Archive for the 'Blogging' Category

Basic Blogging Tips

Basic Blogging Tips

This is a guest post by the lovely Kat, from Big Girls Don’t Cry, and talks about her trials and tribulations when it comes to blogging basics.  Take a look at the four main issues she had, and her solutions.

Starting To Blog

When I started blogging a year or so ago, there was much about blogging that confused me.  Here are the main problems I encountered, and my tips; hopefully they’ll help you too.

Choosing the right blogging software

When you start blogging, you first need to address which blogging software to use.  In my case, I use WordPress, (the software and wordpress.com) and Blogger.

For me they are the best, of course, there are many more.  All you have to do is Google ‘blog software’ and sift through to find what suits you.  All three I use are available for free.

What you need to ask yourself is: Do I want a one page blog or a blog that can accommodate many pages, much like a website?  Blogger only allows for one page; WordPress gives you the flexibility to have many pages, which is handy if you are trying to create a website feel/look.

Coming up with content for your blog

When I first started Big Girls Don’t Cry, my content was entirely about the plus size world.  This entailed fashion, discrimination, health, fitness – anything that has to do with being overweight or obese.

You need to decide what you want to write about, and then research it.  I’ve found keeping a note book is really handy, so if you see or read something in a magazine that could potentially be a blog post, you can quickly scribble it down.

If you find it difficult to find something to write about, here is a great resource I found for finding content for your blog.  Lorelle’s blog also offers useful tips about using WordPress.

Putting ads on your blog when you don’t know HTML

For me, this was the most difficult to do because I have no programming or Web knowledge other then doing searches on the web, so putting ads in my sidebar was tricky.  Luckily, when you apply for an affiliate program they will email you the HTML code, and show you what the ad will look like; you simply cut and paste it.

Understanding broken links

While not obvious, when you include links in your posts, you should always check them every couple of months to see if they are still valid (that they actually go to the right place).

It helps you because if your readers can trust your blog to give the correct information, then your community will grow.  No one likes sloppy work, and you should include this practice as part of your blog plan; a good online link checker is available at W3C

Blogging Tip 1: Create several pillar posts

Take a look at this post on why writing well is crucial for new bloggers.  Note: If you’re not familiar with pillar posts, check out the characteristics of pillar posts.

Blogging Tip 2: Include images in your posts

Sometimes a picture tells a thousand words and is extremely eye catching.  I use the creative commons license for images at Flickr to get images for free.  Take a look at Skellie’s post if you’re not sure how to use free images from Flickr.

Blogging Tip 3: Institute an Editorial Calendar

Creating an editorial calendar enables you to organize yourself and stay on task.  For instance, one of my categories is Health, so on Monday’s I could write a post about health; another category is recipes, so on Tuesday, I could include a recipe.  You get the idea.

If you need help, take a look at this post on how to create an editorial calendar, or download this editorial calendar worksheet and just fill in the blanks.

I hope you find all of this information helpful to starting up your own blog.

Happy blogging!

Kat

Image source: Flickr: Liewcf

Best Posts about Blogging – July 2008

July brought with it many great posts to help new bloggers blog well.

Here are my favorites, broken down by category – please enjoy!

Attracting Visitors To Your Blog

21 Ways To Make Your Blog or Website Sticky

A sticky website is one where a first time reader arrives and finds it difficult to leave – not because you hijack them and make them stay, but because you’ve created a place they want to get to know better. Darren describes what’s worked for him and encourages you to do the same.

How To Kill Conversation and Suck the Life Out Of Your Blog

New bloggers, sometimes even seasoned bloggers, make daily decisions that result in either the growth of their community or its demise. If your visitors are not coming back, or not interacting with you, you might want to reconsider your commenting policy.

12 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Jeff walks us through the most common reasons why blogs fail, and shows you how to avoid them. In this post he talks about the importance of having bite sized, scannable content, the problems with advertising within blog posts, how to establish trust and credibility, the importance of images, and much more.

5 Ways To Increase Comments On Your Blog

You want your blog to be successful? You’ve got to interact with your visitors. But what if people aren’t commenting? Here, David highlights the five most successful methods for increasing comments on your blog.

3 Types of Blogs That Totally Suck

“Anchor text spam”, “Trick me into clicking,” and “You mean I need to know how to write to be a blogger,” are three types of blogs that suck according to Jill. In this post she describes each and encourages you to look at your blog with fresh eyes.

Make your blog findable by search engines

Top Ten Fatal URL Design Mistakes

A bad URL means your blog/post won’t be found, clicked, visited and linked, or submitted to social media. Without proper URLs, most of your other great web design, usability and SEO measures get wasted. This is not about your domain name; you need to understand slugs too; Tad explains them.

How To Get Google To Love You

Two things you need to consider when thinking about how Google sees your blog; on page factors, and off page factors. In this post, Ken walks you through the importance of considering the elements that make up each factor.

via: The SEO Company

Online SEO Tools – The Ultimate Collection

Ann offers over 60 free online tools to help you optimize or analyze your site. Includes sections on; backlink analysis, keyword research, domain name tools, on site analysis and diagnosis, and website traffic and demographic resources. Bookmark this post!

How To Get New Sites To Rank Quickly

The main difference between a low ranked site and a top ranked site is often site age. But what if you’re a new site that has to compete with sites that have been around for a few years? Aaron gives you seven strategies explaining what you need to do to rank quickly.

How do you know you got a Google PageRank update?

This post walks you through the basics of PageRank and shows you where to check your PageRank if you don’t have the Google Toolbar plugin. Of course, if you did have the plugin, you would be able to see the PageRank of every site you visit in a little box on your browser.

via: ProTycoon

Find Out When Google First Indexed Your Site

If you think Google discovered your site when you launched it, there is a good chance that you wrong. Mani shows you a quick trick to help you determine your Google birthday.

Nurturing and Growing Your blog

What Do You Expect From Your Blog?

Why do you blog? Is it because you enjoy expressing yourself through writing? Maybe it’s to promote a business or service? Are you just trying to make a quick buck? In this post, Jeff breaks down the different types of blogs and offers insight into what you can expect from each.

How to Analyze and Improve Your Bounce Rate

The ‘bounce rate’ is the percentage of visitors who leave your site shortly after arriving; without taking the time to explore your site further. As such, a low bounce rate is the goal. A high bounce rate, however, needs to be addressed. In this post, Maki shows you how to measure your bounce rate, and offers suggestions on how to improve your bounce rate.

7 Things To Do While Not Blogging

If you think blogging is just about writing up posts and crossing your fingers that visitors will come, you’ll be in for a disappointment. You need to look after your site, interact with other bloggers, and plan for the future; Greg shows you how in this post.

Permission Marketing Revisited

A brief background about word of mouth marketing and a reminder that your marketing, in order to be effective, must be permission based. Valeria gives you nine tips.

Factors Affecting The Look Of Your Blog

Effective Use of Blog Sidebars

Steven discusses the value and purpose of the sidebar and what it needs to accomplish. He then points you to great examples of sidebars being used. Read this post for inspiration.

A Small Study Of Big Blogs

Part 1 and Part 2

In this two part series, Smashing Magazine evaluates what the big players are doing (or not doing) with their blogs and offers suggestions on how to create an effective blog design. Part one of the study looks at layout and typography, part two looks at structure, advertisements, and functionality

50+ More Free RSS Feed Icons

Every blog wants as many subscribers as it can get. Attracting readers with a noticeable RSS icon is one way of achieving that goal. In this post, Michael adds 50 free wicked looking RSS icons to his original 60 free icons list.

Best of the Blogosphere – June 2008

Hello World

If you’ve ever needed the “Hello World” program in other languages, try this. It has 366 coding languages and 58 human ones.

Move over TinyURL, here comes TinyPaste

TinyPaste takes in long strings of text and converts them to short URLs. Mark walks you through what it does and how to use it. Screenshots included.

30+ Must have Updated Firefox 3 extensions

Now that you’ve updated to Firefox 3, check out these updated exensions; you may find something you don’t know about.

Undelete My Files

If you’ve ever deleted a file and realized just a second too late, undelete my files can help you recover them. Easy to use, free and comes with a file wiper, an option to permanently delete files without recovery too.

Two alternative solutions for site analytics

You might be using Google Analytics, but it’s always useful to have other analytics packages. Samuel walks you through Piwik and Visitorville.

Top 3 tools to find out how a blog performs over time

Tad gives us three great tools (two I’d never seen before), that help you determine how your blog is seen in the blogosphere.

16 Things to Look for in a Website Health Check

Glen tells you what to look out for when examining your sites SEO health

Free online seminar for webmasters from Google – July 8

Three Google teams join forces to bring you a free online seminar. If you want to know anything about webmaster tools, analytics, or optimization, sign up here.

7 elements to make your blog look great

It’s all about structure, balance, color, small details, clarity and emphasis, remarkability and functionality. Michael tells you why these elements matter.

Thank your visitors when they comment

If you’ve ever wanted to send an automated e-mail to new commenters, read Matt’s post and get it right. Do it wrong, and risk alienating your audience.

Developing tactical knowledge on social media websites

In this three part strategy aimed at DIY marketers, Maki defines the tactics to help you be more effective with social media marketing

The Word of Mouth Manual

Dave Balter, from the agency BzzAgent, offers you his book ($45 on Amazon) as a free download. (PDF)

Poll Results and a social media case study

Mark shows you how Sea World and Kami Huyse created a social media campaign that drove 200K Visitors to the park in two months

5 Ways to market your business with little or no money

Drew answers the question “How do you market your business if you don’t have a lot of money?” with five simple tips.

E-mail checklist

If you’re a fan of e-mail marketing, read this check list before you hit the send button.

Designing the Perfect Business Blog: Part (a)

Photo: anonymous

Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Blink, talks about a phenomenon he calls thin-slicing; an almost instinctual way that human beings filter information in the blink of an eye, by sifting the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables. To run a successful blog, it is crucial you understand that first impressions count.

First impressions take into account a myriad of elements, but can be best understood if considered from your visitor’s point of view:

(a) What is your visitor thinking while your site/page is loading?

(b) What is your visitor thinking as the page loads?

(c) What is your visitor thinking while he or she is exploring your site?

Today, we’ll take a look at (a):

The impression your blog makes while it is loading

Nowadays, visitors arrive at your blog from a variety of places; search engines, social media sites, or links from other blogs. Usually, the first thing they will see is the URL and title. Very soon after that, if the page takes a long time to load, they’ll start thinking about that too. What about if the link they clicked on is dead? Will you send them to an error page that offers no value? Or will you hit them with a popup or sneaky pop under?

If your visitors are worrying about any of these things before the page they are after loads, they might just hit the backspace key and bypass your site completely. Let’s try and avoid that.

The Importance of Your Domain Name

While I’ve talked about the importance of businesses hosting their blogs on their primary domain in Creating a Blog Strategy, and the various ways you can do this. But, what about businesses that don’t yet have an online presence?

If you’re a business that is young or new, you need to establish your branding immediately. Register a domain name that fits in with your company name, or as close to it as you can.

As you can see with BlogWell, we couldn’t get the domain blogwell.com, and instead opted for blog-well.com. It hasn’t harmed us in search results; you can search ‘blogwell’ blog-well’ or ‘blog well’ in Google, and still find us quickly.

Domain names can include any combination of letters and numbers. The dash symbol (-) is the only other character allowed.

As for the top level domain (com, org, edu, etc.), do everything in your power to get a dot com; it’s what most people automatically think about when typing a URL.

And a final note on domains; make the decision up front whether you want your domain to include ‘www’. While this is not critical for your visitors, it will impact you over time with search engines and ranking in search results.

Once people start linking to you, if you haven’t made a conscious decision on which you prefer, some sites will link to http://www.yourblog.com, others will link to http://yourblog.com. This will just confuse the search engines; they’ll have to split ranking between the two, and this can result in neither receiving the best possible result.

Decide which one you want, and redirect the other to it by way of a permanent redirect ( HTTP Status Code 301).

URL: Pretty vs. Ugly Links

As visitors now come from an assortment of places on the Web, there is a greater chance they will land on a specific page, rather than your home page. It then makes sense to ensure you have clean URL’s. By clean, I mean well structured, ordered, and descriptive.

While waiting for a site to load, you’ll notice a URL in the bottom left corner of your browser that tells you which page is loading. If the URL doesn’t correspond to what you were searching for or clicking on, and if you’re anything like me, a tiny alarm may go off in your head: Am I going to the site I thought I was going to, or am I being redirected somewhere sneaky?

Here’s an example of a pretty link and an ugly link; which is easier to understand?

Pretty Link: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-wimax.htm

Ugly Link: http://radio.about.com/library/bldef-138.htm

The easiest way to ensure you have ‘pretty links’ is by giving your posts relevant and great titles, using blogging software that automates the permalink process (like WordPress), and setting up your permalinks correctly.

Not only does this help your visitor feel more comfortable, but it is also useful to search engines, which will better be able to index your page if it has an easily identifiable title.

Load Time

Advertisements, widgets, and images all take time to load, and who has the time to sit around waiting – especially if you have a slower connection. Your visitors won’t like it, and unless you have a truly unique site that has traffic in the hundreds of thousands, keep these to a minimum to avoid alienating your visitors.

If you don’t know how long it takes for your page to load, visit the Web Page Analyzer for a quick examination. This free tool will let you know how long it takes for your page to load at various connection rates. It will also offer suggestions on how to improve load time if your page loads too slowly.

Bookmark the Web Page Analyzer and make a point of visiting it several times a year – your blog’s community will thank you for it with return visits.

Error Messages: Create a Custom Error Message

What happens when you visit a page that tells you “Error 404: Page Not Found?”

Most people will quickly go back a page to check whether they clicked on the right link.

If they determine that the link is correct, but your site displays an error page, they’ll either go to the next result (if they’re using a search engine), or, if they’re coming from another site that has linked to you, chances are they’ll skip your site altogether.

You don’t want to lose potential visitors this way, and there are a few things you can do about it.

First, create a specific error message page that is a little more gentle (and helpful) than the blunt ‘Page Not Found’ and second, check your site for dead links a couple of times every year.

While it’s easier to navigate around a blog than a website when you come across an error page, it is still worth your while creating a specific page to shows your visitors that you have thought about making their life a little bit easier.

A useful error page may include:

  1. An apology of some type explaining why the page may not be there
  2. A search box with some text encouraging visitors to try searching on your site
  3. A link to your site map that lists all the pages on your site
  4. A list of the most popular posts on your site
  5. A list of categories on your site

Take a look at the following error pages; you may find inspiration.

http://seo2.0.onreact.com/error

http://problogger.net/error

http://www.apple.com/error

Creating an error page is one thing; making sure it appears on your site is another. Once you’ve created your document, you’ll need to upload it to your server. If you’re unsure how to do this, read this post from The Site Wizard that explains the process in plain English.

If you’re using WordPress, take a look at their Creating an Error Page article.

Pop Ups/Pop Unders

According to Enrique De Argaez, the man behind Internet World Stats, Pop Ups and Pop Unders are rude.

I agree. Just Don’t Do It!


This post is (a) of part six in a series of posts designed to help you blog well.

Part 6 is spread over three sections due to the large amount of information we need to cover in designing the perfect business blog.

If you like this post, consider subscribing to our feed so you don’t miss out on the rest of the BlogWell series over the next few weeks:

If you’ve missed the first five, you can find them here:

Does Your Business Blog Have A Personality?

When considering your blog design, the most important element – and the one too few people consider – is the personality, or the atmosphere of the blog. This is the key factor that determines the success of your blog; it is the also the first impression your blog will have on your new visitor.

If you’ve ever been on a guided tour, you’ll know that much of your experience, be it good or bad, is based on the guide. Some guides are boring, others are entertaining; some offer interesting and pertinent details, others offer such exhaustive information that your head starts spinning; others still, bore you to tears.

Much like a tour guide, when it comes to your business blog, you are the one that must set the mood and the character of your blog. You are the tour guide, and if you want to be considered a great guide, you must address the needs of your audience.

Fortunately, successful business blogs all begin with similar foundations:

Successful Business Blogs Meet Audience Expectation

Making your design appeal to your target audience is critical. Are you writing to a young, hip, techno-nut? Are you writing to a mom? Are you writing to a CEO?

While you don’t want your blog to be the same as all the others out there, being too different from your industry (imagine an engineering firm dressing up their blog to look like webkinz), will just confuse your audience.

I wish I could give you a template for every industry of the ‘right’ look, but there really is no such thing. You need to do the research to ensure you meet your audience’s expectations. Take a look at our recent post about using Alltop to give you design inspiration ideas.

Successful Business Blogs Are Reliable

A business blog, regardless of how aesthetically pleasing, or well coded it is, if it is not seen to be reliable, it will become useless as a tool.

A reliable business blog is one that is written by a reliable source. As a business owner, you are that reliable source. You’ve had industry experience, you keep up to date with industry news, and you can offer advice – not only about your product/service, but also industry trends. The caveat here is you must write in plain English. Your website can be filled with jargon and industry terminology, but your blog is where you need to use your voice in a way that is understood by everyone.

Another factor that affects reliability is how regularly you post. If you want your blog to be successful; to be represented in search engine results, and to build a community of visitors, you must have continuously updated and relevant content.

Visiting your blog and updating once a month is not enough, try and post at least twice a week; daily if time allows, especially if you want your blog to be used as a reference.

Successful Business Blogs Represent Your Brand Appropriately

When it comes to business blogs, it is not enough to focus on your name or logo as your brand; here, your entire site is your brand.

Everything you put on your blog, words, titles, images, logos, as well as the structure, arrangement, navigation and presentation, all make up the essence of your blog; they give your blog personality.

And the personality of your blog will tell potential clients and customers a lot about who you are, how you work, how credible you are, and what you are capable of. In what light do you want your future customers to see you? Are you a strange, disorganized, angry at the world unprofessional, or, a succinct, reliable, organized, and tuned in expert?

Successful Business Blogs Are Intuitively Usable

Your blog will only be successful if you ensure your target audience can intuitively navigate your site – it must be easy to use.

Visitors, especially first time visitors, don’t want to waste their time trying to work out who you are, what you do, and why you do it. You are the guide of this tour, and you need to guide well. Take their hand and gently lead them in the direction you want them to go, or show them the way to get to where they want to go. The easiest way to accomplish this is to forget using witty or clever words for your pages, categories, and titles; again, plain English is a must.

Successful Business Blogs Don’t Look Spammy

How many times have you visited a blog, only to be met by animated images, smiley faces, pop ups/unders, and loads of advertisements? What was your first impression?

A business blog will be successful if the elements listed above are only used when they fit in with the mission and the vision of the blog. In most instances, there is no good reason to use pop-ups, or flashy, animated, smiley things on a business blog.

I visit lots of sites every day, and each time I visit a site that flashes at me, my immediate reaction is “Where am I, and, is this site doing something horrid to my computer?” I usually leave pretty quickly. This is not the message you want to send to potential customers.

While there are various reasons businesses set up blogs, the majority don’t do it to make money. Mostly, it’s about creating a space for like minded folk to visit, or establishing authority in a specific field, or passing along knowledge. If you are starting a blog for any of these reasons, try to avoid putting advertising on your site.

However, if you do decide to use advertisements, try to keep them discreet and in line with your industry.

These blogs provide good examples of fitting advertising to subject, take a look:

On a final note, your business blog should offer different content from your website.

Leave all the sales talk and product pages on your website. Link to them of course, but use your blog to let people get to know you – the person – not your product/brand. Business blogs are all about putting a human face to your company.

If you can think of any fundamentals of great business blogs that I’ve missed here, I’d love to hear about them. I’d also love to hear your thoughts. Please consider leaving a comment below.

Next week in the BlogWell Files, we’ll tackle: Designing the perfect business blog and talk about layout, pages, categories and sidebars – the do’s and don’ts.

This is the fifth in a series of posts about how to blog well.

If you’ve missed the first four, you can find them here:

If you like this post, consider subscribing to our feed so you don’t miss out on the rest of the BlogWell series over the next few weeks:

Part 6: Designing the perfect business blog

Part 7: Developing an editorial calendar

Part 8: Creating unique content

Part 9: Optimizing for search engines

Part 10: Submitting your blog to blog directories

Part 11: Participating in social media

Part 12: Codifying your blogging guidelines

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