OFF Content: ARTUR ROJEK IS HERE

with Artur Rojek/ Wroclaw 2016

Business: The Top 3 Tools Every Blogger Should Use

'There is no love, there is just Google Analytics'. This was my first thought when I was asked to write a brief article on the Top 3 tools very blogger should use and once I started to study them thoroughly.  

Is it really so? Are social media only about numbers, traffic and blogging tools? No love? No authentic creativity and need for communicating and being connected? Well, fortunately, this is not true, at least not entirely true.

Both in real life and in social media a good combination of 'love' and 'common sense' seems to be what you need to succeed. Why is that? Let's stick to the social media and the blogging tools here! 

As a blogger, your job is not only to create a good quality content (the 'love' part), but also to make sure it will reach your target audience and, most importantly, that it will meet their needs. Much has been said on whether or not a great content is good enough for your website to be successful. The blog you are just reading has showed me...it is not. Content Might be the King, but it Has to Be Found and this is where blogging tools (the 'common sense' thing) play their part.

This is an article is to describe the 3 top tools I reckon as essential for creating a successful blog, be it a personal website or a business platform. Do you have to agree with me? No. And I bet you won't. Let me know about it! I am so curious to know what your blogging survival kit is. Leave me a comment and share your favourites!

The 3 top tools every blogger should use

1. Google Analytics. Let your love grow!

OK. This one is the most basic out of the basics. Even thought I believe it will never replace 'love', it can help your love for blogging to flourish. Why? Google Analytics reports track your website effectiveness by providing you with the essential information on your readers' behaviour. There are many benefits of using Web Analytics and it can all be summed up by a single word: data. Where your audience come from? What they look at? How long are they staying at your website? Are the traffic figures going up or down?

This sort of information are an ultimate must-have in any blogger's wardrobe. Why? Well, if you understand your audience needs and expectations, you have the key to design and improve your content strategy, and ultimately, your business. Imagine the otherwise, you have no feedback on your blogging efforts, and as such, no data to tailor your success or even worst, to react when something goes wrong. 

Have you ever heard the phrase:  'if you do not know where you are going, you'll end up somewhere else?' (thank you Yogi Berra!). Well, you will never hear it again with the Google Analytics tool. It is not perfect. Agreed. But it is for free. More demanding users can always turn towards more advanced Web Analytics Tool or even reach out for Internet monitoring options with an instant insight into all the mentions about their brands or products. 

2. Google AdWords Keyword Planner. Let people find you!

Keywords planner will help to make your blog more search engine friendly. Each search engine developed a formula for ranking websites. Keywords play a crucial role in all of them. All we want to do here is to make it easier for a search engine to understand what keyword your post should be ranked for. This will help your website to be placed among the returned results once that particular keyword is being searched. Simple? Very simply! And how do we to that?

Well, using the right words has never been an easy thing, both in real life and in the Internet. Keywords planner provides you with the list of keywords your potential customers might use to find you. The idea behind keyword research is pretty straightforward: to identify these keywords, or more precisely, to identify keywords with maximum traffic and less competition. For example, when you do an exact match search for: 'blogging tools' and 'top blogging tools' they will give you completely different results in terms of traffic. Just look here:
 

Now a moment of truth has come! I committed one of the worst bloggers' crimes. I haven't been optimizing my old posts for any Keywords! Ouch! But I will! Promise. Don't make the same blogging mistake. Let people find you, use the power of the Google keywords Planner tool! 

3. BuzzSumo. Stay inspired and stay connected.

OK. How do you find ideas for a new post? How do you know what is hot and what is not in the social media world? How to identify the 'red carpet' influences in your niche? Well BuzzSumo tool is here to help you out. It works like Google search engine by crawling and indexing blog posts and then presenting them sorted up according to the social shares count. The bigger social engagement, the higher the position on the list. All wrapped up in a very simple and user friendly visual form. Reorder your results by social network name and have fun! If you think in pictures as I do, you will love it!

Plus! Not only you can find the most-shared articles here and see who is sharing your content, this blogging tool also lets you search for the influences:

We all know how important it is to know the Big Names. Don't waste your time, get to know them!
Cons - BuzzSumo tool is not for free.

To the point.

You can save your love for social media and for your blog simply by use the blogging tools! These are my top tools, which one are yours? Please do share your discoveries and add to the fun! The comments section is yours!

Photo Credits: Za murami za dachami

Good things...

My Illustration for Art & Fashion Forum Contest by Grażyna Kulczyk.

"Five Senses"

Show must go on!

Missed the exhibition?

Don't worry!

Watch a short documentary here.

If people...

Freedom is an inner job

Freedom is an inner job,

 and it comes with acceptance.

Full acceptance of the present moment, including yourself -
that what a complete freedom is.

Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness

'Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness' said A. Jodorowski.
I think people too!

Have you ever tried to approach an animal that has experienced a mistreatment from people?
They think all people all the same. They think all universe is NOT a friendly place (paraphrasing Mr Einstein). And so they can even attack you, hurt you, try to scare you off, only because they ARE AFRAID. This is a vicious circle of fear & unfriendliness. Can you see it??
If you do, good. You can break it!

People do exactly the same. I believe that FEAR is the main (if not the only) cause for people being unfriendly (let's use this general word). You may find people being rude, aggressive, mean. All this results from them being afraid! How do I know it? Well, it does happen to me too, when I am scared of something!

'Ultimate defence? Don't defend' said Byron Katie. Oh! what a truth!
Sounds ridiculous and stupid at first maybe, but if you try once, you will know.

Building higher walls and more powerful weapons will only lack you deeper in the vicious circle of fear & unfriendliness. Is your 'universe a friendly place' (Thank you again Mr Einstein for bringing this topic up!). Is it really?

2 weeks ago I decided to challenge myself to believe that my universe IS a friendly place (Thank you very much Ewa for being there for me and reminding me this!).

Two days ago, after a long long time of not having my own home, loosing a lot, having all the rights of this world to think that it is not a friendly planet, I was woken up by the birds in a most amazing home of mine ever! This is NOT a coincidence.

THIS UNIVERSE IS A FRIENDLY PLACE.

YOU are the Universe.

Even if you were born in a cage you definitely CAN FLY.

Is your universe a friendly place?

the art of letting go

to let go
not stopping
letting go
welcome emptiness
time
time
time
new beginning

----

the art of letting it go

the hardest lesson I keep and keep on learning

to let it go

people, things, places, people

time

DRESS CHALLENGE?

After a series of 'life' posts, here is time for a 'Clothes' post now!

May is a month of a dress! (clearly addressed to the female readers here, sorry for this one guys, but eventually I think you could enjoy it too!:-)

I think there is not enough beautiful and feminine dresses and skirts on the streets! And here is a chance to change it!

When if not now!? ( rather not in your eighties, right?)

I accept THE DRESS CHALLENGE and will wear a dress at least once, well ok, twice a week!

Join me and discover the dress power! ✿

Life is not what you THINK

Life is not what you think.

Go outside and leave your home/comfort zone.

Talk to random people, see, hear, feel, let it be.

It is not going to be easy, but it is worth it.

33 favourite quotes. read in case of (life) emergency

Here is a selection of my 33 favourite empowering and wings-fixing quotes. Help yourself!

click here to read more:

NO Expectations. NO Drama.

I think the lion's part if my unhappiness origins from the fake promises and expectations (where did I get them from??) that life is suppose to be like a nice, tailored made and perfectly suited haute cutoure shirt. Precisely as I want it.

And IT IS NOT.

I reckon that there would be so much less empty (sorry for the criticism) songs, movies and other fruits of human creativity exalting 'lost of love and fortunes' if we had grown up being told that it is ok, if it is not ok (that is, it is fine, if it is not as we expected it to be). Or even better, if we were taught not to expect!
No (fake) expectations, no drama.

Life is not suppose to be easy. Not in the conventional terms I was tempted to think.
Life are problems.
Or maybe it is better to say: Life simple IS. And that IS does not necessarily equal to what I expected it to be. 

Life = every day ≠ expectations

Stay present. Do not expect. Breathe.

April. A month to practice the art of non-expectation.

Shall we?

unconditional joy of life meets fashion

Did you ever wonder why dogs are (almost) always in a good mood? They need so little to give back so much! No new dress, no new pair of shoes, no fancy house or other possessions. Dogs are great teachers of joy.

And the nature itself. Trees, birds, grass, horses. They never complain about rainy, cloudy or a too cold day. They 'know' how to enjoy each moment. They are fully immersed in NOW, simply enjoying their presence. Unconditionally. No matter what happens on the outside surface (excluding the extreme cases of course).

A weekend spent with my friends and their cheerful dogs in a house located in a middle of a forest made me wonder. WHEN and WHY did I lose this ability to simply enjoy my Being. Unconditionally. When did I start to believe that to feel simple joy of life I need all these things, places and people manifesting certain behaviour towards me?

It is a beautiful sense of freedom to realise that joy of life is more 'and inside than an outside job', paraphrasing William Arthur Ward. All the external has an inevitable expiry date after all. It is helpful to remember that particularly at the times when one does not possess much. Just look at the dogs and the nature. Having nothing they are an authentic manifest of a poor joy of life. I strongly believe that, if we are only ready, they can help us to reconnect with this essential truth.

I still love a new dress and a new pair of shoes, but my relation to fashion (as we know it nowadays) had evolved and changed a lot throughout the past years. I am now 'more interested in clothes than in fashion' itself, quoting  Lidewij Edelkoort. Standing against poor quality, disposable, short expiry date clothing I am convinced to promote new quality of fashion I will call the Clothes.

PS. Yes, I know it would be good to have a fresh set of photos shot!

to DO or to BE? And why clothes?

Special thanks to Magda Zając and Kanton

When life gets difficult

Life is difficult.

But once you ACCEPT the fact it IS difficult,
 it becomes much easier starting from that point.

Changing the saddles

11 boxes packed, a sunset view from the Terrace of the Palace of Culture and Science (I do regret I did not go there more often! Don't make the same mistake, do visit often if you can! ) and a good bye afternoon with the 'Warsaw' horses. This is how my four-and-half-year adventure with this city came to an end. (as for now).

Before I arrived here I would never have expected I would EVER live in the city that evokes such polarized feelings and it is not really famous for its beauty ( 'blame' the history not the city! I understood it perfectly after visiting the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Do visit if you can!). A huge change after warm and socially open Spain I managed to get used to, I must admit. I was never a fan of this location. Once I even decided to reject a lucrative job offer and to stay abroad with no job at all in order to avoid coming here. Well, life can be very tricky sometimes as you might already know.

Someone told me once that 'the people we meet are either our friends or our teachers'. I think the same about places. Warsaw is a great teacher of mine and after all this time I must say I learnt to like it, in its particular way, and to make friends with her (allow me to call it 'her'). But the time for a change and the new had come and here it is happening. I must say that in spite of all the feelings that follow leaving the comfort zone this change seems very natural. Life is wise and more and more times I come to see that we can trust and relax back. Like when galloping. The more relaxed you are the more joy you have with it. And for me galloping is a synonym for life interactions and an exemplary case of living in a 'flow', that is to say in a harmony and an alignment with the world, if you know what I mean (?).

Wrocław brings a pleasant change. How less dense it is! How slower people walk and they stop to let you cross the street! A really nice experience, for a change (sorry Warsaw).

So, ladies and gentlemen, the saddle has been changed. Shall we gallop?