blogging 102

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes I was asked recently how to get a 1000 visitors a day to your blog network.  If you have a network it is quite easy.  The more blogs you have the more content you have, and more content you have the better chance you will get hits from search results.  Here is my quick list of do’s and don’ts. Content isn’t enough.  You need content with good keywords and for that material to be indexed.  If you run a wordpress blog the Google XML Sitemap Plugin is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal for getting indexed.  If you want to be properly indexed it is highly important that you use good content specific keywords and tags.  I generate specific keywords with Wordsfinder and use the Calais Tagaroo Plugin to generate Semantic tags, both of which appear as meta keywords to search engines thanks to my theme. Write about popular things.  If you follow the first rule of good tagging and and getting regularly indexed, writing about... 

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes There were several old combinations that worked well together but since WordPress 2.3 came out many of them stopped working properly or stopped working altogether. Fear not there are replacements out there. Unlike many of the regurgitated idiot lists currently out there, everything I list will work in WordPress 2.5 the only version of the blog software you should be running. Ultimate Tag Warrior hasn’t been supported by the author since WordPress 2.3 came out. Many of its features and those of Bunny’s Technorati Tags, Jerome’s Keywords, and other tagging programs are easily replaced in better plugins. The All in One SEO Pack can even be replaced now. The new power plugin combination consists of Headspace2 and Simple Tags. Between these two plugins you can hand every task that you used to require half a dozen plugins and tweaks. convey_source = "English"; Read More →

Reading time: < 1 minute 5) Don’t Advertise On Your Noobie Blog. People who tell you not to advertise don’t usually have your best interest at heart. The first kind of people to give that advice are readers who want something for nothing. Second kind are bloggers who think if you don’t have ads their advertising will get a better click through ratio. 4) Gadets and Widgets are the bomb and you should use all the latest and greatest. The fact is unless it is unobtrusive and either useful to you or your readers it is pointless and slows down your load times. convey_source = "English"; Read More →

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes I promised a post not so long back on how to make the most of Twitter for blogging.  In the mean time a couple of big name blogs ShoeMoney and ProBlogger have gotten into twitter pretty hard and can give you their takes on the networking with your fans side of it better than I can so I would suggest you read their tweeting adventures. What I am going to bring to the table is a different take on the subject and one that has been doing well for me.  Using for those using WordPress there are several different plugins available to you, but I have two favorites, MyTwitter, which I am new too.  Then, there is the old reliable TwitterTools from Alex King.  Twitter tools does it all creates a digest post of your daily tweets, creates a post when you tweet, creates a tweet when you post, and gives you several configurable options.  The one problem it has is it only functions as a stupid widget making it about useless for me since I don’t want it in my... 

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes Akismet This is the best in spam control there is hands down. Ultimate GA (Google Analytics) You can use the Google Analytics services without this plugin, but frankly why would you want to. It makes the service so much easier to use and, even better will write a lot of the code into your blog for you. This is a 5 star plugin and a must have. HeadSpace 2 is the best all around meta tool there is. It is a little harder to get setup than the All in One SEO Pack but it is a far superior plugin. Mani at Daily SEO has a really great post about getting it set up right using one of his themes, but the principals are the same no matter what theme you use. Google XML Sitemap Generator is the best tool you can have for getting indexed quickly and efficiently. CommentLuv by FiddyP is a sure fire way to get your readers involved by providing not only a link back to their site, but assuming they have an accessible feed it will post a link to their latest post too. Auto...