MORE tips for a successful blog.
Posted on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at 11:38
Hey Everyone... El Jefe (a.k.a. the big dog) talking to you about some things to increase traffic and the popularity of your new blog. Starting your own blog is rewarding and improving it step by step is a long, but also very gratifying part of the process.
Always remember, be proud of what you do, love it. If you aren’t engulfed by the topic then chances are that your motivation will gradually decline. Don’t let this happen! Stick to something you know and always keep expanding your knowledge. The more you know, the better your content...
So... without further delay. Here are some more tips I've compiled to help you along the way...
In no particular order...
Drum roll please...
- Your blog needs to be visually appealing. Kick clutter to the curb:
The best blogs are easy to read and minimalistic. This is the first major downfall of every blog. Keep it clean! Don’t put too much crap all over the place and don’t overdo the design. Too much can seem like a desperate beg for help, be smart about it! Integrate content seamlessly to work with your design.
If your blog strains the eyes, people will not want to come back to read anything else. Use a color scheme (anywhere from 2-4 colors - for help on this, visit Color Schemer) and make sure there is enough spacing around everything. Believe me if your blog is a breeze to read, people will come back to enjoy it more often than not.
- Work, edit, and re-work your content:
Content is king as they say. That statement is definitely true. Make sure what you are writing is relevant and interesting to read. Why hang out at a website if there’s nothing worth reading? Have someone edit your articles, take a day or two after its posted and re-read it to see if you can improve anything.
Lightning Tip: Make sure to implement as many relevant keywords as possible to direct search engine traffic.
- Don’t slack, post new stories/articles often.
I've covered this a little before, but it’s worth mentioning again. Write at least 2-3 times per week. It shouldn’t take long. Hell, you could talk about a cool new website you found for two paragraphs, and that’s better than nothing.
Updating lets your users know that you are still there, it adds new content and gives them a reason to return to your blog
Lightning Tip: The more you post, the more Google picks up your articles (along with other crawlers), and this will in the long-run drive thousands of extra users a month to your site if not more.
- Network yourself; find other blogs in your niche.
Find other blogs like yours and connect with the authors. E-mail them, post in-depth replies on their articles, most blog owners are extremely nice people and will be willing to help you! Offer to exchange links and such; this will help your community grow, even if by a small margin. Remember, every reader counts. As long as you have at least one reader, you are making an impact.
- Link your website wherever you can without spamming. (Email, Forums)
Another important topic that is often overlooked. If you are a member of a forum, add it to your signature. Email? Add it as a signature to that too! Wherever you can link without being too pushy, do it. In the long run those extra pageviews will count.
- Write compelling titles - capture the reader in the first line.
The title and first three sentences of a post can make or break the post. Capture the reader’s attention off the bat, make them keep reading. Boring, cookie cutter introductions are everywhere, stand out.
- Don’t give up.
Motivation is key and is also the backbone to building a successful blog (or building anything for that matter). Remember it’s not a quarter mile sprint, it’s a marathon. Take your time, review yourself and your blog and make gradual improvements. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Well, blog dogs, that's it for me this time around. I'm going to bed. It's gettin' late, and I gotta be up early. It's been a pleasure writing this one, and I hope it helps. If you wanna hit up my site, or you have a question, want me to check your blog, or you just wanna yak a bit, my creds (as always) are below.
Music Players
Posted on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 08:00
ClearBlogs.com is thrilled to present this contribution from Delores; her blog is among our Staff Favorites. We hope this is the first of many entries...she calls it; "So your posts won't fall on deaf ears..."
Adding some cool gadgets to your blog is part of the fun of keeping up an online journal. I admit, I have played around with website design and blogs since the internet became available (yes, I'm of the underprivileged Generation X who didn't have an inkling as to what the internet was when I was in high school.) But I've always kept a journal and when the availability of free webspace came upon us, I was eager to jump into anoynymous online familiarity. Finally, I was able to publish my thoughts!
Since I am a writer, my blog posts are mainly content based but aside from literature, my counterpoint love is music. Now that I have a firm grasp on how I want my blog set up and the various things I can add to my site, I'd share some basic options that everyone should be able to have fun with.
Project Playlist was my most recent discovery that I came upon in my search for cool stuff to add to my blog. Since the size of the player is too wide, I opted to add it into my current blog post as a "soundtrack to my lfe right now" form of entertainment. You can see the Playlist in action in one of my blog entries here: You Can Hear A Piano Fall
To get your own playlist, go to http://www.projectplaylist.com/ and click on "My Account" to Create a free account. Once your new user registration is confirmed, your can start using the music search engine to find bands and songs you would like to add to your playlist.
For this post, I will search for the band The Hourly Radio that provides me with a long list of songs, but only nine of the songs are actually by this band. I click on the link with the band and song title to see if the song if actually the one I would like to use. In this instance, the first song, The Hourly RadioTravelsigns", is the correct song I would like to add to my playlist.
I then click on the "+" (plus) button next to the song title link to add it to my playlist. I am then taken to a new page that asks me to double check the song by pressing the large "preview" arrow. This ensures that the song file will work if I add it to the playlist. In this case it does. Therefore, I click "It works! Add it to my playlist!" If it had not, I would have clicked "Doesn't work! Go back and search for another track" to see if there is another link to the song that will play.
After I had added "Travelsigns", I am taken to another page that lets tells you that the track has successfully been added. You now have the option (to the left hand side of the page) to "Continue" and this will take me back to my original seach using the band name or I can "Go to My Playlists."
When I go to my Playlist, I find lots of options, but the one I'm mainly concerned about is the "Add your playlist to your MySpace." Now, you do not have to have a MySpace account to use this playlist. When I click on "add your playlist to your MySpace" I find the link stating, "get the Playlist code for MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, hi5, or any other site." This is what I want!
The next page asks me what kind of site I have, to which I answer "E. Get the code for any other social network, blog or your own personal website>>" Next I am asked which playlist I want to get the code for. Since I only have one current playlist, I only have one option.
After clicking on "deloresdefacto's playlist" I am asked if I want my playlist to autostart when someone opens up my webpage. I opt for yes, just to give someone an unexpected thrill. Also, the options are if I want the songs randomly shuffled, to which i pick "yes" and if I want to use a custom skin. I don't have one, so I leave the answer to "no." I do, however, specify that my color of my player be "black" because, like everything else, it goes with everything.
I click on "Get Code" and am taken to a new page with my own personal playlist all typed out for me. All I have to do, as the instructions say, is "copy and paste this code into your profile or website." I opted to post it to my current entry because the size is just too large for a sideblog widget. However, if you are a big HTML savvy, I would play around with the width code to change " 435" to something more manageable if I wanted to add it into my sideblog. Maybe I'll make a scaled down playlist for my sideblog later. My full profile and playlist information can be seen on the playlist website here: Project Playlist -- DeloresDefacto
Box.Net Widget is the small sideblog music player is able to be added to a template. The only hitch here is that you have to already have bought the music and have it uploadable from your hard drive. Still, for what it's worth, it's a nice little tool to add on the side. Just click on "browse" to search for the three songs you have on your hard drive that you would like to share. Include your email and password to create a new account and then click "Upload" to create the widget. This will take some time as the MP3 files will be large. Once they have loaded, you can copy and paste the code into your ClearBlog template. When adding the Box.Net Widget, look for the "< !-- BEGIN RIGHTSIDE -->" tag in your "Template / Edit Template" field. It is best to look for the way some of your sidebar catagories are sectioned off, such as mine all begin with a "< H3>Category Title< /H3>" code.
As always, you can see me at www.clearblogs.com/deloresdefacto or my website at www.deloresdefacto.com or email here.
Later, ~ Delores "
