BLOGGING DEFINED!
A blog can be referred to as a short form of web log.
Blogs are mini sites that are created and serviced by individuals with frequent postings of commentaries, describing and explaining different things. Blogs include other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
A blog differs from a website because a blog is updated frequently and a blog has more informative content than a website.
What is blogging?
I refer blogging to the art of writing, reading and engaging.
You hear the term thrown around all the time but do you know what it really is. You probably think blogging is typing your thoughts, interests and expertise into a computer. That is only part of the blogging equation and can not be considered the act as a whole. If this is what you are doing then you are not a blogger. Blogging in my mind has 3 main actions. Writing. Reading. Engaging.
WRITING
A blogger can write about anything under the sun. That's why it is so great. You might not have an audience besides your friends and family but that's okay. It's still a creative outlet. As the internet has matured blogging writing has gotten easier and easier. Anyone can get a blog set up in minutes through applications like wordpress, blogger.com, Tumblr and even Facebook. If you have aspirations for a more professional blog or content management system I recommend WordPress. WordPress is a free blogging software. WordPress.com is the place to go if you would like to have them host your site. It's quick easy and a great way to start. If you want complete control over theway your site looks then go to WordPress.org. There you can download the software and host it yourself. You can select the look of your site from thousands of free themes or build your site through paid themes and HTML code. All of this will get you started with the writing aspect of blogging.
READING
Why is reading part of being a blogger? Blogging is about community, it's about finding people who have the same interests as you and connecting with them. Reading other peoples blogs will help your blog site. You will learn from what they write. You will learn from how their site is designed. You will learn what works and what doesn't. Reading other blogs will give you content ideas for your blog. If someone you read wrote a post you really liked you can put your spin on it for a post on your site. If you hated someone's post you can write a post stating why you disagreed. Remember to link back to the original post. Use an RSS reader and subscribe to the blogs you read the most. An RSS reader brings all the blogs you like together in one place.
ENGAGING
This is the most often over looked but maybe the most important part of blogging. Like I mentioned earlier, blogging is about community. How do you create a community? You engage with people. You comment on their blogs. You link to interesting posts. You add their great posts to StumbleUpon and Digg. You retweet other blogger's posts. You share other people's ideas on Facebook. This is engagement. If you only share your blog posts on all these outlets then you are just a broadcaster and people will ignore you. When you do all of this sharing and linking it gets the attention of other bloggers. That person will then check out your site and most likely comment on your posts and link to your information. That's how you get noticed in the blogging world. That's how you form a community around your site and build traffic...Engage!
I have a rule that for every blog post I write, I comment on 5 other blogs. For every post of mine that I add to StumbleUpon I add 3 others. Also Remember to link to others. It's what makes the web work and gives you viability to Google.
You must get out there and read, engage and be social with
others. Be human and connect with people. You will be shocked by the
effect it has on your blog and your blog traffic
START BLOGGING TODAY!!!
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CHOOSING A BLOG TOPIC
By far the most common questions that new bloggers always ask is "What topic should I write about?"
This is the first big decision and the first point where everything can go wrong.
If you choose the wrong topic then you begin walking down the wrong path and it might be months before you even realize it and change direction. Here are some common mistakes people make when choosing a topic to write a blog about:
- Don't pick a subject just because you see others make money writing about it
- Avoid writing about something you are not passionate about, but very few other people are
- Don't base a blog on a topic you know little about or have minimal practical experience in
- Be careful not to write about too diverse range of subjects, your blog must have a focus
WHAT IF YOU HAVE NO IDEAS AT ALL?
For people who have no idea of what to blog about I suggest you write down a list of your hobbies, passions, experiences, education and skills in all areas of life and then take that list and derive blog topics.
In almost all cases it's easier to start a blog from something you have an interest in, so I try and steer people in that direction rather than get too caught up in the potential to make money.
I honestly believe that if you have traffic you can make money, and it's traffic that is hard to generate. The money comes easily enough once the traffic is in place, so it's better to seek topics you have the most potential to build an audience from.
For people who struggle to choose between a range of ideas I suggest picking one and devoting a serious amount of time to it. You have to really "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks "before you really know whether a blog topic will work.
Sometimes no amount of research, self reflection, internal or external analysis will give you an answer. Only the MARKET can give you a definite result. You have to set a blog up and just start writing and see what happens. You can always make adjustments as you go along.
It's crucial to pick just ONE idea and not attempt to start a blog about every topic you have an interest in. If you spend your energy and time across three blogs you will end up with three average blogs. If you pour 100% of your effort into just one blog, you give it the best chance of success.
At the end of a three month trial period of focusing on just one blog you at least have a conclusive outcome, whether successful or not. There is no ambiguity about whether you worked hard enough and you can honestly say you gave it your best shot. You can continue with the blog if it appears to be gaining attraction or move on to a different topic if it didn't.
At the end of three months of consistent blogging you also have an ASSET. Even if your blog doesn't have much traffic, it does have three months of content in it, so worse comes to worst, you can sell your blog and recoup a few hundred dollars and then take your experience with you into your next blog project.
There is no such thing as failure if you actually put something out there and learn from the experience and sometimes the only way to really know whether a topic has potential is to test it on a real live blog.
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5 WAYS TO GETTING YOUR BLOG RANKED WELL IN GOOGLE
Getting your blog ranking well in Google is not difficult, it just requires some pre-planning at the time of your initial blog installation. This will save you time and money in the long run.
OPTIMIZING YOUR TITLES
Since the WordPress software is now set up to name each link with the title of your post, it's more important than ever to have a well-optimized title. For each post, choose one keyword to focus on as you write your title. Lead with the keyword, and make your title clever and catchy. Your goal is to entice human readers to click on your title to read more, while telling the search engines exactly where and how to rank your content.
USE OF PERMALINKS
One powerful feature that you should take advantage of when setting up your WordPress blog is - the ability to change the default URL of each page and post from the current "ugly" form to something that is much nicer for both search engines and end users. By Default WordPress uses an ugly string of numbers and this is no good for anyone!
In your WordPress admin under the Settings tab on the left hand side you will see a list item called permalinks. Click on this and options to change the way your URL's (permalinks) display. The good thing about this is that you can display your keywords (post title) actually in the URL giving the search engines even more information to help them place you correctly.
You have many default options which allow you to set the URL's to show the date, month, category, name and a combination but I prefer for SEO purposes to just use a custom structure of just the name. To do this simply enter "/%postname%/" (without quotes) in the Custom Structure box on the Permalinks page.
OPTIMIZING YOUR DESCRIPTIONS
Don't rely on auto generated descriptions for your post. There's no way to control the content your reader sees if you're relying on software to make content choices for you. Instead, write a carefully crafted, SEO Optimized description for each post, using the keywords you're attempting to rank for at least once in the text. Tell your reader in simple terms what the post is about, and what they can expect to read. Make your description as interesting as possible - this, after all, is what draws the reader in.
PAGES INSTEAD OF POSTS
As you add content to your blog, keep in mind the general structure that you're shooting for good SEO. Whenever possible, write your content on its own page, instead of as a post. Doing so allows the search engines to rank each page individually, and helps your reader to see your site as legitimate.
Using the pages instead of posts structure helps you to build an expansive, multi page website, with an interlinked network of related pages, instead of a blog with one long string of posts on one page. When you write your content as a page, instead of a post, you can also remove the commenting option. This is important, as you're striving for a specific keyword density in your content. Comments won't be keyword optimized, and can quickly destroy your hard work.
LINK TO RELATED SITES YOU OWN
For true niche domination, don't rely on the built in list of links that comes with WordPress. In fact, deleting these should be one of your first steps after you install the software. For the best possible SEO results, use this area to link to other sites that you own in the same niche. If you don't currently own any other sites, consider using this area for cloaked affiliate links, advertising, or link exchanges with other marketers.
