Sunday, October 11, 2015

Baghdadi belived to be not among IS figures killed

Islamic State figures killed in air strike
A man purported to be the reclusive leader of the militant Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during his first public appearance at a mosque in Mosul, Iraq, according to a video recording posted on the Internet on July 5, 2014. Reuters





Baghdad: Eight senior figures from Islamic State were killed in an air strike while meeting in a town in western Iraq, but the group's reclusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did not appear to be among them, residents of the town and hospital sources said.

Iraq said on Sunday its air force had hit the meeting and had also struck a convoy that was carrying Baghdadi to attend it. It said Baghdadi had been driven away from the convoy in an unknown condition. The Iraqi military's announcement was the latest unconfirmed report of the possible death or injury of Baghdadi, who has survived a year of US-led air strikes and multi-sided wars in two countries since proclaiming himself caliph of all Muslims after his forces swept through most of northern Iraq last year.

A Twitter site which publishes statements from Islamic State said "rumours" that an air strike had targeted Baghdadi were false.

A US military official in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States has not seen any indications Baghdadi was killed or injured during the operation.

"Iraqi air forces have bombed the convoy of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while he was heading to Karabla to attend a meeting with Daesh commanders," the Iraqi military said in a statement.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Karabla is a town in Iraq's Anbar province near the Syrian border, an Islamic State stronghold, not to be confused with Kerbala, a Shi'ite holy city in the south.

"The location of the meeting was also bombed and many of the group's leaders were killed and wounded. The fate of murderer al-Baghdadi is unknown and he was carried away by a vehicle. His health condition is still unclear," the military said.

Hospital sources and residents said airstrikes hit two houses and killed eight senior local leaders of an Islamic State police force in the town.

Islamic State supporters said on Twitter that even if Baghdadi had been killed, his self-proclaimed caliphate straddling large areas of Iraq and Syria would survive.

"Do you think we would leave the State of the caliphate and abandon it, oh vile world?," asked one of his followers. "This is the religion of God, it rose on the skulls of heroes and martyrs and every time one of them is martyred we rise."

Baghdadi has galvanized militants from around the world, encouraged by his military successes and plans to redraw the map of the Middle East to create a self-sustaining caliphate.

His successes prompted the United States to re-engage in Iraq with air strikes against his fighters three years after pulling out following a long, costly occupation.

Russia, which has launched a bombing campaign to aid its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad, says its main enemy is Islamic State as well.

An Islamic State fighter reached by telephone could not confirm whether Baghdadi had been in a convoy that was struck, but said the group would fight on whatever his fate: "Even if he was martyred then it will not affect Islamic State. We will lose a leader, but there are a thousand Baghdadis."

Credits: Manorama

Pathemari: A voyage through the diaspora life

Pathemari: A voyage through the diaspora life
Pallickal Narayanan played by Mammootty is a metonymy that stands for the early generation of Keralite diaspora in the Gulf.


Half a century after setting afoot on a land unknown by a wooden catamaran, that night he goes to sleep early as he has to work on day shift from the next day. And he would never wake up again. Thus comes an end to Pallickal Narayanan's life, which was lived mostly on the deserts of the Gulf than in the coastal village of Malabar where he was born. And being a Keralite, as you watch his life on-screen, a number of characters come and play their part in your mind -- because you personally know someone who lived the life of Narayanan, in parts if not fully.

Salim Ahamed's third directorial outing, 'Pathemari' is that narrative necessitated by time itself. Being an economy, that has a strong base on the Gulf boom of 70's and 80's, it's indeed the duty of the land to preserve the memories of a generation that was forced to board on a catamaran (Pathemari in local parlance), that would take them to a land, which they have no idea of. Their journey was so similar to that of any refugees' voyage -- poverty was the driving force, and dreams the fuel.
Pathemari: A voyage through the diaspora life
The film is a blend of family and social drama.


Pallickal Narayanan played by Mammootty is a metonymy that stands for the early generation of Keralite diaspora in the Gulf. He also stands for the many whose life ended up on the deserts living for others. As in the case of his previous films, in Pathemari also realism is the magic band of the writer-director.

Through episodes that the viewers can easily associate with, Salim tells the tale of the Malayali migrant life in a less dramatic but compelling narrative. The film doesn't have the flavours for a commercial flick. Nor does it compromise anywhere to satiate the tastes of the so-called critics. In short, it's a film made for all. The struggles went through by the likes of Narayanan to reach the sandy shores of the Gulf must have been recorded much before in our literature. However, a visual presentation of the voyage through the rough sea even without food and potable water is much more powerful.
jewel-mary-in-pathemari
Jewel Mary deserves special mention for the way she presents Nalini, Narayanan's wife, in different stages.
The film is a blend of family and social drama. A tight script and subtle performers are its strong pillars. Right from Mammootty to the supporting actors, everyone offers a neat performance. Jewel Mary deserves special mention for the way she presents Nalini, Narayanan's wife, in different stages. Sreenivasan's Moideen and Siddique's Lanchi Velayudhan are two characters to be counted in those actors' career. Notably, the character of the elder son of Narayanan played by Shaheen Siddique is a fitting debut for him.
mammootty-pathemari
Right from Mammootty to the supporting actors, everyone offers a neat performance.


The realistic visuals captured by veteran cinematographer Madhu Ambat and sounds by mastercraftsman Resul Pookutty help the film in setting its tone. Sameera Sanish has done a good job in recreating the costumes of different decades. About musical part, Bijibal and Rafeeq Ahamed have once again struck the chord. The theme song materialised in Shahabas Aman's divine voice will stay in one's ears for long.

With his life resembling that of many around you, Narayanan is likely to stay with you even after you leave the cinema hall, which is a rare feeling one gets these days.


Credits: Manorama

IFFK 2015: 'Ennu Ninte Moideen' backs out


IFFK 2015: Pathemari, Moideen, Ain to be screened
Thiruvananthapuram: Soon after seven films were announced for screening at the 20th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) this year,Ennu Ninte Moideen, directed by R.S. Vimal has backed out from the ‘Malayalam Cinema Today’ section.

Reports suggests that the film was not considered to be screened under the competition category and thus the makers backed out from the venture.

Two films - state and national award winning Ottal, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s 19th-century classic short story ‘Vanka’ by Jayaraj R, and Satish Babusenan’sChaayam Poosiya Veedu (The Painted House) - has made it to the Competition category.

The other films included in the ‘Malayalam Cinema Today’ section are: Ain (‘The Eye’) by Sidharth Siva; Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal (‘Birds with Large Wings’) by Dr Bijukumar Damodaran; Pathemari by Salim Ahmed; Ozhivudivasathe Kali (‘An Off-Day Game’) by Sanal Kumar Sasidharan; Nirnayakam by V K Prakash; andKaattum Mazhayum by R Harikumar.

The films were selected by a jury chaired by writer and film critic Malti Sahai. The other jury members were author M.F. Thomas, Chandrasekhar, Sashi Kumar, and Sudhish Kamath. This year, IFFK will be held from from December 4 to 11.

Credits: Manorama

Three including child found dead in Ponnani

Representative image
Representative image




Malappuram: In a gruesome incident, three of a family have been found dead in Ponnani near here. According to police, the woman jumped into a well with her child after killing her husband.

The deceased have been identified as Faisal (35), his wife Saleena (28) and their eight-month-old son Faheem. Saleena is said to have been suffering from mental illness, according to her relatives.

Saleena and Faheem were found dead in a well on Monday morning. Faisal was found hacked in the bedroom. The incident came to light on Monday morning around 6 am.

Credits: Manorama

Stage set for 1st phase of polling for 49 Bihar seats

Stage set for 1st phase of polling for 49 Bihar seats

Patna: After high pitch bitter campaigning which saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the rival camps led by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad holding a string of rallies, the stage is set for voting in 49 seats of Bihar Assembly elections in the first phase of the five-phase poll on Monday.

Additional Chief Electoral Officer R Lakshamanan said that a total of 1,35,72,339 electorate are eligible to decide the fate of 583 candidates for the 49 seats in 10 districts in the first phase of elections.

Lakshamanan said voting would start from 7 AM.

While in majority of seats polling would end at 5 PM, in some constituencies time has been cut short to 4 PM and 3 PM on the basis of law and order situation feedback in the Naxal-hit areas, he said.

Out of a general electoroate of 1,35,72,339 there are 72,37,253 men, 63,17,602 women and 405 of third gender.

Lakshamanan said out of a total of 583 candidates in the field, there are 54 women nominees.

BSP, which does not have much influence in Bihar, has fielded a maximum of 41 candidates among the 49 seats.

BJP has fielded 27 candidates in the 49 seats followed by JD(U) 24, RJD 17, LJP 13, Congress 8 and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party 6 and Hindusthani Awam Morcha 3.

Left front is trying to make significant inroads in the poll on the basis of combined strength of six parties - CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML, Forward Block, SUCI (C) and RSP.

While CPI has fielded 25 candidates, CPI-M has fielded 12 in the first phase.

Lakshamanan said tight security arrangements have been put in place to ensure peaceful polling in 13212 polling stations in the first phase.

Bihar will go for polls in a five phase election from October 12 and end on November 5. Counting of votes will take place on November 8. The term of the current 243-member Bihar Assembly expires on November 29.

There would be 80,000 to 90,000 polling personnel.

Every polling station would be manned by the Central Para Military Force, he said adding drone and helicopter would also be put in service.

Voting in 49 seats would take place in the backdrop of high decibel campaign which ended on Saturday evening. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah headed the BJP poll blitzkreig. Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, J P Nadda joined state leaders Sushil Kumar Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav to spread BJP message among people.

Rival campaigns revolved around Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad. Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi came to the state for one day each to add muscle to the secular alliance prospects.

Stakes are high for Nitish Kumar's JD(U) in the first phase of polling as out of the 49 seats it had won 29 in 2010.

BJP, which was with JD(U) in last election, had won 13 seats, while RJD had clinched four.

The over a fortnight-long poll campaign was marked by mudslinging by contenders. Though the electioneering got off to positive start with the two main contenders to power - BJP-led NDA and JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance - initially pitching on development plank, it soon turned into a slanging match.

From 'Shaitan' (devil) to 'Brahma Pisach' (super devil) to 'Chara Chor' (fodder thief) to 'Narbhakshi' (man eater), their was no dearth of 'name calling'.

As campaigning peaked, Lalu Prasad's "Hindus also eat beef" remark was hotly debated, with Modi seeking to turn the tables on the RJD boss, who had latched onto RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's call for a review of the reservation policy to claim that the BJP-led Centre was contemplating scrapping caste-based quotas.

As Lalu Prasad and the anti-BJP alliance's chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar harped on the alleged move to scrap quotas, in rally after rally, to consolidate the backward caste votes, the RJD supremo's "Hindus also eat beef" remark, made in the aftermath of the Dadri lynching episode, gave BJP and Modi ammunition.

Modi vigorously stirred Bihar's melting electoral pot by accusing Lalu of "insulting" the "yaduvanshis" (Lalu's own Yadav clansmen), who rear cattle, by his comment. Modi's remarks triggered accusations of trying to communalise the elections.

"The real Modi on display -- brazen attempt to add communal texture to Bihar polls, but deafening silence on deplorable incident of Dadri," said the Bihar Chief Minister.

Kumar said it was for all to see "why Vajpayeeji was forced to remind him (Modi) to follow Raj Dharma, but wonder who will do the Vajpayee today ?"

Warnings of a return of "jungle raj", a term used by Lalu Prasad's critics to describe alleged lawlessness during RJD's 15-year rule, was an oft-repeated refrain of the NDA leaders, including Modi and Shah.


Credits: Manorama

Sena members throw black ink on Sudheendra Kulkarni

sudheendra-kulkarni


Mumbai: Shiv Sena workers smeared black paint on Sudheendra Kulkarni, Chairman of Observer and Research Foundation, on Monday over his refusal to back down from organising the launch of a book written by former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.

Earlier, Kulkarni had said the event will continue as scheduled amid threats from Sena.

Kulkarni, a foreign policy think-tank, who organised Monday's event, had met Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's residence Matoshree here late on Sunday night.

It is understood that the meeting went futile and Kulkarni left Matoshree without getting any assurance from the Sena leader whose party's threat to disrupt Pakistan ghazal singer Ghulam Ali's concerts led to cancellation of his events in Mumbai and Pune recently.

"I have requested Uddhav Thackeray that Shiv Sena should not oppose the book launch event. I also told him that the event will proceed despite Sena's threat," Kulkarni told PTI.

Kulkarni has served as speechwriter for BJP veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani.

The Sena, which shares power with the BJP in Maharashtra, has written to the director of Worli's Nehru Centre, the launch venue, to cancel the show because of the Pakistan connection.

Maharashtra's home department, headed by BJP chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, has assured the organisers of full security cover.

Kasuri is scheduled to attend the launch of his book 'Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider's Account of Pakistan's Foreign Policy' at 5.30 pm in Worli area here.

"Our event will go on as planned. We have been assured full security and assistance by the police," Kulkarni said.


Credits: Manorama

Friday, October 9, 2015

Add Drop down Menus to Blogger with this Code:

This post has supporting code that goes along with the tutorial on Adding Menus to Blogger. This course includes detailed instructions and a video that will walk you though exactly what to do with the code below. Watch the video to learn what to do with this code >>
Step ONE:  Plan for your menu bar, creating a sitemap with all the links that you want to use.
Step TWO: Grab this code … replacing it with all your links … then add it into a new HTML widget where you want your menu bar to appear:
<!-- start navmenu -->
<ul id='cssnav'>
<li class="active"><a href='http://LINK.com'>Home</a></li>
<li class="sub"><a href='http://CATEGORY-ONE-LINK.com'>Category 1</a>
<ul>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-ONE-LINK.com'>SUB-category1</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-TWO-LINK.com'>SUB-category2</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-THREE-LINK.com'>SUB-category3</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href='http://CATEGORY-TWO-LINK.com'>Category 2</a>
<ul>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-ONE-LINK.com'>SUB-category1</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-TWO-LINK.com'>SUB-category2</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-THREE-LINK.com'>SUB-category3</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href='http://CATEGORY-THREE-LINK.com'>Category 3</a>
<ul>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-ONE-LINK.com'>SUB-category1</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-TWO-LINK.com'>SUB-category2</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-THREE-LINK.com'>SUB-category3</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href='http://CATEGORY-FOUR-LINK.com'>Category 4</a>
<ul>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-ONE-LINK.com'>SUB-category1</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-TWO-LINK.com'>SUB-category2</a></li>
<li><a href='http://SUB-CATEGORY-THREE-LINK.com'>SUB-category3</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<!-- end navmenu -->
NOTE 1:  There is no styling added yet … so this will not look like much just yet.  But stay with me :)
NOTE 2: You are welcome to add more categories and sub-categories as you need. Just copy the same format as listed in the example.
Step THREE: Go into the Blogger Template Designer (click on CUSTOMIZE … then on ADVANCED … then on ADD CSS) and add the following:
/* ----- CSS Nav Menu Styling ----- */
#cssnav {
margin: 0px 0 0 -30px;
padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
width: 1050px;  /* Set your width to fit your blog */
font: $(tabs.font); /* Template Designer - Change Font Type, Size, Etc */
color: $(tabs.text.color); /* Template Designer - Change Font Size */
}

#cssnav ul {
background: $(tabs.background.color) $(tabs.background.gradient) repeat-x scroll 0 -800px;
_background-image: none; /* Template Designer - Change Menu Background */
height: 20px; /* Change Height of Menu */
list-style: none;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}

#cssnav li {
float: left;
padding: 0px;
}

#cssnav li a {
background: $(tabs.background.color) $(tabs.background.gradient) repeat-x scroll 0 -800px;
_background-image: none; /* Template Designer - Change Menu Background */
display: block;
margin: 0px;
font: $(tabs.font); /* Template Designer - Change Font Type, Size, Etc */
text-decoration: none;
}

#cssnav > ul > li > a {
color: $(tabs.text.color); /* Template Designer - Change Font Color */
}

#cssnav ul ul a {
color: $(tabs.text.color); /* Template Designer - Change Color */
}

#cssnav li > a:hover, #cssnav ul li:hover {
color: $(tabs.selected.text.color); /* Template Designer - Change Font Color on Hover */
background-color: $(tabs.selected.background.color); /* Template Designer - Change Font Background on Hover */
text-decoration: none;
}

#cssnav li ul {
background: $(tabs.background.color) $(tabs.background.gradient) repeat-x scroll 0 -800px;
_background-image: none; /* Template Designer - Change Menu Background */
display: none;
height: auto;
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
position: absolute;
width: 200px; /* Change Width Of DropDown Menu */
z-index:9999;
}

#cssnav li:hover ul {
display: block;
}

#cssnav li li {
background: $(tabs.background.color) $(tabs.background.gradient) repeat-x scroll 0 -800px;
_background-image: none; /* Template Designer - Change Background */
display: block;
float: none;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
width: 200px; /* Change Width Of DropDown Menu */
}

#cssnav li:hover li a {
background: $(tabs.selected.background.color); /* Template Designer - Change Background of Link on Hover */
}

#cssnav li ul a {
display: block;
height: auto;
margin: 0px;
padding: 10px;
text-align: left;
}

#cssnav li ul a:hover, #cssnav li ul li:hover > a {
color: $(tabs.selected.text.color); /* Template Designer - Change Text Color on Hover */
background-color: $(tabs.selected.background.color); /* Template Designer - Change Background on Hover */
border: 0px;
text-decoration: none;
}
NOTE: I’ve listed notes next to a few lines of this code to point out what you can change and style for your own blog.
Credits : http://www.howtoblogdesign.com

BJP hopes to cash in on beef politics

The BJP has tried to contain the Dadri lynching fallout on its Bihar poll fortunes and turn the ‘beef debate’ to its advantage. — PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMABJP has tried to contain the Dadri lynching fallout on its Bihar poll fortunes and turn the ‘beef debate’ to its advantage. — PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Modi seeks to drive a wedge between Lalu and his community

Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally broke his silence, if obliquely, on the murder of 52-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday at an election rally in Bihar, hailing President Pranab Mukherjee’s appeal on Wednesday to preserve India’s core civilisational values.
But the Prime Minister’s comments fell short of condemning the lynching of Akhlaq or of pulling up his party colleagues, ministers Mahesh Sharma and Sanjeev Baliyan, MPs Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj or MLA Sangeet Som, to desist from making the communally polarising statements. He restricted himself to a general remark on “some politicians [have been] making irresponsible statements for political interests... [which] should end.”
Instead, he skilfully wove his salute to the President into a reference to the bomb explosion at a rally he had addressed in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan in the run-up to the general elections of 2014: on that occasion, he recalled, he had set aside the attack aimed at exterminating him and instead exhorted Hindus and Muslims not to fight each other but unitedly tackle poverty. He had not allowed that episode to be politicised, as some political parties were now politicising some incidents — a reference to the killing of Akhlaq.
“Some politicians are making irresponsible statements for political interests ... Such statements should end ... Do not pay attention to such statements, even if Modi himself makes any such statement,” he said.
But even as he made an appeal for communal harmony and brotherhood, the Prime Minister also plunged into the beef debate by lashing out at Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad for “insulting Yadavs for saying that they, too, eat meat.”
“Laluji, whatever you have become, it is because of the blessings of these Yaduvanshis. And you abuse them so much now? You come out with such claims about what they eat. I am ashamed to even talk about this. Please do not insult my people; I come from Krishna’s Dwarka,” he said.
Mr. Modi was clearly seeking to create a wedge between Mr. Prasad and his caste fellows by using the beef motif. He appeared to be trying to shatter the Yadav consolidation that appeared to have taken place in favour of the Janata Dal (United)-led grand coalition. For the Yadavs — who are close to 15 per cent in Bihar — a possible victory of the grand coalition holds out the promise of the community regaining the political and economic power they had wielded when the RJD had ruled the State. But Mr. Prasad’s ill-judged remark on the eating of beef could, his supporters feel, hurt his prospects — and on Thursday, Mr. Modi sought to drive that point home.
Indeed, ever since the Dadri lynching, the Centre’s efforts at damage control have been calibrated, largely because it believes that the current “beef politics” can pay the BJP dividends in the Bihar polls critical to its future.
It was only when criticism started coming in from abroad that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told NDTV in New York: “India is a mature society. We have to rise above these incidents because they certainly don’t bring a good name as far as the country is concerned. And I have also said that they can amount to policy diversions.”


Credits:Manorama

Dadri victim’s family wants to stay on in Bishahra

Mohd Iqlakh's eldest brother Jameel Ahmed at his residence at Bishada in Dadri on Thursday.
PTI
Mohd Iqlakh's eldest brother Jameel Ahmed at his residence at Bishada in Dadri on Thursday.

Almost 10 days after his father Mohammad Akhlaq Saifi was lynched by a mob, over rumours about beef consumption, just outside his house at Bishahra village in Dadri, his family does not want to leave, despite the immense pain and memory of his brutal killing associated with the house.
While taking care of his brother Danish at a hospital in Noida, Sartaj was reminded of “things which happened in my absence.” Danish was brutally assaulted by the mob after which he had to be in the ICU of the hospital for several days.
“I can never get over the brutality with which my father was killed. It is like living with the wounds. Yes, it is true that the house at Bishahra reminds me of my father’s killing,” said 29-year-old Sartaj who works with the Indian Air Force in Chennai.
But he was quick to add that the small house in the Hindu neighbourhood stands for much more than his father’s killing.
“We have lots of good memories associated with that house. We have had good times with our dad there. How can we leave it?” he asked in response to media reports which suggested that his family had shifted to Delhi.
He told The Hindu that he and his family did not want to go anywhere else.
“We want to live in Bishahra as always. It would be difficult to forget everything but we have to live with what we have. We have no plans to permanently shift out of Bishahra,” he clarified.
He also voiced concern about his family’s safety but expected the situation to improve gradually. However, Sartaj said that his family might shift out for 3-4 months, “if required.”
The District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, Nagendra Prasad Singh, told The Hindu that Akhlaq’s family was still in Bishahra.
“They are living in the village. They have not shared with us their wish or plan to move out. They have been given round-the-clock security,” he added.
Jamil, one of the brothers of Akhlaq, reiterated the same point and said, “How can we leave this village where we have lived for five generations? We are tired of saying the same thing again and again but despite that the media carries unverified stories.”
‘Justice first priority’
Asked about the future of his family and further plans, Sartaj said his first priority is to get justice and simultaneously ensure that his family members lead a normal life.
“My grandmother and sister especially are not in a position to speak normally about things. They are yet to come to terms with the brutal killing which happened in front of their eyes,” he said.
“It is no longer the same world for us. Though we are trying to get that world back somehow,” he added.

Credits:Manorama

Thursday, October 8, 2015

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic



It's easy to build a blog, but hard to build a successful blog with significant traffic. Over the years, we've grown the Moz blog to nearly a million visits each month and helped lots of other blogs, too. I launched a personal blog late last year and was amazed to see how quickly it gained thousands of visits to each post. There's an art to increasing a blog's traffic, and given that we seem to have stumbled on some of that knowledge, I felt it compulsory to give back by sharing what we've observed.

NOTE: This post replaces a popular one I wrote on the same topic in 2007 (and updated again in 2012). This post is intended to be useful to all forms of bloggers - independent folks, those seeking to monetize, and marketing professionals working an in-house blog from tiny startups to huge companies. Not all of the tactics will work for everyone, but at least some of these should be applicable and useful.

#1 - Target Your Content to an Audience Likely to Share

When strategizing about who you're writing for, consider that audience's ability to help spread the word. Some readers will naturally be more or less active in evangelizing the work you do, but particular communities, topics, writing styles and content types regularly play better than others on the web. For example, great infographics that strike a chord ( like this one), beautiful videos that tell a story (like this one) and remarkable collections of facts that challenge common assumptions (like this one) are all targeted at audiences likely to share (geeks with facial hair, those interested in weight loss and those with political thoughts about macroeconomics respectively).
A Blog's Target Audience
If you can identify groups that have high concentrations of the blue and orange circles in the diagram above, you dramatically improve the chances of reaching larger audiences and growing your traffic numbers. Targeting blog content at less-share-likely groups may not be a terrible decision (particularly if that's where you passion or your target audience lies), but it will decrease the propensity for your blog's work to spread like wildfire across the web.

#2 - Participate in the Communities Where Your Audience Already Gathers



Advertisers on Madison Avenue have spent billions researching and determining where consumers with various characteristics gather and what they spend their time doing so they can better target their messages. They do it because reaching a group of 65+ year old women with commercials for extreme sports equipment is known to be a waste of money, while reaching an 18-30 year old male demographic that attends rock-climbing gyms is likely to have a much higher ROI.

Thankfully, you don't need to spend a dime to figure out where a large portion of your audience can be found on the web. In fact, you probably already know a few blogs, forums, websites and social media communities where discussions and content are being posted on your topic (and if you don't a Google search will take you much of the way). From that list, you can do some easy expansion using a
Once you've determined the communities where your soon-to-be-readers gather, you can start participating. Create an account, read what others have written and don't jump in the conversation until you've got a good feel for what's appropriate and what's not. I've and all of them apply. Be a good web citizen and you'll be rewarded with traffic, trust and fans. Link-drop, spam or troll and you'll get a quick boot, or worse, a reputation as a blogger no one wants to associate with.

#3 - Make Your Blog's Content SEO-Friendly

Search engines are a massive opportunity for traffic, yet many bloggers ignore this channel for a variety of reasons that usually have more to do with fear and misunderstanding than true problems. As I've written before In 2014, Google will see over 6 billion daily searches from around the world, and that number is only growing:
sources: Comscore + Google


Taking advantage of this massive traffic opportunity is of tremendous value to bloggers, who often find that much of the business side of blogging, from inquiries for advertising to guest posting opportunities to press and discovery by major media entities comes via search.

SEO for blogs is both simple and easy to set up, particularly if you're using an SEO-friendly platform like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. For more information on how to execute on great SEO for blogs, check out the following resources:
Blogger's Guide to SEO (from SEOBook)
The Beginner's Guide to SEO (from Moz)
Wordpress Blog SEO Tutorial (from Yoast)
SEO for Travel Bloggers (but applicable to nearly any type of blog - from Moz)

Don't let bad press or poor experiences with spammers (spam is not SEO) taint the amazing power and valuable contributions SEO can make to your blog's traffic and overall success. 20% of the effort and tactics to make your content optimized for search engines will yield 80% of the value possible; embrace it and thousands of visitors seeking exactly what you've posted will be the reward.

#4 - Use Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to Share Your Posts & Find New Connections

Twitter has 271 million active users every month. Facebook has over 1 billion active users. Google+ has over 300 million. LinkedIn is over 300 million. Together, these networks are attracting vast amounts of time and interest from Internet users around the world, and those that participate on these services fit into the "content distributors" description above, meaning they're likely to help spread the word about your blog.

Leveraging these networks to attract traffic requires patience, study, attention to changes by the social sites and consideration in what content to share and how to do it. My advice is to use the following process:
If you haven't already, register a personal account and a brand account at each of the following -Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn (those links will take you directly to the registration pages for brand pages). For example, my friend Dharmesh has a personal account for Twitter and a brand account for OnStartups (one of his blog projects). He also maintains brand pages onFacebook, LinkedIn and Google+.
Fill out each of those profiles to the fullest possible extent - use photos, write compelling descriptions and make each one as useful and credible as possible. Research shows that profiles with more information have a significant correlation with more successful accounts (and there's a lot of common sense here, too, given that spammy profiles frequently feature little to no profile work).
Connect with users on those sites with whom you already share a personal or professional relationships, and start following industry luminaries, influencers and connectors. Services likeFollowerWonk and CircleCount can be incredible for this:
Followerwonk Search for "Seattle Chef"

Start sharing content - your own blog posts, those of peers in your industry who've impressed you and anything that you feel has a chance to go "viral" and earn sharing from others.
Interact with the community - use hash tags, searches and those you follow to find interesting conversations and content and jump in! Social networks are amazing environment for building a brand, familiarizing yourself with a topic and the people around it, and earning the trust of others through high quality, authentic participation and sharing

If you consistently employ a strategy of participation, share great stuff and make a positive, memorable impression on those who see your interactions on these sites, your followers and fans will grow and your ability to drive traffic back to your blog by sharing content will be tremendous. For many bloggers, social media is the single largest source of traffic, particularly in the early months after launch, when SEO is a less consistent driver.

#5 - Install Analytics and Pay Attention to the Results



At the very least, I'd recommend most bloggers install Google Analytics (which is free), and watch to see where visits originate, which sources drive quality traffic and what others might be saying about you and your content when they link over. If you want to get more advanced, check out this post on18 Steps to Successful Metrics and Marketing.

Here's a screenshot from the analytics of my wife's travel blog, the Everywhereist:



As you can see, there's all sorts of great insights to be gleaned by looking at where visits originate, analyzing how they were earned and trying to repeat the successes, focus on the high quality and high traffic sources and put less effort into marketing paths that may not be effective. In this example, it's pretty clear that Facebook and Twitter are both excellent channels. StumbleUpon sends a lot of traffic, but they don't stay very long (averaging only 36 seconds vs. the general average of 4 minutes!).

Employing analytics is critical to knowing where you're succeeding, and where you have more opportunity. Don't ignore it, or you'll be doomed to never learn from mistakes or execute on potential.

#6 - Add Graphics, Photos and Illustrations (with link-back licensing)



If you're someone who can produce graphics, take photos, illustrate or even just create funny doodles in MS Paint, you should leverage that talent on your blog. By uploading and hosting images (or using a third-party service like Flickr or Niice to embed your images with licensing requirements on that site), you create another traffic source for yourself via Image Search, and often massively improve the engagement and enjoyment of your visitors.

When using images, I highly recommend creating a way for others to use them on their own sites legally and with permission, but in such a way that benefits you as the content creator. For example, you could have a consistent notice under your images indicating that re-using is fine, but that those who do should link back to this post. You can also post that as a sidebar link, include it in your terms of use, or note it however you think will get the most adoption.

Some people will use your images without linking back, which sucks. However, you can find them by employing the Image Search function of "similar images," shown below:



Clicking the "similar" link on any given image will show you other images that Google thinks look alike, which can often uncover new sources of traffic. Just reach out and ask if you can get a link, nicely. Much of the time, you'll not only get your link, but make a valuable contact or new friend, too!

#7 - Conduct Keyword Research While Writing Your Posts



Not surprisingly, a big part of showing up in search engines is targeting the terms and phrases your audience are actually typing into a search engine. It's hard to know what these words will be unless you do some research, and luckily, there's a free tool from Google to help called the AdWords Keyword Planner.

Type some words at the top, hit search and AdWords will show you phrases that match the intent and/or terms you've employed. There's lots to play around with here, but watch out in particular for the keyword filters, keyword options, and include/exclude features:



When you choose "exact match" AdWords will show you only the quantity of searches estimated for that precise phrase. If you use broad match, they'll include any search phrases that use related/similar words in a pattern they think could have overlap with your keyword intent (which can get pretty darn broad). "Phrase match" will give you only those phrases that include the word or words in your search - still fairly wide-ranging, but between "exact" and "broad."

I also use and recommend Keywordtool.io, which mines keywords from Google's Suggest function:



When you're writing a blog post, keyword research is best utilized for the title and headline of the post. For example, if I wanted to write a post here on Moz about how to generate good ideas for bloggers, I might craft something that uses the phrase "blog post ideas" or "blogging ideas" near the front of my title and headline, as in "Blog Post Ideas for When You're Truly Stuck," or "Blogging Ideas that Will Help You Clear Writer's Block."

Optimizing a post to target a specific keyword isn't nearly as hard as it sounds. 80% of the value comes from merely using the phrase effectively in the title of the blog post, and writing high quality content about the subject. If you're interested in more, read Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization.

#8 - Frequently Reference Your Own Posts and Those of Others



The web was not made for static, text-only content! Readers appreciate links, as do other bloggers, site owners and even search engines. When you reference your own material in-context and in a way that's not manipulative (watch out for over-optimizing by linking to a category, post or page every time a phrase is used - this is almost certainly discounted by search engines and looks terrible to those who want to read your posts), you potentially draw visitors to your other content AND give search engines a nice signal about those previous posts.

Perhaps even more valuable is referencing the content of others. The biblical expression "give and ye shall receive," perfectly applies on the web. Other site owners will often receive Google Alerts(or, if they're using Moz, they might get Fresh Alerts :-) ) or look through their incoming referrers (as I showed above in tip #5) to see who's talking about them and what they're saying. Linking out is a direct line to earning links, social mentions, friendly emails and new relationships with those you reference. In its early days, this tactic was one of the best ways we earned recognition and traffic with the Moz blog and the power continues to this day.

#9 - Participate in Social Sharing Communities Like Reddit + StumbleUpon

The major social networking sites aren't alone in their power to send traffic to a blog. Social community sites like Reddit (which now receives more than 2 billion! with a "B"! views each month),StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr, Care2 (for nonprofits and causes), GoodReads (books), Ravelry(knitting), Newsvine (news/politics) and many, many more (Wikipedia maintains a decent, though not comprehensive list here).

Each of these sites have different rules, formats and ways of participating and sharing content. As with participation in blog or forum communities described above in tactic #2, you need to add value to these communities to see value back. Simply drive-by spamming or leaving your link won't get you very far, and could even cause a backlash. Instead, learn the ropes, engage authentically and you'll find that fans, links and traffic can develop.

These communities are also excellent sources of inspiration for posts on your blog. By observing what performs well and earns recognition, you can tailor your content to meet those guidelines and reap the rewards in visits and awareness. My top recommendation for most bloggers is to at least check whether there's an appropriate subreddit in which you should be participating. Subredditsand their search function can help with that.

#10 - Guest Blog (and Accept the Guest Posts of Others)

When you're first starting out, it can be tough to convince other bloggers to allow you to post on their sites OR have an audience large enough to inspire others to want to contribute to your site. This is when friends and professional connections are critical. When you don't have a compelling marketing message, leverage your relationships - find the folks who know you, like you and trust you and ask those who have blog to let you take a shot at authoring something, then ask them to return the favor.

Guest blogging is a fantastic way to spread your brand to new folks who've never seen your work before, and it can be useful in earning early links and references back to your site, which will drive direct traffic and help your search rankings (diverse, external links are a key part of how search engines rank sites and pages). Several recommendations for those who engage in guest blogging:
Find sites that have a relevant audience - it sucks to pour your time into writing a post, only to see it fizzle because the readers weren't interested. Spend a bit more time researching the posts that succeed on your target site, the makeup of the audience, what types of comments they leave and you'll earn a much higher return with each post.
Don't be discouraged if you ask and get a "no" or a "no response." As your profile grows in your niche, you'll have more opportunities, requests and an easier time getting a "yes," so don't take early rejections too hard and watch out - in many marketing practices, persistence pays, but pestering a blogger to write for them is not one of these (and may get your email address permanently banned from their inbox).
When pitching your guest post make it as easy as possible for the other party. When requesting to post, have a phenomenal piece of writing all set to publish that's never been shared before and give them the ability to read it. These requests get far more "yes" replies than asking for the chance to write with no evidence of what you'll contribute. At the very least, make an outline and write a title + snippet.
Likewise, when requesting a contribution, especially from someone with a significant industry profile, asking for a very specific piece of writing is much easier than getting them to write an entire piece from scratch of their own design. You should also present statistics that highlight the value of posting on your site - traffic data, social followers, RSS subscribers, etc. can all be very persuasie to a skeptical writer.

Be aware that Google's recently cracked down on guest blog posts and guest blog tools that focus exclusively on attracting links. While links can be a nice byproduct of a relevant, useful, and high quality contribution to another site, it can look very fishy to Google if all your links are coming from guest contributions that appear to have little relevance and low quality. Moz's Jen Lopez wrote an excellent summation of the new rules for guest posting here.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are also great places to find guest blogging opportunities. In particular, check out the profiles of those you're connected with to see if they run blogs of their own that might be a good fit. Google's Blog Search function and services like BuzzSumo or Fresh Web Explorer are also solid tools for discovery.

#11 - Incorporate Great Design Into Your Site

The power of beautiful, usable, professional design can't be overstated. When readers look at a blog, the first thing they judge is how it "feels" from a design and UX perspective. Sites that use default templates or have horrifying, 1990's design will receive less trust, a lower time-on-page, fewer pages per visit and a lower likelihood of being shared. Those that feature stunning design that clearly indicates quality work will experience the reverse - and reap amazing benefits.
Blog Design Inspiration



These threads - 1, 2, 3 and 4 - feature some remarkable blog designs for inspiration

If you're looking for a designer to help upgrade the quality of your blog, there's a few resources I recommend:
Dribbble - great for finding high quality professional designers
Forrst - another excellent design profile community
Behance - featuring galleries from a wide range of visual professionals
Sortfolio - an awesome tool to ID designers by region, skill and budget
99 Designs - a controversial site that provides designs on spec via contests (I have mixed feelings on this one, but many people find it useful, particularly for budget-conscious projects)

This is one area where budgeting a couple thousand dollars (if you can afford it) or even a few hundred (if you're low on cash) can make a big difference in the traffic, sharing and viral-impact of every post you write.

#12 - Interact on Other Blogs' Comments

As bloggers, we see a lot of comments. Many are spam, only a few add real value, and even fewer are truly fascinating and remarkable. If you can be in this final category consistently, in ways that make a blogger sit up and think "man, I wish that person commented here more often!" you can achieve great things for your own site's visibility through participation in the comments of other blogs.

Combine the tools presented in #10 (particularly FWE) and #4 (especially FollowerWonk) for discovery. The feed subscriber counts in Google Reader can be particularly helpful for identifying good blogs for participation. Then apply the principles covered in this post on comment marketing.



Do be conscious of the name you use when commenting and the URL(s) you point back to. Consistency matters, particularly on naming, and linking to internal pages or using a name that's clearly made for keyword-spamming rather than true conversation will kill your efforts before they begin.

#13 - Participate in Q+A Sites

Every day, thousands of people ask questions on the web. Popular services like Yahoo! Answers,Answers.com, Quora, StackExchange, Formspring and more serve those hungry for information whose web searches couldn't track down the responses they needed.

The best strategy I've seen for engaging on Q+A sites isn't to answer every question that comes along, but rather, to strategically provide high value to a Q+A community by engaging in those places where:
The question quality is high, and responses thus far have been thin
The question receives high visibility (either by ranking well for search queries, being featured on the site or getting social traffic/referrals). Most of the Q+A sites will show some stats around the traffic of a question
The question is something you can answer in a way that provides remarkable value to anyone who's curious and drops by

I also find great value in answering a few questions in-depth by producing an actual blog post to tackle them, then linking back. This is also a way I personally find blog post topics - if people are interested in the answer on a Q+A site, chances are good that lots of folks would want to read it on my blog, too!

Just be authentic in your answer, particularly if you're linking. If you'd like to see some examples, Ianswer a lot of questions at Quora, frequently include relevant links, but am rarely accused of spamming or link dropping because it's clearly about providing relevant value, not just getting a link for SEO (links on most user-contributed sites are "nofollow" anyway, meaning they shouldn't pass search-engine value). There's a dangerous line to walk here, but if you do so with tact and candor, you can earn a great audience from your participation.

#14 - Enable Subscriptions via Feed + Email (and track them!)




If someone drops by your site, has a good experience and thinks "I should come back here and check this out again when they have more posts," chances are pretty high (I'd estimate 90%+) that you'll never see them again. That sucks! It shouldn't be the case, but we have busy lives and the Internet's filled with animated gifs of cats.

In order to pull back some of these would-be fans, I highly recommend creating an RSS feed using Feedburner and putting visible buttons on the sidebar, top or bottom of your blog posts encouraging those who enjoy your content to sign up (either via feed, or via email, both of which are popular options).



If you're using Wordpress, there's some easy plugins for this, too.

Once you've set things up, visit every few weeks and check on your subscribers - are they clicking on posts? If so, which ones? Learning what plays well for those who subscribe to your content can help make you a better blogger, and earn more visits from RSS, too.
#15 - Attend and Host Events

Despite the immense power of the web to connect us all regardless of geography, in-person meetings are still remarkably useful for bloggers seeking to grow their traffic and influence. The people you meet and connect with in real-world settings are far more likely to naturally lead to discussions about your blog and ways you can help each other. This yields guest posts, links, tweets, shares, blogroll inclusion and general business development like nothing else.



I'm a big advocate of Lanyrd, an event directory service that connects with your social networks to see who among your contacts will be at which events in which geographies. This can be phenomenally useful for identifying which meetups, conferences or gatherings are worth attending (and who you can carpool with).

The founder of Lanyrd also contributed this great answer on Quora about other search engines/directories for events (which makes me like them even more).

#16 - Use Your Email Connections (and Signature) to Promote Your Blog

As a blogger, you're likely to be sending a lot of email out to others who use the web and have the power to help spread your work. Make sure you're not ignoring email as a channel, one-to-one though it may be. When given an opportunity in a conversation that's relevant, feel free to bring up your blog, a specific post or a topic you've written about. I find myself using blogging as a way to scalably answer questions - if I receive the same question many times, I'll try to make a blog post that answers it so I can simply link to that in the future.



I also like to use my email signature to promote the content I share online. If I was really sharp, I'd do link tracking using a service like Bit.ly so I could see how many clicks email footers really earn. I suspect it's not high, but it's also not 0.

#17 - Survey Your Readers

Web surveys are easy to run and often produce high engagement and great topics for conversation. If there's a subject or discussion that's particularly contested, or where you suspect showing the distribution of beliefs, usage or opinions can be revealing, check out a tool like SurveyMonkey (they have a small free version) or PollDaddy. Google Docs also offers a survey tool that's totally free, but not yet great in my view.

#18 - Add Value to a Popular Conversation

Numerous niches in the blogosphere have a few "big sites" where key issues arise, get discussed and spawn conversations on other blogs and sites. Getting into the fray can be a great way to present your point-of-view, earn attention from those interested in the discussion and potentially get links and traffic from the industry leaders as part of the process.

You can see me trying this out with Fred Wilson's AVC blog last year (an incredibly popular and well-respected blog in the VC world). Fred wrote a post about Marketing that I disagreed with strongly and publicly and a day later, he wrote a follow-up where he included a graphic I made AND a link to my post.

If you're seeking sources to find these "popular conversations," Alltop, Topsy, Techmeme (in the tech world) and their sister sites MediaGazer, Memeorandum and WeSmirch, as well as PopURLscan all be useful.

#19 - Aggregate the Best of Your Niche

Bloggers, publishers and site owners of every variety in the web world love and hate to be compared and ranked against one another. It incites endless intrigue, discussion, methodology arguments and competitive behavior - but, it's amazing for earning attention. When a blogger publishes a list of "the best X" or "the top X" in their field, most everyone who's ranked highly praises the list, shares it and links to it. Here's an example from the world of marketing itself:



That's a screenshot of the AdAge Power 150, a list that's been maintained for years in the marketing world and receives an endless amount of discussion by those listed (and not listed). For example, why is SEOmoz's Twitter score only a "13" when we have so many more followers, interactions and retweets than many of those with higher scores? Who knows. But I know it's good for AdAge. :-)

Now, obviously, I would encourage anyone building something like this to be as transparent, accurate and authentic as possible. A high quality resource that lists a "best and brightest" in your niche - be they blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, individual posts, people, conferences or whatever else you can think to rank - is an excellent piece of content for earning traffic and becoming a known quantity in your field.

Oh, and once you do produce it - make sure to let those featured know they've been listed. Tweeting at them with a link is a good way to do this, but if you have email addresses, by all means, reach out. It can often be the start of a great relationship!

#20 - Connect Your Web Profiles and Content to Your Blog

Many of you likely have profiles on services like YouTube, Slideshare, Yahoo!, DeviantArt and dozens of other social and Web 1.0 sites. You might be uploading content to Flickr, to Facebook, to Picasa or even something more esoteric like Prezi. Whatever you're producing on the web and wherever you're doing it, tie it back to your blog.

Including your blog's link on your actual profile pages is among the most obvious, but it's also incredibly valuable. On any service where interaction takes place, those interested in who you are and what you have to share will follow those links, and if they lead back to your blog, they become opportunities for capturing a loyal visitor or earning a share (or both!). But don't just do this with profiles - do it with content, too! If you've created a video for YouTube, make your blog's URL appear at the start or end of the video. Include it in the description of the video and on the uploading profile's page. If you're sharing photos on any of the dozens of photo services, use a watermark or even just some text with your domain name so interested users can find you.

If you're having trouble finding and updating all those old profiles (or figuring out where you might want to create/share some new ones), KnowEm is a great tool for discovering your own profiles (by searching for your name or pseudonyms you've used) and claiming profiles on sites you may not yet have participated in.

I'd also strongly recommend leveraging Google's relatively new protocol for rel=author. AJ Kohn wrote a great post on how to set it up here, and Yoast has another good one on building it into Wordpress sites. The benefit for bloggers who do build large enough audiences to gain Google's trust is earning your profile photo next to all the content you author - a powerful markup advantage that likely drives extra clicks from the search results and creates great, memorable branding, too.

#21 - Uncover the Links of Your Fellow Bloggers (and Nab 'em!)

If other blogs in your niche have earned references from sites around the web, there's a decent chance that they'll link to you as well. Conducting competitive link research can also show you what content from your competition has performed well and the strategies they may be using to market their work. To uncover these links, you'll need to use some tools.

OpenSiteExplorer is my favorite, but I'm biased (it's made by Moz). However, it is free to use - if you create a registered account here, you can get unlimited use of the tool showing up to 1,000 links per page or site in perpetuity.



There are other good tools for link research as well, including Majestic, Ahrefs and, I've heard that in the near-future, SearchMetrics.

Finding a link is great, but it's through the exhaustive research of looking through dozens or hundreds that you can identify patterns and strategies. You're also likely to find a lot of guest blogging opportunities and other chances for outreach. If you maintain a great persona and brand in your niche, your ability to earn these will rise dramatically.

Bonus #22 - Be Consistent and Don't Give Up

If there's one piece of advice I wish I could share with every blogger, it's this:



The above image comes from Everywhereist's analytics. Geraldine could have given up 18 months into her daily blogging. After all, she was putting in 3-5 hours each day writing content, taking photos, visiting sites, coming up with topics, trying to guest blog and grow her Twitter followers and never doing any SEO (don't ask, it's a running joke between us). And then, almost two years after her blog began, and more than 500 posts in, things finally got going. She got some nice guest blogging gigs, had some posts of hers go "hot" in the social sphere, earned mentions on some bigger sites, then got really big press from Time's Best Blogs of 2011.

I'd guess there's hundreds of new bloggers on the web each day who have all the opportunity Geraldine had, but after months (maybe only weeks) of slogging away, they give up.

When I started the Moz blog in 2004, I had some advantages (mostly a good deal of marketing and SEO knowledge), but it was nearly 2 years before the blog could be called anything like a success. Earning traffic isn't rocket science, but it does take time, perseverance and consistency. Don't give up. Stick to your schedule. Remember that everyone has a few posts that suck, and it's only by writing and publishing those sucky posts that you get into the habit necessary to eventually transform your blog into something remarkable.

Good luck and good blogging from all of us at Moz!



Credits: Rand Fishkin