Can you help me choosing a Blog for me?

Nowadays there are countless blogs coming up every day as it’s an easy ways to get your blog up and running. There are nos. of publishing platform available today but you should prefer only authentic and legitimate blogging platform which are of repute in the online world, such as WordPress and Blogger. (Both are available as hosted services as well as you can host them in your own domain).

What is a Good blog in layman’s terms?

No matter what type of blog you may have but the end objective is to get as much traffic as possible on your website. To behave like a wise and well informed blog owner, you need to work on your own specialization. For example if you are running a business blog, then instead of posting personal stuffs post what you know about business, you must post what people like to see and why.

Perhaps they don’t come to your blog to read your own views but in search to find what they want. So if you are able to satisfy their needs you are a king within no time. Frankly, that’s the main difference between a good and bad blog.

But how readers will find my blog?

SE’s and Social Networks are the best source to gain regular readers for your blog. To understand the whole issue you need to put yourself in their shoes. When you need some particular information you in a majority of cases go to any popular search engine like Google, Yahoo or MSN. Actually these search engines send millions of interested people to websites listed in their index. However they don’t care for the websites or blogs which aren’t indexed.

Write for humans and allow SE’s to index your blog.

So the first thing is to get your website or blog indexed by all major search engines. You as a blog owner must therefore know how to write a suitable content for search engines as well as human visitors. In case you have written content for just search engines then search engines may send traffic to you but once your visitors don’t find what they were originally looking for then they will turn off their face immediately.

However, in the recent time even search engines have become intelligent so even they won’t be interested in the content which is not written suitably for human visitors. Now the million dollar question that may come into your mind can be: is it possible to write for search engines and human visitors at the same time, why not…it can be.

Practically writing for search engines and human visitors is not mutually exclusive thing at all. By writing good content with various keyword density and placement rules in mind we can easily achieve that.

Get an exclusive design for your blog.

Next, important issue with every blog is the template used. Most people have a wrong notion that looks don’t count when it comes to blogs, as a result they may use any out of the box or outdated blog template. This is just like putting a best cooked recipe in a shabby plate.

No one would ever like to eat in a dirty plate no matter how best you might have cooked that food. Same applies to the blog template. Use some free templates available and try to do some customization. If you aren’t able to do that hire some professional and get it done. If you aren’t literally hard on your budget then try some professional and ask him to create a unique template for your blog.

If you are looking for an SEO friendly theme, why you don’t choose Talian or Beyond2010, these are highly optimized themes and I am updating these frequently to work better with the latest version of wordpress.

Optimize your blog with the help of SEO Plugins.

I assume you have quality contents, now it’s time to use some plugins which help you to optimize the dynamic pages. I suggest use All-in-one-SEO- Plugin, it allows you to create custom titles, keywords and descriptions for your blog. I am using this from last 2 years and I am 100% satisfied with the performance. It allows you do lots of other things such as using no-index for archives or tags to prevent duplicate content penalty.

Create a sitemap for your blog.

Sitemap are essential to get your blog indexed in SE’s. If you are using my themes, you have additional advantage of creating a sitemap other wise you need another plug-in that generate a sitemap for you. With the latest version of wordpress I didn’t tested the plugins, so I can’t suggest any right now, but if needed I will write the sitemap generator code for any theme you are using for your blog.

Create a monthly submission plan.

Submit your blog to Search Engines, directories and various blog directories, but be careful, too many submissions may be a disaster and SE’s may found it spammy. So avoid bulk submissions at once and create a monthly submission plan. Track your successful submission and resubmit the same again. The process is slow, but is better for health of your blog.

Optimize your RSS feeds.

Next most important thing for better optimization is to use RSS feeds. All blogs have default RSS URL as well as many external tools such as Feedburner is providing excellent ways to optimize and share your feeds to World Wide Web. Always place your RSS URL on a place where everybody can see, like top left or top right sidebars. They have countless benefits by linking your blog to many useful resources. Offer your blog visitors with RSS & feed subscription buttons to help them subscribe to your blog instantly. If some of them don’t like to get RSS readers then offer them with emails.

Get social, brag about your blog.

Social networks are wonderful source of traffic. You need to choose few good networks and be an active contributor. Places like Digg, Facebook, Twitter and many others helps you gain virtual friends and regular readers. I am putting up my list soon, meanwhile you can see a list of social networks at Wikipedia.

Do some Internal Linking to gain authority pages.

Finally, each post you write put the link of relevant pages of your site. This way your readers will find exactly what they need. Try to make your navigation as simpler as possible and put everything open which is on the deep pages on the first page itself with deep linking. Try to persuade them that they have something more interesting in the deep pages and hold them on by providing them more and more useful content.

There are many useful Plug-ins available but never overload your blog with every of them. And, now the important part, do regular with your postings because with frequent postings you are more likely indexed by Googlebot and other bots on the Internet. Needless to say what benefits you may have if they often visit you. Most of these bots love updating fresh sites, so it makes sense to feed them with what they want.

This post is an continuation of SEO Tips for blogs, I am putting together more useful stuffs for my readers later in this post.

Sometimes, even the most experienced blogger may fall short of ideas when it comes to writing posts. If you are keen on getting consistent web juices, here are some tools that many really help you in this regard:

• Usenet – The discussions that happen at Google groups are really substantial. These are very helpful. All you require to do is to browse though SEO, google specific groups of search engines.
• Technorati – Technorati is known to be the best tools to generate blog content ideas. The rankings coming from technorati means that just the simplest of SEO, NFL or adsense search will provide relevant post.
• Craigslist – This is also a beneficial tool for blog ideas. You may look for a sample search for SEO and get superb results.
• Del.icio.us – This is a famous page that has become really popular. The specific tag pages of this site functions just similar to technorati in the way that it works towards providing links to pages on time that people have already bookmarked .
• Stumbleupon – The most optimum way to utilize is stumbleupon.
• google /yahoo news – the news services coming from google and yahoo tends to provide you access to more than tens of thousands of press release.

Other tools include

• Wikipedia
• Digg and reddit
• Yahoo answer
• Keyword tools

Not flexible – It may be possible that a blog is not the right sort of company for you. Some companies are so rigid that Corporate blogging may not really help them. Remember that the unique characteristics of a blog may not blend well with every organization.

Editorial control – It is very important for a blog to posses personal, unique and convincing voice. It should capable of stimulating one’s passion and instantly connect with the readers. It should also not ignore critical issues.

Unfamiliarity with the structure of a blog – You need to know that a blog has many unique components that provide them niche qualities. Use of blog software makes the whole process easy. However, the problem arises when companies misunderstand blogs for bulletin-style announcement, newsletters or news feed.

Misunderstanding audience – It is very important to know that the blog is not similar to your typical customer base. Blog reader are passionate, tech savvy and very inquisitive.

Domain and URL issues

– There are also many domain and URL issues that make the whole Corporate blogging a total no-no.

If you think earning online through blogs is that easy, you better think thoroughly over and again. Putting up a blog is already challenging enough because you have to take care of the design, the layout, the software to be used, tools to be incorporated, theme, and other factors. However, blogging for money can be easy, if you know how. There is an easy and simple roadmap into how you can monetize your blog the easy way.

To begin with, you have to aim to implement a blog advertisement program. Integration of such programs can be easy if only you could decide right away which one you will incorporate into your site. Surprisingly, there are just too many options available for you. The most popular of those include Google AdSense, Search Feed, and WidgetBucks. For your information, other ad-revenue programs for blogs include Target Point, Revenue Pilot, Fast Click, Blog Ads, Click Ads Direct, and All Feeds.

The next important step is the most obvious and the most important. You should strive to attain high traffic to your site. You should understand that volumes of unique online visitors into your site are most important when you aim to earn from blogging. Needless to say, site traffic is the main fuel for income generation. Higher traffic translates to more ad clicks, and therefore, more revenue.

When there is a good number of visitors to your site, there are also greater product sales, more donations, more affiliate sales, greater consulting leads, and just more advertising revenues. The possibilities and earning possibilities can be unlimited, surprising, and sometimes endless, when you successfully build high traffic into your blog.

So, how can you possibly draw a healthy number of online visitors into your site? The simplest and best way to do this is to take care of your content. The information and structure of the content is the primary gist of your blog. When your blog is informative, helpful, educational, insightful, and engaging, expect to have regular readers who will come by and read whatever you have to say through your site.

Another way to monetize your blog is to directly state a call into action on your content. For example, if you are soliciting donations, state your intention directly. If you aim to sell products and services, directly state your intention to sell. Readers are more comfortable when bloggers are direct to the point, leading to higher traffic, and of course, greater chances for revenue generation.

Blogging for money can be really easy, if you will only focus on what you do. Take care of your content and let your advertisement program take care of the rest. Maintain your blog and always keep it updated so that revenue inflow can be made steadier.

If you are into blogging and you aim to boost the volume of your readers and eventually and logically bolster your online earning potential, you have to first make sure more online readers will drop by your blog. To do so, you have to spend time and effort promoting your site online. Here are several effective, yet proven, strategies to help you effectively promote your own blog.

• The online blogging community is ever growing. To be able to reach as many readers as possible, you have to learn how to strategically use the rest of the blogging community to promote your own blog. Start doing this through logging onto other blogs, especially those having the same niche topic as yours. Once there, you can find that some blogs have many regular visitors and readers. Aim to lure some of those. Post your own comments on those other blogs. Most commenting systems of blogs allow posters to mention names and titles linked to their own blogs. This will facilitate how other people can get to your blog upon reading your comment. However, be extra sensible and interesting when giving comments so that readers’ attention can be aroused and they will be literally interested to find out more about you and your blog.
• Trackback. The term is a newly coined one specifically for blogging. To do the initiative, simply write a blog entry citing or linking references to another article from another blogger. When you do so, a blogging system will automatically post a truncated gist of your own blog into the cited blog. This will potentially lead to effective and functional links that will have readers coming to your site. In no time, other bloggers will also do the same and establish trackbacks into your blog. This will further bolster your chances of luring and attracting more online readers.
• Allow readers to post comments on your blog. When you design the blog, make sure the format will facilitate posting of comments from readers. When there are more comments, people will see that your blog is well followed. They will be curious why there are loyal readers, making them initially think that there is something in your blog to make readers engaged.
• Submit a pillar article from your blog to a carnival. Blog carnivals are online venues where blog entries and articles are summarized and listed with specific links to source blogs. This way, you can reach new readers, who regularly check such carnivals when doing research or when blogging.
• Submit blog articles to EzineArticles.com. Doing so is a slow but sure way of boosting the volume of readers on your blog. Pick the best and most persuasive article or a pillar entry from your blog so that ezine readers will be highly interested and curious to check your blog.

For a newbie webmaster who has not yet appreciated the importance of blogs, this article aims to guide you on the “baby steps” you should take in order to achieve online success that others have enjoyed, and attributed to online blogging activities.

Step 1: Strive for relevance.. Undoubtedly, it is beneficial to create blogs when you want to be successful online. But unlike your personal web log, which can deal with just any topic at any given day, business blogs should be timely, appropriate and relevant to your product, service or idea to become more effective.

Step 2: Choose and use keywords wisely. Your blog should mention your keyword at least once in its body, or at least once every 200 words. Your wise choice of keywords to target plays a significant role in your online success. Pay a closer attention to it when setting up your list the first time, and don’t fail to review it periodically.

Step 3: Grab readers with your headlines. Arrest attention by creating titles that appeal to your readers’ personal interest. State the problem, and define the advantage they can derive from reading your blog. Compare these: “The Truth About Acne” vs. “Learn about Acne and how to acquire a fairer face in 7 days.” Which one would you read first?

Step 4: Be consistent. When you blog with value consistently, online viewers will perceive you as an authority, and this will establish your expertise among them. As a result, when a problem crops up that is similar to your blog topics, they will turn to you for help. When this happens, success comes as no surprise. However, to be consistent, it takes higher form of commitment and perseverance to update your blogs everyday, but you have to do it. Excuses can be deadly – at least for someone’s online success – yours.

Writing a blog is NOT the challenge for most bloggers; it’s getting noticed that often defines the dividing line between the successful blogger and his amateur counterpart. Precisely, the game is played best by those who have observed and followed simple “laws” on effective blogging, borne out of the misfortunes of those who spent considerable amount of time to write blogs, but failed; the approaches that have been tried and tested by those who found them to work, and current trends that promise more effective results.

How would you get your blog to be read by at least 1,000 people? Submitting it to blog directories is an effective strategy that has a more permanent result, once it gets published. However, imagine the influx of articles getting published on blog directories everyday. How you write your blog that it catches attention is the focus here. Here are five (5) practical ways:

• Create “thunder” in your titles. Titles that whip up a little controversy always catch attention. Exercise your creativity in coming up with titles that sow a bit of intrigue, or raise a question in the reader’s mind that would entice him to read your blog in order to find the answer.
• “Less is More”. This catchy phrase applies to your blog itself. Keep it brief, simple and hit home its point within its first two paragraphs. Readers of your blog do not really read, but just glide from one paragraph to another. Imagine an inverted pyramid; the topmost part gets the “meat” of your content. Solutions you try to present in your blog should be found by your reader on the upper portion of your blog, rather than the bottom.
• Create affinity with your audience. When you create a degree of affinity among your readers by the tone of your blog, and the words you chose to deliver your content, you will have a throng of followers in just a nick of time. Avoid the use of terminologies that only you understand.
• Be creative. Think “out of the ordinary”. How can you spice up your blog that will catch readily your reader’s attention? Perhaps, you can embed video feeds or pod casts. Be a trendsetter; exercise your imagination. Sure, there are ways waiting to be discovered.

Lastly, advertise. How would 1,000 people find you when they do not know you exist?