feel free to e-mail me if anyone know who..
his/her writing..
I am already starting to learn some lessons about blogging. There is no doubt that I have a long way to go and lots to learn yet but I wanted to keep track of these blogging “rules” that I have discovered.
This is going to be a dynamic document that will change as often as I learn something new. You may want to keep an eye on this article in the future.
Keep Content Current
It is very important that you update your blog regularly and provide your visitors with reasons to return. If I go to a blog and see that the last entry was made six months ago (or six years ago), I am less likely to return to that blog than if the information is updated a few times a week.
You Will (Probably) Not Get Rich Blogging
There are literally millions of people who are willing to tell you how to make money blogging. But the truth of the matter is that a very small minority of people make a living blogging. If you are blogging only for the money, you would probably do better with a tin cup on a busy street corner. As an example, I am averaging about $0.33 per day with my blog. Do it because you are passionate about what you are blogging.
Now, with that being said, I’ve only been doing this for a short period of time and my blog isn’t terribly popular . It is entirely possible that I’ve got this completely wrong and everyone out there is getting rich.
Limit Your Advertisements
This goes along with what I wrote about above. Plastering your ads on every square inch of each web page only creates ad blindness. People just become “immune” to them. A couple of well placed ads do not take away from your website and add to your credibility.
Contribute to the Blogosphere
Take some time to visit other blogs of interest and write comments to their posts. When appropriate, mention different things that you have written about that pertain to the blog entry you are are commenting on. Even feel free to leave the web URI.When you contribute in this way, both the commenter and the author win.
Don’t Create “Spam” Comments
Don’t start going to every blog that you can find and posting something like:
Cool website! Check out mine! http://www.urblogadress.com
That’s a very good way to get yourself labelled as a spammer
Use Your Blogroll
If you find a good blog, add it to your blogroll and then e-mail the owner of the blog that you have done so. Often, they will reciprocate by adding you to their blogroll. This can do all kinds of wonders for you on Technorati and other such websites.
The other benefit to this is that you often gain new followers yourself in these bloggers. And if they like what they are reading, they will often write about you, sending even more traffic your way.
Respond to Your Comments
Comments are your reader’s way of intereacting with your writing. Thus, when they chose to add their two cents worth, it is common courtesy to reply.
Register with Search Engines
Make sure that people can find you and one of the best ways to do that is by registering with search engines. This way, when people look for you, they can find you.
Now, I know that there is a whole industry around search engine optimization (SEO) but there are two things that you can do that will help the most.
- Have a site map
- Use your keyword metatags
This will allow web bots to find you easier and categorize your pages better.
One little trick I learned early on was to sign up for some of the different webmaster tools that are provided by some of the search engines. For example, Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools keep you “in the face” of Google by having them perform tasks for you on a regular basis. This way, you can ensure that your content is being reviewed regularly. In fact, you can submit your site map right to Google so they can monitor it and then crawl your website.
Submit Your Pages To Social Bookmarking Sites
There are dozens of them out there. Two of the best ones that I have found are Digg and Reddit. Whenever I add a link to either of these sites, my hits jump immediately. And, I continue to see hits from them even after the initial surge.
Write About What You Know
I have heard about some people writing a “targetted” blog aimed to get traffic from a certain demographic. In my mind, this sounds like a bad idea about to get worse. Especially if you do not know what you are talking about. You could find your self alienated quite quickly and lose the blogging game before you even get started.
If you write about what you know, you will have better content, a more satisfying experience, and more respect from the blogging community.
Know Your Audience and Give Them What They Want
If you have a technical blog and most of the people who read it are looking for computer information, don’t suddenly start writing about flower arrangements. Keep on topic and you will keep your audience.
There is an exception. Regardless the blog, you can always pop in the occasional funny blog entry. Everyone likes to laugh now and again. Why not get that from your blog. If you can make it humor about your blog theme, even better!
This Is Just The Beginning
As I stated earlier, I am still very early in my blogging lifecycle. I plan to keep updating this page on a regular basis as I learn more useful things so check back from time to time. Hopefully we can continue to learn together.
Posts
