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Tips For Running a Better Blog
November 25th 2006 17:26
I had a long week off for Thanksgiving so I think it's time to toss some more blogging tips out there for the community to chew on. Before I get started with this post, please keep in mind that I'm no pro at this. I've just been at it for about five years so I feel I've got a little experience in the field. That being said, I welcome anyone here to comment with other tips and I'll edit the post to add them in.
Let's get started!
We all know how competitive the blogosphere is becoming, or at least we should. Technorati recently released its quarterly "State of the Blogosphere" report that says there are more than 100,000 new blogs created every day. I would dare say that a good chunk of the new blogs are actually splogs, but there really is no way of knowing until they build themselves into a readable web log that will make it a little easier to judge.
Either way, that's a LOT of other blogs out there hunting for readers. With this many blogs out there one must be aware that in order to succeed you're going to have to make constant adjustments that help you stay alert and ahead of the crowd.
- Content
I truly believe that content is king. If you go and sift through the top blogs you'll find the most common resemblance is a LOT of fresh, original, unique content. Without the right kind of content, and lots of it, you're probably going to be dead in the water.
Your content needs to be consistent if at all possible. Here at Orble you need to be posting as often as possible to stay with the frontrunner's. I would suggest you try and punch out a post on a daily basis if at all possible, but if you can't just try and be consistent with the frequency of your posting. You never know who is watching your feeds and these readers usually like a constant flow of content, otherwise they'll drop your feed in search for another.
Make sure your content offers something to the reader. This doesn't mean that you need to sacrifice the topics you're most passionate about in favor of a "hotter" topic. Rather, it means you need to get creative with your posts and make sure you're offering something fresh and new to the reader. If your reader is another blogger, you want them to go and write about your post. If it's a regular reader, you want to be bookmarked or talked about. Unfortunately this cannot happen if your discussion is not unique.
Be active in the community. Here at Orble I think it is absolutely vital to go out and be active on other blogs if you wish to succeed. Orble bloggers, including myself, LOVE COMMENTS! Chances are that if you comment on my site I'll be doing the same for you.
Discussion creates buzzes... buzzes create more readers.
-Syndicate
Syndicating your blog will take a bit of work, especially Orble blogs. But in the end I think it's well worth it. On my tech blog (www.erodtech.com) about 60% of my traffic comes through RSS. It's a brand new blog that only gets about 150 unique visits a day, but they do click on ads and I do sell advertising on the site.
You can submit your feeds to the major ping services and this will get the feeds out into the world wide web with lightning fast speeds. For good ping services, try Ping-O-Matic, Pingoat and Icerocket.
-Readers
As a blogger your readers are your livelihood. Target everything towards readers and make sure you are listening to what they have to say. A lot of bloggers make the mistake of building their blogs for themselves, when in fact you should be building it for your readers.
Never, EVER ignore a comment. You can disagree with a reader until the sky falls on the planet, but at least listen and respond to them. Interact with readers and they will do the same. Ignore your readers, and again, they will do the same.
-Social Networking
If you have time and a very good story, make sure and submit it to Digg, Reddit, Stumble, Newsvine, Netscape, etc. These sites can bring you an enormous amount of traffic in only a few hours time.
Just two weeks ago I got a story on the front page of Digg and almost instantly had 6,000 visits hit one of my blogs, essentially shutting down my server and swamping the system. The $103.00 I made via Adsense on that site that day was WELL worth the extra effort.
The bottom line in building a better blog is you should always be aware. Be aware of what you're writing and make sure you know who you're writing it for. Be generous on the links and comment on any blog page you link to so they know you gave them some link love. Follow up your posts with a submission to the social networking giants and make sure you let the ping engines know you have a new post.
If you go the extra mile it shouldn't take more than a month or two before you start seeing solid results.
Hope this helps!
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Comments (14)
Add Comments Tips & tricks that help you find the latest news
November 16th 2006 19:31
In a growing blogosphere it can be difficult to try and stay ahead of the pack. Keeping up with the news is no easy task. Having the latest news tips and information is one of the best ways of making sure your blog is getting a piece of the traffic pie. With that being said, it can also be one of the most time consuming ways of growing your readership.
Fortunately for us, there are now a plethora of free tools available for the general public. These tools can make watching the news as it happens a much easier process. The following is a list of ways you can make your story finding journey a little more pleasant.
Technorati
Technorati is a massive blog search engines that combines tagging with spider crawls for a result that makes fumbling through the blogosphere an enjoyable experience. The tool allows you to search using your own keywords if you’re looking for something specific, or you can use keywords that others are using. You can also opt to search popular tags for a niche specific surfing experience.
Technorati has a full grasp of the importance of RSS and offers feeds for just about any page on the site. The results of Technorati are virtually real time, so you know you’re always getting the latest chatter.
PRWeb
PRWeb is arguably one of the biggest press release distribution services on the web. The amount of press releases that flow through the site on a daily basis is hard to fathom. With this amount of information being passed, you can guarantee you’ll be able to find news that hasn’t even hot the press yet.
Unfortunately, PRWeb is a little difficult to navigate. The categories are not well laid out and finding the right feeds for your niche can be a challenge. However, if you do find the right feeds you’re guaranteed to get the latest news at it’s released.
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a concept that I think is still in its infancy stage. It’s brilliantly simple in the way it’s all laid out, but it hasn’t yet received the traffic and notoriety needed to boost it into the big leagues of social bookmarking.
The idea is basically that you have a button that allows you to surf websites that others flagged as interesting. It works similar to Digg in that the ranking ALGO is user based, but Stumble Upon works behind the scenes instead of using a website based system.
Using the FireFox plugin is the best way to go in my opinion. You can get more information and a download link here.
Digg
Well, this one is a given to be quite honest. Digg is a gold mine of information for any news junkie out there. You have to know your way around to find the good stuff, but it’s there if you’re ready to look for it.
With Digg, most users just visit the most popular links, but fail to stop in to the sub pages where the “upcoming” links can be found. This is where all of the latest news will be posted and this is where you should be.
You can also subscribe to the feeds of these pages and that takes a little leg work out of the process.
Digg for Firefox
LiveMarks
I’ve only recently started watching Live Marks but I think I’ll start working on making more visits and more often. LiveMarks is a project to show del.icio.us and other social bookmarking services in real time. It’s a new and easy way to snag stories as soon as they touch the blogosphere.
Del.icio.us
This is one of the most common social bookmarking services out there. It’s very simple in concept and the network has a ton of traffic.
You can get the Firefox plugin here.
infoRSS
infoRSS is a Firefox extension that synchronizes with Gmail and scrolls your feeds live on the status bar at the bottom of your browser window. I posted about this plugin not too long ago so please read that post for more information.
Then of course you have the obvious sources like Google News and Yahoo News. These are good sources, but by the time a story hits these pages it’s a given that they’re already out floating around the web.
That’s all I can think of for now. If you have any other ideas please comment and let me know. I’ll be sure and add them to the list along with a link to your blog.
- Eric
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Make Money With RSS Feeds
November 16th 2006 19:16
Now this won't work with Orble, but if you've got a blog or site with RSS and news feeds that you control, you might want to keep reading
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My New Orble Blog - SEOGoggles.com
November 16th 2006 18:40
Well, I'm now officially a part of the Orble family. It feels good to be a part of what appears to be a very active and friendly community. A lot of the internet communities of today have been exploited by corporations and cheats looking for the overnight buck, but Orble seems to have avoided it thus far
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Guide to Making Money Blogging
November 15th 2006 22:54
I'm new to Orble, but I already enjoy posting here and I very much look forward to sharing my experiences and finds with the community. It's because of this that I decided to go ahead and start bringing some of my personal projects from outside blogs that I own into the Orble community. The first of these projects is a guide to making money blogging that I'm currently writing for my tech watch blog, eRodTech.com
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CNET Firefox 2 Extension List
November 14th 2006 06:28
CNET has a Firefox 2 extension list posted on their website, and I have to admit, I think they were a bit thin with their choices.
I have several extensions running right now and none of them made the list. The CNET list includes FoxyTunes, Tab Mix Plus, Download Status Bar, ForecastFox, IE Tabs, and a few others[ Click here to read more ]
I have several extensions running right now and none of them made the list. The CNET list includes FoxyTunes, Tab Mix Plus, Download Status Bar, ForecastFox, IE Tabs, and a few others
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