Thread: BLOG 101

I decided to make this thread because I wanted to know tricks (clean tricks) and techniques that a newbie like me should know in making a blog. And I also wanted to improve my blog and make it better when it comes to content and design.

Mission of this thread is to share blog-related information to blogger lovers. You can also post a link to your blog for reviews.

To start:

In my own words... a blog is a diary-like site of an individual that is intended for public view. Nowadays, a blog is a source of income. Many great bloggers earn money regarding their blog. We're talking about big money. Yummy

Fundamental Information:
1. Choose a free publishing tool/site - I suggest newbie to use blogger because based on my experience and based on what I've heard... wordpress is for experts.
2. Blog's URL - Your URL should be very related to your blog. (unless you're branding). When making the proper URL of your blog I suggest you use easy to remember words and you can also use "-" instead of "_".
3. Add Meta Keywords|Description|Title - This will help your blog to be index by search engines.
4. Sitemap (by means of Google Webmaster Tool) - Use this tool for Google's faster indexing.
5. Link-Building - Posted below are ways about link building.

* article submission
* forum posting (through signature)
* web directory submission
* blog directory submission
* participating in community sites like Yahoo Answers
* press release submission
* online group posting
* promotional ads
* link exchange


I wanted to know simple yet informative information regarding the following:

RSS
(soon to add more)

Wikipedia has a pretty good article on RSS.

If you are looking for ways to increase your subscriber count there are a couple of things you can do.

#1 Make it easy to subscribe. Your RSS Feed link should be displayed in a prominent place (above the fold) on your website/blog. You may also want to offer an email subscription option for those readers unfamiliar with or uninterested in using feed readers.

#2 You can offer something free in return for a subscription to your feed. I've seen some bloggers offer a special report that can only be downloaded via a special link on found in posts read in a feed reader. I believe WordPress has plugins that allows you to do this although I have not done any research on the subject.

#3 On that note you can also offer ongoing content only available through an RSS subscription. Again, I believe WordPress has plugins for this but you will have to do your own research at the moment.

#4 You can also host a contest of some sort that rewards people for signing up for your feed.

Anyone else have any tips they want to share?

TPAM:

Thanks for the great information regarding RSS.

Tips in properly optimizing your webpage title:

* Include the name of your business/ name of the website
* Include your targeted keywords
* Include your city/location
* Use different title tag for every page but the title should reflect the content that can be found in the particular webpage.
* Use short web page titles because it can be easily read by visitors. Do not use special characters because it might not be properly displayed and your website might look strange in a SERP


Example:
Title: mico.com - Inexpensive Shirts in Australia

But if the business is new, it is recommended to list your keywords first before the name of your business. Why? It is simply because your business it not yet popular and people might be looking for solutions to their problem. (In the example listed above, the keyword "Inexpensive Shirts was used to provide short but very informative information about your webpage.

Revised:
Title: Inexpensive Shirts in Australia - mico.com


Hope it helps.

You seem to be very focused on the promotion of a blog. Don't overlook the most critical part - the content. If your content is original, interesting and of use to visitors then they will promote your blog for you.

Yeah, I have to agree. The content of the blog plays a major rule in the success of one's blog. If your content sucks then all of your promotional efforts are useless.

Of course if your content in the blog is originally than reader promote your site by book marking your blog. This will help you a lot.
It is very nice post for the Blog promotion. I like your post.

I would recommend adding your blog to blogcatalog.com. You have to verify your blog ownership either by placing a link to blogcatalog or by placing a small piece of code in the meta tags.

The reason I suggest BC is because I do get traffic to my blogs from them.

As others have already said the content is vital. If you publish content that is truly interesting and unique you will have much better results.

Originally Posted by kentuckyslone

I would recommend adding your blog to blogcatalog.com. You have to verify your blog ownership either by placing a link to blogcatalog or by placing a small piece of code in the meta tags.

The reason I suggest BC is because I do get traffic to my blogs from them.

As others have already said the content is vital. If you publish content that is truly interesting and unique you will have much better results.

I definitely agree on this. I also did get a lot of traffic from blogcatalog than mybloglog.

Originally Posted by kentuckyslone

I would recommend adding your blog to blogcatalog.com. You have to verify your blog ownership either by placing a link to blogcatalog or by placing a small piece of code in the meta tags.

The reason I suggest BC is because I do get traffic to my blogs from them.

As others have already said the content is vital. If you publish content that is truly interesting and unique you will have much better results.

I agree. It's really effective to add your blog to BC because I also do get traffic from this site.

I would also suggest to join mybloglog.com and submit your blog. I find this also effective to gain traffic because lots of bloggers have used it.

As there seems to be a lot of positive comments about blogcatalog I've just signed up. Lets hope my blog is approved and they send me some traffic!

I've never bothered with BC because i figured it wouldn't give me much traffic, but I will definitely try it out now.

The only thing I can think of that hasn't been said already is regarding comments. Respond to as many comments that you can. It's a great way to gain rapport and results in loyal long term readers. Plus your response/answer to a comment is more content for your blog

Ok few tips :

1. Good , original content
2. Easy to understand/navigate
3. Interesting and SEO friendly
4. Pictures/graphics are always a good add on
5. Publicity - signatures,forums,blog hopping and loads more

Hope these tips help

There are some great SEO plugins as well

I suggest newbie to use blogger because based on my experience and based on what I've heard... wordpress is for experts.

Hmm, well to me wordpress is much more easy to use, easy to customized but it's only my opinion.

Thanks for sharing nice information

i think the best and the easiest way to create a blog is by using websites like wordpress and blogger and you can also earn through these blogs by affiliating it to google adsense.