A blog can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. When used in "moderation" a blog can be an advantage to your bottom line, but note, blog is addictive. It is easy to get into your blog, and lose focus on your core business goals, so here are 5 simple ways to make your blogging life easier and more successful.
Blogs are not new, but they have a fast pioneer in the world of web design and search engine optimization. A blog is a website the first place with a small twist. It is usually a neat user interface that anyone can publish their latest news, product updates, whimsical thoughts, technical specifications, customer service / FAQ and more information. You can use a blog for just about anything you can think of. So be more creative.
There are plenty of free ways to start blogging. Word Press, Blogger, Easy2Blog, B2Evolution and more are all free. If you do not know anything about programming, then post your blog in Blogger (Google) or Easy2Blog (simple as the name suggests).
The 5 Ways to Improve Blog Performance, more for those who have used publishing software such as WordPress.
Content
There are plenty of ways to acquire content for your blog. The best is to keep to your subject. Ezinearticles, GoArticles and thebestarticles.com are great places for free, syndicated articles for your blog. Be cool and remember to cut and paste the text or code exactly as it is and show the decline of the writer (the author link).
Just syndicates all the articles are not enough. Try and write one day, even if it's not 500 words or more. Be cautious. It is easy to obsess with adding content to your blog. More time the content to be added to the front-end and then just commit yourself to 10 minutes per day writing at least one post for your blog.
It is easy for a blog to a BLOB that your reader will quickly turn away.
Categories
Develop and manage different categories with regard to your "subject". You can publish the same article in different categories.
Example: if your blog on Search Engine Optimization you can choose 5 different categories (plus the main category). Your categories might be - On Page Optimization, Off Page Optimization, Link Building, Directory Submission, and Site Design. Not every article or post will be compared to each category, but some will overlap. Do not go crazy and put each item in each category every time. You will lose readers and value.
Blog Search Engine Optimization
There are a range of tools/plug-ins that will help with Search Engine Optimization for your blog. DagonDesign has a great plug-in for WordPress and it's free and easy to install. Clean URLs for your posts is extremely important.
Submit your blog in Blog Directories. In most of these directories, there is a link back to their directory. There are two ways in which these links (1) create a new page "links or resources" and following the links there or (2) put the link on your main page in the sidebar. Directory Submission is laborious task and you should consider hiring an SEO company to do this.
Keep in mind that the blog directories are mostly human edited so that it may take some time for them to confirm your link and blog content so be patient. It is also a good idea if you set up a separate page with links to write the URL of that page, the lists will ask you for the location of the back link to their map if you complete the form.
Most of the general principles of SEO for a regular website apply to blogs. Do not forget to link to your website and your blogs main page in the footer of your blog and tag it for maximum effect.
Blog Design Blog Design
Almost every blog is designed using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS is a great tool for website design and especially blogging. It allows you to create new pages on the fly without redesigning each page. For Word Press (and Blogger, etc.), there are a lot of pre-designed, free templates, themes, skins, layout (all the same), since you can download, modify or use as is. There are also a large number of Wordpress Theme Designers who can create nice web 2.0 style themes for you.
Call to Action
Like your website, your blog, specific calls to action, so the reader can interact with you. Whether it's a simple "contact us" form mailer or a more extensive e-commerce function. Again, Dagon Design form mailer has a cool plug-in that is easy to add to your site. You may need a separate HTML page and link to it from your blog and set in your header so it's on every page.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Avoiding mistakes in Blog Reviews
Blog Directory Submission is the most import part of blog promotion. One of the channels being utilized is blog post reviews. While working with the different providers and options available, several observations were made. A lot of time was spent working with these systems. Hopefully the below information will be useful to those interested in the topic and help save others time in the process.
Most blogs are designed to cover posts on a few related topics. For example, this blog covers marketing, SEO, and web directory related topics. However, it seems there are a vast number of blogs selling their credibility. That is, they write about topics completely unrelated to their blog’s theme in order to earn revenue from advertisers. This practice is damaging to blogs in a number of ways, including:
On the other hand, from an advertiser point of view, be sure to keep the below considerations in mind when choosing blogs to review your site:
Most blogs are designed to cover posts on a few related topics. For example, this blog covers marketing, SEO, and web directory related topics. However, it seems there are a vast number of blogs selling their credibility. That is, they write about topics completely unrelated to their blog’s theme in order to earn revenue from advertisers. This practice is damaging to blogs in a number of ways, including:
- Readers visit a blog because they are interested in the topics the blog covers. It would seem to be very difficult to build a loyal reader base if visitors cannot count on the blog to provide this information consistently. If half the time visitors see posts for unrelated products and services, they will loose interest, and the blog looses visitors as a result.
- Credibility is important for a blog. There’s nothing wrong with making some sponsored posts, but be sure to investigate the site and its offerings thoroughly. Including incorrect information and assumptions can turn away both visitors and advertisers. It is best to only write about web sites that are related in content to your blog.
- Many advertisers looking to invest in blog reviews may be otherwise interested in your blog based on its status, but can be easily turned away if unrelated posts are displayed. As most know, it is best to have links in content that is related to the site being linked. Links are much less valuable when unrelated content from other posts surrounds them. Therefore, when a blog contains posts on various, completely unrelated topics, all of the links there have less value.
On the other hand, from an advertiser point of view, be sure to keep the below considerations in mind when choosing blogs to review your site:
- Be careful about subdomains. The stats for some blogs are artificial because the Alexa and/or other measurements actually come from the main domain, such as a blog provider service.
- Many blogs seem to place the normal price for reviews quite high for direct orders. Yet, if you post an opportunity for $10, they will take advantage of it. Be careful about this. It seems to be best to order directly only from very well established blogs, and then let the others come to you for review.
- Some services for blog reviews allow you to review each blog, and accept/decline as you feel appropriate. This is ideal if you have the time to manage the incoming options. Other services allow you to apply filters based on blog stats, such as Alexa or PR. This can be useful, but often increases the minimum charge considerably. Also, with these providers, there does not seem to currently be an effective method of allowing only blogs from a certain theme. The final provider type selects high quality blogs for you, and takes all the work out of your hands. This type general produces the best results because of the higher quality blogs participating at the higher price point and, of course, saves a lot of time, but is also the most costly of the options. Be sure to select the provider that best meets your needs, time constraints, and budget.
- There are always exceptions, but try to select blogs related in content to your site. Of course, there are usually a few options that pop up that seem to be good deals, such as sites with high traffic that make a very affordable offer. It’s understandable to select a few of these, but still, try to stick with your theme for the reasons mentioned in the above section.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
10 Important Facts of Blog Promotion
Blog Promotion is a one of the main way to make your website popular. If you have a website and you want to promote that one , then write some blogs related to content of your website and post those blogs in different blog directories. There are some free Blog directories on which you can submit your blog.
Almost every blogger aims to grow their blog and reach a larger audience.
you may find some blogs that have good content but lack of readerships and followers. On the other hand, bloggers who know how to position and promote their content raise to the top.
Some important Tips to make your blog popular
1.Write Quality Content
Try to write quality content. You should have good knowledge about the topic you are going to write. Don't copy from other blog or article. Check your content in copyscape.com.
If readers like your article , then they can subscribe to your RSS feed which will definitely increase your blog popularity.
2. Blog Regularly
Write new blog regularly. You must keep your old reader interested by publishing more contents as well as will get new readers also which helps you to increase traffic rate.
3. Don’t Forget to Ping
Pinging is an effective way to promote your blog. You need to do this to notify blog services when you update your blog.
4. Make your Blog search engine friendly
you Make your page optimized for both human visitors and search engines. Select those tags or keywords related to your article which are most wanted.
5.Promote Your RSS Feed
Your blog will create RSS feed automatically in every blog update. It is worthy because it is a tool for which you can hook up the readers and give them more information.
6. Encourage Comments, Trackbacks and Pingbacks
A blog is a communication and interaction tool which can be used to gain feedback from the readers or have them discuss the topic you start in the blog.
Trackbacks and pingbacks are also useful. When people link to you, the link to their blog post will appear on your blog post.
Once you build relationship with other bloggers, you can show them your content much more easier.
7. Comment on Other Blogs
By commenting on others blog, your link will appear in their blog spot through trackback. Networking is one of the most important activities for bloggers.
8. Being a Guest Blogger
Find blogs who accept guest blogger and offer contribution regularly. You can attract existing readers by your articles and can promote your own blogs and get inbound links to your blog.
9. Participate in Discussion Boards
Discussion boards are great place to tap into your target audience. You can join any discussion forum and give a link of your blog.
10. Social Bookmarking and Social Networking
There are many social bookmarking and social networking site available where you can bookmark your blog. If your article is interesting you can get many votes and many regular readers.
Almost every blogger aims to grow their blog and reach a larger audience.
you may find some blogs that have good content but lack of readerships and followers. On the other hand, bloggers who know how to position and promote their content raise to the top.
Some important Tips to make your blog popular
1.Write Quality Content
Try to write quality content. You should have good knowledge about the topic you are going to write. Don't copy from other blog or article. Check your content in copyscape.com.
If readers like your article , then they can subscribe to your RSS feed which will definitely increase your blog popularity.
2. Blog Regularly
Write new blog regularly. You must keep your old reader interested by publishing more contents as well as will get new readers also which helps you to increase traffic rate.
3. Don’t Forget to Ping
Pinging is an effective way to promote your blog. You need to do this to notify blog services when you update your blog.
4. Make your Blog search engine friendly
you Make your page optimized for both human visitors and search engines. Select those tags or keywords related to your article which are most wanted.
5.Promote Your RSS Feed
Your blog will create RSS feed automatically in every blog update. It is worthy because it is a tool for which you can hook up the readers and give them more information.
6. Encourage Comments, Trackbacks and Pingbacks
A blog is a communication and interaction tool which can be used to gain feedback from the readers or have them discuss the topic you start in the blog.
Trackbacks and pingbacks are also useful. When people link to you, the link to their blog post will appear on your blog post.
Once you build relationship with other bloggers, you can show them your content much more easier.
7. Comment on Other Blogs
By commenting on others blog, your link will appear in their blog spot through trackback. Networking is one of the most important activities for bloggers.
8. Being a Guest Blogger
Find blogs who accept guest blogger and offer contribution regularly. You can attract existing readers by your articles and can promote your own blogs and get inbound links to your blog.
9. Participate in Discussion Boards
Discussion boards are great place to tap into your target audience. You can join any discussion forum and give a link of your blog.
10. Social Bookmarking and Social Networking
There are many social bookmarking and social networking site available where you can bookmark your blog. If your article is interesting you can get many votes and many regular readers.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Blog promotion
Blog Promotion means promoting your blogs in different blog promotion directories to get a large number of quality readers.
Almost every blogger aims to grow their blog and reach a larger audience. If you want to promote your article then you have to activate RSS feed of your article and spread over the various RSS directories. You have to Tweet your followers on Twitter and tell them that you have written a nice article.
This is to promote yourself. Most beginner bloggers often forgotten [or do not know] to allow others to promote their blog or website. To understand properly I am giving one example.
Mr. X is a faithful reader of your blog. After reading some articles on your blog, Mr X decided to write his own blog and give link to your blog [Yes, even a link back!] And tells his readers: "Click here to read the super-blog".In this way you promote the article by Mr X.
Promoting articles of others will also ensure that you are not a spammer will overcome by the Social Media sites.
So this is the another way of Blog Promotion.
Almost every blogger aims to grow their blog and reach a larger audience. If you want to promote your article then you have to activate RSS feed of your article and spread over the various RSS directories. You have to Tweet your followers on Twitter and tell them that you have written a nice article.
This is to promote yourself. Most beginner bloggers often forgotten [or do not know] to allow others to promote their blog or website. To understand properly I am giving one example.
Mr. X is a faithful reader of your blog. After reading some articles on your blog, Mr X decided to write his own blog and give link to your blog [Yes, even a link back!] And tells his readers: "Click here to read the super-blog".In this way you promote the article by Mr X.
Promoting articles of others will also ensure that you are not a spammer will overcome by the Social Media sites.
So this is the another way of Blog Promotion.
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