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Let’s start this article with a story about Steve Jobs and Mac.

Many years back, during testing, the Mac took a few minutes to start up. Steve Jobs was furious that it took so long.

He had this to say:

“Well, let’s say you can shave 10 seconds off of the boot time. Multiply that by five million users and that’s 50 million seconds, every single day. Over a year, that’s probably dozens of lifetimes. So if you make it boot ten seconds faster, you’ve saved a dozen lives. That’s really worth it, don’t you think?”

The Mac series of laptops are definitely some of the most solid devices out there compared to their numerous competitors.

Compared to Windows, the Mac is:

• Blazingly fast
• Not prone to viruses
• Doesn’t crash as much

It’s a well thought out machine and this can be attributed to the late Steve Jobs’s obsession with the product.

This kind of obsession undoubtedly makes a great product.

It also makes it a haven for software developers to create wonderful software applications.

Today, we’ll talk about the best social media tools for the Mac OS.

Social media tools are ubiquitous now. A lot are online applications that help in creating content, posting content, and creating systems of automation. But many software developers have been/are still creating applications for the Mac OS.

But why?

Why would you use Desktop Apps instead of Web Apps?

Why would a developer create a desktop application when access to the original web app is a few clicks away through the browser?

One reason is dedicated control and arrangement of features.

Original applications like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have to focus on the UI and the UX of things as well as having all of the necessary features.

A desktop application on the other hand just has to be functional. They give a user the bigger picture by allowing them to access content easily and perform actions with a few simple clicks.

I would say desktop apps are for core users.

So without further ado, let’s get into the best social media tools for the Mac OS.

Note: In our analysis of applications, we’re using the following metrics:

• Last updated: Only updated applications are featured here.
• Price points
• Free/low cost alteatives

Best Social Media Desktop Tools For Mac OS:

You may not be aware of this, but the Mac OS has built-in features that can bring social media right to your OS. All you have to do is go to:

• Apple Menu > System Preferences > Inteet Accounts

A pop-up opens with all social sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others.

You can individually set up these accounts so that they are integrated into your OS.

For example:

• When LinkedIn is integrated, all of your LinkedIn contacts are synced with your Mac contacts. You can share content and see your LinkedIn feed straight from Safari. You can also share any post, website, or video from your LinkedIn account with two clicks.

• Price: Free

Buffer for Mac

If you are familiar with social media, then you have likely heard of Buffer.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Buffer is a tool used for social media automation where you can schedule your posts to go out at specific times.

• Why is scheduling important?

Apart from saving you time, scheduling also helps in getting your content out at the right time so you can reach the maximum number of people.

Buffer for Mac is a simpler version of the online tool. When you login through your registered Buffer account, all of your accounts are displayed.

• Price: Free

Download Buffer Here

Instafeed

Instagram is a top application with a lot of content.

I personally prefer to use a desktop application to browse Instagram because I get tired of their online interface. This is where Instafeed swoops in and makes life easy.

Instafeed lets you quickly browse Instagram.

It allows you to:

• Search for hashtags
• Easily subscribe to feeds
• Check out your followers and see if they are following you back

There is also a sharing option where you can share your images on Facebook and Twitter.

Download Instafeed for Instagram Here

Instamaster

Here’s another great Instagram tool.

With Instamaster, you can:

• Browse photos
• Like
• Comment
• Search
• Tag

You can also save and upload photos (although uploading has some restraints).

• Price: Free

Download Instamaster for Instagram Here

Tweetbot

Tweetbot is one of the most popular tools for Twitter.

We can say with confidence that this makes Twitter 10 times better.

Tweetbot makes Twitter much more fluid making it perfect for social media teams that are monitoring and tweeting constantly.

The interface is columnized to allow multiple pieces of information to be shown at once. Users can see their timeline, direct message conversations, and also a list of mentions side by side.

This gives a bird’s eye view of your Twitter activity.

If you are tired from the constant flow of content and want to see only specific posts, then you can use the “mute” feature where you can temporarily “silence” people, hashtags, and tweets.

You can also hide tweets forever (or for a short period of time).

• Price: $10

Download Tweetbot for Twitter Here

Milkeddit

Reddit is a great platform for promotion.

If done carefully, Reddit can make your content go viral in a short amount of time. If you are an expert Redditor who is looking to make their content go viral, Milkeddit will be of immense value.

Milkeddit is a Reddit tool for the Reddit faithful.

With simple swipe actions you can:

• Seamlessly flow through all of your subreddit
• Subscribe to a subreddit
• Bookmark your favorite content

You can also reply, comment, and upload images without any third party software.

There’s also an option to change the theme of your software.

• As a side bonus, their software updates are fun to read. Here is an excerpt:

Download Milkeddit for Reddit Here

Uforio

Uforio is another Reddit Mac app that organizes content into:

• Links
• Pictures
• Videos
• GIFs
• Short Text
• Long Text

There is a favorites bar in which all of your favorite content can be saved for future consumption.

Content that is NSFW or already read can be hidden to avoid repetition (or awkward moments).

It has a minimalistic interface which makes it a breeze to use.

• Price: Free

Download Uforio for Reddit Here

Pin Pro

Pin Pro is a tool for Pinterest that will take your Pinterest addiction to a whole new level.

You can access Pinterest straight from the menu bar.

There is a “stealth mode” feature that lets you control the opacity of your Pinterest window which makes it so transparent that only you can see it. I’m not sure if that feature is really to die for, but it’s there…

Images can be uploaded through this application and you can also pin your favorite content.

For serial Pinterest users, this is a great piece of software to keep tabs on your page.

• Price: $2

Download Pin Pro for Pinterest Here

Pin

This is the “lite version” of Pin Pro.

This version lets you browse through your Pinterest feed and nothing more.

• Price: Free

Download Pin for Pinterest Here

Bonus: Gifox.io

We’ve already covered this in a previous article, so we won’t go into great detail here.

GIFs are doing really well on social media. They are easy to consume and they tell a story in a few seconds.

One can always go to Giphy.com to get memes that represent different things, but if you want to create your own GIF, then you need a tool.

Gifox.io is a perfect tool for making a GIF. It’s completely seamless and the output is great.

(If you work with GIFs, then you must be aware of the massive size of some of them! To have the optimum file size, you will need a GIF compressor like Gifmaker. With Gifmaker, you can resize the GIF by tinkering with the quality.)

Download Gifox Here

We believe these social media desktop tools will help out all serious social media users streamline their social media efforts.

For those of you who have used/are using Mac applications for various social media activities, can you feel the difference between a Mac app and a native browser application?

Also, what other Mac apps help you get social activities done from your desktop?

Let us know in the Idea below!

Did you find this list useful? Share it with your friends on your favorite social media sites!

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Keywords are one of the most critical and important parts of SEO.

The basic foundation of SEO is keyword research.

Afterwards, other factors like on-page optimization, quality of content, a good site UI, and some other factors come into the picture.

Many companies invest thousands of dollars to pay for keyword research to get such targeted content.

But you don’t need to do that. Just follow this guide…

The keywords you choose to focus on for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are critical to the success of your website’s rank.

Choosing the right keywords isn’t always easy or intuitive and you need a lot of data to know whether a given keyword will work for you.

If you are completely new to keyword research tools and the process of keyword research, here are some guides from the past which will help you understand the basics:

So now you know the basics of keyword research and you have an understanding of how valuable it can be.

Fortunately, there are many tools available that can help you figure out which keywords work the best for your overall web strategy.

Most of these keyword research tools are paid and only a few of them are free.

Best Keyword Research Tools: 2016

1. Google Keyword Planner <Free>

The Google Keyword Planner tool is one of the most used and popular keyword research tools out there.

The only reason for it being so popular is it’s free and is directly integrated with Google AdWords.

To start using this tool you need to have an AdWords account (which you can create one for free).

• Features: The biggest feature of the Keyword Planner tool is the deep information it offers on Google (the largest search engine).
• Limitations: In some ways, that’s also a limitation. If you want to know how your site or a given keyword is doing on other search engines, you won’t get it here.
• Pricing: Free to use.

The Keyword Planner tool is a good, basic tool for the early stages of a website’s SEO.

This my favorite free tool, but if you need more detailed and competitive analysis, I would recommend going for one of the advanced tools that I have listed below.

Check out the Google AdWords Keyword Planner here

2. SEMRUSH <14-Day Free Trial (worth $150)>

Everyone always asks me, “What is the best and easiest keyword research tool?”

The answer:

SEMRUSH is not a typical keyword research tool; it offers so much more than just researching keywords.

Unlike other tools where you need to add seed keywords to start your research, here you just need to add your URL (or your competitor’s URL) and it will show you all of the keywords that are ranking for that site.

This makes it easier for you to find short-tail and long-tail keywords that you can target and beat out your competition.

You can get in-depth details on:

• Traffic stats
• Search engine reports
• Adsense CPC
• and so many other details that you need in properly managing an SEO campaign.

This is a highly recommended product.

Download a 14-day (completely free) trial of SEMRUSH here

3. LongTailPro <$30 Discount>

LongTailPro is a piece of desktop software for keyword research and one of the most popular in this list.

This is a paid keyword research tool which will help you find amazing keywords for your niche/micro-niche sites. With their “platinum” version, you can get a really amazing and really detailed keyword analysis feature.

They also have a competition checker, which will make it easier for you to pick the right keyword.

LongTailPro is available for Mac and Windows.

You can see a detailed review of LongTailPro here.

Get $30 off of LongTailPro here

4. Keyword Spy

Keyword Spy is an SEO optimization tool that’s primarily used for keyword research.

Here’s how you can use Keyword Spy for SEO:

• Uses: Identify competitors’ keywords and do keyword research for SEO campaigns.
• Features:
  • Create targeted campaigns
  • View competitor keywords
  • See rank based on geographical location
• Limitations: The tracking features may not be that useful to smaller businesses or in markets that aren’t as competitive.
• Pricing:
  • $89.95 per month for a research or tracking account.
  • $139 for a “Professional” account which includes both.
  • Additional pricing options for agencies and enterprises.

Keyword Spy can prove to be a very useful tool in your overall SEO arsenal.

Check out Keyword Spy here

5. Market Samurai

Market Samurai is another desktop SEO platform application that can help you research keywords.

• Uses: Market Samurai can be used for many tasks related to SEO including site planning and improving ranking.
• Features: Market Samurai has several different modules.
  • Keyword Research module
  • Domain Research module
  • Monetization module
  • Content Finding module
  • Content Publishing module
  • Promotions module
• Limitations: The interface isn’t particularly intuitive (with about a 5 to 10-hour leaing curve.)
• Pricing:
  • This app is a one-time purchase of $149.

This product is a good solution for someone looking to make a one-time purchase for an all around SEO tool.

Check out Market Samurai here

6. SpyFu

SpyFu is one of the best SEO optimization software products on the market. It’s especially useful if you’re trying to analyze and stay ahead of the competition in a tight niche.

Here’s what you need to know about this one:

• Uses: SpyFu is highly useful for two important reasons.
  1. Understanding your competition’s SEO platform.
  2. Discovering under-served, un-tapped, or emerging markets.
• Features: SpyFu also has several modules.
  • Compare Websites module
  • Keyword History module
  • Domain History module
  • Related Keywords module
• Limitations: This program doesn’t have the depth of keywords that some competitors do, although this is changing. Also, the data for SpyFu is monthly, rather than real-time.
• Pricing: SpyFu offers two basic pricing plans as well as an “Agency” plan.
  • The basic plans are $79 and $99 per month (with a discount of more than 40% if you buy a one year term).
  • The “Agency” pricing is $999 per month.

SpyFu is a solid SEO product.

It’s useful if you want to check up on the competition as well as find new areas in which to market.

Check out SpyFu here

7. WordTracker

WordTracker is used by small businesses to research keywords, build new links, and develop a strategic SEO platform.

• Uses: The three main tools in WordTracker are the-
  • Keyword Tool (which helps you research keywords)
  • Link Builder (which identifies inbound link prospects)
  • Strategizer (which takes a step back and looks at your entire SEO ranking strategy).
• Features: There are some features that are really cool here.
  • The Link Builder tool is unique to WordTracker and are not found on any of the products on this list.
  • The Strategizer gives you a kind of bird’s-eye view that you won’t get anywhere else.
• Limitations: WordTracker often gives fewer results than other services and the interface isn’t particularly intuitive.
• Pricing: WordTracker includes a 30-day free trial.
  • Monthly pricing is $69 per month.
  • Subscribe to a full year at $449.

Check out WordTracker here

I would not recommend you pick up all of the tools listed above, but instead stick to one or two and get used to its system.

If you have been using the Google Keyword Planner tool for a while, you have a good basis for getting started with any of the paid and professional tools listed here. Take a look at some of these tools and decide which works best for your business strategy.

My recommendations:

• If you are looking for an easy, yet great solution, go for SEMRUSH.
• If you are researching keywords for micro-niche sites, choose a desktop tool (like LongTailPro) which is cheap and let you check keyword competitiveness.

Whatever you choose, use these tools to supercharge your SEO.

For more on SEO, check out:

Are you using one of the keyword research tools from the above list? How has your experience been so far? Share your thoughts in the Idea!

Did you find this guide useful? Share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus!

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Comment spam is the harsh reality and every green behind the ears, enthusiastic, unprepared blogger will be staggered by the sheer volume they receive of it. WordPress can help, but you need to mentally prepare yourself for the hard fact that more than 99% of the Idea you will receive is going to be spam. If you leave the issue unattended, the spam can quite literally overtake your site database and get you permanently banned from search engine index.

The first thing on your to-do list should be to prepare your website admin (backend) to help you deal with such massive amounts of bull. That’s where WordPress bloggers have an advantage. As much spam there is, there are quite a handful of powerful solutions, available free or for pocket-change-cost, to help stop and/or manage spam influx on your website.

Here are 7 top tools for stopping comment spam in WordPress. Take a look at:

1. Akismet

Availability: WordPress Plugin Directory and Akismet

Shipped free of cost with every WordPress install, Akismet is a staple because it’s WordPress through and through. This is the prima donna of all anti spam plugins available for WordPress.

Developed by Automattic, Akismet is pretty damn powerful. The enterprise grade spam prevention (and management) features are off the charts, some of which include a self-leaing spam detection algorithm (notes your ‘Idea marked as spam’ and uses it for automatic spam marking in future). The plugin also lets you put your Idea on Akismet server (where they undergo spam checks by the aforementioned algorithm). Comments that pass the inspection are published on your site’s front end, while the rest are marked spam and eventually deleted. All the Idea (spam or genuine) are maintained in logs that you can check at your leisure.

Akismet comes with up to 50k spam checks per month, only for non profits and personal blogs. Commercial websites can get the API key by subscribing at $5/month charge – a reasonable cost which is absolutely worth it.

2. WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam

Availability: WordPress Plugin Directory

WP-SpamShield Anti-Spam is featured right on top in ‘anti-spam plugin’ search results on WordPress.org Plugin Repository. It deserves the spot.

The plugin is absolutely free of cost and efficient to the last degree. It can tackle spam in Idea, registration/ sign up forms, trackbacks and pingbacks, etc. It can track and identify incessant spammers (based on IP) and let you blacklist the troublemakers to protect your site’s database from spam. It even has a JavaScript (cookie authentication) layer to help prevent spam from bots.

The plugin has nothing to do with Captcha or those lame ‘prove you are a human’ questions/ tick boxes. It automatically blocks proxy server users and supports every major WordPress form plugin.

It’s a smart plugin that costs nothing.

3. Anti-Spam Bee

Availability: WordPress Plugin Directory

With over a million active installs and counting and a glowing letter of recommendation from WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg himself, you can be sure you’re not wrong with Anti-spam Bee.

This plugin is free for all and super smart. It can take care of IP blacklisting (comment blocking), trackback validation, database optimization (a feature many people get by downloading a separate plugin like WP Sweep), and more. It shows you detailed monthly stats and spam activities in your admin dashboard and lets you ‘create’ your own spam detection algorithm by selecting certain indicators based on your knowledge of your user base.

Told you it’s an intelligent little beast. It’s also completely devoid of any annoying ads and complies with data privacy standards (Europe), which is another layer of icing on the freaking cake of awesomeness.

4. CleanTalk

Availability: WordPress Plugin Directory

This is one of the best premium online (cloud based) spam protection services available for WordPress.

CleanTalk prevents comment spam, registration/ sign up form spam, and trackback spam and uses smart algorithms to detect spam within ‘genuine’ looking Idea uploaded on the Clean Talk cloud. You also get detailed statistics and Idea log, along with automatic moderation (spam detection) activity and history.

The service is free for a 2 week trial period, after which you can continue to use and scale up the service with a measly $8/yr charges per domain.

5. WordPress Zero Spam

Availability: WordPress Plugin Directory

This is one of the simplest spam prevention plugins.

WordPress Zero Spam works by blocking Idea from users who don’t have JavaScript enabled on the browsers. It works with client and server side JS validation, which works to prevent most bots from spamming your Idea section.

It’s free of cost and superbly compatible with almost every major (and trusted) WordPress plugin (except Jetpack) and a whole variety of contact form plugins. Keep in mind that while it’s great against bots, it’s largely ineffectual against humans.

6. Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin (GASP)

Availability: WordPress Plugin Directory

Developers who hate the spambots with the intensity of thousand suns created Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin.

The GASP is simple: It adds a checkbox to your comment form asking your site visitors to check it to prove they are human. Since the box is generated using JavaScript on user’s own browsers, most bots won’t see it and fool the plugin.

It’s lightweight, effective, and free.

7. Stop Spammers Spam Prevention

Availability: WordPress Plugin Directory

This is a Jack-of-all-trades, multitasking plugin that can take a load off your head while dealing with comment spam.

Stop Spammers Spam Prevention blocks comment spam, sign up form spam, trackbacks, and contact form spam by passing them through a set of powerful and thorough algorithms. The plugin can block IPs from over 100 countries. It also gives a waing (Request Denied) page to the spammer (human and otherwise) promptly followed by a captcha: this second layer prevents spambots.

Conclusion

Here you are: the top 7 tools to protect your WordPress site from spam and prevent it from accumulating in your server and database in the first place. Keep your WordPress website clean and well maintained, and install one of these as soon as you get your website up and running.

Hand-picked articles for you:

Want to contribute an original article at ShoutMeLoud? Read our submission guidelines here.

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Optimizing images & using a CDN has become essential for online publishing.

A few days back, I talked about the best image compression WordPress plugins where I highlighted some great solutions for compressing images on your blog.

But not everyone is using the WordPress platform for their website. Many of us are blogging on various other platforms like BlogSpot, Tumblr, or something else.

What’s the best image compression solution for these users?

Well, this is where online image compression tools come into the picture.

When you search online for photo compressor tools, you will be awestruck by the sheer number of tools available. To make your work easier and save you some time, I’m listing some of my favorite tools that you can use right now to compress images & make them web-ready.

• (Note: A few of the listed tools also support compressing .pdf files which is useful for those who are selling eBooks online.)

Question: Why do you need to compress images?

The main reason is to lower down the loading time of your blog as this has a direct correlation with search engine ranking.

If your page takes more time to load, your competitor can outrank you based on similar quality content, but a faster loading time.

It’s important to note that having images on our blog posts are very useful useful as they improve the visual experience & make our content more media rich.

At the same time, to stop images from slowing down the loading time of our pages, we can use a few techniques:

• Compress images without losing quality.***
• Use high-quality hosting for your website.
• Use a Content Delivery Network.

When in doubt, you can use any of these page loading time testing tools to see how fast or slow your website is loading.

***In this article, we will talk about compressing images.

• Note: If you are using WordPress for running your blog or website, you should use one of these image compression plugins instead.

6 Best Online Tools for Compressing Images (without losing quality):

1. Compressor.io

I love this one as the UI is very mode. It makes compressing images fun!

You can export compressed images using Dropbox or Google Drive. It supports the compression of 4 image formats:

• JPEG
• PNG
• GIF
• SVG

You will want to bookmark this for future use.

2. Kraken.io

This is one of my favorites as you can compress multiple files in one go.

Simply drag & drop.

What’s really cool here is that you can download all of the compressed files into a .zip file with single click.

I have been using it for a while & highly recommend it.

Below you can see the amount of data saved by the Kraken.io image compressor:

3. GiftOfSpeed .PNG Compressor || jpg compressor

When I was researching online image compression tools, I landed on the GiftofSpeed website.

This is one place which offers many tools that any webmaster can use to test various dimensions of their website.

This is another easy to use online image compressor site.

You should also use their image delivery tool to see if images on your blog posts or websites are well-optimized. It will also suggest things that you can do to further optimize your site.

Here is the result from one of my recent blog posts:

In my case, I always compress my images using ImageOptim (Free for Mac). At times, I run a batch image compression in WordPress using a plugin.

You should go to GiftofSpeed and take a test for your site to see how much KiB you can save by compressing images. This will give you a good idea of which image compressor tool/WordPress plugin you should be using.

4. Tinypng

This is one of the oldest & most well-known websites for compressing images online.

Tinypng also offers a WordPress plugin & a Magento extension that you can use to compress images without the hassle of manually uploading & compressing images on their website.

Supports:

• PNG
• JPG/JPEG

The free account lets you compress roughly 100 images/month.

To use this plugin you need to get an API key from here.

5. OptimiZilla

I really like this one as you can compress an image based on your desired level of quality.

The instant preview lets you compare your original image to your compressed image & you can set your desired compression level from this preview.

This is useful when you are compressing a huge image & want a way to control quality loss.

It uses the best optimization and lossy compression algorithms to shrink JPEG and PNG images to the minimum possible size while keeping the required level of quality.

• It supports bulk upload & bulk compression.
• You can upload up to 20 images.

(You should also know about OptimiZilla’s sister converting site called Toepub. This lets you convert .pdf files into various formats for free. eBook authors will find Toepub very useful.)

6. ImageRecycle

This is another great image & .pdf compression tool.

You can use its online compressor tool for free and developers can use its API to build their own compression tool.

It supports multiple CMSs using their API. Right now, they have a WordPress plugin, Shopify app, Joomla Extension, and a Magento extension.

You can create a 14-day free trial with a 100 MB quota.

They also have an interesting offer for bloggers who can write about their service in order to get 2 months of access with a 3GB quota. I believe 3GB is good enough for many of you to compress all of the images in your media library.

Over to you:

These are some of my favorite online web apps to compress images without losing quality.

I seldom use them for projects which are not related to WordPress or blogging, but you can use them however you like.

Now, it’s your tu to contribute. Let us know your favorite image optimization tools in the Idea section below.

If you’ve enjoyed leaing about these tools, show your love by sharing this post on Facebook & Twitter.

Here are some hand-picked articles to help you get more out of your images:

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With SEO getting difficult, inteet marketing professionals have tued to SMO.

Today, SMO (social media optimization) is the most reliable way to drive traffic to a website.

Ask any experienced social media marketer:

• What works best in the world of social media?

And the response will always be:

• Good content.

We are getting back to the good old days, when “content was the king”.

When you think of social media promotion, the first names that come to mind are probably Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

When I started a blog on startups and small business advice, I wanted to find a medium where I could use my writing skills to drive traffic to my website.

I am not on Facebook and I only use LinkedIn once in a while. But occasionally using LinkedIn doesn’t leave me with many options to promote my website.

How I discovered Quora:

This is when I stumbled upon Quora.

In fact, writing on Quora happened by accident.

I was searching for a few answers to some business related questions on Google.

Most of the questions I searched for were long tail keywords.

Quora links came at the top of every question I typed into Google.

I clicked on a few of these links. The information provided by Quora users was informative and precise.

Most importantly, the variety of answers provided me with a different perspective to my questions.

I studied the platform a little more.

The next day, I was on Quora.

What is Quora?

Quora is a simple Q & A website. It’s like Yahoo answers but with a better interface and integrated gamification to keep Quorans more active.

Here are a few statistics about Quora:

1. As per Alexa, Quora’s world rank is 108 (it ranks 13th in India).
2. Quora currently has close to 4.6 million registered users.
3. Quora reaches over 2.1 million people in the USA alone.

My initial days on Quora:

Despite my love for writing, sometimes I really need to persuade myself to write something.

I also hated to research or inform myself before writing (a very bad habit which hurt my strategy on Quora).

So I started writing my thoughts down on Quora for a few questions.

The responses to my answers were tepid mostly because they were all half-baked answers written with no enthusiasm.

I needed to rework my strategy.

Finally, after a few weeks of religious writing on Quora, I hit success.

My first success was an answer I wrote on Patanjali FMCG Products.

The answer got 13.2 K views and was featured in Quora’s digest.

Since then, I have had quite a few answers featured in Quora’s digest which brings a consistent amount of traffic to my blog.

How to start driving traffic from Quora without spamming:

1. Set up the right profile:

Quora gives you the option to setup your tagline, your areas of interest, and a short bio.

Your tagline says a lot about what you do and why you are on Quora. Don’t overlook this.

The platform is for exchanging information. A wrong tagline will confuse users and you will never get you any traffic to your website.

You can use your website’s link as a tag or use “pipes” between small phrases as a tagline (see my profile below).

Important: If your answers go viral, you can expect a lot of users to visit your profile. A wrong profile will not lead them anywhere. Think of your profile page as a landing page for your website. You do not want precious traffic to go to waste.

Here is how my profile looks on Quora:

As you can see, I have used my blog’s link in my profile’s tagline.

(Note: The “Highlights” section shows the number of categories you’re featured in as a top writer. The other sections are self-explanatory.)

Once you have written about yourself, you have to setup your categories/interests.

To get the right questions to appear on your feed (similar to Facebook’s wall), subscribe to the categories you want to read and write about.

I subscribe to the following categories:

• Entrepreneurship
• Startup Ideas
• Startups
• Startup Advice
• etc.

Recently, I met someone who was getting a completely wrong feed from Quora. The problem was the person had subscribed to irrelevant categories.

You need to be with the right categories to get the right questions and answers to appear on your feed.

2. Find the right questions to answer:

Once your profile is properly set up, your Quora feed will show the popular questions asked in the categories you’re subscribed to.

The feed also shows answers from the users who you follow and their subsequent feeds.

You can also go inside the categories and look for questions.

While selecting a question to answer, here is what you need to do:

• Look for questions in your area of interest where you can provide “value” to the existing answers.

Do not write answers to questions in topics you are clueless about.

A bad quality answer will collapse your answer.

I see a lot of answers written only with the intent of promoting their website. This is bad taste.

Avoid the trap of “easy promotions”:

• Focus on A2A (asked to answer). As you gain popularity, you will get a lot of A2As. Try answering the relevant ones to build a base of loyal followers on Quora.

• Comment on answers written by others. I do not consider the Idea as directly answering a question. Even so, you are contributing to other answers.

3. Write interesting answers:

Observe the type of questions asked and the types of answers provided.

Do not get overwhelmed with answers written by some of the best names in your line of work.

As they say:

• “Lea from the experts”.

Quora gives you an opportunity to lea from them first hand by reading what their views are. You can try to emulate their style of writing or you can write in your own style.

But it takes a lot of practice to form your own style of writing.

Here is the writing style I follow:

• I write in categories I am confident about (e.g. startup advice, entrepreneurship, etc.).
• I research my answers well before writing.
• I use bullet points to divide my answers into simple points.
• I use images, quotes, statistics, past stories/case studies to give my answers depth.

Do not answer a question just for the sake of answering a question. You need to have a passion for writing informative answers.

Only answer the questions in your areas of interest. If you don’t, not only will your answer get down-voted, you will waste precious amounts of time framing answers no one will read.

Again, writing in an area you do not have any expertise on will be a waste of time and energy. You might be the best “Guru” in the town, but you won’t get any views if your answers are not genuine.

You have to understand the question, research the topic (if you need stats), and then write the answer.

Also, do not write single line “words of wisdom”. You might be the wittiest person on earth, but demystifying your wittiness is not why everyone is on Quora.

Answering questions in the right way also increases your knowledge base.

For example, I research before writing on Quora to back my thoughts with statistics or real life examples.

(As a side bonus, working with Quora in this way has improved my writing skills.)

In short, when your answers are high-quality, interesting, and informative, a couple things happen:

• You get traffic to your website.
• You are helping to build a better ecosystem of information exchange by helping others.

4. Promoting your website, the “right way”:

I see so many answers with direct links posted to websites.

Blatant shameless promotion is the most hated medium of promotion.

Lines like:

• “READ the following article to get an answer to your question.”
• “Read my blog : ____”
• “You can find the answer over on my website ____.”

These kinds of responses will get you little to no traffic from Quora.

Here is an example of a spam answer written by someone:

The answer collapsed. I am sure the user was also marked as spam by the Quora moderation team.

The right method of getting traffic is by writing an awesome answer with sincere effort and then sharing a link at the end of the answer.

I am able to drive a considerable amount of traffic to my startup blog through Quora and I do not shamelessly advertise.

Once you write good answers, you convince Quorans about your credentials in the category you are writing about.

I use lines like:

• “I share similar views at ‘My Blog Name’.”
• “I provide similar startup advice at ____.”

Believe me. 8 out of 10 times, readers from my answers will come to my blog.

Here’s the method to getting Quora traffic:

• You write an awesome, well-researched answer.
• The answer establishes your authority as a knowledgeable person in the topic.
• At the end of the answer, you give your blog’s link.

I see no reason why users would not want to visit your website.

Once you are an established name in your field, you can use your website’s links in your answers as a point of reference.

But do not self-promote.

Quorans hate self-promotions.

They will down vote your questions.

Here are few more quick tips on how to use Quora effectively:

• You can use different taglines for answering questions in different categories. The tagline shows next to your profile. You can be witty while selecting taglines.
• You can merge questions you have answered earlier.
• Write with the aim to help others. If your answer is good, you will drive users to your website. Everyone who reads your answer will be wanting to know more about the user behind the answer which has gone viral.
• Leave the sarcasm at home. Quorans might like sarcasm, but only in a good way.
• Don’t focus on followers. The platform is not Twitter or Facebook where you want followers. I currently have 246 followers and have never felt the need to have more followers for getting more views. In fact, my first answer went viral when I had less than 50 followers.
• Google analytics does not show you the traffic received from Quora. Try Google’s link shortener to generate shortened links. You can view the clicks on shortened links through Google’s URL shortener reports (attached to your Gmail account).
• Keep track of the notifications sent by Quora. The notifications provide you information about A2As, your answers getting featured in Quora’s digest, users following you, or you being featured as a top writer in a certain category.
• Look at the popularity of questions you plan to answer. Spend some time in finding the statistics of a question. Ensure the question has enough followers and views. You do not want to spend time answering a question which has no readers.
• Asking a question and then answering that question is another strategy to drive a good amount of traffic to your blog. I recently asked a question “What is the dark side of being an entrepreneur?” The question currently has 187,000 views. My answer (to my own question) helped me get a good amount of traffic (and a few new subscribers) to my blog.
• Keep track of your progress on the website by checking your statistics.

Here is a snapshot of my Quora statistics:

• The list of answers is sorted based on the amount of views your answer received.
• The graph on the right shows the total views and number of upvotes your answers received.

As you can see, my answers have been interesting to many readers. This interest drives a considerable amount of users to my blog.

If you are struggling to get readership, views, and subscribers for your blog, you need to go where the traffic is. And if you aren’t on Quora, you’re missing out on one of the best sources of high-quality traffic on the inteet.

• (Also remember, some of the best brains in business are on Quora like the founder of Wikipedia (…and Aston Kutcher). Now imagine one of them answering your question. You might never get a chance to meet the famous personality, but you can ask them a question on Quora.)

Quora is the future of ethical content marketing.

It’s the place to be for people who love to write.

And it’s a great way to drive traffic.

Do let me know what other methods you are using to drive traffic from Quora in the Idea below.

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Is your business lacking sales due to the absence of a good writer? A good writer who can update your blog or write sales copies to convert traffic into the leads?

Well, you are not alone in this quest of finding a good writer. Most of the online businesses often are in search of good writers.

Having an engaging content on the website or blog has become the need of the hour for businesses. Here we are not talking about just any content, but high quality and user engaging content written by proficient writers. There are several sources you can tap into, for finding content writers for your business. However, before we look into these sources, first you should understand some of the basic qualities of a good writer.

Which qualities to look out for in a good writer

• Proficiency – The writer should be proficient at their craft and must have the ability to create creative and convincing write-ups that can produce positive results for you. After all, you want everything on your business to be result oriented. Don’t you?
• Efficiency – A competent professional writer does not only free up your time so that you can concentrate on other matters of business, but also ensure that the work is done in a timely manner. On the other hand, an inexperienced writer will become a liability and distract you from doing your work, which is more crucial.
• Creativity – A creative writer can tu a good idea into an excellent one. He will add the creative quotient to the data available and bake it in such a way that will make it stand out in the noise. This will result in more people reading it and responding to it.
• Productivity – A productive writer offers value for money and brings in better retus. A most productive writer may not always be the one who charges the lowest fees, but the one who produces the greatest retu on investment.
• Reliability – A reliable writer is the one on which you can rely to deliver top‐quality products in a timely manner. When a deadline is at stake the reliability of the writer comes in handy.

Now that we have looked at the qualities that you should look out for, while searching for a good writer, let us put some light on how and where you can find such a writer.

How to find a good content writer

• Look In-House First: Often there is hidden talent in every organization just waiting to be nurtured. Writing is an area, which does not require any special skill set. A programmer, designer or even a manager can be a good writer. This is why it is always advised to look in-house. You can start by surveying your company resources and find out someone who would be interested in taking upon the new role.
• Search for freelancers who write the content you want: If you are not looking to hire someone full time for the job, the other best possible solution would be searching for freelancers on a writer’s marketplace. You not only get a wide array of enthusiastic professionals but can also access their past work to get an idea of their credence. Here is a list of websites to find writers for your online business.
• Search via social media: Another popular way to find good writers is via social media. Nowadays, most of the professionals are on social media, engaging with business contacts. Social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Quora etc. Offer a viable solution where you can easily find competent writers.
• Social advertising: If you do not want to spend a lot of time search for a particular writer, you can opt for social advertising. By doing so, you can have your ads only seen by freelance writers, which is highly beneficial.

Overall, it is not a rocket science to find a good writer these days. With multiple options available as discussed above, finding a good writer is just a walk in the park. However, always ensure to properly analyze the writers beforehand and check their credence.

Let us know your experience of finding & recruiting a writer for your business? Sharing your experience would help many of us to lea from your success & failures.

Want to contribute an original article at ShoutMeLoud? Read our submission guidelines here.

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In digital marketing, social media presence plays a key role.

For businesses, it is very important to manage multiple social media accounts and monitor their activities.

SocioBoard, the open-source social media management tool, makes all this work easier for digital marketers. Being an open source tool, it will likely come up with even more brilliant features in the near future.

Starting from a free “basic” plan to an expert-level “platinum” plan, SocioBoard offers its services to many SMBs and entrepreneurs. This beautiful tool suite offers flexible social media services and precise analytics to marketers and helps them with the growth of their business.

Let’s have a look at the overview of SocioBoard’s features that make complicated social media management simpler.

Social Networks Supported:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• Tumblr
• YouTube
• …and Google Analytics

Features of SocioBoard: Social Media Management Platform

The features of SocioBoard meet the basic requirements of social media marketers. That is, marketers can manage multiple social accounts and automate their activities. SocioBoard also offers additional features that can boost your social campaigns.

Here are the features of SocioBoard:

1. Messages

The message feature contains four options in its drop-down list. They are:

• Smart Inbox
• Inbox Message
• My Tasks
• Sent Messages

There is also a filter on the right side of the dashboard. With this filter, you can select the already added social profiles and add some other accounts as well.

-Smart Inbox:

With “Smart Inbox”, SocioBoard gives you an alert whenever an action is done on one of your social profiles. For example, when someone follows you on Twitter, you will get a message stating that someone started following you.

You’ll also receive the follower’s data like their follower and following count as well as their bio. This is what that looks like:

You can get these messages for notifications, retweets, @mentions, and new followers. You can manage these messages and profiles in the filter.

-Inbox Message:

This is the normal inbox where you can see the direct messages you receive on various social media profiles. In the filter, you can select which social accounts to view/add new accounts.

-My Tasks:

Working as a team is the driving factor of an organization. With the “My Tasks” feature, you can assign and schedule tasks to your team members.

On the right side of the dashboard, you can see the “Manage Tasks” tool, where you can see “My Task”, “Team Task”, “Completed Task”, and “Pending Task”.

This is helpful to see only the tasks you want to see on the dashboard for a specific social media account.

-Sent Messages:

This shows you all of the sent messages from the selected accounts. You can manage the accounts through the filter located on the right side of the dashboard.

2. Feeds

The drop-down list of this feature contains the list of all social networks that are supported (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) Under each platform, you can see the accounts that were added. You can select an account and see the feed on the wall of that account.

In the above pic, you can see that we’ve selected a Twitter account. So, the news feed and Tweets of that account are shown.

Like this, you can see whatever feeds you want to see. The switching process is very simple.

3. Publishing

Publishing is an important part of social media marketing.

You have to maintain good customer relations. You should do small things like wishing your customers a happy birthday or a happy (some other day).

You can schedule this task and save a lot of time. The drop-down list of this menu contains:

• Schedule Messages
• SocioQueue
• Drafts

-Schedule Messages:

With this feature, you can schedule your messages and send them to multiple users at one time. It gives you a huge text space of 5000 characters, so you can compose a detailed message.

On the top-right coer of the tab, you can select the social profiles to which you want to send the message.

You can schedule the message now or you can save it to drafts and schedule it later.

-SocioQueue:

In the SocioQueue, you can see all of the messages that are scheduled.

You can get complete details like the text of the message, who the message was scheduled to, and what the status is. You can search for messages using the search bar.

If you want to delete or edit a message, you can easily do this from here.

-Drafts:

You can see the messages that are set as drafts by you. You can schedule them to be sent whenever you want.

4. Discovery

Marketers should always expand their social community. So searching for targeted users is an unavoidable task.

With “Discovery”, you can search for users based on a keyword. SocioBoard enables you to make this search from a single window so you do not need to switch platforms.

You can also see the search history. Here, you can make and refine the perfect search with different keywords.

5. Reports

Measuring your social media performance is an important thing which enables you to come up with efficient strategies.

SocioBoard gives you deep insights into your social media activities. You can see individual reports like Facebook reports, Twitter reports, and combined group reports.

In Facebook reports, you can see things like demographics of your followers, what kind of content works best for you, who is sharing your content, etc.

With Twitter reports, you get to know the engagement stats, follower count, amount of new followers in a certain period of time, how many retweets you got, who your top five followers are, etc.

6. Shareathon

This is really cool.

Here, you can attach a link to a webpage (website/social media page) and fetch content from that link whenever a new post published. Then you can post it onto your selected social groups or pages.

When you click on the “Actions” button, you can see the option for “Add Shareathon”. By clicking on it, you can add the source of the content.

-Page Shareathon:

With this feature, you can post on multiple pages at a time.

-Group Shareathon:

With this feature, you can post on multiple groups at a time.

7. Automated RSS Feeds

When you want to add the RSS feed of a website, you can make this process automated.

With the “Automated RSS Feeds” feature of SocioBoard, you can automatically post the desired RSS feed on your desired social media accounts.

As shown in the above pic, you can paste the URL for the RSS feed and then add in the social accounts that you want. Clicking on the “Add RSS Data” button, you can post the content on your selected profiles.

8. Sentiment Analysis

With this feature, you can get to know the response of the social media users for your social pages.

When someone mentions your name in their posts, or retweets your tweet, you can see the response of the users for that post.

You can select the profiles and the type of the messages for which the sentiment analysis should be shown.

9. E-Wallet

Just like any other wallet, you can maintain cash and make purchases through SocioBoard’s E-Wallet.

You can add money to the wallet by clicking on the “Add Money to Wallet” button. You can also receive from and send cash to others while ultimately transferring the wallet money to your bank account.

10. Affiliates

This is a promotional feature of SocioBoard.

You can invite your friends to join SocioBoard through an invitation link. When you click on the “Show Public URL” button on this feature’s dashboard, you can get the invitation link.

By sending this link to your friends, you can invite them to join SocioBoard.

But, what’s the benefit for you?

Whenever a user joins through your link, you will be getting a commission sent to your wallet. Whenever they make a transaction on SocioBoard, there will be some extra commissions for you.

11. BoardMe

Generating quality and relevant content for social media accounts are important and usually, somewhat hectic.

But with the BoardMe feature of SocioBoard, you can easily search for relevant content from a single dashboard.

Hovering on the “Actions” button, you can see the “Add a Board” option. Clicking on it, you can create a board where you can add hashtags or names of social profiles.

Once you add the board, you can get content from any social network or webpage in which the hashtag or name is used.

About the UI:

The user interface of SocioBoard looks cool. The navigation of this tool is user-friendly. The main menu is located on the left-hand side of the dashboard. You can manage all of the essential things like Publishing, Messaging, Discovering, and Analyzing from a single window.

The moment you log in, you can see the summary of all your social media accounts on the dashboard. From here, you can easily decide your next steps.

Wrapping Words:

For SMBs, the cost of a tool matters. But beyond the cost, they want good features as well.

SocioBoard is the best choice for marketers who want better services at a better price. The new features of SocioBoard like Smart Inbox and Shareathon are the best-in-class features.

Every minute is important for marketers and these features are very helpful in this regard. In any aspect, SocioBoard is a great choice for SMBs and entrepreneurs.

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For me, traveling is freedom.

If you are a travel blogger, I give you a standing ovation. Being a digital nomad, I understand how tough it is to blog while traveling. I also know that it’s even tougher to monetize your travel blog.

There are many travel bloggers who often get sponsorship for traveling (like free trips with all expenses covered), but not everyone is so lucky at the beginning of their blogging career.

Travel blogging is a popular & profitable niche that can generate great amounts of revenue using various monetization methods.

Some of the most popular monetization methods are:

*** Today I will be telling you about some of the best affiliate programs that you can use for your travel blog to ea money.

This is a one of a kind list of affiliate programs & I hope you make the most out of it.

• If you are new to affiliate marketing & don’t know how to make money using it, you can lea here.

If you are already well-versed in the art of affiliate marketing, then read on for the complete list of affiliate programs for travel blogs.

Best Travel Affiliate Programs to Quadruple Your Blog Income:

1. Booking.com Affiliate Program

Booking.com is a popular name in the travel industry.

They also have an affiliate partner program that is open for anyone with a blog/website, an app, or a travel agency. As long as you can offer the best choice of accommodations, this program is for you.

Highlights:

• Free & easy sign-up process.
• Offers search box, deep linking, and banner integration options.
• They have an offer-based, commission split model.

Join Booking.com affiliate program here.

2. TripAdvisor Affiliate Program

When someone is planning a trip, they usually check out TripAdvisor for reviews, recommendations, and bookings.

Getting on this affiliate program will be valuable as you can source content from their website and link your readers back to the original content through your tracking link.

Highlights:

• 50% commission.
• Deep linking to over 500,000 cities & hotels.
• Tiered commission structure.
• Monthly payout.

Join TripAdvisor affiliate program here.

3. Agoda Affiliate Program

With over a quarter million properties, Agoda definitely deserves to be in this mega list of travel blog affiliate programs.

Their in-house affiliate program is open for everyone to join (but it’s mandatory to have a website/blog).

The approval is a manual process & takes about 48-72 hours.

Highlights:

• Up to 60% commission on margin.
• Offers search box, text links & data feeds.
• Use hotel power ads to increase your revenue by 3x.
• Minimum payout $200.
• Payout mode is direct bank transfer.

Apply for Agoda affiliate program here.

Note: Agoda’s affiliate program can also be joined using ShareASale.

4. Skyscanner Affiliate Program

Skyscanner is one website that I always use when checking the price of a flight.

If you have never used them, you should download their mobile app & I promise you won’t be disappointed.

For your travel blog, Skyscanner offers various options. The one that you might want to start with is the Travel Widget.

You can use this widget in your sidebar or around the content where you are more likely to have users take an action. This widget will redirect them to the Skyscanner site.

If you want to take it to the next level, you can hire a developer & use the Skyscanner travel API to build your own search functionality on your website or mobile app.

Highlights:

• Offers white-label solutions for offering flight searches on your website.
• One of the most popular travel affiliate program APIs.
• Flight booking widget for your sidebar.
• One of the best & most detailed reference systems to help you get started.
• Supports flight bookings, hotel bookings, and rental cars.

Join Skyscanner affiliate program here.

5. AirB&B Referral Program

Referral programs & affiliate programs are two sides of the same coin.

In a referral program, instead of eaing hard cash, you ea points (or other non-monetary value) which you can utilize to buy products on the same network.

Here is an infographic from Refferalcandy that explains the differences & similarities:

AirB&B has a very popular referral program that helps you to ea decent “money” by referring other users.

You can ea up to $72 for every successful referral & a maximum of $5,000 USD travel credit per account.

Highlights:

• Easy to share referral link as user will also get AirB&B credits worth $18.
• Well known name in the travel industry.
• Good for travel income.

Join AirB&B referral program here

Note: You might want to have a look at other popular apps (such as Lyft, Uber, HotelsTonight) which also offer referral programs.

6. ShareASale

ShareASale is an affiliate marketplace where you can find top affiliate programs in any niche.

Many of the popular travel airlines, hotels, and services (such as Qatar Airways, Agoda, The Lalit Hotels, Riu Hotels, etc.) are available via ShareASale.

If you have never used ShareASale before, the navigation may be confusing at the beginning.

We have created a detailed training video of ShareAsale & a few other popular affiliate marketplaces at ShoutUniversity.

(You can join ShoutUniversity here.)

Highlights:

• Payment via direct bank deposit.
• Easier to reach minimum payout than in-house affiliate programs.
• See the top performing affiliate programs in every niche.

Join ShareASale affiliate marketplace here.

7. Amazon Associates

Whenever I research or compile an exclusive niche-based affiliate program list like this, it is always incomplete without Amazon’s affiliate program.

Amazon is the top destination for online buying. They have an amazing reputation and will help you ea great amounts of money in no time.

Once you join the Amazon Associates program, you can link to any of the products listed on Amazon & ea money across the entire site.

What’s really cool about the Amazon affiliate program is you will ea money whenever a referred user purchases any product from Amazon. That is, it doesn’t just have to be the product you sent them to.

Highlights:

• Highly reputed network.
• Getting started is easy and you will find tons of guides & videos.
• Numerous products related to travelers & traveling.
• Higher commission as you start referring more users.

Join Amazon affiliate program here.

Tip: If you find it time-consuming to create links for individual products, you can use Viglink to make the process easier. You can lea more about Viglink here & join here.

8. Dohop Affiliate Program

With Dohop you can start your own flight & hotel booking website.

They offer white-label solutions where you can also customize the look & feel of your site. You can create a page on your blog for flight bookings & use the widget created by Dohop to make it look like your own offering.

This easy tweak will help you a lot in branding & make you look more authoritative than you are now.

You can see an example of a widget here that I created within 5 minutes.

Highlights:

• Affiliate friendly.
• Easy to get started.
• White-label solution.
• Payout via PayPal & direct bank transfer.
• Minimum payout is EUR 300.
• Get paid in USD, GBP, DKK, NOK, SEK, and ISK.

Join Dohop affiliate program here.

Other popular travel website & services offering affiliate programs:

• Hipmunk offers Nutwork via ImpactRadius: Join here
• Hyatt Hotels & Resorts via VigLink: Join here

If you have not joined any of the above listed travel affiliate programs, then you should do that right now.

This list is currently up to date, but to make it complete, it requires your contribution!

Do let us know of any other popular affiliate programs for the travel niche that you would recommend to other travel bloggers.

I look forward to reading your tips & insightful ideas in the Idea section below.

If you find this list worthy, do share it on your favorite social networking sites!

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As we were landing into the mid of an year, like everybody else, I retrospected and reevaluated my last year’s jouey. I thought it’s the perfect time to start making the changes which I thought of doing few weeks back or last month or last year. When I brooded about what is that one habit which I want to improve upon and change is, the only thing which came into my mind was to stop complaining.

As mindful I strive to be with my words, I always used to end up complaining, be it the weather, job, clothes, relationships, worldly situations, traffic, high prices etc..The list goes on. Have you ever thought of the amount of time you complain in a day.

The thing is we have made ourselves so miserable that we end up finding fault and blaming others for our current situation. Think about it: Has complaining solved any of your problems?

When we complain about things to our family. friends or spouse, we only bring negative energy into our lives. The energy which we invest in complaining if invested in doing something positive, will transform our life and make it happier.

So this year, I challenged myself to stop complaining and see what happens. I knew that complaining is a habit and it will take a little time to break it but one thing was for sure, habit can be broken with will power and consistency.

Well, it’s been 2 months that I have been practicing the art to not complaining and guess what, I have been pretty successful. Of course, I cannot say that I never did complain in past 2 months. I did a few times but I think it’s ok as I am still on the path to break a bad habit and inculcate a good one.

Things that I did in order to stop complaining:

1.Express gratitude:

Often I have found myself worrying about things which I don’t have rather than focusing on things which I have. This year I decided to say more of phrases like “Thank You”, “I appreciate your help, “Congratulations” or simply just acknowledging the fact the “how lucky I am to be alive”. Of course, it did take a little time to do it sub-consciously, therefore, I started setting micro-goals instead of macro goals. Every moing, I used to be thankful of what I have and reminded myself to be better than the previous day thus slowly building the habit.

Read: Do These 5 Things & You Will Be Ahead of 99% Of The Population

2. Change perspective:

Everyone has their own story, their own way of looking towards life. By simply accepting this fact, you will notice that you are more open to people, to life and you will open up possibilities for you which you never thought of. It’s not necessary to agree with the other person but you can always appreciate and accept his thoughts and values. You cannot change somebody else’s attitude and perspective but you can change yours.

I have always had a strong stand on what I believed in and what I stand for, which of course led to clashes with people around me. So, I promised myself that I will listen to people more and try to understand their perspective. I must say, in past 2 months, I have been able to look at the world with endless possibilities and it has widened my horizon.

One thing which I have leat in past 2 months is: It’s not necessary to agree with the other person but you can always appreciate and accept his thoughts and values. You cannot change somebody else’s attitude and perspective but you can change yours.

3. Change complaints into solutions:

This is the most important point which I followed. Whenever I used to see myself complaining about anything, I would ask myself what can I do to change the situation. If I didn’t have a solution, accepting the thing the way it is killed l the urge to complain. For example instead of complaining that it’s cold outside and I hate living in this place, I used to stuff myself with woolens so that I feel warm and cozy. Use complaints as a catalyst for positive change and positive actions. It will bring peace and happiness into your life rather than frustration.

Use complaints as a catalyst for positive change and positive actions. It will bring peace and happiness into your life rather than frustration.

4. Dissociation from people who complain too much:

Constantly listening to people who are angry, frustrated and complain too much about family, life, situations only adds negative energy into your life. It’s very important to draw a boundary line in your life and surround yourselves with people who are cheerful, grateful and appreciative of life.

In past months, I have distanced myself from people who complain a lot. It’s not that I did not met or talk to them at all but yes, I did not indulge myself when people around me started whining. I distance myself from that conversation. Doing this has brought a very positive spark to my life. I feel vibrant and full of positive energy.

5. Notice how often you complain:

Simply by being consciously aware of what we say, we can notice how often we complain and what about? I started noticing when do I complain? Do I complain during a particular time, situation or around particular people. Whatever was the case, I followed all the above points and tried to live my life to the fullest.

6. Practice Meditation & Yoga:

Yoga is a positive way of life which helps you to be stress-free, healthy and happy. It strengthens positive mental attitude, develops focus, concentration and increases flexibility. It makes you feel alive and helps to know your true self. Yoga along with meditation will help you chu out all the negative thoughts and emotions and you will feel more connected to yourself and to the world around you.

I started practicing yoga and meditation. However, I couldn’t do it regularly as I have always run away from exercising. I am still trying to improve on this particular point.

One thing which I can say for sure after 2 months is it has changed my life for better. I feel very happy and energized from inside. Of course, it will be impossible to wake up the next moing and completely stop complaining but by being mindful of what we say, we can slowly change the habit and be more happy and present in now. Never forget that life is all about perspective.

Of course, It wasn’t like I woke up the next moing and completely stopped complaining but by being mindful of what we say, we can slowly change the habit and be more happy and present in now. Never forget that life is all about perspective.

Try it for a week and let me know how has it changed your life?

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Blogging is the art of sharing knowledge with the world.

In today’s era, there are many people who are in the blogging field. Some of them are doing well, whereas some are not. There are multiple reasons why some people are doing better than others in this field. One of the main reasons is the overall strategy of the blogger in order to fetch more readers and more user engagement.

One such strategy is giveaways.

Yes, you read that correctly. Giveaways are one of the best ways to increase user engagement with your blog. With giveaways, you can reward your readers and promote your brand on a large scale. You should read about how A Free Contest On Your Blog Will Increase Readership.

There are many bloggers who arrange giveaways on a regular basis. Some bloggers are able to get a lot out of them, whereas some are not. The main reason behind the success of any giveaway is how it was arranged.

If you have arranged it properly, then the chances are high that it will be successful.

There are many tools to run successful giveaways.

One such tool is Rafflecopter.

In this post, I am going to tell you how you can run your giveaways using the Rafflecopter tool.

Why do I recommend Rafflecopter to run giveaways?

The main reason why I like Rafflecoper is because of its usability.

Rafflecopter is a very easy way for you to create and manage giveaways. It is also very easy for users to enter into your giveaway.

You can easily set up pre-defined tasks for users such as sharing content on social platforms, joining a comment list, and so on.

You don’t need to edit any code or install any plugin. It’s a very simple, intuitive, and powerful tool.

How to run giveaways using Rafflecopter?

First, you need to sign up with Rafflecopter.

There are two accounts to choose from. The first account is the free account and the second account is the business account (paid). While there are many more features available in the business account, if you cannot afford it or don’t need it, the free option also has all of the necessary features for running a successful giveaway campaign.

Once you’re signed up for Rafflecopter, you will be taken to the Rafflecopter dashboard. The dashboard is where you will create your Rafflecopter giveaways.

• Click on “New Giveaway”.

• On the next page, set the name for your giveaway.

(Make sure you set a catchy name for your giveaway.)

• Next you need to add your prices. In the free account, you cannot add an image for your price, but it’s OK, you don’t need to.

Tip: Make sure you add the prices according to your audience’s needs and requirements. This way, more and more people can participate in your giveaways.

• Now it’s time to set the conditions by which the user can enter into the giveaway.

You can create your own task such as liking a Facebook page, tweeting a message on Twitter, following on Twitter, subscribing to your email list, etc.

You can also give out points for each task. Points range from 0 to 5.

You can even tell the user if any of the tasks are compulsory or not.

There are some tasks which you can add in the business account that you can’t add in the free account. Let me quickly show you the difference.

In the free account, you can set the following tasks for users:

1. Tweet a message with a blog URL or a giveaway URL.
2. Liking a Facebook Page.
3. Following your account on Twitter.
4. Commenting on your blog post.
5. You can also create your own task such as having a user answer some questions.

In the paid account, you can also do the following:

1. Create a poll.
2. Get a user to sign up to your email list. (MailChimp, Aweber, etc.)
3. You can tell the user to “pin” an image or follow you on Pinterest.

After you have defined the conditions of the giveaway, you just need to enter the duration.

I recommend you set the duration for 7 to 10 days. The goal is to maximize the richness of the giveaway, so a longer duration has a better chance of users telling their networks about it.

But you should set the duration according to your individual needs.

Add widgets in WordPress to display giveaways using Rafflecopter:

Now, you can add some widgets in WordPress to display the giveaway which you have created. Rafflecopter will give you a code which you will need to add into WordPress.

To display the giveaway in a post, just add a “New Post” from the WordPress admin area and paste the code of Rafflecopter in the text mode of the post box.

Once you paste the code, your widget will be displayed in the post.

If you want to change anything in the widget, you can do it via your Rafflecopter dashboard.

You don’t need to edit any code for that; the code will automatically update for you.

Now you just need to promote your giveaway as much as you can. For that, you can use various hacks like social media promotion, sending out newsletters, boosting your posts, etc.

The more you promote the giveaway, the more likes, tweets, subscribers, and users you will acquire.

So promote it well and you will surely get a lot out of it.

Create an account on Rafflecopter

Over To You

As a blogger or webmaster, you need to reach those users who are willing to visit your website/blog again.

Giveaways provide you with a great way to do this. If you arrange giveaways properly, then believe me, you can do wonders with them.

There are many great examples of giveaways from bloggers who have driven huge amounts of traffic to their blogs. You can also do the same with your giveaways using Rafflecopter.

Read:

If you have created any giveaways using Rafflecopter in the past, then let me know the results via the Idea. Or did this post encourage you to give Rafflecopter a try? Also let me know how it goes in the Idea below.

If you like this article, do share it with your friends!

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