The Ten Commandments of Directory Submission

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* Thou shalt not ignore each directory’s rules.
* Thou shalt not use auto submitters.
* Thou shalt not mislead the public just to get more traffic.
* Thou shalt not expect unrealistic results.
* Thou shalt not submit junk websites.
* Thou shalt not remove backlinks if they are required.
* Thou shall only submit to quality directories.
* Thou shall use one email address specifically for directory submissions.
* Thou shall provide truthful descriptions of your blogs and/or websites..
* Thou shall keep the directory entries up-to-date.

Revelance of Directory Submission to cost effective link building

Anyone who is at least a little bit interested in his or her website´s positon on the search engine result pages (SERPS) does understand the importance of link building and specifically one way link building. Link building is one of the most important search engine optimization (SEO) tools.

What is link building and how does it help ?

Links building can be termed as an act of manipulating traffic and the SERPS by strategically placing ones website links on relevant web pages from different websites.

The most immediate and obvious benefit of an incoming link (backlink) is that it can bring more traffic to your site. An incoming link from a very busy site might bring you dozens or hundreds of visitors a day.

Another benefit is that it helps you to increase your website’s link popularity, with increased number of related backlinks, and helps you rank higher in the SERPS (still the best source of traffic). And the beauty is that the benefits do not end here. If you are a PageRank lover, this would also help you achieve a higher PageRank for your blog or website, PR being one of the byproducts of relevant link building.

Directories have become a very important and comparatively cheap source of one way link building. Over the years hundreds of quality and established web directories have emerged. Some of these directories are paid but luckily a lot of them still accept free submissions. Imagine buying relevant one-way links in bulk for your blog or website. All I can say is that unless you have a very high budget at your disposal, it would be impossible to buy enough weblinks via Google Adwords, etc. blog and web directory submissions are a whole lot cheaper and a good method to gain one-way links and increase thereby increase your link popularity.

Directory Submission is one of the best ways towards COST EFFECTIVE link building – and it will get you the expected results without burning a hole in your pocket.

A list of quality blog directories you should submit your blog to can be found here.

Good luck!

 

Technorati-Tags: directory submission,web directories,pagerank,more traffic

21 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog to

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Gaining exposure for your blog is essential to building a following, readership - and revenue. Besides the basic SEO (search engine optimization) steps of adding compelling and keyword friendly titles, URL structure and descriptions basic link building for blogs begins with listing them in quality blog directories.

Personally, I just love launching a new blog (or adding one to an existing site) and watching the highly coveted links roll in. As we all know: BLOG = Better Listings On Google.

There are many paths to consider when building links to your website or blog such as link baiting or blogroll link swapping, but few are as easy to implement as well as cost effective as submitting to blog directories - and good links are essential to a healthy growing blog.

Let us take a look at 21 popular directories worthy of your consideration.

1. Best of the Web Blog Directory is without a doubt the best around. Best of the Web’s Blog Directory is very selective and only lists aged and valuable blogs. A link from here is majestic and well deserved. Submissions will be reviewed within 3 days, but unfortunately this is not a free directory. They charge an annually recurring review fee of $75.00.

2. Blog Hub offers a drop down category and member blog list. With its “most recently added bloggers” list and hot topics, Blog Hub is a great directory to list your site.

3. Bloggeries has the best categories and subcategories home page on the internet. The layout is clear and concise, and readers are able to find what they are looking for in a snap! New submissions will be reviewed within 48 hours. Pricing for a regular link: $39.99 (one-time).

I am really liking the overall look of Bloggeries as well as the fast service. This is bound to become one of the premier Blog Directories on the web.

4. EatonWeb Blog Directory is a real jewel with many aged inbound links and a blog rating system. You may have to pay a fee for your blog to be reviewed, but like Yahoo, the review fee is well worth the few dollars.

5. One of the most selective Blog Directories on the web (and Wordpress powered), Blog Search Engine is owned by Performancing’s parent company and serves search results powered by IceRocket.

6. Blogged.com is an interesting mix of a blog directory and a Google News type site which fuels its news feed from the blogs listed on the site. Blogged.com is very impressive and you can submit your blog for free.

7. Blog Catalog features a vast directory of categories, from arts to technology, while offering the ability to search by language, country, or user. It has a no nonsense design, but offers convenient member access through simple blog registration. And it is free.

8. Globe of Blogs has too many features to list. In order to be listed on the site, the blog must not be commercial. The site may appear to be a bit to busy, but I like the features of being able to search by title, location, topic or author (by name or birthday!). Narrowing the search becomes easy on this blog directory.

9. Blog Universe is the perfect place to promote your video, photo or podcast themed blog. Its layout is easy to navigate. Although the content is limited, it is an all around good directory site worthy of submission. One-time review fee of $4.99.(Blog Universe is one of the few major directories to list adult oriented blogs.)

10. BritBlog - The Original British Blog Directory connotes all things British. It is not directed by location, but by the culture! It is asked that bloggers be genuinely “british.” Being listed in this blog reaches readers in the whole of Britain.

11. Upon visiting Bloggernity, you find a crisp, clean, and easy to navigate site. Scrolling down, you find the last 20 newly listed blogs. As there is little advertising on the home page, it is pleasant to look at and loads fast.

12. Bigger Blogs is one of the newer blog directory with relatively few blogs registered. This has its advantages since the earlier you are accepted on a blog directory, the more exposure your blog will obtain. In addition, a backlink is indeed a backlink, so this can help with your search engine placement.

13. Spillbean is a well-designed blog directory site with categories such as health & fitness, society, internet, regional, and personal webpages. The site is aesthetically pleasing, but there are not many listings yet. The listings display the PageRank of each blog.

14. Blogging Fusion is a blog directory with over sixty categories. These categories include photo blogs and family focused blogs. Blogging Fusion has a good amount of blog listings within the directory, and it also has visitor stats available. It is extremely easy to navigate and currently lists close to 3000 blogs. Listings from $1.99.

15. Bloggapedia has an interesting and eye catching homepage. Readers are easily connected to the top blogs and newest posts. Innovative categories and a colorful design make this blog directory a hit.

16. Blogflux is not only a tool for bloggers, but a directory that has the listings in alphabetic order. The blog listings are organized and clear. It is definitely an effective blog directory in which to be listed. Currently listing over 150,000 blogs.

17. Blogio may be a small blog directory with few listings (31 categories around 150 blogs listed), but it is worthy of a submission. Despite its small size, there are quality blogs and a solid ability to search on this site. You are asked to provide a backlink.

18. The blogs on the top listings of Bloglisting are fun, colourful, and catch the attention of the reader. Bloglisting displays the blogs along with their number of hits, which is a helpful tool when determining with whom you want to exchange links. Rather slow-loading.

19. Blog Explosion claims to be the largest blog promoter on the internet. They have a vast directory but do not seem to have direct links. However, the listing in the directory can still show up in SERP’s, so keep this in mind. You should consider adding a banner along with your listing in order to promote your blog.

20. Topblogging is definitely worth a try. It lists blogs in 25 categories and displays the 50 top ranked ones right on the homepage. Submission is free and blogs tend to get quite a number of hits through this directory.

21. My New Blog is a blogging service as well as a free blog directory. You have to register to submit your blog. Although My New Blog is a relatively new directory it is worth checking out.

The above listings are a glimpse inside the large and vast world of blog directories and the valuable inbound links that your can build for your blog and your business.

There are countless more directories at your disposal, all of which are just a Google, Yahoo, Bing or Ask.com search away.

What is your favorite blog directory? Leave a comment below :)

 

Technorati-Tags: backlinks,blog directories,submit,free traffic,more traffic

Link Building: A Beginners Guide

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Link building is one of the most important ingredient in ranking your website highly on the major search engines. 

Now that we have got that brilliant grasp of the obvious out of the way let us move on to what you can do to actually create links. Before we launch into the details of link building, let me explain to you why links are so important. This being a beginners guide, I´ll also tell you a little bit about the different kinds of links. No need to worry, this will not be a long list but it will be enough to get you going in the right direction. Understanding what you are trying to do will help you do it better. Even more importantly, understanding the „ why“ of the situation will help you stretch your tactics outside of this and other articles on link building.

Why Are Links Important?

Simply put: a link is a vote.  Every link pointing to your site from another blog or website tells the search engines that the other site finds your resources valuable, and therefore the engines read this as a vote for your site. So it is simply a question of getting tons of links and you are done, right? Wrong. This is not correct as ...

Not All Votes Are Created Equal

Unlike your own vote in an election, some votes are worth more than others and some votes are worth SIGNIFICANTLY more than yours (unless of course you happen to be a content writer for Google.com, in which case you obviously have the top vote).

The basic factors that affect the value of a link to your website are:

1. Site strength

The strength of the site that is pointing to yours is a significant (and often abused) factor in the valuation of links. In the absence of other easily visible criteria let us look at PageRank as the key valuation of a site's strength. If a site with PageRank 8 links to your site, this vote is worth significantly more than a link from a PageRank 3 site.  Why? Because in the eyes of Google a PageRank 8 site is a more important site than the PageRank 3 site.

2. Relevance

The relevance of a site linking to you is, if anything, even more important than a site's strength. If you run a motorcycle repair-shop in Colorado a link from a PageRank 3 motorcycle blog will be worth more than a link from a PageRank 5 web design site.  This area is a bit grey in that it relies on the search engine's ability to determine what is relevant and what is not. However, evidence shows that this area is strong at this stage in the game and is only becoming more important over time.

3.Anchor text

The actual text used to link to your site is extremely important. I have seen extremely strong sites get beaten out by weak ones simply due to the poor use of anchor test. If you are building links to your site be sure to include your keywords in the text that links back and, if possible, the exact phrase you are trying to rank for.  But try to avoid making all your anchor text exactly the same. Otherwise, it will not look natural to the search engines and they will take your links for spam.

4. Position

The position of a link on a page as well as the number of other links on that page has a huge impact on the value of said link. A link in the footer of a page is given less weight than a link near the top, a link in the content of a page is given more weight than a link in a list of links and a link on a page with dozens of other links is given less weight than a link on a page with only a few other links. If you think about it – it makes sense.  All of these things indicate whether the site with the outbound links actually intends for one of their visitors to click on the link or not.  From a search engine's perspective – the more it appears that a site wants a link to be clicked on, the higher the weight that link is given.

 

Of course there are a number of other factors, but this is a beginners guide. Following the considerations above will ensure that - as you make each link decision – your odds of making the right choices will be significantly higher than if you ignore them. Ignoring them may not get you penalized or banned but it will make your task far more time consuming as you secure less valuable links and thus need to build far more links than you would need if you followed the right methods.

So far I have told you briefly about the why of link building, now it is time to get to the real-life, here's-how-to-do-it side of things.  In the following paragraphs I am going to cover three of my favorite link building tactics. These are tactics that apply to virtually every scenario. The number of ways to build links is only limited by your imagination, however, and this should not be viewed as a comprehensive list.  This is, after all, a beginners guide and therefore I am only trying to list the tactics that apply to virtually every scenario.

Insert: Reciprocal Link Building

I am not going to count this as one of my favorite and it should not be viewed as one of the three noted above and I´ll make this as brief as possible. There have been quite a lot of assertions that reciprocal link building is dead.  This is simply not true. I have seen high profile sites that were very successful with reciprocal links as their primary link source.

The problem with reciprocal links is not so much in their value which does seem to be a bit lower than that of non-reciprocal links maybe because they are more easily attained. No, my primary problem with reciprocal links is in the management. Unethical webmasters removing links after you havve put up the link to them, sites expiring and not being renewed, sites getting penalties due to their bad tactics, etc., are all inconveniences the reciprocal link manager must deal with.

And now, here come the top three...

I. Articles

I am a huge fan of article writing as a link building method. I genuinely enjoy writing and sharing my experiences with others and getting articles distributed is one of the best link building tactics. It is also a great source of qualified free traffic.

You are an expert in your field. Who knows more about your business or hobby than you?  So share. Writing an article may not be the easiest thing in the world but it is rewarding. If you cannot think of a topic, think of what you get asked. If some questions are put to you repeatedly chances are that these would make good topics for an article. I often get asked about link building - and you are reading the result.

Once the article is completed you need to get it syndicated. Using an article submission service is a simple way to get your article out to a large number of publishers quickly. On top of this you should seek out specific sites in your field using one or all of the major search engines to find highly relevant sites that accept articles and submit to them.

Do not forget to include an „about the author“ section. :)

II. Directory Submissions

Directory submissions are probably the most tedious and time-consuming of all the link building tactics you will employ.

To be done right directory submissions have to be done manually, the titles and descriptions have to be tailored to the specifications of the directory in question - and often you will have to decide if a review fee is worth it.

While there are a good many directories that accept free submissions there are also a large number that require a review or submission fee.  The fee can range from a few $ to a couple of hundred $. If you come across a directory that has a low PageRank, is general in its nature (i.e. it is not about your specific field) then it most likely is not worth more than a few of your hard earned $, if any.  A site that is strong (high PageRank), and strongly related to your site then is obviously worth more.

There is no hard-and-fast set of rules for how much a listing is worth. I'd recommend to start your hunt for directories as soon as possible(do not forget the topic and/or region specific ones), submit to all the free ones and make a list of all the ones that require a fee.  After you have gotten a solid number in your „ needs to be paid“ list you can get a general idea as to what is out there, what you can and need to get and how much it will cost you. Knowing all your options will enable you to make solid choices.

III. Forum Posting

I have a feeling that I am going to get a couple of comments for listing this as a link building tactic, but if it is done right there is nothing wrong with it.  Forum and blog posting got a bad reputation as a link building tactic when unethical webmasters started spamming forums with useless garbage just to get links. They even went so far (and still do) as sending out spiders to automatically submit posts. To this end, I have to agree that it is a bad tactic. However...

If you are seeking out forums related to your site, reading the threads and responding with solid advice or with questions instead of just firing off some sales-pitch then you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Another perk to this is that if you do this right you are going to see a lot of free traffic as well - and what more can you ask from a link building tactic than traffic as well as links.

Conclusion

In this post I have covered the basics of link building. As I have stated repeatedly, once you are done reading this and applying some of what you have read you should up other articles, forums and blogs.  This is not an “all about links” (that would be a full book or even a couple of books) but it will keep you out of trouble and save you countless hours of wasted time getting poor links that have not held value since the beginning of the Internet.

Good luck!

 

Technorati-Tags: search engine submission,link building,beginners guide,how to,free links,free traffic

Google AdSense: Common Mistakes You Need to Avoid

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A lot of Google AdSense publishers make easily avoidable mistakes that could result in getting their Adsense account banned. Once banned, you cannot register anymore. Google AdSense is the most widely used advertisement application on the web. Website owners can join this program to enable text, image, and more recently, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click (most ads) or per-impression (high profile ads) basis. Pay-per-click (PPC) means that you only get paid when a visitor actually clicks on one of the ads, pay-per-impression (CPI or CPM) on the other hand means that you receive a specific amount of money for every 1000 times (may vary) an ad is shown on your site.

There are well defined terms of service to strictly adhere to when participating in the program.

When browsing others sites, I often come across ads that violate the Terms and Conditions of Google AdSense. In this post I compiled for you some of the most common mistakes made by bloggers and wemasters all over the world. Each and every one of them could result in serious consequences. So be warned. Most of these rules are picked from the Program Policies, Terms and Conditions as well as the FAQ of Google AdSense itself and are presented in a simplified manner.

Here are the rules:

1. Never click your own AdSense ads or do anything to get them clicked for whatever reason.

Everyone should know this one by now. Breaking this rule is the best way way to get your AdSense account closed. Never tell office associates or friends to click on your ads. Keep an eye on your family and relatives whether they are trying to increase your income behind your back by clicking your ads, thereby ruining this stream of income for good. Do not even think about offering incentives for clicks, using automated clicking tools, or other deceptive software. The guys at AdSense are very smart in detecting fraudulent clicks. Check the ads which appear on your pages using the Google Preview tool if need should be.

2. Never change the AdSense code.

There are enough means for optimization & customizations available. You can change the colour, background or border to suit your needs (especially easy if you have a Blogger blog). Do whatever you want to do outside the code, but never fiddle with the ad or the search code itself. They know it when you do. The search code has more limitations to colour and placement, but you should adhere to the rules. In most cases the code will stop working and a sign will appear in the ad space saying that the website or service is not available.

3. Do not place more than 3 ad units and 3 link units or 2 AdSense search boxes on any one web page.

If you place more ad or link units then no ads will show in those extra units. 3 of each is the limit they set, so it is best to just accept this.

4. Do not run competitive contextual text ad or search services on blog or website pages you pare running Google Adsense on.

Never try to create link structures resembling AdSense ads. Never use other competitive search tools on the pages you use AdSense powered Google Search on. They do allow affiliate or limited-text links. Google now allows AdSense publishers to run contextual advertising like Yahoo ads, Chitika, etcetera, provided the ads do not resemble AdSense ads.

5. Do not disclose confidential information about your account like the CTR, CPM and income derived via individual ad units or similar information that is diclosed to you by AdSense.

However, you may reveal the total amount of money you make as per recent updates to the Terms and Conditions.

6. Label your ad and link blocks as “sponsored links” or “advertisements” only.

Other labels are not allowed. There are many sites to be found that label ads with other titles. Do not do this. It takes just one glance to find out this lapse.

7. Never launch a New Page for clicked ads by default.

AdSense ads should open on the same page. You may be using a base target tag to open all links in a new window or frame by default. Correct it now as they do not want new pages opening from clicked ads.

8. One account is sufficient for any number of websites.

There is no need to create 5 different accounts for 5 different websites. One account will do. If you think that if one account is closed down for violation of TOC you may still be able to use the others then you are in for a nasty surprise - they will close all of your accounts as soon as they find out. You can keep track of clicks by using channels with real time statistics. AdSense will automatically detect each new site and display relevant ads.

9. Place ads on Content Pages only.

Advertisers pay only for content based ads. Content drives relevant ads. Although you might manage some clicks from error, login, registration, “thank you” or welcome pages, parking pages or pop ups, it will sooner or later get you banned from the program.

10. Do not mask ad elements.

Alteration of colours and borders is a facility to blend or contrast ads as per your site´s requirements. I have seen many sites where the URL part of the ads is of the same colour as the background. While blending the ad with your site is a good idea, hiding relevant components of the ads is most definitely not allowed. Also do not block the visibility of ads by overlapping images, pop ups, tables etc.

11. Do not send your ads by email.

HTML formatted emails look good and allow the placement of these JavaScript ads. But unfortunately it is prohibited by the Terms an Conditions. You do not want clicks or impressions registering on their logs from any email even once. They are on the watch for this!

12. Keep track of your content.

AdSense is not allowed on several non content pages. But it is not allowed on several content pages as well. Do not add it on web pages with MP3, Video, News Groups, and Image Results. You are also not allowed to use AdSesnse together with pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content of any kind.

13. Do not alter the results after ad clicks or searches.

Make sure you are not in any way altering the look or content of the site the user reaches after clicking your ads. Do not frame, minimize, remove, redirect or otherwise inhibit the full and complete display of any Advertiser Page or Search Results Page after the user clicks on any Ad or Search results.

14. Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing.

Although what constitutes “excessive” is a gray area and is open to debate, Google AdSense with correct placement, focused content and high traffic will get you much more income than other programs, so there really is no need for excessive advertising. Keyword stuffing does target better focused ads, but overdoing it is not recommended.

15. Make sure your language is supported.

As of now, AdSense supports “Chinese (simplified), Japanese, Danish, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, English, Polish, Finnish, Portuguese, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Swedish, Italian and Turkish”. In addition, AdSense for Search is available in Czech, Slovak, and Traditional Chinese. If your blog´s or website´s language is not supported, do not use AdSense on these pages.

16. Do not specify Google AdSense ads as your alternate ads.

Several services like Chitika eMiniMalls allow you to place alternate URLs, when a targeted paying ad cannot be displayed. This involves creating an simple HTML page and putting the ad to be displayed instead. Even AdSense allows for an alternate URL feature instead of displaying public service ads. But never use AdSense ads as alternate URLs.

17. Do not make AdSense ads look like belonging to adjacent images.

It was and still is a common policy to increase CTR by placing images the size of text ads right beside these ads, which falsely gave the impression that the text ads represented an explanation to these images. Inserting a small space or a line between the images and ads is not allowed. Make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors.

Whenever in doubt, do not do it or ask for help from the learned staff at Google AdSense. They are there to help you!

Good luck!

Thanks once again to “Problogger Help.”

 

Technorati-Tags: adsense,ads,advertisement,make money blogging,monetize blog

Google Provides Free Tool for Speeding Up Web Pages

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Save Money and Improve Your Site´s Performance

A while ago Google talked about an initiative it was kicking off to call upon webmasters to help make the web faster. Larry Page once said he envisioned that surfing the web could become as easy as flipping through the pages of a magazine. Google´s new initiative is something like an extension of that way of thinking.

Not so long ago Google has shared a new tool called Page Speed, which shows webmasters how they can increase the speed of pages on their sites. It is actually a Firefox/Firebug add-on that can be used for the evaluation of web page performance and provide suggestions for improvement.

Page Speed takes a look at things like:

- Did you compress your images (enough)?
- Did you set proper caching headers?
- Did you write efficient Javascript?
- Etc.

The tool carries out tests on the server configuration and front-end code of your site. "The tests rate your site against a set of best practices proven to enhance web page performance," explains Evelyn O'Keefe of Google´s Analytics Team. "When you run Page Speed on your site's pages you will get a set of scores for each page, as well as suggestions on how to improve performance."

The following clip shows you how Page Speed works:

Google strongly advises to use Page Speed if you want to make your site faster, keep Internet users engaged with your site, reduce your bandwidth and hosting costs, and generally improve the web. Best practices for Page Speed performance can be found here.

For more information an the subject of speeding up your site please read this article.

 

Technorati-Tags: page speed,pagerank,add on

Google: Page Speed To Become Ranking Factor in 2010?

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An Algorithm Change Would Make Fast Sites Rank Higher

One of the consistent themes Google has been involved with in 2009 is that of speed. In announcement after announcement, Google has talked about the importance of speed on the world wide web, and even more about how the company wants to do everything it possibly can to make the web faster. Has it ever occurred to you that how fast your page loads may have a direct effect on how your site ranks in Google?

No need to worry, it has not had an impact...yet. In an exclusive interview with WebProNews, Google's Matt Cutts talked about that speed may become a ranking factor in the near future.

"Historically, we haven't had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast", explains Cutts. "It should be a good experience, and so it's sort of fair to say that if you're a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don't want that as much."

"I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about 'how do I have my site be fast,' how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom javascript?'", he says.

Based on Mr. Cutts´ comments it is more than fair to assume that Google will indeed begin taking page speed into consideration as a ranking factor, although he does not as yet come right out and say that they definitely will. That said, making your site faster is going to benefit your users and possibly your sales anyway, so you might just as well start optimizing it for speed. Then if Google really does decide to use speed as a ranking factor, you will have a head start on boosting your rankings.

In the past Google has been pretty good at providing webmasters and bloggers with tools they can use to help optimize their sites and thereby potentially boost rankings as well as conversions. So it comes as no surprise that Google recently announced a Site Speed site, which provides webmasters with a lot of resources specifically aimed at speeding up their pages. A couple of these, such as Page Speed and Closure tools come from Google itself. But there you can find quite a number of tools Google points you to from other developers as well.

If you are serious about wanting your blog/site to perform better in search engines, and you have not given much thought to load times and the like, it is high time to readjust your way of thinking. Caffeine increases the speed at which Google can index content. Wouldn't it make sense if you helped the process along with your site?

Have you given much thought to site speed? Time to do it now!

Technorati-Tags: caffeine,pagerank,page speed,google ranking

12 Steps to Successful Blogging

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A blog can be a very marketable and profitable tool if used correctly. Successful blogging is a matter of grabbing the attention of a possibly worldwide audience and has almost nothing in common with the work of your average salesperson. In this article I shall point out to you the 12 most essential steps to a successful blogging career.

1. Getting started

You should consider starting your blogging career at a free blog hosting service such as Blogger or Wordpress. This way you you can just jump in and try out blogging without having to worry about knowledge of scripts, hosting, domains and programming. It allows you to focus on creating interesting content and honing your writing skills while leaving the internal maintenance of your blog to professionals. The best thing about starting with a free service is that there is no risk of losing money if your blog does not become successful or you just happen to find out that blogging is not your cup of tea (just make sure to choose a service that lets you export your content whenever you want). A blog is the simplest form of a website and is organized in chronological order; your latest entry will always be displayed first. When your blog traffic grows considerably you should consider upgrading to your own domain. In this case your last blog entry should be the announcement of your "move". Do not forget to provide the URL address of your new site together with a link that will re-direct your visitors to the new site, thereby enabling you to keep your following without causing a major inconvenience to anyone. Upgrade...but only when you need to!

2. Finding your niche

A niche is a targeted product, service, or topic. You should first decide on a product, service, or topic which interests you. Choose an area which you can enthusiastically write about on a daily or at least weekly basis. You can use keyword research services like Google Zeitgeist or Yahoo! Buzz Index to find out what topics people are currently searching for. But keep in mind that it does NOT matter if your topic is popular; as long as there is a audience for your topic and the topic is precisely focused then your blog should be successful – it just may take a little longer. Anything anyone can think of can become a viable niche - as long as it has a target audience (no matter how large or how small that audience might be). A blog about your cat will obviously be a much smaller niche than a blog about domestic cats in general ...you can even choose to build an audience for a market which as yet does not exist, but first you must build your blog.

3. Update daily (but at least 2-3 times a week)

This step is a must and not just a suggestion. Updating your blog regularly not only keeps readers coming back for more, but it also gives your site fresh content on a day to day basis thereby making it more appealing to search engines. It is only understandable that you may not have the time or the inspiration to update your blog daily, but letting days or even weeks pass by without posting anything is unacceptable and will most likely result in your blog being unsuccessful. In order to keep your visitors interested as well as traffic to your blog high it is simply a must to add content to your blog regularly. If possible you should update your blog every day, maybe even try to post a couple of entries daily. The best way to accomplish this is to set aside 1-2 hours a day for tending to your blog and adding new entries. It may even be wise to schedule a set time which you dedicate to working on your blog each day. Treat your blog as a job (but as a job you really like!). What happens if you do not come to work for days or weeks...you lose income and/ or get fired! The same applies here...if you do not update your blog regularly you will lose visitors.

4. Generating traffic

This one is a no-brainer. You have to have traffic to be able to profit from your blog or site. There are numerous ways to build traffic. Advertising (paid as well as free), search engine marketing, feeds (RSS or Atom), viral marketing, usage of social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Digg, etc.), and word-of-mouth. For starters, you should always use your blog URL address in the signature of your emails, forum discussions, message boards, or any other form of online communication. Submit your blog URL address to search engines and blog directories. Also be sure to submit your RSS/XML URL feed to blog ping services like Technorati, Ping-O-Matic and Blogdigger. You should confidently share your blog with family, friends, co-workers, associates, and business professionals when it relates. If your blog (like so many others) can be described as a collection of articles you should consider submitting your blog entries (only those that are valuable and lengthy) to content syndicators/article directories like GoArticles.com, ArticleCity.com or DropJack.com. Once submitted, your articles can be picked up and published by others. The important thing is to make sure you include your Blog URL address in the "About the Author" passage. This creates link popularity and backlinks for your blog. When someone picks up your article from the syndication site and then publishes it on his or her website the "About the Author" passage is included with each publication and the link you included will be followed, crawled, and indexed by search engines. Just imagine what will happen if your article is popular enough or controversial enough to produce 5.000 or even 10.000 publications across the web. All the search engines are bound to find your site in no time with that many publications and will regard you as an authority on the subject, which will in turn increase your rank on search engines. The relatively small effort of writing an interesting and helpful article can be very rewarding. You should try to write at least one full length article every week for syndication and submit your article to as many article directories as possible.

5. Tracking your blog

How do you know if your blog has traffic? Just because no one is leaving comments does not mean your blog is not becoming popular. Many visitors just like to read or watch and do not care about comments – but they still may be returning visitors. Most people following blogs simply are more interested in what "you" have to say! Many readers do not comment till they are quite familiar with a blog, and some will never comment at all although they are devoted fllowers of your blog.

Tracking your blog does not require knowledge in statistics or any other fancy sciences. A simple free page counter like StatCounter, FeeStats, SiteMeter or Active Meter will do the trick. Just install (copy/paste) the code you will be given after registering into the HTML of your blog template and start tracking your visitors. If you really want to use tracking to your advantage you should choose a service that gives you advanced traffic analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral information, and search engine information. Hit counter, unique and returning visitors, visitor path and visit lenght, and keyword analysis should be standard features no matter what page counter service you choose.

6. Listen to your audience

When using the proper page counter you should soon be able to see which pages your visitors are coming from and where they are going. If they find your site through search engines then keyword analysis will show you which keywords are being used to find your blog. If your blog should happen to be constantly found by just one or a few select keywords then you should focus your blog around those keywords to generate even more traffic. When writing entry titles and entries use the keywords as often as possible while keeping your blog readable and interesting.

7. Branching out - Multiple blogs

Use multiple blogs and bloggging accounts to attract more people. You should consider having blogs at a number of popular blog hosting services like Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, JournalHome, Blog-City, etc. The more blog accounts you are able to manage, the better. You can copy/paste from one blog to all others. Having different blog accounts is like having a publication in different newspapers. This will enable you to attract more visitors and increase the chances that one of your blogs will show in the search engine results for the keywords you are focusing on.

8. Short & Concise

Aside from the one lengthy article a week for syndication and publication your blog entries should be short and concise (if possible). Sometimes your topic may warrant or even require a wordy blog entry, but try to avoid this as much as possible. You do not want your blog entries to become hours of reading. Most visitors tend to skim through your entries and like to find what they are looking for on first glance. If you make them read through hundreds or even thousands of words they will not come back for another visit. It is good to provide detailed and useful information, but do not stray from your topic and do not include filler or useless chunks of information to make your entries look more interesting.

9. Pictures & Graphics

Try to include non-advertising graphics, pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries (if it fits in with the overall content). But do not overdo it. Once in awhile is fine. Graphics can be a suitable tool for bringing your blog to life. Of course, the content has to remain the most important aspect of your blog, and you do not want to overshadow this content with graphics, but displaying graphics and photos can add a bit of spice to the blog. Be choosy about the graphics you choose and make sure they fit the topic of your entry. You should always add content along with the graphic, at least a caption. Original graphics, photos, pictures, and art are recommended. But keep in mind that graphics take up more server space than words which in turn means that the loading time for your page or blog will be longer. Therefore you should not use more than 50kb of graphics per page. And always ask the copyright owner for permission before using pictures other than your own.

For copyright-free and copyright-friendly graphics and photos you might want to check out WebQuest.org or Free-Stuff-Me.uk, among others.

10. Keep it personal

A blog is most successful when it is kept personal. Try to include personal experiences and anecdotes relating to your blog´s topic. Stay away from business style writing. Be courageous and find your personal style - and include first-person narratives whenever they fit in. Do not post anything in the style of sales letters, share product reviews and personal opinions instead.

11. Interact with your visitors

You should now have the amount of traffic you deserve. In order to keep traffic up while at the same time trying to attract even more you should now start interacting with your visitors. Create a regular theme such as: "Tip of the Week" or "Picture of the Day" which entices your readers to visit your blog regularly.

Give your readers an advance notice about a product, service, or topic which you are going to review and/or talk about later. If an important football/baseball/baketball game is scheduled to take place then you should state in your blog that you "will discuss the game and give your opinion as soon as the game is over. Comments will be appreciated".

Try everything you can to find and present exclusive information. Do not – ever!! - disclose any confidential or secret information which is deemed illegal or has the potential to get you into trouble, but try to get the inside scoop before everyone else does. For instance: If your blog was about a famous actress and you had a blog entry about "She (name) Is Getting Married" then it would be of utmost interest to your readers if you could provide an actual picture of the engagement ring on her finger. Give your best effort to dig and search more than just the internet for exclusive information, because if it is on the net a lot of other people will have found the information as well. Your readers will appreciate your zeal and show their appreciation through word-of-mouth referrals and/or links to your site. Imagine how many readers will tell their friends, family, and others about information they find at your blog first.

12. Make a profit

Once your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking about turning that traffic into profit. The easiest way to do so is by using contextual advertising like Google Adsense or Chitika. Contextual advertising means that these services analyze the content of your blog and then publish ads aimed specifically at your audience. The payout is usually based on some kind of pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning for ever click an ad receives you will be paid a small percentage of the profits. In addition to contextual advertising you also might want to consider using graphical advertising such as: BlogAds, Amazon.com, MammaMedia, etc.. But make sure that the ads do not overshadow your blog´s content. Pop-ups, especially, should be used sparingly. Nobody likes them. They will only increase the loading time of your page and annoy your visitors.

CONGRATULATIONS, you are a Professional!

You have done it! You are now a true internet professional! Now may be the time to upgrade from your free blog hosting service to a domain hosted solution. You need to choose a domain name for your blog, check its availability and the find a suitable web host. Select the blogging software you wish to use: WordPress, MovableType (open source), Squarespace, etc. When you have your new blog domain set up and ready for traffic then it is time for you to announce your move on all your previous blog accounts by posting a "move" announcement as your last entry. The title should be "Moved" and the blog entry should read something like "My Blog has been moved to a new site, please follow and bookmark this link for future reference: http://www.YourNewBlogDomainName.com". This way all returning visitors and new readers should not have any problem finding your new blog domain.

As a professional blogger you might want to team up with one or more other bloggers. This will enable you to create a more interesting and more powerful blog. More authors mean more advertising and exposure because each author will have a vested interest in the blog and his or her writing will probably appeal to a different type of reader, thereby creating a larger following for the blog as a whole. The idea of a team blog is to make it profitable and rewarding for all authors, while continuing to target the blog topic and keeping the blog interesting for visitors. To spare yourself trouble and headaches later on you should settle important issues like who contributes how much and how to split revenues in advance.

Applying these simple blogging techniques should make your blogging experience much more rewarding. There is no guarantee that your blog will become popular or even a household name, but your effort should at least increase your chances. Making money online is not an overnight experience like many people think, but making money online is definitely a foreseeable possibility. Likewise, increasing your popularity on the internet is not an overnight experience, but through time, dedication, and persistence you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.

Good luck!

Special thanks to Problogger Help.

Technorati-Tags: adsense,blogging,make money blogging,monetize blog,start blog,success,more traffic

Blogging Your Way to the Top

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It should come as no real surprise that a well written topical blog can significantly help out your website - so why aren't you doing it?

The most common reasons given for not starting a blog involve a lack of time to write posts and/or limited ideas to write about - but taking that extra time (and it does not have to be more than half an hour a day) to get some useful content out there can and will do wonders for your search rankings among other things.

An established blog that is updated regularly (at least 2-3 times a week) gets spidered by Google often, and increases the chances of new search rankings considerably. I have observed many situations where regularly updated blogs wind up ranking #1 in Google for relevant keywords or phrases literally within minutes of posting. It generally takes a well established website and blog (or a couple of blogs) to make this happen, but there is big potential if you do things the right way.

While blogs work best if updated multiple times per week, even those with a new post every week or two still have advantages. Blogs do not have to be a major undertaking, spending only a couple of hours a week on posting can have you seeing results in virtually no time.

There are many advantages to adding a blog to your website (or starting a blog someplace else). Here are some of the most important ones:

1. Increased rankings

By boosting your topical content, you increase the value and relevance of your site. The more new stuff you add, the more of an authority you make your site, which in turn helps to improve your overall search rankings. It can also help you obtain rankings for "long tailed search phrases".

Long tailed search phrases are phrases that are less commonly searched and usually exceed 3 or 4 words in length - they are also very targeted to your product or service. Blogs are the easiest way for getting rankings on long tailed search phrases. If you come across a long tailed search phrase you want to rank for, use the phrase as the post title (if it makes any sense at all to do so) and write a good, content rich post about it. This way your ranking potential for this specific phrase will rise.

By writing blog posts with your target phrases in mind, you can often help improve your overall rankings by increasing the relevance of the site to that search phrase. Consider also linking to other relevant pages within your site and/or other relevant posts from the post.

NOTE: Do not overuse your targeted phrase. Once every 80-100 would be ideal. If you use it to often search engines might index every occurrence of the targeted phrase separately instead of the post.

2. Increased traffic

Blogs are a great tool for increasing traffic. Aside from the added traffic you may see from improved search rankings, if your blog is interesting and focused on a specific topic, you will over time get more and more repeat visitors to your site as readers check back for new posts. If people really like your blog, they will spread the word via social networks and emails, resulting in even more visitors. Just think, have you ever emailed or instant messaged a friend with a link to an article you have read? Don't you want your link to be the one passed around?

3. Credibility

By blogging regularly about your industry you will help to establish yourself as an expert. Many of your potential customers will see your blog and notice that you know what you're talking about and be more likely to utilize your services. Sharing your knowledge can help to instill trust onto your visitors which can actually result in increased conversions. There are a lot of faceless, anonymous websites out there - an active blog can help people relate to you and trust you.

4. Links

A popular well written blog can result in free one way links to your site. Sometimes it is as simple as a fan adding your link to their blog roll, and other times it may be the RSS or Atom feed working its magic. Try to squeeze in a link or two into your posts and direct your visitors to other internal pages on your website. If anyone copies your post you will at least end up with a relevant backlink. You should also consider publishing some of your posts in article directories. If anyone then republishes or syndicates one of these posts on their sites, you will also end up with a coveted backlink.

A blog is not a secret weapon you can use to instantly skyrocket your inbound link counts, but it can – and over time will - certainly help.

5. What platform should you use

For the serious blogger there probably is no better choice than of WordPress because of seemingly unlimited array of plug-ins available to help you. That said, just about any blog platform will work. It is probably best to stick with the most widely used providers as they tend to have more options available and better support forums in case you get stuck with customization issues. But at the end of the day, any search friendly blog platform will do the trick. (Blogger is ideal for beginners because of its ease of use. Typepad probably has the best integrated search engine optimization (seo) tools.)

6. Ideas for blog posts

If after reading this you are sitting there thinking, "What should I write about?" here are some ideas to help you get going:

• New product launches
• Press releases
• Industry relevant news
• How to's related to your product or service
• User feedback and experiences
• Answers to reader comments
• Posts revolving around relevant long tailed phrases
• In depth product descriptions or tutorials
• Company history or interesting stories
• Reviews of related products or services
• Videos or pictures of products in use

Blogs are relevant for pretty much all industries, and they do not have to take a lot of your time. A little creativity can help you come up with ideas for posts, just try to think outside the proverbial box.

If you have been putting off the blogging idea for some time, consider getting started now. There is much to gain and very little to lose.

Good luck!

NOTE: This is an overhaul of an earlier post.

 

Technorati-Tags: backlinks,more traffic,successful blogging,pagerank,long tailed search phrase