We set some pretty easy rules for this contest but so far, this month there have only been 3 entries and this third one, well, we’re pretty sure it won’t win.

My favorite place in Morocco is the airport because that’s when I know I’m leaving. I’ve been to Morocco seven times and every time has been a total disaster. I don’t know why I keep going back. The food is terrible, everyone tries to rip you off, and transportation is worse than a prison bus. The airport is a haven of serenity where no one begs (once you are past security), people wait in line, and there is no garbage everywhere you look. To me it is the best place in Morocco. Please don’t let me win, I might feel tempted to come back.

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There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.

I’ll be frank; you want to be the expert.

Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they haven’t established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc? experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.

Most Bloggers Are Reporters

The thing with expertise is that it requires something – experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).

There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts – there are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.

Don’t Replicate Your Teacher

If you have ever spent some time browsing products in the learn Internet marketing niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study Internet marketing from a ?guru? (for lack of a better term). The guru teaches how he or she is able to make money online, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money online you have to teach others how to make money online.

The end result of this process is a huge army of amateurs attempting to replicate what their teacher does in the same industry – the Internet marketing industry – not realizing that without expert status based on a proven record and all the perks that come with it, it’s next to impossible to succeed.

Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for example growing an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a product about how to grow an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no problems with that, I think it’s fine to teach beginners and leverage whatever achievements you have, the problem is that people gravitate to the same niche – Internet marketing – and rarely have any key points of differentiation.

How many products out there do you know of that all claim to teach the same things – email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the category of Internet marketing. It’s a saturated market, yet when you see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to make money (and let’s face it – making money as a subject is one of the most compelling) – your natural inclination is to follow in their footsteps.

If the key is to become an expert and you haven’t spent the last 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for another niche to establish expertise in.

Report on Your Process, Not Others

The secret to progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other experts and instead report on your own journey. When you are learning how to do something and implementing things day by day, or studying other people’s work, you need to take your process and what you do as a result of what you learn, and use it as content for your blog.

It’s okay to talk about experts when you learn something from them, but always relate it to what you are doing. If you learn a technique from an expert it’s fine to state you learned it from them (and affiliate link to their product too!) but you should then take that technique, apply it to what you are doing and then report back YOUR results, not there’s. Frame things using your opinion – your stories – and don’t regurgitate what the expert said. The key is differentiation and personality, not replication.

Expertise comes from doing things most people don’t do and then talking about it. If you do this often enough you wake up one day as an expert, possibly without even realizing how it happened, simply because you were so good at reporting what you did.

You Are Already An Expert

Most people fail to become experts (or perceived as experts) because they don’t leverage what they already know. Every person who lives a life learns things as they go, takes action every day and knows something about something. The reason why they never become an expert is because they choose not to (which is fine for some, not everyone wants to be an expert), but if your goal is to blog your way to expertise and leave the world of reporting behind you have to start teaching and doing so by leveraging real experience.

Experience can come from what you do today and what you have done previously; you just need to take enough steps to demonstrate what you already know and what you are presently learning along your journey. I know so many people in my life, who are experts simply by virtue of the life they have lived, yet they are so insecure about what they know, they never commit their knowledge to words for fear of?well fear.

Blogs and the Web in general, are amazing resources when you leverage them as a communication tool to spread your expertise because of the sheer scope of people they can reach. If all you ever do is talk to people in person and share your experience using limited communication mediums, you haven’t much hope of becoming an expert. Take what you know and show other people through blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception of you in time.

Reporting Is A Stepping Stone

If your previous experience and expertise is from an area you want to leave behind or you are starting from ?scratch?, then reporting is the path you must walk, at least for the short term.

Reporting is a lot of fun. Interviewing experts, talking about what other people are doing and just being part of a community is not a bad way to blog. In many cases people make a career of reporting (journalism is about just that), but if you truly want success and exponential results, at some point you will have to stand up and proclaim yourself as someone unusually good at something and then proceed to demonstrate it over and over again.

Have patience and focus on what you do to learn and then translate that experience into lessons for others, and remember, it’s okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that’s all most experts really are.

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

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In the article, we will look at one of the key ways to set your blog apart from most of your competition, creating quality Morocco content.

One of the most important things you can do when you are creating a blog is to make sure that you create quality content for your readers.

Quality content is the honey that will bring your readers to you…and keep them coming back for more.

To put it bluntly, if you are not providing content that your readers find value in, you have little chance of succeeding.

However, if you prefer not to take the time to put together articles and stories which your readers can enjoy and learn from, you can rest easy in knowing that yours will not be the first nor the last blog to fail because of it.

The fact of the matter is that quality content rules the web. Find a successful website and you are assured of finding quality content. Period.

Now that we’ve established that you need quality content, the next task is to provide a definition of exactly what quality content is and how can you provide it for your readers.

Essentially, this is a very brief introduction on how to put yourself on the path of becoming a trusted provider of quality Morocco based content.

Part 1

Recognizing your readers

99% of the readers who come to your blog are coming there with questions that they hope to find the answers to. Whether you are writing about Chefchauen, dating in Morocco, current events in the Moroccan news, or how to create a Morocco blog; your readers are looking for answers.

If they didn’t have questions, chances are that they wouldn’t have found you in the first place.

For example, imagine a stressed out executive in Casablanca is looking for ways to lower his blood pressure so that he can improve his job performance and family life. In our example, you are running a blog like Stress Management Magic.

It’s possible that you don’t give a rat’s ass about the stresses of corporate Moroccan life or the family concerns of a CEO in Casablanca.

You don’t care if his email management is atrocious or if his inter-office memos are rubbing his subordinates the wrong way. you don’t care if he can’t get supplies from Asilah or if his factories in Oujda are meeting their quotas.

Your concern is, how can you make this guy take a moment to relax?

In other words, the question you need to answer is “How can a busy person relax and take a little bit of stress out of their lives?”

Knowing this, you might go to Technorati and look for an article about how to relax in a minute or breathing exercises for busy executives.

Since you’ve identified the question your readers might be asking, you will look for the resources to answer it.

I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough. If you want to provide quality content, you must figure out what questions your readers might be asking that have led them to you.

And, this is the key. As a blogger, you must put yourself in the position of the person who is finding your website. Ask yourself, “What questions have led my readers here?” “How can I answer those questions?” – If you can’t answer them, then you are blogging in the wrong niche.

Leading the horse to water.

Sometimes your readers are not entirely sure of what it is that has led them to you.

Often, you must not only lead them to water but actually remind them that they are thirsty. Otherwise, you can’t expect them to drink from your sakaya.

The point is that you need to not only have the information they are looking for, but you also need to present it to them in a way that they will help them to recognize their own need.

At this point, you should not underestimate the power of a podcast, video presentation, or even a screenshot of a PowerPoint. These visual aids can be key in helping your reader to recognize their needs (something that you have already done!)

Returning to our example of the stressed out executive in Casablanca. If we were to provide a step-by-step visual tutorial of how to stretch while sitting at a desk, the chances that he would actually try it go up exponentially.

And let’s face it, since you know your stuff, he will get results. That means that he will return to your site again and again. In fact, he might even tell his friends about it.

By the same token, you should figure out ways to avoid things that fail to answer your visitors questions or that lead them away from the answers you are providing. For example, if you suddenly decide to write about your trip to Asrou on your business in Morocco site, you can’t really expect a busy executive person to bother staying or to ever return.

Don’t just answer their questions, give them solutions.

There is a big difference between an answer and a solution.

Questions need answers, problems need solutions. You don’t want to just answer questions, you want to be a person who provides the solutions to their problems.

For instance, let’s imagine that our busy executive in Casablanca is unable to relax after getting home from work. He is definitely going to be interested in a tool that will allow him to separate home life from work life.

In other words, he doesn’t need an answer such as “Draw a line between work and home.” He is actually looking for a tool that will give him that skill.

By providing those tools, you are providing quality content to your readers. In our Stress Management Magic example, you might provide the resources where our executive can work through a visualization while commuting home to Mohammadea which helps him to draw a line between the two.

In essence, what I am saying here is that you need to spend time getting into the heads of your readers and determine what problems they are looking for solutions to.

Simplify their online life.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the online world is filled with clutter.

Even with search engines, it is becoming harder and harder to find exactly what it is that you are looking for.

We’ve all looked something up that seems like it would be easy to find, only to spend the next twenty minutes (or two hours) wading through digital garbage to get to it.

The truth is that people are looking for a better way to find what it is they are looking for. It doesn’t matter if it is a product, a service, or a piece of information.

My point is that you are spending your time well if you are thinking about what your readers are looking for and what types of websites they are searching for.

Stay current.

No matter what your Morocco blog topic, there is something new happening in it.

There are new developments, new products, new websites, new power players.

Your readers may not be aware of these changes and if you can be the first to inform them you will be taking the initial steps in creating the resource they turn to first for new information. You might even be the person they turn to when they want to figure out what a change in their industry means to them.

Spending a little time keeping yourself up to date allows you to be the person who keeps your readers up to date. Now that is valuable!

Be a host.

Ideally, you will not only be the resource to find solutions and answers, provide guidance and updates, and explain the relevance of industry changes. In addition to all of this, you also want your blog to become the place where people gather and meet one another.

By providing comment policies that allow interaction, creating forums, and encouraging interaction you are providing a space where content can be created and shared beyond what you alone are able to do yourself.

Maybe there isn’t an online space for people in your niche, maybe you have ideas about how to provide a better virtual space than already exists. If you can provide it, they may just come.

Have fun too!

Even the most serious of readers enjoy the opportunity to let go of the serious side once in a while.

Allow yourself to occasionally poke fun at your industry or city. Bring in something that is purely for entertainment from time to time.

All work and no play makes for a dull website and you can’t expect people to flock there unless you provide at least a bit of a chance to escape from a life that most find tedious at times.

Conclusion

What all of this comes down to is that you need to spend some time thinking about who your readers are and what it is they need.

The more you are able to provide for their needs, the more you will find them returning to your site, spreading the word about you, and interacting in the community that you are facilitating.

And that leads us to the hardest (and most enjoyable part). You’ve figured out what it is that your readers need, what questions they are asking, what problems they are looking for solutions to…

Now…can you provide what it is they are looking for?

I know that you can.

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Peace Corps Volunteers not only live and work in Morocco, but they also travel and see the country through fresh eyes. Often the blogs they keep reflect not only the country they see, but the perspective they see if from. Here is the PCV blog of Alexandra Cash and one example of how something as commonplace as a grand taxi can look different from each perspective.
http://alexinmorocco.blogspot.com/

Team Meknes: Linda, Donna, Alex, Henry, Emily, Sean, and Ed

After my 2 week post pre-service training in Azrou I had to head home though a city called Meknes. Some of my fellow volunteers were traveling there to sightsee so I thought I would join them seeing as Meknes was on my list of Moroccan destinations.
We stopped off at a hotel that someone had found in the Lonely Planet travel guide which cost 90 Dh (12 dollars) for a night, each person. You know you are in Peace Corps (and that you’re cheap) when you cringe at having to spend 90 Dh per night on a less than perfect hotel. I wasn’t going to put up a fight because I just wanted to have a safe place to leave my luggage.

We were in search of a way to get to the Roman ruins that Meknes is famous for. Between Ed’s Lonely Planet guide and the receptionist at the desk speaking Darija/French we found out how to get to the taxi stand where we would find a ride to the ruins. Well we walked away with somewhat of an idea, the rest we just figured out on the way. That’s the trend here in Morocco, don’t ever expect to understand things completely.

We found a taxi driver that agreed to drive us out to the ruins (30k north), wait for us for 2 hours, then drive us back. The small problem was, our group was seven people strong and taxis, by law, are only allowed six passengers. Two too many if you ask me, but hey no one really ever asks me!

If he wouldn’t take all seven of us we would have had to split up into two taxis and it would have cost us each a lot more money. Three of the members of my travel group had learned Berber languages in training, so they were not able to communicate with the taxi driver. Me, being forced into a leadership role, out of sheer necessity, took the challenge without even thinking twice. I tried my best to negotiate a good price with the man and explained that we were volunteers who just really wanted to see these ruins. After a few minor miscommunications and a few minutes of sweet talking I had secured us seven spots crammed in a taxi.

The seventh person sitting on the laps of everyone in the backseat agreed to duck when we passed police checkpoints. There were at least 3 both ways. The seventh person just looked like a piece of baggage on someone’s lap so we got past without a hitch.

The drive to the ruins was a beautiful one. The countryside was so lush and green and Donna, a native of England, claimed the landscape reminded her of home. We drove up into the mountains a small bit and arrived at the ruins about 30 minutes later.

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We’ve created forums at Morocco Blogs so that you can engage in discussions now right here on the site!

We’ve set them up so that you don’t have to register to post or read them, but of course, it’s always nice to know who you are talking to, so to encourage people to use them, the first 50 people to register and post a discussion thread will receive a free international calling card from Pingo.

We’ve got forums devoted to Moroccan students, Moroccan culture, events, expats, Islam, and just about everything else.

All you need to do to get a free international calling card is register at
http://www.moroccoblogs.com/forums and then post a thread in the category of your choice.

Talk to us and then use your free Pingocalling card to talk to friends and family!

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Press Release: For Immediate Release
1 April 2010

Sefrou, Morocco. (April 1, 2010) – Morocco Blogs, the web’s #1 Morocco Blogging site, today announced that it has been acquired by Google.

This acquisition will be a part of Googles extension of the ‘Blogger’ brand into foreign markets and a precursor to their new professional blogging suite of applications – WorldBlogger.

“Blogging continues to grow in popularity, not only for personal use but by entrepreneurs and businesses around the world. Once seen as a ‘fools game’ – blogging has now grown up.” said a Google representative today. “Google’s new professional blogging suite, WorldBlogger, will put an amazing array of tools into the hands those wanting to take their blogging to the next level in non-U.S. markets.” said a Google representative today.

“What better brand to align these new tools with than Morocco Blogs, a blog that has consistently reviewed, rated, and taught bloggers in Morocco how to improve their blogs.”

“Some have called me a ‘fool’ for even considering selling Morocco Blogs,” said founder of MoroccoBlogs.com, Vago Damitio, “but I’d be a fool not to allow the Morocco Blogs brand to be developed by one of the world’s most innovative companies. I’m excited to see where Google will take Morocco Blogs going forward.”

The acquisition of Morocco Blogs will allow Vago to concentrate on his other projects including his main site – Vagobond.com – and an ongoing project – ClownJazeera.

Vago Damitio will remain a part of Morocco Blogs over the next 163 days where he plans to to begin a series of posts entitled ‘163 days to Build your Morocco Blog’ – a follow up to the very successful Best of Morocco Blog Awards.

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EnissayPoint.net

Here’s a blog in French that is all about how to make your blog better and how to earn money with your blog. Here is a bit about Yassine Sarjad, the author of this blog:

French:

Yassine Sarjad, une personne vachement amusante, un ami de la communauté, participant au championnat international de combat ultime , membre de la Fondation ‘Sauvons les baleines’, l’homme qui contrôle le marché noir des peaux de bébés phoques et membre de la fondation “Papa Mfinda ».

Translation into English:

Yassin Sarjad is a damn fun person, a friend of the community, participating in international championship ultimate fighting, a member of the Foundation ‘Save the Whales’, the man who controls the black market baby seal pelts and a member of the foundation “Papa Mfinda.”

Here is his most recent post:

French

Ils disent toujours que le blogging est déjà saturé. Saturé sûrtout si tu vas utiliser le blogging pour viser une large audience et ensuite gagner de l’argent. J’observe toujours la blogsphère et alors que je ne peut pas prétendre qu’il ya suffisamment de blogs en ligne sur un certain sujet, je pense que c’est pas encore assez pour dire que c’est saturé.

J’ai toujours classé les blogueurs en trois catégories, il y a ceux que nous appelons blogueurs professionnels, il y a les bons blogueurs, et il y a les mauvais blogueurs. Les blogueurs pro sont ceux considérés comme des experts, ceux qui sont fameux ou simplement les « célébrités du web ». Les bon blogueurs sont ceux qui font les choses de la bonne façon mais sont pas encore aussi populaires que les blogueurs professionnels. Et évidemment les mauvais blogueurs ou les polluants, qui représentent la majorité de toute la blogosphère.

Ok, j’avoue que le mot ‘polluants’ est un peu rude mais malheureusement, la plupart des gens ne réalisent pas qu’ils font parti de cette catégorie. Dans cet article, je vais donner une liste de 10 signes qui prouvent justement que tu es un mauvais blogueur. Sans plus tarder, les voici.

1. Tu n’as pas un objectif (et des objectifs spécifiques)

fixer des objectifs est une nécessité très importante dans chaque entreprise. Et le blogging c’est une entreprise sur le web, tu as donc besoin d’en avoir aussi. Quand je demande aux gens quel est leur but, leur réponse habituelle est faire de l’argent. la plupart des gens mettent seulement un objectif de longue haleine général et le problème c’est que presque tous le temps, il n’est pas atteint.
à suivre..

English Translation:

They always say that blogging is already saturated. Saturated especially if you’re going to use blogging to target a broad audience and then make money. Always observe the blogosphere, and while I can not pretend that there are enough blogs online on a certain topic, I think it’s still not enough to say that it is saturated.

I always classified into three categories bloggers, there are those we call professional bloggers, there are good bloggers, and there are bad bloggers. The pro bloggers are those considered experts, who are famous or simply “web celebrities”. The good bloggers are people who do things the right way but not yet as popular as professional bloggers. And of course the bad bloggers or pollutants, which represent the majority of the entire blogosphere.

Ok, I admit that the word ‘pollution’ is a little rough, but unfortunately most people do not realize they are part of this category. In this article I will give a list of 10 signs that prove just that you’re a bad blogger. Without further ado, here they are.

1. You do not have a goal (and targets),

Yargets are a very important necessity in every company. And blogging is a business on the web, then you need to have too. When I ask people what their purpose, their usual response is to make money. Most people require only an objective of long-term general and the problem is that almost all the time, it is not reached.

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If you are looking for a blog that ranges from UFOs to Clairvoyance, to how to be a mystic, to Marrakesh streets, to why Moroccan women are getting married to Gulf Arabs, than you need to check out Margot the Marrakesh Mystic.

We meant to review this blog some time ago, but somehow we lost track. Well here it is, check out this excerpt to give you a little taste.

According to many Saudi and Kuwaiti men, Moroccan women have a magical charm, compared to the women back home. One Gulf man (3wwad) put it this way,

“Moroccans (Men and Women), really treat us nicely, and it seems very sincere. Even if the aim is financial, they do not treat us like a wallet, rather a person with a wallet. Moroccans are kind, charismatic, and polite from my experience. I found a few bad apples but we all have them. I have had the pleasure of meeting beautiful women from all over the world, both in the arab world and out. The women who can match the Moroccan women’s charm and sincerity, compassion, kindness, sexuality, cuteness (for lack of a better word) are few to none. They treat us very nicely and sincerely and we are not used to that. Our girls back home treat us like wallets too! The only way you cant get anywhere with girls there is if your initial are something like LV, or you have a name like coach. It’s all about the money and shiny gifts, unfortunately.”

A Moroccan woman from London commented, “There is somthing diffrent about Moroccan girls compared to Algerian or Tunisian or even Libyian girls. THEY HAVE SPECIAL CHARM! What I mean by that is they know how to talk to men.”

Another comment, “Moroccans are good people. They love people. We didn’t grow up in wars and hate. We have been living in peace as long as we remember. Living in peace make people friendly and loving. Moroccan women and men are both good for marriage. Moroccan women help their husbands and take care of them. I can only marry a Moroccan woman because she will make my life easy and less stressful.”

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Because of our problems with hosting and servers, our contest was interrupted last time, so we’re having it again. Those of you who entered the last time are still entereed, but feel free to enter again.

We are looking for the top ten Morocco Travel Tips. To submit your travel tips, either leave a comment on this post or use the contact form to send us your top travel tips.

The top ten winners will recieve free international calling cards from
Pingo. The contest will run for one week (ends Saturday, March 27, 2010)

You guys may have seen my post a couple of days ago about Pingo and their international calling service. Basically, I was pretty stoked to find a simple and cheap way to keep in touch with friends and family, so I thought I would share it with readers here.

What happened though is that the folks at Pingo came across my posts and they appreciated it so much that they gave me a bunch of free trial cards to give away to readers.

When I activated one card, it gave me nearly 300 minutes of calls from Morocco to the USA. so, I’m guessing it will get you the same.

So send in those travel tips. The best ten tips will win the free calling card codes and all tips will earn a link to your blog or website.

Thanks Pingo!

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Here is another wonderful Moroccan Blog that comes to you after the hard work of our translators:

http://imane.agafix.org/blog

This blog is about life experiences and everyday stories, this blog relies on photography and plays a lot with pictures as the proverb says a picture is worth a thousand words.

Posted by Imane on Dec 15th, 2009.
Je n’arrive pas à dormir, ou plutôt je n’ai pas envie de dormir , j’allume la télé en espérant de trouver quelque chose d’intéressant à suivre … tac tac tac tactactactactactactactactactactac … la pluie commence à tomber intensément ce qui fait perdre la réception, j’éteins alors la télé , et j ouvre la fenêtre . Aahhhh, cette odeur m’a beaucoup manquée , je ferme mes yeux , je respire profondément , très très profondément , quelle joie et quel régal ! C’est féérique et super magique ce qu’il fait de moi ce beau

Translation in English:

Forgotten memories

I can not sleep, or rather I did not want to sleep, I turn on the TV hoping to find something interesting to follow … tock … tick tock tactactactactactactactactactactac rain begins to fall heavily making lose the reception, then turn off the TV, and I opened the window. Aahhhh, the smell I missed a lot, I close my eyes, I breathe deeply, very deeply, what joy and what a treat! It is magical and super magic that made me this beautiful.

Imane has this to say about her blog:

Mes idées ont été embastillées depuis longtemps dans ma tête. Elles avaient la possibilité d’en sortir, mais elles vénéraient s’évanouir dans l’obscurité que de scintiller dans le monde extérieur … Jusqu’ à l’arrivée d’un objet qui les a déblayées et les a rendues très pétulantes en les déléguant en une “matière visuelle “, c’est un appareil photos numérique , peut être son modèle n’est pas très professionnel , mais elle est au moins capable de traduire mes idées et ma façon de voir les choses à des belles images susceptibles de transmettre aisément mes messages aux autres ! C’est grâce à cet objet que je donne la vie à ce blog en escomptant que la transmission des messages sera parfaite.

English Translation:

My ideas were imprisoned for a long time in my head. They were able to escape, but they venerated to vanish in the darkness rather than sparkle in the outside world … Until the arrival of an object that has cleared them away and made them very petulant by delegating into a “visual field”, It is a digital camera, may be its type is not very professional, but it is at least able to translate my ideas and my way of seeing things with beautiful images, capable of transmitting easily my messages to others! It is this object that I give life to this blog in the expectation that the transmission of messages will be perfect.

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