Blogs are popular ways to create an online presence for personal and business reasons. You can build a blog for free and begin posting
Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, you won’t be blogging long. The majority of bog owners give up in the first few months. It’s a lot of work, but if you make the time investment in the beginning it can really pay off in the long run.
That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will read it. You pursue the audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say. And remember throwing in your personality is always a plus, even if you’re a bit controversial. Love you or hate you, getting people to react to you is the first step in getting loyal readers.
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1. Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week, three times a week is even better. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times. If you’re using Blogger you can save them as drafts and log in and publish them as needed.You should keep a notebook or folder handy where you put any new ideas you have for future posts. For help see Bloggers PayCheck.
If you don’t have time to write your own content there’s plenty of PLR (private label rights) that you can purchase and edit at will to use on your blog. A few are:
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2. Article Marketing – the niche you’ve chosen for your blog is one that interests you. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you. Articles you’ve written make for great blog content and vice versa blog content can make for great articles. Make sure to get the most mileage out of your writings by using them for dual purposes.
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3. Social Networking – these sites are everywhere. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs. Make sure when you post an update on your blog that you send out the link to your Twitter followers and your friends on our other social networks. If you don’t want to do this one by one there are applications you can download that will update them all at once. One such service is http://ping.fm/
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4. Viral Marketing – this is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them. Social network marketing really is just viral marketing. You get people interested in your content in the hopes that they’ll pass it on to others. It’s the ultimate referral process.
5. Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online. Feedburner makes it easy for visitors to subscribe to your blog http://www.FeedBurner.com . Owned by Google you can access it with your Google user ID and password. The easier you make it for people to keep up with your content the better. Options are a good thing. Also see RSSTweets.
6. Submit Blog to Search Engines – doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. You’ll have to do a little more work for that. Make sure you have some incoming links first. Google won’t index your site if there are no other websites linking to it first. There are also numerous blog directories you can submit your site to with a list at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-essential-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/5998/
7. Joining Forums – as a blogger you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you are marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you. Remember, be helpful, don’t spam people with your marketing message.
8. Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Add links to your blog in your comments. Just like re-tweeting with Twitter, the point is to help others with their blogs and they’ll be more inclined to help you. You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.
9. SEO Marketing – whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on a research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche. Keywords are really good for ranking when placed in the postings title.
10. Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog. Social Marker makes this easy and automated with http://www.socialmarker.com/ also see Google Social Search Secrets.
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Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time but you will build the readership you want. Like anything worth doing you won’t see traffic overnight. It takes a lot of time and good content, but eventually you’ll see the fruits of your labor. I promise.
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wow..thanks so much merle..the blog directory tip is so useful :-)
ReplyDeleteanand
HI merle, this is piyush from http://www.geekblogger.org/2010/01/add-disqus-comments-in-blogger.html, have you got the solution? if not then send me the full xml template. i will work on it and try to solve it.
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