Three Blogging Tips

This article is not intended to provide you with a host of blogging tips but to guide those who have either just started or have been blogging for a while but have bad habits. Bad blogging habits are easy to get into, and one of the worst is to leave your ‘About’ page unchanged. You know the page: it is provided by WordPress as standard, and a whole host of bloggers leave it untouched. Why they do this is known only to them because this is the first page that a large number of first-time visitors to a blog check out, and the reason why many of them leave without looking further.

All you have to do is say a little about yourself, who you are, your blog, why you feel qualified to write a blog about this topic, and how you can be contacted. If your blog covers a particular niche, rather than simply a log of personal comments, your potential readers will want to know why they should believe what you say by reading your credentials on the subject.

There is nothing wrong with having a personal blog about your thoughts on things, but if you are presenting yourself as an expert on a specific topic, you must persuade readers that you have a right to do so. You should use your ‘About’ page to do that.

Blogging

Another tip you should take is to claim your blog with Technorati. This registers it as yours with Technorati, and you can get more visitors. Since joining Technorati, most of my blog traffic has rocketed. New blogs take a while to get going, but it’s a lot easier if you use sites such as Technorati. The same applies to most social bookmarking sites if traffic is important to you. If you are using a blog to promote a product, then this is essential.

READ MORE :

If you have a website, don’t get lazy and be content to run your blog from a hosting site such as wordpress.com. It is better to download the software from wordpress.org and host your blog. You have much more control over the look and feel of it and can use any of the thousands of plugins available online. You can also use any template you want or even design your own. That way, you get total customization of your blog pages, making them more distinctive than the majority hosted on WordPress or Blogger’s site. If you have tried and had problems downloading and installing it, email me. If needed, I can take you through it online or by telephone.

These are the two main tips that any blogger should take if they intend to blog seriously. However, if I were to provide the third most important tip for anybody interested in blogging, it would be to monetize your blog. Don’t blog for anything. If your blog concerns a specific niche subject, you can likely throw up one or two affiliate programs on your sidebar so that they appear with your new posts. A three-column blog is useful since your regular sidebar contains permanent links.

If you monetize using Adsense, a three-column layout is even more essential since you will want a vertical block down one of the columns and some at the bottom and the middle. A good AdSense layout would be a column to the left or right of the main text column containing a vertical ad unit, a horizontal link unit at the bottom of the blog, and a flat ad unit at the bottom of the latest post. You could include a search box at the top or bottom of your main sidebar that allows a search on Google, from which you get income or your blog.

You could also include one of your websites as a second search option, providing three altogether. The income might not be a lot, but most blogs with a few hundred visitors a day should make a minimum of $10 to $20 daily, depending on the niche. All you need are a few blogs like that.

These are my three main blogging tips. Yours would likely be different since blogging is a very personal thing. Still, if you take these three onboard, you will probably find that you will get more visitors, have more fun, and be able to put aside a bit for the holidays or that unexpected bill that always comes at the wrong time.

For more tips, information, and help on blogging, visit Pete’s blog Blog on Blog [http://www.seoscopy.com/BlogonBlog], where you can see these tips in action. Both are on his websites. However, those with their websites can get some good SEO information on My SEO Blog (very imaginative title!), Pete’s main SEO blog.

Share

Alcohol scholar. Bacon fan. Internetaholic. Beer geek. Thinker. Coffee advocate. Reader. Have a strong interest in consulting about teddy bears in Nigeria. Spent 2001-2004 promoting glue in Pensacola, FL. My current pet project is testing the market for salsa in Las Vegas, NV. In 2008 I was getting to know birdhouses worldwide. Spent 2002-2008 buying and selling easy-bake-ovens in Bethesda, MD. Spent 2002-2009 marketing country music in the financial sector.