One of the most important aspects of being a successful blogger is choosing your keywords carefully.  This is just not something most people do when they learn how to blog.  I am going to run through a couple of steps for you really quick that will help you figure out your keywords.

1. Find out how you are ranked at Google Rankings.  I just changed mine here so google isn’t ranking me on the new words as well as I would like.  In single word phrases I top out with blog at 11.18% density which is pretty respectible if there were more posts and fewer search results for it.  My top three word phrases are Wordpress Option Field and Wordpress Optional Fields, based on a recent post.  What I really want to be rated on is How To Blog.
2. Once you know what you are rated on it is time to decide what you want to be rated on.  I use Free Keywords which was originally suggested on Courtney Tuttle’s Blog.  Start searching for keywords based on your general blog niche.  This is how I found How To Blog.  What you want is a keyword or phrase that has no more than three words to it.  The more daily search results you have the better off you are.
3. Once you have a particularly good keyword or phrase you need to figure out how it plays out on google.  Put your keyword or phrase in quotes and search.  While Google Personalization can really screw up the ranking of your results, it will have no effect on how many results it returns.
   
   
4. Optimize your choice by looking for a high number of daily searches and a low number, under a million, search results.  Look for how to use these new keywords in the near future.

I will revisit this post with you from time to time and let you see how my changes affect my placement for these keywords without stuffing the keywords where they don’t belong.

Post 72 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.

Yeah right, not if you are talking about a blogging god. The one thing Bloggers need to do is realize that they have readers who want to see something new out of them every day. Frankly that is also the quickest way to burn out as a blogger, especially for those of us managing multiple blogs. There are a few tips though that will help reduce the stress.

• Write posts ahead of time either for scheduled publication or keep them around in draft form until they are either finished or you need to pull something out of your ass.
• Make a schedule of posts and keep to it, it is even better if you post it somewhere on your blog so when you get a few nasty emails wondering where your daily blog post is you can point to it. Yes it does happen, in fact that is why I am writing this damned list now. I was tired and needed a day off yesterday and I too it from this blog. One of these days I will manage to take one off from all three at the same time.
• Make a quick post about anything relevant. Don’t make it a crap post, or it isn’t worth your time to even do and you will suffer from it in the long run.
• Make sure you have some great links to provide and tell your readers why they should go read these other people’s blog too.
• Remember even Blogging Gods have bad days and don’t post everyday.

In honor of the suggestion here are my favorite blogging links of the day.

• From Jamie Harrop 20 Ways To Get More Blog Comments. It is a good little list and everyone should be bookmarking it.
• Courtney Tuttle gives us6 Steps To Overcoming A Blog Traffic Slump If you aren’t reading her blog regularly you are missing some really good insight.
• Dosh Dosh:Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics

We could all stand to do better with this one.

• Darren talks about the new breed of bloggers who are getting into blogging for the express purpose of making money. Making Money as a Side Effect of Blogging (and a New Breed of Blogger) He also gives us a good link over to Seth Godin on how to write like a blogger from a few days ago. Write like a blogger