgment during free writing. Remind yourself that the goal is not perfection but free expression and exploration.

Exploring Different Techniques: Experiment with different free writing techniques to keep the practice engaging and varied. Try stream of consciousness writing, prompt-based writing, or themed sessions to stimulate creativity and spark new ideas.

Conclusion

Congratulations on exploring the art and benefits of free writing! Remember that free writing is not just a writing technique—it’s a journey of self-discovery, creativity, and expression. Here are some key takeaways to keep in mind:

1. Embrace Imperfection: Free writing is about letting go of perfectionism and embracing the raw, unfiltered expression of ideas. Don’t be afraid to write messily or make mistakes; it’s all part of the process.
2. Unlock Insights: Through free writing, you can uncover hidden thoughts, emotions, and perspectives that may not emerge in structured writing. Use these insights to deepen your understanding of yourself and your writing.
3. Stimulate Creativity: Free writing stimulates creativity by encouraging divergent thinking, exploring new ideas, and pushing boundaries. It’s a valuable tool for overcoming creative blocks and generating fresh content.
4. Practice Regularly: Incorporate free writing into your writing routine as a creative warm-up or exploration exercise. Consistent practice enhances writing fluency, improves brainstorming skills, and nurtures a creative mindset.
5. Enjoy the Process: Above all, enjoy the process of free writing. It’s a liberating and rewarding experience that allows you to tap into your creative flow and express yourself authentically.

As you continue your writing journey, remember that free writing is just one of many tools in your creative toolkit. Explore, experiment, and find what works best for you. Happy writing!

The post Free Writing: Unlocking Your Creativity appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Maybe life got hectic, or perhaps you needed some time to recharge and refocus. Whatever the reason, hitting the “pause” button on your blogging journey is nothing to fret about. In fact, it’s quite common among bloggers of all levels.

Now, the real magic happens when you hit “play” again and dive back into the world of blogging. In this post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of restarting your blog after a break, sharing insights, tips, and strategies to help you make a triumphant return to the blogging scene.

Assessing Your Blog’s Current State

The first step in restarting your blog after a break is to assess where you left off.

Take a moment to review your last few posts, analyze your blog’s performance metrics (like traffic, engagement, etc.), and identify any changes in your niche or audience preferences during your absence.

This assessment will provide valuable insights into what worked before, what needs improvement, and where you can pivot or evolve your content strategy.

Reconnecting with Your Audience

After a break in blogging, it’s essential to reconnect with your audience.

Engage with your readers through social media, email newsletters, or even a simple blog post announcing your comeback. Show genuine interest in their feedback, suggestions, and topics they’d like to see covered.

Building this connection strengthens your blog’s community and ensures that your content resonates with your audience’s interests and needs.

Updating Your Content Calendar and Strategy

A break in blogging offers an excellent opportunity to refresh your content calendar and strategy.

Consider new topics and formats for your blog such as videos, podcasts, and infographics. Adjust your posting frequency so that it aligns with your goals and audience. Incorporate keyword research and SEO optimization to enhance your blog’s visibility and attract organic traffic.

A well-planned content strategy sets the foundation for consistent and engaging blogging post-break.

Overcoming Writer’s Block and Creativity Slumps

Returning to blogging may come with its challenges, including writer’s block and creativity slumps.

Experiment with different brainstorming techniques, like mind mapping or freewriting, to generate ideas.

Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone and explore diverse topics or angles. Collaborate with guest bloggers or participate in blogging communities to spark creativity and discover fresh perspectives.

Embracing Consistency and Persistence

Consistency is key to blogging success.

Set realistic goals and stick to a regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged and build momentum. Be persistent in refining your content, promoting it across channels, and adapting to feedback.

Remember, your current blog wasn’t built in a day. Stay patient, stay focused, and stay committed to your blogging journey.

Conclusion: Your Blogging Comeback Starts Now

Congratulations! You’ve taken the first steps towards restarting your blog after a break. Remember, returning to blogging is not just about picking up where you left off—it’s about embracing growth, learning, and adapting along the way.

As you embark on this blogging comeback journey, keep these key points in mind:

1. Reflect and Learn: Use your break as a learning opportunity. Reflect on past successes and challenges to inform your future strategies.
2. Engage and Connect: Reconnect with your audience and build meaningful relationships. Their feedback and support are invaluable.
3. Plan and Execute: Develop a solid content strategy, stay consistent, and be persistent in achieving your blogging goals.
4. Embrace Challenges: Overcome writer’s block, creativity slumps, and setbacks with resilience and creativity.
5. Celebrate Progress: Celebrate milestones, big or small, and acknowledge the progress you’ve made on your blogging journey.

Your blog’s comeback story is unique, and it’s waiting to unfold with each new post, interaction, and milestone. Embrace the excitement, challenges, and growth that come with restarting your blog, and enjoy the journey ahead!

The post Restarting Your Blog After A Break appeared first on Blogging Flail.

As you are working, you feel the heat from the laptop and think to yourself, this feels a lot warmer then normal. As you continue to work, you notice the heat radiating from your old laptop continues to rise. Panic sets in, you think about powering it down but don’t want to lose your work, and then it happens. Your laptop just died.

Now what? You quickly forget about that blog post you were hoping to have live by morning, and immediately start to think about how you are going to afford a new laptop. Sure, you have some passive income coming in from advertising on your blog, but that’s not going to cover the cost of a new laptop.

Selling Your Old Laptop

Maybe the above scenario is a bit far-fetched. More realistically, perhaps you’re using an older laptop for your blogging hobby. The CPU is a bit dated, it needs more memory, and overall the thing is a dinosaur that’s just too darn slow.

You have options…

Computers and laptops are considerably cheaper today than they were 5 years ago, but they can still be expensive. You want something that’s going to give you some decent speed and be able to last several years.

I mean Apple buys back their old iPhones, why can’t someone come up with a way to buy an old or broken laptop?

Two sites that come to mind that do just that are SellBroke and SellLaptopBack.

Here’s how it works.  You select the type of device you want to sell. This can be a laptop, desktop, phone, or tablet. Enter the condition of the computer you want to sell, and any defects that you are aware of. Hit the “Get Quote” button, and you get an instant quote.

If you decide the price is right, they’ll email you a pre-paid mailing label. You simply box things up, attach the mailing label, and send it in. Once they receive the machine, they’ll check things out and if everything is as described, you’ll receive a payment through Google Pay, PayPal, or a company check.

How’s that for options?

Now you can leverage that old or broken-down machine to help offset the cost of a brand new laptop to continue your blogging adventures.

Looking for another advantage to recycling your old machine? How about helping to save the environment. Instead of dumping your old dead laptop in the trash, which is well just irresponsible, leverage someone else to dispose of it properly (and get paid for it).

Keep in mind, there’s a huge market for old computer parts. Your old laptop may be refurbished and resold or stripped of its components to be used to fix other broken computers.

Selling you old laptop to a reputable company is the responsible thing to do. So what are you waiting for. You know you’ve been looking at that latest Dell, or maybe now you can even afford a new MacBook.

The post Oh No, My Laptop Just Died appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Everywhere you look, there are blog posts that show you how to start a successful blog.

These posts have a ton of great content, and walk you through the basics of starting a blog. But there’s one thing missing, ok maybe there’s a few things missing.

If you want to learn how to start a successful blog, you need to think outside the box a bit, and do the things not everyone is telling you.

How To Start A Successful Blog (The Basics)

Like I said previously, there’s some very good information out there on starting a successful blog. These posts walk you through the basics such as:

• Choosing a domain name
• Advantage of the self-hosted route vs WordPress.com
• Finding A Host
• Basic install / configuration of WordPress

A quick Google or YouTube search will give you all the information you need.  If you want a head start, you can check out Neil or WP Beginner, both of which are very reputable. 

But wait, there’s more.

Before you publish that first post, there’s a few other things you should keep in mind.

Take a look at the following…

The 9 Things They Didn’t Tell You

If you truly want to start a successful blog, there’s a number of other things you should consider before publishing your first post. The intent of this post isn’t to provide a detail description on each of these topics, rather it’s meant to provide a few points that will get you thinking.

Update Your Permalink Structure

You’ll need this for your SEO Strategy. Think of the Permalink as the structure of the URL for each of your posts. You’ll want this to be descriptive enough to help the search engines when they come crawling.

Update Your WordPress Settings

There are countless settings in WordPress that you can update to personalize your blog. You’ll want to spend some time getting acquainted with the WordPress dashboard, before you jump too far into things. 

Install A Backup Plugin

Oh boy, what do you do when your blog gets hacked, and all your content disappears? Don’t think this will ever happen to you, chances are it will at some point, and you should plan for it. 

Having a backup plugin running on your site is a nice insurance policy in case you ever need to do a restore.

Be Careful Of Plugin’s

Speaking of plugin’s, don’t go crazy. They have a tendency to slow down your site and can post security risks if they haven’t been updated in a while. Only download what is truly necessary.

Check Your Site Speed

Google loves sites that load fast, so be cognizant of site and page speed. While images are great, they will slow down your site unless you compress them. Look into image compression plugin’s that can help with this.

Run some site speed tests on your blog to see how your performance is doing.

Learn The Basics Of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is a big one, and there’s a whole lot to learn. If SEO is a foreign topic to you, spend some time researching it before you get too far. There’s both on-page and off-page SEO topics, and they are both important. 

If you don’t at least put some focus on SEO, you’ll never “Rank” for the keywords you want to focus on. Without that, people will never find your brand.

Find Other Bloggers In Your Niche

I’ve said this before on this blog…  The secret to a successful blog is networking. If you want to network with other bloggers in your niche, you need to find 5 or 6 that can help you. Once you have this list, you can start focusing on them to help build your brand.

Read Other Blog Posts

Since you spent the time finding other bloggers in your niche, read their blog posts. Not only will this help you identify the bloggers you want to follow, but you’ll learn something along the way.

Comment On Other Blogs

And since you spent the time reading the post, why not leave a comment telling the blogger how much you enjoyed the article. Don’t just leave a simple “great article” comment, put some thought into it. If you can write a thought provoking comment, other readers will notice and may want to check out your blog as a result of this.

Have you noticed a common theme with the above items?

They are all focused on driving traffic to your site. Whether it be from Search Engine Optimization or Networking, you need that traffic to succeed.

Remember, you can write the greatest post in the world, but if nobody can find it, who’s going to read it?

What Are You Waiting For

So go on, now that you’ve got all of the above accounted for, hit that publish button.

I can’t stress enough how important networking is if you want to start a successful blog. You need to get your name out there, let these other bloggers know who you are.

The success of your blog depends on it!

How do I know that? I was there. I was creating content, updating my blog, and nobody was reading it.

That all changed a few months ago when I discovered networking. I implemented a strategy and it’s working so far. If you want to follow my progress, and pick up a trick or two along the way, just click here.

The post How To Start A Successful Blog (The 9 Things They Didn’t Tell You) appeared first on Blogging Flail.

In any case, WordPress performance optimization should rank right up there on your priority list.

Why?

Two words. Ok, make that two separate statements:

1. Your visitors sanity
2. Google search results

If your site takes forever to load, do you really think a visitor to your site is going to stick around and wait. Nope! They’ll hit that back button quicker than you can say – wait!

And then there’s Google. Google loves performance, and will reward you (or not penalize you), if you have a site that loads quickly.

That’s why I created this post on WordPress Performance Optimization Tips, and I have a video to go along with it (with a link below).

WordPress Performance Optimization Tips

So how do you get the WordPress performance that you’d like to get? Simple, there’s a plugin for that.

In our case, we’ll focus on two specific WordPress plugins to help optimize the performance of our WordPress site.

1. EWWW Image Optimizer
2. W3 Total Cache

By using both of these plugins you’ll see a drastic improvement in your WordPress performance.

EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer will compress the images on your site. This nifty little tool will automatically compress any new image that you upload to WordPress, and it will do this for your in the background. So if you are uploading a new image to include in a blog post, EWWW Image Optimizer compresses it and maintains the quality.

What if you have a number of images already uploaded? This plugin can take care of that for you as well. There’s a batch process you can run directly from the plugin. This process will search all images, and compress each and every one of them for you.

I’ve used this plugin for years, and I’ve never been tempted to try anything else. It’s that good.

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is a multi purpose plugin that can do a number of things to optimize the performance of your WordPress blog. This thing can get a little technical, and there are a number of options to configure. But it’s well worth spending the time learning it, as the performance boosts are tremendous.

WordPress Performance Optimization Tips Video

I know what you’re thinking, give me something more to go on than just listing a couple of plugins.

Well, it’s much easier laying this all out in a video, and that’s exactly what I did. Take a look, and you’ll see how you can configure both of these plugins to give you the WordPress performance optimization you so desire.

Not only that, I’ll prove it to you in the video. We’ll take a before and after snapshot of our WordPress performance using two different tools (Pingdom and GTMetrix). You’ll see first hand how these performance optimization tips will improve your blog.

Here’s a link to my video on WordPress Performance Optimization Tips if you’d like to view it on YouTube.

And if you find value in this, please be sure to subscribe to my channel, as I’ll be posting other videos in the near future.

The post WordPress Performance Optimization Tips appeared first on Blogging Flail.

I do however keep the site active, and from time to time get various requests to guest post on this site. For the most part I ignore these, as I’m not familiar with the blogger, or I don’t have an interest in their content.

That changed when I received an email from Gareth Simpson, who had some very interesting topics he was pitching. After reading his piece, I just knew I wanted to share it here.

How To Rank Your Brand With Links In 2024

We all know that links help your website rank, but how can you build powerful links for your brand that have real impact beyond just a simple authority signal? What link building tactics should you be thinking about as you plan out your annual SEO strategy and budget? Here are some different long term strategies you can use to rank your brand in 2024.

Get the community behind your links

A great way to build successful links fast is to work with the people around you and get as many people as possible involved with your content. Why?

• People are more likely to link back to something if they’ve been included in it.
• Using your community for content will help you cut content production time, and create more user-focused content.

How to feature other people in your content for links

Build up a reputation as someone who is likely to share and promote other people’s content and businesses – it will make people more likely to link back to you. This isn’t just something that’s ‘nice’ to do – be really strategic on who you promote, and why – always look for mutual benefit and value. Some content formats that work well:

• Link roundups – hosting your own link roundup doesn’t take long, and it is a great way to encourage social shares, engagement and backlinks to your content. Hosting your own link roundup is also a great leverage for when you want to be included in someone else’s! If you’re aiming to be included in other people’s roundups – make sure your outreach emails are persuasive, yet concise. Use the power of social proof and always name drop someone you both know, or find common ground if you can.
• Interview features – conducting interviews with people allows you to build relationships, and people love to include interviews on their press or media pages. Interviews also often lead to reciprocal interview requests.
• The expert roundup – get influencers to comment on a specific topic by asking them to contribute a few lines to your blog in exchange for some online awareness. You could ask them to comment on a common business or personal challenge, or provide their insight on a very specific industry topic that’s got the town talking. Sometimes even just a tweet is enough to convey a message effectively so do your outreach via social media if it’s easier – just make sure you are concise, but persuasive. These people are busy – don’t waste their time.

Build a resource

Building a content resource can take some research and development time, but it’s a fantastic way to get more links back to your website. Whether it’s a calculator, a dynamic quiz, or detailed infographic – go for something very niche-specific that has lots of user value. You want something that people are going to find revelatory: something they want to bookmark right there and then.

• Here are some great content ideas and resources to get you started, but remember that originality works best. If you have to follow in someone else’s footsteps, go above and beyond what they did and make your resource bigger and better.
• Any resource you create will need to be properly marketed and presented in order for it to get good backlinks. Pay for PPC and social media advertising to help raise awareness. Targeted email and social campaigns also work well – look for industry resource pages or knowledge base sites who would benefit from linking to you.

Outreach your content or expertise

Link building is about putting yourself out there – don’t be shy. Shout about your great content and learn how to sell to editors and PR managers as well as potential customers. Here are some great guest posting resources to get you started.

• Getting in touch with websites in your industry to get a link back to one of your on-page resources is a great place to start for relevant, quality links. To sweeten the deal, offer them a guest post commenting on a recent industry trend, showing how people can tackle their own challenges. The key to success here is finding relevant sites and building relationships – spend lots of time identifying targets and writing great emails to maximize returns. Don’t just ask for a link – show how your resource and guest post is going to benefit their audience. A really powerful email and value proposition are super important.
• Try to clarify that you are not looking for paid advertisement, but hope to offer content of real value. Different websites have different rules about outbound content and sponsored content, so make sure you are careful with who you outreach to.
• Remember that before you can even start, you have to work hard on your on-site content offering – you have to impress people who are experts in your field. Don’t forget to revisit your entire site as a whole – a great resource can be let down if the rest of the domain is lacking.

Work with bloggers and influencers

Loads of bloggers work with brands and are open to promoting you if you’re offering something that is of value to their audience. Blogger and influencer partnerships can be really fruitful and powerful if managed in the right way, but you can also end up getting tangled in knots if you don’t play by the rules.

• Think of relevancy whenever you suggest a partnership with someone. Bloggers are very careful about their audiences and won’t want to ‘sell out’ and promote something they have no interest in.
• The best relationships offer value for both parties – make sure that you are clear on how you are going to work together and for how long. Spend time getting to know bloggers and learn what makes them ‘tick’ to get the most out of it.
• As well as hyperlinks, citations, brand mentions, and social shares are all part of the ‘noise’ that search engines pick up on when judging website authority – don’t just solely focus on links – include people’s networks of influence, and work with people who are going to organically grow your brand following.

Know your niche

One way in which brands go wrong with link building is reading huge SEO link building guides and then running off and trying to implement all the tactics at once by themselves (or with their agency).

• One of the best ways to get great links is to really focus on your niche and industry and create something of value and different that you just know people are going to link to. Really think about your industry in-depth when creating outstanding content.
• Use your knowledge of the industry to identify key influencers and players, predict trends, and be helpful – by being on the pulse you are much more likely to find link building avenues.
• Become the ‘go to’ person for specific niche problems and challenges – specialization is a great way to differentiate.
• Being creative and reacting to things with humor (comic strips, Twitter roundups etc.) can be just as effective as being informative and helpful online.
• Get busy commenting on relevant forums and blogs – these types of backlinks are great for building your credibility and authority as a brand.

One last word on links

Brands must be very careful with anchor texts and link volume – you don’t want to be hit by search engine penalties or hinder your rankings potential because of links that seem unnatural or manufactured. Don’t say yes to a link building method if you don’t really understand its consequences – seek advice, but don’t be tempted by easy wins and ‘link packages’ offered by some SEOs.

What do you think is stopping your brand’s website from ranking? Do you need more backlinks, or does your on-page need some help? Do you want to rank your brand?

Gareth Simpson – Technical SEO & Startup Founder

Gareth has worked as an SEO for almost a decade now and has recently started his own content agency whilst also freelancing as a technical SEO. His SEO specialisms are content and blogger outreach…and he likes green tea. You can follow him on Twitter @SimpsonGareth.

The post How To Rank Your Brand With Links In 2024 appeared first on Blogging Flail.

I initially wrote this post on the SEO impact of subdomains vs subdirectories in Feb. of 2014. A lot can change in the SEO world in just over a year, so I thought it was time to revisit things to see how the results of this case study compared to things in mid-2015.

Take a look at the original case study below. At the end of this post, you’ll have the opportunity to read my revised case study: SEO subdomains vs subdirectories (the results may surprise you).

This is by far one of the more popular posts I have ever written. It has over 200 back links, and has had numerous mentions in many SEO forums (some doubting my findings). It’s even been linked from an article on Search Engine Land. Truly crazy…

I haven’t really been paying a lot of attention to this blog over the past few years. It’s July 2021, and here I am revisiting a post I did over 7 years ago. I think it’s time that we update things to see if what I found back in 2014 is still valid today. Stay tuned all, something I’m working on.

A Case Study on Subdomains vs Subdirectories

There is much debate on when to use subdomains vs subdirectories for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  There are some people that will swear the choice isn’t about SEO, but should be more about your business situation.  I agree your business needs should drive the use of subdomains on your site, but I’ll also debate that SEO should also factor into this decision.

Here’s the fact, if you set up your blog as a subdomain instead of a subdirectory, the ranking of your blog will suffer.  I’ll prove that below in my case study.

When to use a subdomain

First a brief review on subdomains vs subdirectories.  Using the following example:

asubdomain.asitename.com/afolder/

asubdomain is the subdomain of the site, asitename is the domain, and afolder is the subdirectory (also known as a folder).

A sub-domain is treated by the search engines as a truly unique website.  So if you have one domain with 3 different subdomains established, each is treated differently by Google.  Any “link juice” that has been established for the main site (or any of the sub-domains) isn’t necessarily passed onto the sub-domains.  This is an important fact to remember, especially if you have a well-established site with a number of back-links.  You’ll be starting over in terms of link building if you create a subdomain.

However, there are valid reasons to use a sub-domain:

1. Your site may sell a product or offer a service, but you want a presence in multiple languages.  A subdomain could be established for each language you are targeting.
2. Franchises may all focus on the same products, but will have unique content that needs to be called out for each franchisee (owner information, address, phone, specials, etc…).  In this case a subdomain would be set up for each franchise store.
3. Differing products for your company.  Perhaps your company wants to focus marketing efforts for some of the various products they sell, in this case a subdomain may be a better approach to targeting traffic to each unique product.

These are just a few reasons and by no means are hard and fast rules.  Your business situation should determine when you want to establish a subdomain.  Just keep in mind, you are starting off from scratch in terms of SEO every time you create a new subdomain for your site.

Case Study – Subdomains vs Subdirectories for SEO

Let’s get to the meat of this article, looking at subdomains vs subdirectories.  The following situation is fact, the site is real, and the search engine ranking is true.  I’ve developed this case study to prove there is a difference in search engine ranking when using a subdirectory.

Problem

Quite simply I wasn’t ranking, for anything, anywhere.  Not in Google, Bing, Yahoo, or even Google’s Blog search. Now before everyone starts saying you need to understand SEO concepts, I’ll tell you I do.  I may not be an SEO Consultant or Search Engine expert, but I get it.  I’ve maintained multiple blogs over the past few years, and have had my fair share of keywords that have ranked in the top 3 of Google’s search results, as well as keywords that have ranked number 1 in the SERP’s..

In my particular case, I had a site that I developed for a little side project that I was working on for myself. The site I’m referencing is a Career Network that I created called Vircara, and the intent is to bring students and professionals together to help students define a career choice. Great idea if you are a professional and want to mentor students.

I wanted a means to drive traffic to my main site, so I thought what better way to do that then establish a blog and focus on keywords that I was interested in targeting.  I wanted to separate my blog from my main site, so I set up the blog using WordPress as a subdomain on my site (blog.vircara.com).

Facts of my Set-Up

To help everyone understand a little more on this site, here are the facts so you can understand how this fits into the SEO analysis.

• This is an established domain, one that was originally set up by myself over 3 years ago
• The subdomain in question was originally created in March 2012
• The WordPress blog was established in March 2012 and had content posted to it throughout 2012 and 2013
• On page SEO optimization was done to my key content, with much emphasis on one particular post that I was trying to rank for
• Backlinks were built over time to both the subdomain, other articles on the site, and the post I was trying to rank for using reputable SEO practices.  These backlinks consisted of both no-follow and do-follow links.
• I had links in my subdomain that pointed back to my main domain and links in my main domain that pointed back to the subdomain
• I focused my backlink strategy to the subdomain (and related posts), however there were a few backlinks that I had also built to the main domain.
• I was using a WordPress Theme that is targeted for SEO, something that I verified.  In fact, I tried a number of different themes before settling on my current theme to see if that would make any difference.

Sub-Domain Use (The Before)

The primary key word I was targeting was “choosing a career”.  While this keyword does have some competition, it’s not so popular where I shouldn’t be able to rank at least in the top 100.   To frustrate me even more, I couldn’t even rank in the top 100 in Google’s Blog search tool.  My blog name wasn’t even showing up in the Blog Search, which told me Google didn’t even recognize it as a blog.

The following screen shot shows the results of a search on my keyword for my targeted domain name:

Directory Use (The After)

After doing much research on the use of subdomains vs subdirectories, I decided to give the subdirectory route a go to see if that would make a difference.  I set up a new instance of my WordPress blog as a subdirectory, exported my content from the subdomain instance, and imported that into my new blogs instance.  I also set up 301 redirects from the subdomain posts to the new posts in the subdirectory, and then finally deleted the blog instance in the subdomain. I wanted to ensure the 301 redirects were in place for two reasons:

1. Google wouldn’t penalize me for any duplicate content that it may have indexed
2. Any incoming links to my subdomain would now point to the new instance of my WordPress blog in the subdirectory.

After verifying that all of my redirects were working, I waited.  I gave it two weeks to ensure Google had a chance to index my new content, or at least attempt to crawl the old content so it could encounter my 301 redirect to the new content.

After two long weeks of waiting, and verifying that my new content was indeed indexed, I ran my tool once again to see where I ended up in the search rankings.  And the result is – position 57 in the Google SERP’s.

Conclusion

I went from somewhere out of the top 100, and I know for a fact I wasn’t even in the top 200, to being number 57 in the SERP’s simply by changing from a subdomain to a subdirectory.  Everything else related to my site remained constant.

Pretty clear evidence, at least in my simple mind, that putting your blog in a subdirectory has a significant impact on SEO over having it in a subdomain.

I would be very interested in hearing everyone thoughts on this matter, and would love to know what experiences you’ve had with subdomains vs subdirectories.

Note: This post is part of a broader topic on things to be aware of when starting a new blog.

If you’re looking for more information on improving the SEO of your site, you may want to speed your site up by using a CDN with Amazon CloudFront and W3 Total Cache.

Read My Latest on Subdomains vs Subdirectories For SEO

As I mentioned in the opening of this post, I decided to do another test on the SEO impacts of using a subdomain vs a subdirectory.

You can download that case study right here – SEO Subdomains vs Subdirectories.

The post An SEO Guide On Subdomains vs Subdirectories appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Actually I’ve been in the mood for a while, just haven’t had the time to focus on it.

Been doing all kinds of research to figure out the best way to approach this topic. Not only to encourage new visitor’s to the site, but also attempt to get a nice bump in email subscribers.

Guess what? There’s quite a bit of information out there. Lot’s of stuff, and it’s hard to weed out the good from the bad.

Let me try to help.

I started composing a list of links for reference, and I thought why not share that with the visitors on my site.

I’ve updated this list of 21 great links on guest posting in 2025 to remove some older links that weren’t updated in years. Hope you all find this helpful.

First Things First

Ever read a post that had an awesome number of links to something you were interested in?

Maybe you forgot to bookmark the post, or can’t seem to find it amid the 1000’s of other posts you have bookmarked that you never seem to have time to read.

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a checklist of sorts in a file right on your desktop that you could access at a moments notice?

Ok, let’s get on with it shall we…

21 Must Click Links On Guest Posting

All of the below links on guest posting have some content related to guest posting in some form or other. Even though the main subject may not be specific to guest posting, rest assured there’s some information within that post that will give you some pearls on guest posting itself.

On with the links on guest posting…

1. Marc Andre has some great tips on using guest posting in a case study he did that grew his email subscribers from 0 to over 5000 (and counting). While the topic may not be about guest posting, there’s some great information here that does apply. Be sure to read the comments on this one.
2. Looking for some Best Practices on Guest Posting, how about this dandy from Copy Blogger’s guest posting gate keeper.
3. Learn the 2 Step Process Ahmed Safwan (via Be A Better Blogger) uses to make guest posting 100x more effective.
4. Want to learn about Guest Post Outreach, and how to do it the right way? Jessica La has this great post on how to do guest post outreach in 2024.
5. Looking for a list of sites by niche that accept guest posts? Peter Sandeen has just the list you are looking for.
6. Along the same lines, Anil Agarwal also has a list of 300+ guest post sites that you can leverage.
7. The Definitive Guide To Guest Blogging by Brian Dean has a wealth of information from finding blogs that accepts guest posts to pitching the idea to creating the post itself.
8. The Ultimate Guide To Advanced Guest Blogging gives you everything you need to know to find those great opportunities, courtesy of Moz.
9. Why You Suck At Guest Blogging (and What The Pro’s Do Differently), need I say more.
10. Not seeing the success you crave with guest posting, check out these 10 mistakes to avoid as a guest blogger.
11. Interested in opening up Guest Blogging to your site? Read Accepting Guest Posts On Your Blog by Nina Clapperton.
12. If you’re interested in having other bloggers post to your site, Here are 7 Must Do’s Before Accepting Guest Posts.
13. Wondering why you should Accept Guest Posts On Your Blog?
14. Want some expert tips? How about these Guest Posting Tips from 17 Experts.
15. Sean Ogle (via LocationRebel) shows you How To Pitch A Guest Post.
16. Think accepting guest posts on your blog is all a bed of roses. Fabrizio Van Marciano outlines Things To Consider Before Making Your Blog Guest Post Friendly.
17. Looking for a way to get you guest post pitch to stand out? Digital Web Solutions has these tips to Make Your Guest Post Outreach Unignorable.
18. How about these 12 Essential Elements of a Guest Blog Proposal, courtesy of HubSpot
19. Wondering why you pitch got rejected? Lauren Tharp gives you 9 Reasons Your Guest Post Pitch Got Rejected.
20. So what exactly is Reverse Guest Posting and How Does It Work? See what Andrew Dominik has to say about that topic.
21. And for number 21 on my list – 21 Secret Tips On Landing A Guest Post Every Time. This one is a few years old, but the tips are still spot on.

That’s quite the list, and pretty much covers all the key topics on guest posting.

If you have an article related to guest posting that you would like to have featured in this post, by all means reach out. If it passes my review, I’ll feature it here.

Ready To Be A Guest Posting Expert?

There you go, 21 of the most clickable links on guest posting you could ever ask for.

Ready to become a guest posting expert? I think I am, and I’ll be sure to let everyone know how it goes for me.

The post 21 Must Click Links On Guest Posting [2025] appeared first on Blogging Flail.

Let me guess, you can’t figure out which child theme to go with. Based upon my latest count there are over 50 child themes for you to choose from, and that’s just on the StudioPress site.

One could drive themselves crazy trying to pick the right theme for their blog.

Every one of the Genesis child themes are awesome in their own right, so which one should you go with?

When I first decided to go with a StudioPress theme, I spent days upon days looking at each theme, and narrowing the list down to my top 5 or so.

How about analysis paralysis. I liked each of the themes I was reviewing, and couldn’t make a choice. Finally stumbled across this video from Amy Lynn Andrews at Blogging with Amy, and it was enough to give me the nudge I needed.

My first purchase was the Genesis Prose Theme, part of the Genesis Framework, and thought I’d write a quick review of that theme.

Edit: It has come to my attention that StudioPress is no longer selling or updating the Prose Theme. Take a look at this other post on wrote on Genesis Prose theme availability for more information.

The Genesis Prose Theme

The selling point for me, in addition to being part of the Genesis Framework, was the ability to customize the design of the theme. This isn’t to say that you can’t customize the other Genesis Theme’s, but you’ll need to jump into the code and CSS in order to do this.

With Prose it’s as easy as updating a few fields (ok there’s quite a few options to customize), but you do it all via a design screen.

Here are just a few of the areas that you can customize via the design settings within the Prose Theme options:

• Upload a header
• Change the background color or color of your content area
• Update the color and size of the content area border
• Change the font, size, color, of the text for your blog name or tag line
• Update the font, size, and spacing of your blog text
• Change the font and size of each heading tag
• Update the background color and text within your footer
• Change the color of your hyperlinks, and specify if you want them underlined
• Customize the color and font of your navigation menu
• The list goes on and on…

It’s super easy to customize your blog, and you could spend hours and hours tweaking things to get them just right. You can truly make your blog unique with the Genesis Prose Theme.

Now keep in mind, you don’t have to do any of this to get your theme up and running. The Prose Theme works just fine “out of the box”, and you can customize it at your leisure.

Did I mention this is one of the cheapest theme’s you can purchase by Genesis. Another selling point for me.

The Genesis Framework

Any initial purchase of a Genesis theme will get you the Genesis Framework. This is required for use with any of the Genesis child theme’s.

I’m guessing if you’re reading this post, you already know what that means, so I’ll spare you the details. The StudioPress website has everything you need to know.

My Decision to go with the Prose Theme

I was using free theme’s when I first started blogging, and I was always looking for a new theme that met my needs:

1. Optimized for the search engines
2. It looked visually appealing

Easier said than done.

Free theme’s that claimed they were optimized for SEO really weren’t. You also had to deal with non-standard development which caused its own problems. Worse yet, there could be hidden links that weren’t good for your SEO.

I couldn’t be happier with my choice on going with the Genesis Prose Theme. From an ease of use perspective, the look and feel of the theme options isn’t really all that different from other theme’s, so there’s not a huge learning curve.

Did I mention the Simple Hooks Plugin? This is a killer way to really customize your theme if your not afraid of a little coding.

Enough Said?

Hope you found this review of the Genesis Prose Theme helpful.

If you decide to go with the Genesis Framework, but select something other then the Prose Theme, you won’t be disappointed.

That’s what I did. Once I got my feet wet with the Genesis Prose Theme, I decided to upgrade to a Genesis theme that had a little more pazazz.

I haven’t looked back since.

By the way, to learn more about Blogging Flail, simply click here.

The post Back To Basics With The Genesis Prose Theme appeared first on Blogging Flail.