Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

I was reading Chris Brogan’s Rules of the Pool article and I really had to reiterate that when you blog, choose what you think is best. Using together Blogging and social media are knocking all the rules of the normal pool we have come to know over the past decade, literally right out of the water. As long as you are not violating any terms of service or doing anything illegally, you can blog and use social networks to your hearts content. Of course, you may offend some, but you will successfully have influenced people.

If you write paid to review/ pay to blog articles every so often, that is great. If your site has a few advertisements on it, great! There is no shame in that. Although I have heard from others their displeasure about paid to review, it really stems from some bloggers have no real content and excessively use the paid to blog system as a reason to blog.

Blog about what you know, and perhaps things you are learning, or even things you want to know. Blogging today is more than ever a ‘blog at your own risk’, just like those pools that have a sign that says ‘swim at your own risk.’

I also heard from Jim Turner (Founder of One By One Media) at WordCamp Chicago 2009 a quote that he got from Paul Chaney (social media speaker) that said -

“Publishing something to the Internet is like peeing in the pool.”

It is not easy to remove things from the Internet. The search engines tend to take a while to let things fall into an abyss, so really when you blog, be confident in taking the risk, and be prepared to share your words with others. Be dedicated to blog because you enjoy it, not because you are trying to profit from it.

I remember one gal who had a site (and I will not mention her name, but I can vouch that this really happened in the past few years), and still has it, she would blog a little about her daily life, but she would keep adding in her affilate links for those ‘free’ gimics that you have to sign up for several opportunities just to get a ‘free’ camera or computer.

She constantly plugged them, and when she was not blogging about them, she was also writing paid to blog articles. On top of that, she had her own in house banner advertisements too. It was totally a fail situation. Her site had gotten plenty of traffic when she was not getting so heavily involved in writing to get some kind of compensation. Her content was severely lacking any value to influence anyone. Eventually her blog turned towards being more for commercial gain, she lost a lot of followers and people who would normally comment. In fact, I remember seeing her catch a lot of flack from those same people tired of feeling spammed when visiting.

Clearly, her risk in the end drowned her. What kind of risks have you taken for your blog? How did it work for you?

Episode 2 of the Blondish.net Podcast is a little beginner coverage on blogging and SEO. I wanted to cover basics on SEO for the content and design. I do recommend in this post the plugin WordPress SEO by Yoast.

I go over some advice for writing the title and the content of a post as well as a few tips for designers. As a reminder, this is a basic SEO. I will cover some advance SEO in future podcasts.

The episode is a little over 15 minutes.

Blogging and SEO

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:52 — 8.2MB)

I decided not to use Blog Talk Radio for podcasting as I felt the quality was not that great, and that if I needed to go over a minute or two, this was an issue.

I will note that I may be a little breathier than usual due to the fact I have been ill for most of the week. However, I think this is a good starting point. Most episodes will be 15 minutes and some special ones like interviews, presentations, or topics done with my friend Kimberly Castleberry, will be at the most, 30 minutes.

My opening and ending credits: TNT by AC/DC and Greg Mehochko put together both opening and ending.

Advice For Newbie Bloggers

This episodes goes over what new bloggers should think about when it comes to their first blog. This is more of a brief cover over:

• Do you choose free hosting or self-hosted site for blogging?
• What are the most important things to plan and think about when starting a blog?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:02 — 14.7MB)

What is the purpose of an RSS feed? That is one of many questions I get from people on a daily basis. I decided I would share. First, you have to understand what it is before I go onto explaining how you can use your RSS feed to your advantage.

According to Wikipedia, an RSS feed is:

RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

The format is really simple (exactly part of its definition.) In fact, you can view my own rss feed here at Blondish.net and see for yourself. You will be able to subscribe to these feeds too. One way you can subscribe is to plug the feeds you into your Google Reader. You can simply click on the title of the feed on one side and it appears in a window for your to reading convenience.

However, here are a few things to help you with your blog when harnessing the power of RSS feeds:

• You can use your social networking places and spread the news about your blog and ask those who like your blog to subscribe to your feed. The feed is something that your reader can choose to come back and not forget about after some time.
• You can make money with your RSS feed. There are programs out there that will allow you to add text links or advertisements to your feed so you can make a little money.
• You can hold subscription drives. RSS feeds are free to subscribe to. In fact, Chris Brogan holds them on occasion, and encourages others to hold them too. These subscription drives could pull in more readers who are curious about your content. You can also take this time to ask your audience on what they would like to see on your site so they may come back again and again.
• You can encourage your readers to make comments on your blog through your feed too! This is a great way to keep your blog’s conversation rolling!

The great thing about the feeds are that all you have to do is blog and it will be published not just to your website, but your feed page too. It can drive traffic to your site on days you did not do much to promote your blog, and possibly bring back old viewers you have not seen in some time.

Do you have an RSS feed? If so, what do you do to harness its power? If not, have you ever considered putting one on your site?

You may have read a few times that you have to blog frequently. The problem is… how frequently should you blog? And why should you blog frequently? Who should be blogging frequently?

One specific answer for all bloggers does not cut it. There are so many different niche and even more so, different types of blogs, and individuals. Not everyone can attest to being a professional blogger who has quit their day job and have all the time in the world to do what they want, including blogging. Even professional bloggers are not pumping out content in mass amounts all on their lonesome.

Who Should be Blogging Frequently?

You should blog regularly no matter who you are or what you write about on your site. At least once a week is good and keeps the search engines interested in crawling your site.

The problem is that you encounter a couple things: whether you have the time to blog, or keeping up with your competition. If you want to blog and be up to date, you are going to have to make the time to do it. If you can at least blog once a week and only spend a maximum of one hour (depending on the length of your post and how well you can type), you should be fine.

Why Should You Blog Frequently?

There are a couple reasons why you should blog frequently. For one, it does keep the search engines crawling your site for more information. However, the biggest thing- for your audience (your readers and followers, and maybe even your clients.) If you are not sending out any updates, what is going to keep them on your site?

The design can only entertain your readers for a short bit, and if they already read the older posts, what is left? With millions upon millions of blogs alone, other sites that have been updated, might be far more enticing.

The Internet changes, technology changes, just about everything in life changes. If your niche has some pretty important news and you have an opinion about it, that is more reason to be blogging frequently and making sure that your readers are filled in on the most recent news.

How Frequently Should You Blog?

In order to determine how frequently you should blog, there are some factors to think of:

• How fast paced is your niche? (is there a lot of news or not a lot of news)
• How much time do you have to blog, or how much have you set aside to blog?
• How ambitious are you about your site’s success?

Some niche, might be so small and the news for it is not a lot. That might be great for some as it can be manageable.

Some bloggers write on the fly. Some bloggers schedule a time to blog. Find what is a comfortable fit for you and blog. You might even want to jot down some prompts and notes for each before sitting to write a post. It might make the process faster. However, if you want to blog and be up to date, you cannot make excuses. Like the Nike saying- “Just Do It!”

In the case you are aiming high for the success of your blog, you might adopt a far more frequent routine like once a day, three times a week or five times. If you do more than once a day, great… especially if you are the primary author.

However, do not overdo it. Pace yourself and schedule posts to publish based on the pattern in times your visitors come by to comment on your website. Yep! You have heard it! If you look through your comments for your site, and notice the time, you can market your articles more efficiently. Your regular readers can be a big clue on why they may miss commenting at one post versus another… and this is without looking at third party stat programs!

If you have a strong following that leaves comments, try to keep them in mind when it comes to blogging. If they cannot read your work every day, and you are publishing too frequently, you might have articles that do not get the attention they need.

Also, you can put out a survey or poll for your visitors to fill out so you know:

• How often they visit your site
• What brings them back to your site
• What topics they are interested in
• What topics that have not been covered that they would like to see in particular
• How easy is it to use the site (poor usability can be a deterrent)
• When do they like to visit the site
• If the site improved more, would they visit more often
• Any suggestions for better site usability?

Does Being a Frequent Blogger Lead to Success?

So, I had to ask this question…. does blogging frequently lead to success? The answer: Not all the time.

There are so many factors into what it takes to have a successful blog and much of it rests on how you market your site. You can publish as much content, slap as much handy dandy search optimization tricks, and have traffic from the search engines, but the people who stick around the longest are the ones you connected with out on the social networks or in person.

You ultimately have the keys to drive your blog towards success, stay in park, or crash and burn. Some successful bloggers only blog once a week. Others a couple times a day.

How often do you blog? Do you make a schedule to blog or write on the fly?

Starting your own blog does take courage. You are starting it with the obvious intent to reach out to others, whether it to provide information, provide inspiration, make money, for therapeutic reasons, or other reasons.

Before you start a blog, you really have no need to be monetizing it yet. Of course, you can implement Adsense, but without traffic and clicks, you make nothing and appear to be all in for the money.

Get your priorities in order before you start a blog.

Planning your blog is the best place to start.

What do you want to do with your site? Do you want to teach people something? Do you want to make money? You want to create a sturdy focus, specifically on what you want to cover or have a great interest to learn about. Unfortunately, just picking something to blog about will not cover it. Why? Well, you are more than likely to become disinterested. That is why a lot of bloggers and social media consultants will urge you to have a real passion for what you write about.

Once you have what you want to write about, create a site. Whether it is using WordPress, Google Blogger, or some other platform, you need a medium to become your blog headquarters.

When you get that site, just do not let it sit idle for one moment! Write your first post. Make it your introductory. Include:

• A little bit about yourself.
• Your intentions for your blog.
• Topics that will be covered.

Be prepared to blog more than just an introductory posts. You can always save a post on draft mode and publish when you are ready. The fact of the matter is- blog! This is where you take your first step into the open.

Do not worry about the design. Do not worry about the monetizing. Your content needs to come first.

How are you going to invite people to your site if there is nothing there to welcome them? Your blog is much like a home. If you have nothing to make people feel at home, why would they want to stay… let alone come back.

Most blog platforms and content management systems have at least a pleasant default theme. Some bloggers wait until they have a perfectly design site to make their debut. However, what about all the time waiting for that theme to be finished, or the time to find the right one?

You could be blogging and already engaging with people!

So many people want to worry about making money, playing with their site to optimize it for the search engines, and more….however, you really do not have to focus on that so much. Search engines becoming social oriented, other than normal algorithms. So, that means, your visitors will be the ones to say your site has more authority, and not just a bot.

After you have written your content and actually started driving in readers, you can think about all the other luxuries to add to your site.

There are so many blogs out there and a lot of people are unsure of how to take their site to their next step. t is important to keep some type of plan, much like a business. Even if your site only has advertising or even if you are just wanting people to hear what you have to say, you need a plan!

Here are 5 steps to building a business plan for your blog.

Write your site’s focus. This is what you will refer back to when things are not going well. You will put what you want your site to do, who you want to reach, and how you will go about doing it?
Set some long and short term goals. Sites fail because they only have a short term goal. It is important that long term plans are put into place in order to keep your site relevant to your visitors and for the times. The Internet has changed a lot throughout the years and putting goals out will allow your site to last.
Site design and content are important. This must be planned out and executed carefully. It does not need to be perfect, but your site should be planned so you are directing your visitors to what you want them to see. If you are selling something, you need to convey that by having a banner or something to draw your visitors attention, even if you have a blog. As you build your influence and reputation, people will inquire about your special services or products.
Have a monetizing strategy. Whether it is banner advertising, text link ads, paid to blog entries, or just selling your own services, you need to decide what is best for your site and for your visitors. You could literally hurt your own earnings in choosing the wrong services.
Having a marketing strategy for your site. Even if you are on a budget, there are still plenty of ways to get the word out. Making a marketing plan to promote your site is important because frankly, if you never tell people… how will you get traffic? You have to be knowledgeable of where it is best to promote your site- find the niche you best fit in.

These are just a few general steps to building a business plan. This is important for practically all bloggers out there. It can also give you a clue on how much time and money you are willing to spend working on the site and eventually get a return on your investment.

What other steps do you have for newbie bloggers needing a direction with planning their blog’s future?

It is not uncommon to read from a lot of blogs about blogging that guest blogging has a lot of benefits. However, with all these people guest blogging and sites publishing these articles, are people really taking advantage of this in the best way possible.

The benefits of guest blogging is a two-way street. Both the site owner and the blogger benefit. So, in order to cover how you can make the most of guest blogging, I need to address both sides of the street.

For the Site Owner:

• While you want to follow the focus of your site, be open to new things. It may be because you are not familiar with new techniques or news in your niche as you thought you were. There will always be someone with a leg up on your knowledge in your niche. Let them bring that knowledge in and enhance your site.
• Make sure that you place guidelines for guest posts if you decide to open your site to outside writers. It would be pointless to keep rejecting articles that do not fit your site’s criteria, especially if you do not list any in the first place. Do not assume people will write exactly what you want.
• Be courteous with your guest bloggers and make sure you do background searches on them. They are doing you a favor by providing you quality content. Even if you promise pay for regular writing, they are still doing a larger favor.
• Make sure you do background searches your guest writers. No, you do not have to do a full research, but find out what your guest writers are writing about on their own websites. There are a lot of bloggers who pull information almost out of thin air and that could hurt your site. You want your site to be able to offer the right information, not the wrong.

  For example, I recently read an article, to which I will not name, that had quite a few points that showed a lack of experience in the area. In fact, the article probably should have either been revised or not been published at the site as it contradicted other articles on the site that had a similar topic.

For the Guest Blogger:

• If a site owner has criteria, follow it. If you are unsure of the requirements for guest blogging at a website, ask.
• Do not expect your article to always be approved. Site owners try to make sure the articles fit their site before publishing. If your site does not meet the owner’s expectations, you can take the article to another site for consideration.
• Your guest post is not a free ticket to make money by throwing in an affiliate link or slipping in an article you are getting paid for by an outside company, even for SEO. This is wrong. That is why there are places for that (like your own blog and article publishing sites.) As social media marketing has become popular, people are looking for transparency – not people writing and making money off someone else’s blog for a guest post. In that case, pay the site owner their cut for hosting your paid blog post.
• It is fine to insert keywords, but they should be related to a direct business or place that you have control over. Again, this relates somewhat to the previous point mentioned.
• One of the purposes of guest blogging is to build a healthy relationship with readers in your niche. That should be what you set your sights on building. Once you have, you will find people eager to read your own site, connect more with you, or even do business with you.

Are there other ways that you can make the most of guest blogging?