...is your post title.
I've talked before about choosing keyword savvy titles. Keyword oriented titles are important for search engine purposes. They help people to find your blog on the internet.
But it's also important to keep those readers once they do find your blog. Your blog title is your reader's first impression. Much of what makes someone decide to continue reading is how a title is phrased. Think of newspaper headlines; which article would you rather read?
Man buried himself alive!
or
An interesting thing that someone did.
Regardless of content, you are automatically going to be attracted to the more interesting title. So, yes, this takes practice. But the title of each post is incredibly important. Make an effort to include one or two keywords. Then work with rearranging them in a way that would make you want to click on your article.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Google AdSense for Blogs: Is it worthwhile?
Let's first start out with what Google AdSense is...
Google AdSense is Google's way of giving blog authors the opportunity to make money on their blog. Essentially, you put advertisements up on your blog and when people click on the advertisement, you get a small percentage of the money Google made from that one click.
There are many types of similar services out there if you want to make advertising money but AdSense is definitely one of the larger ones. It's also one of the most user-friendly ones because Google does most of the work for you. You decide which spaces you want to allot to advertising and then Google will scan the content of your site to place applicable ads. So if you have a car blog, you will probably see a lot of car-related ads.
What's the other shoe, right?
The most obvious thing is that you have to have advertisements on your blog. You can choose how many and where these advertisements are placed. However, if you totally coat your blog with "flashing neon" it might be a turn off for readers.
But does it generate money? Yes and no. I have AdSense on most of my blogs and I get the occasional click here and there which amounts to a few cents to a couple of dollars a month. But all of my blogs tend to be very niche. So compared to, say, a gossip blog that follows Snooki's latest scandals, I'm going to have much lower traffic overall.
At the risk of sounding like a Debbie Downer, I feel like the age where you could make hundreds of thousands of dollars from blog ads has come and gone. The ads have actually become better and more targeted. But that just can't keep up with the fact that most of the USA's population has become internet savvy. Going back to my go-to reality check: when was the last time I ever clicked on an ad to find something?
Google AdSense is Google's way of giving blog authors the opportunity to make money on their blog. Essentially, you put advertisements up on your blog and when people click on the advertisement, you get a small percentage of the money Google made from that one click.
There are many types of similar services out there if you want to make advertising money but AdSense is definitely one of the larger ones. It's also one of the most user-friendly ones because Google does most of the work for you. You decide which spaces you want to allot to advertising and then Google will scan the content of your site to place applicable ads. So if you have a car blog, you will probably see a lot of car-related ads.
What's the other shoe, right?
The most obvious thing is that you have to have advertisements on your blog. You can choose how many and where these advertisements are placed. However, if you totally coat your blog with "flashing neon" it might be a turn off for readers.
But does it generate money? Yes and no. I have AdSense on most of my blogs and I get the occasional click here and there which amounts to a few cents to a couple of dollars a month. But all of my blogs tend to be very niche. So compared to, say, a gossip blog that follows Snooki's latest scandals, I'm going to have much lower traffic overall.
At the risk of sounding like a Debbie Downer, I feel like the age where you could make hundreds of thousands of dollars from blog ads has come and gone. The ads have actually become better and more targeted. But that just can't keep up with the fact that most of the USA's population has become internet savvy. Going back to my go-to reality check: when was the last time I ever clicked on an ad to find something?
Monday, March 5, 2012
How To Get Blog Traffic: Backlinks
I've already gone over before what a backlink is. So the focus of this post will be how to help increase the number of backlinks which will, in turn, increase your blog traffic.
So, bad news first: there is no quick and easy way to make your blog instantly popular. It takes work and, unfortunately, time. The top blogs in any category are usually several years old and have accumulated a following from natural growth.
But there are ways to "plant the seed" as it were. The first thing you should try is emailing the link for your blog to close family and friends. Don't pester them. But it is totally reasonable to announce to people you know "hey, I started a blog." The key here is to email the link. If you tell people, they will probably forget. But an email can be sent around.
The second thing to do is communicate with other bloggers in your genre. If you write about food, check out other food blogs. If you blog about computers games, check out gaming blogs. See if any of these bloggers/sites have areas where they list other websites. Those are the lists you need to be on. Even if the link never gets clicked on, it's important your link got listed somewhere else online.
Twitter and Facebook are also good tools. Oddly enough, a link on either of those mediums doesn't count as a backlink. But you can have people find your blog through those mediums and, in turn, possibly post the backlink somewhere else.
Online forums are also an extremely effective tool. If you become a regular forum member, you will have numerous opportunities to share blog links. Additionally, if people like you on the forum, they will be inclined to share your blog link all all the forums they visit.
Again, all of these suggestions are merely seeds you can plant. True blog audience growth will only happen with time.
So, bad news first: there is no quick and easy way to make your blog instantly popular. It takes work and, unfortunately, time. The top blogs in any category are usually several years old and have accumulated a following from natural growth.
But there are ways to "plant the seed" as it were. The first thing you should try is emailing the link for your blog to close family and friends. Don't pester them. But it is totally reasonable to announce to people you know "hey, I started a blog." The key here is to email the link. If you tell people, they will probably forget. But an email can be sent around.
The second thing to do is communicate with other bloggers in your genre. If you write about food, check out other food blogs. If you blog about computers games, check out gaming blogs. See if any of these bloggers/sites have areas where they list other websites. Those are the lists you need to be on. Even if the link never gets clicked on, it's important your link got listed somewhere else online.
Twitter and Facebook are also good tools. Oddly enough, a link on either of those mediums doesn't count as a backlink. But you can have people find your blog through those mediums and, in turn, possibly post the backlink somewhere else.
Online forums are also an extremely effective tool. If you become a regular forum member, you will have numerous opportunities to share blog links. Additionally, if people like you on the forum, they will be inclined to share your blog link all all the forums they visit.
Again, all of these suggestions are merely seeds you can plant. True blog audience growth will only happen with time.
Monday, February 27, 2012
How To Get Blog Traffic: Using Twitter wisely
Twitter is perhaps one of the most effective tools a blogger can have if used correctly. "If" being the operative word here.
To start: how is Twitter different from all those other social platforms? Why not just have Facebook? Someone once explained the difference to me and I feel it's quite apt: Facebook is for keeping track of people you know but don't really want to talk to. Twitter is for talking to people you really should know.
On Twitter it's not taboo at all to start up a conversation with a total stranger. In fact, you quickly will gain a following if you do do that. That's the entire purpose of Twitter.
What Twitter is not good for is selling stuff. Those who go on there and do nothing but try and hawk stuff on others will quickly get ignored. It may have worked in early Twitter days... but not anymore.
But Twitter can be used to share blog links. It's one of the best ways to initially get random people to check out your blog since the entire idea of Twitter is "random encounters."
Use Twitter as a person. Make a point to interact with others. People often appreciate it when someone takes the time to reply to their "tweet." Then when you have a new blog post, announce the title of the post and share the link. If people you have talked to in the past have found you interesting, there's a really good chance that they will click on the blog link out of curiosity.
How is that not hawking stuff? There's a thin line. But really it comes down to the fact that you're not selling anything. A blog is, essentially, an opinion column. So it gives those that have found your opinions interesting a chance to further explore "you."
To start: how is Twitter different from all those other social platforms? Why not just have Facebook? Someone once explained the difference to me and I feel it's quite apt: Facebook is for keeping track of people you know but don't really want to talk to. Twitter is for talking to people you really should know.
On Twitter it's not taboo at all to start up a conversation with a total stranger. In fact, you quickly will gain a following if you do do that. That's the entire purpose of Twitter.
What Twitter is not good for is selling stuff. Those who go on there and do nothing but try and hawk stuff on others will quickly get ignored. It may have worked in early Twitter days... but not anymore.
But Twitter can be used to share blog links. It's one of the best ways to initially get random people to check out your blog since the entire idea of Twitter is "random encounters."
Use Twitter as a person. Make a point to interact with others. People often appreciate it when someone takes the time to reply to their "tweet." Then when you have a new blog post, announce the title of the post and share the link. If people you have talked to in the past have found you interesting, there's a really good chance that they will click on the blog link out of curiosity.
How is that not hawking stuff? There's a thin line. But really it comes down to the fact that you're not selling anything. A blog is, essentially, an opinion column. So it gives those that have found your opinions interesting a chance to further explore "you."
Monday, February 20, 2012
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are an important concept to understand as a blogger. If used appropriately in your blog title and blog content, they can have a huge impact in the type of readers you are attracting.
A keyword is any term that is directly related to the subject you are talking about. So as an example:
Subject - Board Games
Keywords - board games, monopoly, monopoly strategy, monopoly rules, how to play monopoly, where to buy monopoly, board game blog
Words that are not keywords - rules, strategy, how to play, playing, Alain's blog
Now this is a very basic example. But notice how the keywords are both specific but at the same time broad enough that someone might type it in on the internet. The words that are not keywords are broad. "rules" or "strategy" could apply to anything in life that has either/or. Also, no one will type in my name plus blog unless they already know my blog exists.
There is a chance if you blog becomes popular enough that if someone were to type in a broad term, your blog could come up as relavant. However, there's no guarantee that the person will click on your blog. And there's an even slimmer chance that they will become a blog regular.
You have to think about what the purpose of your blog is. What interests should the ideal reader have? Title each and every post with this in mind. It also doesn't hurt to have some keywords in your actual content.
You want to make it so when someone types in one of these keywords online, your blog is the one that pops up as the most relavant site.
A keyword is any term that is directly related to the subject you are talking about. So as an example:
Subject - Board Games
Keywords - board games, monopoly, monopoly strategy, monopoly rules, how to play monopoly, where to buy monopoly, board game blog
Words that are not keywords - rules, strategy, how to play, playing, Alain's blog
Now this is a very basic example. But notice how the keywords are both specific but at the same time broad enough that someone might type it in on the internet. The words that are not keywords are broad. "rules" or "strategy" could apply to anything in life that has either/or. Also, no one will type in my name plus blog unless they already know my blog exists.
There is a chance if you blog becomes popular enough that if someone were to type in a broad term, your blog could come up as relavant. However, there's no guarantee that the person will click on your blog. And there's an even slimmer chance that they will become a blog regular.
You have to think about what the purpose of your blog is. What interests should the ideal reader have? Title each and every post with this in mind. It also doesn't hurt to have some keywords in your actual content.
You want to make it so when someone types in one of these keywords online, your blog is the one that pops up as the most relavant site.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Blog Themes
Blog themes are the "skin" or visual style to your blog. When you change your blog's theme it generally does not change any of your blog's functions. You still have your basic posts, pages and widgets. Usually a theme package will change the way your header, footer and font colors look. Again, it changes the way they look not the way they function.
Most blog hosts will have a variety of standard theme you can choose from. You can also search on the internet for free or paid themes if you want to get fancier. Be sure you to check if the third party source is credible. You don't want to permanently mess up your blog by adding a virus-ridden theme.
Most blog hosts will have a variety of standard theme you can choose from. You can also search on the internet for free or paid themes if you want to get fancier. Be sure you to check if the third party source is credible. You don't want to permanently mess up your blog by adding a virus-ridden theme.
Monday, February 6, 2012
How to Find and Upload RSS/Atom Feed on Blogger
Another short tutorial video that I made about how to find and upload your RSS/Atom feed. Very important to know if you want to share your blog on other sites.
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