Blog Sidebars

The blog sidebars are the columns next to your main text column.  The number of columns that you have is up to you and is only really limited by the blogging platform that you use.  While the information presented in the blog sidebars can change, on the actual blog this information is usually static.  In other words, everything in the sidebars will appear the same even when you add a new post.

In terms of purpose, the sidebars are similar to blog pages in that they should display general information that you would want your reader to access at any time.  The sidebars are also where you place your blog widgets.  I'll get more into blog widgets in a later post.

Due to the fact that blog sidebars are right next to your blog text column, they are more visible than pages.  Here are some basic things that I think are necessary to have in a blog column:

- At least one subscription method for a reader to follow your blog.  Multiple is better.  But if I had to pick just one, I would say having a "follow by email" option is the best.  It's easy, people understand email and people usually read their email.

- Blog archive.  This shows all of your older posts.  It gives readers a place to browse your blog.  More importantly, it shows your readers how active your blog is.  

- Search this blog.  I think it's a useful tool if people want to type in a particular keyword.

- About me (blog author).  This isn't really necessary.  But it's a nice touch.  Makes it seem more personal.

If you are trying to promote something with your blog, the sidebars are a good place to have small announcements or pictures.  But moderation in all things.  I really believe that the actual blog text should be the primary focus.  The more columns you add and the more stuff you add to columns, the more distracting it will be from the actual blog posts.

Blog Text Column

The text column is another basic blogging key term.  It is the main display area that shows all of your most recent posts.  All the other add-ons can be fun but this is area where you are going to generate and keep readers.

Most blog hosts (Blogger, Wordpress, etc...) allow you to adjust the width of your blog text column.  If you want to get really fancy, you can even adjust how many columns you have.  The number of posts displayed in the text column may also be adjusted.  On this blog, I have it so it shows my last 7 most recent posts.

The text column should always be wide enough where it's easy to read without excessive scrolling.  Also be sure to check that the font color you are using does not clash with your background.  Beautiful backgrounds are nice but they should never make the actual text difficult to read.

This is a personal preference, but I like to make sure that the blog text is one of the first things that catches the eye when opened up.  The human eye naturally tracks from left to right, top to bottom (in Western cultures at least).  So the upper left corner of the site is what people will look at first.

In the end, a blog should be about the blog posts; not the number of followers or number of views or advertisements.  A reader should be able to find the main text content of your blog almost as soon as they open  up the page. 

Blog Header

The "blog header" is just a basic part name that you should be familiar with.  This is yet another one of those blog key terms that many people just assume you know the meaning to.  This was not the case for me and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  I actually had to look this up when I first started blogging.

The blog header is the area at the top of your blog that contains your title.  If you want to use this blog as an example, "Non-Techie Blogging" is my header.  Underneath the blog title is my tagline: "Simple tips and tricks for effective blogging.  The tagline is also part of the header.

The header should not be confused with post titles.  Each blog post will have its own title.  The header is going to be a pretty consistent thing.

If you want to get fancy you can make a custom header.  Personally, I prefer having the title of my blog being very clear.  I want it to be one of the first things people notice.  This helps people remember the blog if they want to recommend it.

I would also highly recommend adding a tagline.  Keep the tagline short and precise.  It should give new readers a quick one-sentence summary of what your blog is about.  I've noticed that a lot of bloggers neglect to add a tagline.  Remember: don't make your readers work for information.  Make your blog easy to understand and easy to navigate.

Blog Posts vs. Blog Pages

As you explore your blog's dashboard, you've probably noticed the option to make "pages."  If you're new to blogging, I feel it's important to understand the difference between a "post" and a "page" and what they can each be used for.

A blog by nature is not a static site.  In other words, it's designed to constantly change have fresh content.  When you open up any blog the first thing you come across is the text column on the home page.  The blog home page is what features your blog posts.  Usually the posts are displayed chronologically with the newest post being at the very top.

Which leads us to blog pages.  All blogs have one default page: the home page.  But you do have the option to add more pages.  A "page" is static content.  So a good example of a page you might want to have is an "about this blog" page.  If you add an "about" page, it will add a permanent tab for people to click on your blog.

Pages are an extremely useful tool.  Having pages such as an "about" will allow any new visitors to instantly see a summary of what you generally blog about and why.  This helps to reduce confusion if your home page happens a few posts up that are seemingly unconnected.

Pages are also a good way to answer questions you are frequently asked.  For example, if you run a book review blog, the submission guidelines would be a really good page to have.  That way you don't have to tell every person that emails you what they are.

While pages are extremely useful, I recommend being extremely selective when adding them.  I've seen blogs with 10 or more pages to click on and, personally, I find this to be a bit overwhelming.  Most of the focus should be on the posts on your home page.  The pages are just there as a tool.

Posting on Forums

Online chat forums are a great way to help attract attention to your blog.  However, in order for this to be effective, you have to be prepared to make a long-term commitment.

The first instinct for a lot of new bloggers is to think "Hey! I have this great new book review blog!  I'm going to sign up for every single book/reading forum and post my link!  Then everyone will click on the link and I'll have the most popular blog ever!"  Save yourself some effort:  don't do this.  For several reasons:

1.  You are not the first person to think this.  It's been done before.  When it's done in excess it's called spam.

2.  Even if you have good intentions, your post will be written off as spam since the veteran forum members will only register that you're a brand new poster and trying to make a sales pitch.  They'll ignore you.

3.  In doing this, you risk alienating people and you lose the true, long-term (and much more valuable) benefits of posting on forums.

Ok, so let's get into those long-term benefits.

The first step is to find forums that interest you.  Don't feel like you have to join forums that are directly related to your blog.  What makes online forums fun is that they attract people that share a single interest but those same people also have other interests.  It's how you learn.

Once you sign up for a forum or two that looks like you could actively participate in, it's important that you set up your profile and signature.  Your profile is what people on the forum see when they click on your name.  Most forums give you the option to list your name and a website.  This is a really good opportunity to post the link to your blog.  The signature (not every forum allows them) appears underneath every single forum post that you make.  This is an even better way to share you blog link.  The profile and the signature will do the sales-pitch for you.  That's the beauty of forums.

The final step is just to interact with the other forum members actively.  That means you need to post at least once a day.  You have to make a concerted initial effort to become a regular member on the forum.

Why put all this work into a forum?

1.  Once you become a regular member, people will be more open to you sharing links to your blog.  They know you're not just a one-hit spammer and could be interested enough in you to see what your blog has to say.

2.  As you become online friends with the other members, there is a really, really good chance that they will start to recommend your blog to other people; especially if your blog targets a niche audience.  Word of mouth recommendations are everything if you're a blogger.

So go out there and get social!

What Are Backlinks?

As a blogger, backlinks are a really important concept to understand.  A backlink is anytime someone posts a link to your blog somewhere else online.  So if someone sees your blog, likes what they see, and then copy/pastes the link in an email or forum that's a backlink.

Why is this important?  Backlinks play a big part in how search engines (especially Google) rank your blog.  The logic is that your site must have some decent content in order to make someone post the link and then, in turn, make someone else want to click on the link.  The internet is not perfect.  But the backlinks work better than just judging a site by the number of clicks that it has (easily faked).

This is partially why it takes so long for a blog to get steady traffic because you are literally just waiting for a healthy number of backlinks.  Consistently posting high quality, engaging content is the best way to ensure backlinks.  

Basically, you want one of your blogs to become one of those email forwards that everyone passes around.  This doesn't mean spam people.  It means you should make content that people would want to share with others.

Pinging Your Blog

"Pinging" your blog basically means that you have notified blog search engines that your blog has new content.  Most how-to blogs will recommend this as a good way to get traffic.  I have mixed feelings about pinging.

In order to ping your blog, I would recommend using a pinging service.  Ping-o-Matic is a good one. All the available ping sites pretty much do the same thing and recommend your blog to the same list of blog search engines.  You type in your blog's name and web address and then check off which places you would like to ping (or "notify").

In theory, you could ping as much as you want.  But it would be a waste of time.  It won't generate that much more traffic for you.  Only ping when you have fresh content up on your blog.

Pinging does "work" in that it generates views for your blog.  There's no question there.  If you've had a blog for a few months and then you start to ping, you'll notice a traffic spike minutes later.  While this is very exciting to see the first time you do it, most of the traffic is not good traffic.

Every time I ping I look at the referring site addresses sending traffic to my blog and it will usually be some spam site.  Which tells me that hundreds of views I just got weren't really humans interested in reading my content and were probably just some automated data mining computer software.  So the views are totally meaningless.

What pinging has helped with is keywords.  After I started pinging, I noticed that places like Google have been picking up more and more on the keywords in my blog post rather than just what's in the title.

So, ping if you will.  But I don't feel it's really crucial.  Back in the early days of the internet I think it was much more effective which is probably why the pinging advice persists.  These days there are just too many automated spam sites in place.