Web Blog Promotion

Use RSS Feeds to Promote Your Blog

2008-04-29T04:01:00.000-07:00

Unquestionably, the popularity of blogging has fueled the expansion of RSS feeds. According to Technorati, about one-third of blogs have RSS feeds. Some people who maintain blogs are publishing an RSS feed without even knowing about it, because some of the blog Web sites automatically create feeds.In this blog, I give a quick overview of blogging and how to use RSS with your blog to gain more readers. If you want to start a blog, i explain where to go next. If you already have a blog, I explain how you can create an RSS feed and use it to publicize your blog.

Bloggers Unite
Blogging has become a movement. Blogs have become influential, and even the mainstream media are taking notice. Web sites have been around for a long time. How did a few daily entries balloon into millions (yes, millions) of blogs and an entire industry?
The early days of the World Wide Web contained lots of personal sites and free information, as people discovered they could post anything they wanted. Still, the great expansion of the Internet was driven by commercial uses.
However, people never forgot those earlier days of personal interests, and they still had more to say. People discovered that they could publish, meaning that they could create a site whose main purpose was to provide updates on anything — current events, social mores, technical advances, and so on — including their opinions on these topics. It was the opinions — well-researched, smartly written, and often funny — that hooked people on reading blogs.

Creating a Blog
If you want to create a blog, you need to decide which type of service or technology you want to use. Your choice of blogging tools is an important decision — after all; you’ll probably use that tool almost every day.
The easiest way to start a blog is to use a Web-based service. You don’t need your own Web site, because the Web service hosts your blog for you. You just enter your content into a Web form in your browser and click a button to post your blog.
If you want to run your own Web server, you can. Several blogging programs work on a server. The disadvantage is that you need more technical skills. The advantage is that you have more control over your blog. Also, you don’t have to worry about your blogging service going under or its servers crashing.

Getting startedObviously
once you have chosen a blogging tool, you’ll be eager to start writing. Perhaps you already know what you want to say — in fact, maybe fully developed ideas are practically exploding out of your head. But for most people it’s a good idea to think a bit about how their blog will develop:

Decide on your blog’s purpose. You may want to write a mission statement that describes what you are trying to accomplish and why. Include your expected audience

What kind of content will you include? Do you just want to create a diary-type blog and write off the top of your head? Will you need a source of inspiration?

What is the focus and format of that content? Will you focus on one topic or let yourself write about anything that interests you? Will people read your blog because you’re an interesting person, because you write well, or because they’re already interested in a topic that you’re covering?

Consider your schedule - How much time will it take you to write a regular blog entry? How much time do you have every day to blog?

Tip: If you’re considering a blog for your business, and you’re already spending lots of time communicating your thoughts via e-mail, blogging probably won’t take you any more time.

Creating a Blog with Your HTML Editor
If you already have a Web site and maintain it, and you don’t need fancy bells and whistles, you may not need a blogging tool at all. For example, perhaps you don’t want to allow comments or responses — this requires some sophisticated programming, which the blogging services offer but which you may not be able to do easily on your own. If you don’t need this kind of feature, you may choose to create a blog on your own.
After all, what is a blog? It’s just some text on a Web page, listed by date. If all you want to do is create a daily entry, you can create one in the same way you create any other Web content.

Maintaining Your Blog
After you’ve created and posted a few blog entries, you’ll establish a routine of maintaining your blog every day or so. The most popular bloggers put aside a few hours each day, usually at the same time, to blog.

Getting input for your blog
Although many people write entries based on blogs or news stories that they’ve read, don’t forget that you should add something meaningful to other peoples’ content. Work on developing your own voice and your own point of view.
Remember: When you mention an outside source, provide not only a link but also a mention of the author and title. In other words, be generous about giving credit to your sources.
Maintaining your blog is more than just posting. If you allow people to add comments, you should comment on some of those postings.

Adding ads
Here’s another consideration for maintaining your blog — do you want to make some money from it? If your blogging service is not free, you may want to at least make up some of the cost of using it.
The main way to make money is to place ads on your blog. If you create your blog on your own Web site, you can use Google Adsense. You get paid a small amount for each time someone goes to your site and clicks one of the ads. Because the ads are appropriate for your site’s content, people are likely to click the ads.
A similar option is Blogads. Advertisers sign up and choose the blogs they want to advertise on. You can sign up to be listed as one of those sites.
On the other hand, it’s perfectly all right to keep your blog ad-free. In spite of the commerciality of the Internet, a strong culture also exists for keeping information and opinion noncommercial. If you’re blogging because you love it, why bother with ads?

Finding other ways to make money
You can ask for donations. Some bloggers use Amazon’s Honor System program, which allows site visitors to donate to your site.
If it’s appropriate for your blog’s topic, you can become an Amazon associate and recommend books that relate to your blog. If readers buy the books, you get a small percentage. Many readers will appreciate your recommendations for further reading and won’t think of these links as advertising.

Publicizing Your Blog with RSS
If you feel that no one is reading your blog, it can be disheartening. But you can’t just sit back and wait for the masses to come to you; you need to let people know about your blog. Just having an RSS feed doesn’t guarantee that people will subscribe. And most people still read blogs by going to the blog’s Web site.
The first step is simply to let people know about your blog. Tell them the URL of the blog and of your RSS feed. Send an e-mail to all your friends and colleagues. Put the URL on your business card. Explain to them the advantages of subscribing to your feed.
If you used a hosted blog service, such as Blogger or LiveJournal, remember that they only list your blog on their sites. Therefore, you need to go out and make your blog and its RSS feed visible elsewhere on the Web.
If you can find other blogs on similar subjects that accept comments, feel free to make constructive comments and include a link to your own blog. Perhaps you can write some articles for online or offline publications and mention your blog in them.
Quite a few sites function as directories just for blogs, regardless of whether they have RSS feeds. People come to these sites to search for blogs on topics that interest them. You can list your blog on some of these sites to help people find you.
Use a combination of blog directories and RSS directories to publicize your blog. Keep your blog interesting, relevant, updated, and useful, and people will come knocking at your door.
Do you have a favorite method for promoting your blog or RSS feed? Leave a comment and share with the rest of us. Who knows it may help you gain another reader
And finally, be sure to check back soon, when we will be releasing a similar article named “how to promote your RSS Feed” Be sure not to miss it by Subscribing to my feed.

Rss Feed Blog Promotion

How To Promote Your Blog

2008-04-19T03:26:00.000-07:00

Content Is King, Really?

When the “How do I promote my blog” question is asked in forums it usually doesn’t take long for someone to reply with, “Content is king.” Really? Is content king? All websites have content - even the dancing hamsters is content. I would submit to you that giving people what they want is truly king. If that be content, then have relevant content. If it’s driving directions, then give good directions. If it’s discount prices on jewelry, then have quality jewelry at low prices. If it’s nude pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt then she best not be wearing clothes. And if people want to see dancing hamsters, then give it to them - give the people what they want.

There’s a reason your visitors came to your site. Are you fulfilling their expectations? If people visit your blog one day and you’re talking about PHP coding techniques but the next time they visit your blog you are reviewing the movie you saw over the weekend, you may find yourself having a hard time building a steady core of followers.

It’s not that you can’t do that with your blog; you can. That’s exactly what I do with my personal blog. I blog about anything I feel like blogging about: movies, music, Jennifer Love Hewitt, whatever. The problem is that blogs like that have no niche to fill. With no niche you have no target audience. That’s ok, if you don’t want expansive audience.

Give people what they want and do it consistently. Being a one-hit-wonder in a band or in blogging is not a good thing. I take that back, being a one-hit-wonder in a band can still make you millions these days, but in blogging it’s no good. Try and have quality content on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be daily, just on a regular basis. You may decide to post once a week or twice a week, whatever, just be consistent. If you post three times a week for a month then that’s what your audience will come to expect.

I would encourage you to post quality over quantity. Don’t post just for the sake of posting. If everybody else has covered the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone then you may want to let it go. Ask yourself, “What can I bring to the table?” If you can take an angle that you feel hasn’t been covered then by all means, continue, but if you are just going to post a “me too” post, skip it.

Give people what they want and do it consistently. You do that and people will visit you – and – continue to visit you.

One Post at a Time…

“One post at a time…” I never said that the post had to be on your own blog! Get out there and visit other people’s blogs. Be friendly and comment. I visit about half a dozen blogs a day, I usually comment about four times a day. Again, don’t just post for the sake of posting, have something to say.

If you’re just going to post something like, “Hello, nice blog, please visit my blog”, then skip it. Try and contribute something to the conversation at hand. If you can’t do that, then maybe you should not be in the business of blogging.

Also, commenting on other blogs is a great way to sharpen your blogging tongue. I often find myself returning to my own blog spurred on by something I read on another blog. I will often comment and then expand upon my comment back in a new post on my own blog.

It also needs to be said that if you are going to comment for the sole purpose of trying to appease the search engines, you can skip it. Most blogs add the no-follow tag to links there by neutralizing the value of the link to the search engines. So once again, bring something to the table.

There’s no quick fix for promoting your blog. It takes work, good old fashioned blue-collar work. If you like your blog’s topic enough then there’s a good chance you won’t mind putting in the time and it won’t feel like work at all. Making a successful blog starts with one post at a time.

Read More......How We Can Promote Blogs

10 Unique Ways To Promote A Blog - Web Blog Promotion

2008-04-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

1. Do a live blogging YouTube nude streak onto the Superbowl arena.
2. Pretend you are a fake Walmart blog.
3. Do a series of trades to turn your house into one blue paper clip.
4. Hijack a combine harvester and cut an outline of your URL address into a corn field so it shows up on Google Earth.
5. Print off a blog post onto a very large piece of paper, hire a group of women over the age of 100 to stand in the crowd at Good Morning America holding up the sign.
6. Announce an attempt to swim around the world non-stop with your blog URL painted on your back. A shark cage is optional as a shark attack will get you a top listing on Digg.
7. Blog about bloggers who blog about bloggers who are blogging about the blogosphere. Be quick while it's still untapped niche.
8. Create a fictitious blogger and make him/her your nemesis. Constantly attack each other is an escalating cycle of criticism and hatred that ultimately turns to violence. Kill off your nemesis blogger in a live blogging ultimate kick boxing event in a mystery Asian country.
9. Stow away on the space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. After the work on the Hubble is completed sneak out in a space suit and paint your URL in reverse onto the lens of the telescope. Make sure you use really small letters.
10. Buy a white mattress. Cut it in half. Cut holes in the sides for your arms and the bottom for your legs and leave one whole in the top for your head. Remove enough of the stuffing so you fit inside it. Print off your blog homepage onto two very large pieces of paper. Staple it to both sides of the mattress. Put the mattress on and stand on the busiest street in your home city. Leave in enough stuffing so it doesn't hurt when teenagers start beating you.

Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog’s Usability

2008-03-28T03:36:00.001-07:00

#1 — Be predictable

When we want to know what a site is about, the first thing we look for is an ‘About’ page.

When we want to contact the owner of a site, the first thing we look for is a ‘Contact’ page.

When we want to leave a comment, we usually look to the bottom of a post.

When we want to subscribe to a blog, we look for the subscribe button at the top of its sidebar.

These things are so common that they’ve become standards — things we expect. When we can’t find the standard, we look for the next most similar thing.

By adhering to these predictable standards you’re actually making it as easy as possible for your blog’s visitors to do exactly what you want them to do. Sometimes being predictable is not a bad thing!

#2 — Be obvious

Look down at your keyboard and you’ll probably be able to spot at least one key that you’ve never noticed before, either because you have no need for it or you don’t know what it does. It could be the most useful key ever, but our hesitation when confronted with the unknown has probably stopped you ever pressing it before. What if it deletes everything you just wrote?

We don’t like not knowing what the result of our actions will be, and so it goes with your blog. Non-obvious links and buttons will very rarely be clicked. In my experiments with private advertising, there can be as much as an 800% difference in click-through rates between ambiguous banners and ones which make it obvious where the reader will be taken when they click on it. Scour your blog and ask this question of every element: would a new visitor know what this does, or where it leads?

#3 — Subtract the unimportant

By hiding important elements (your most popular posts, your feed icon, your comment button) amongst a dozen other unimportant things (widgets and recent comments) you’re making it harder for readers to do what is truly important to you.

#4 — Limit options

A category list with 10 categories is a lot more usable than a list with 50 categories. Too many options creates overload which leads to deferral: a visitor will not engage with that element at all. Your list of 5 most popular posts will get clicked more than your list of 20, and so on. Simplified options make it easier for the visitor to decide where they want to place their attention. Too much choice will actually hurt your blog’s usability.

#5 — Do the little things

A usable blog, aside from the above, is also made-up of many little touches that make your visitor’s browsing experience easier.

Does your header image link back to your main page?
Does your blog have an about page?
Does your blog have a contact page?
Do your headlines match with your content?
Is it clear where your links will lead?
Do you use frequent paragraphs in your posts?
Do you have comment links at the bottom of your post?
Do you use sub-headings?
Are your posts less than 2/3 screen length wide?
Are you making your best posts easily accessible?
Are your links easy to pick out?

Points to review

Predictability is a good thing for usability.
Be creative with your posts, but obvious in your layout elements.
Subtract obstacles to your most wanted actions.
Simplify options to make your elements easier to use.
Pay attention to little touches that your visitors will find useful.

Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Blog’s Usability

How To Promote Your Blog

2008-03-13T02:28:00.000-07:00

Content Is King, Really?

When the “How do I promote my blog” question is asked in forums it usually doesn’t take long for someone to reply with, “Content is king.” Really? Is content king? All websites have content - even the dancing hamsters is content. I would submit to you that giving people what they want is truly king. If that be content, then have relevant content. If it’s driving directions, then give good directions. If it’s discount prices on jewelry, then have quality jewelry at low prices. If it’s nude pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt then she best not be wearing clothes. And if people want to see dancing hamsters, then give it to them - give the people what they want.

There’s a reason your visitors came to your site. Are you fulfilling their expectations? If people visit your blog one day and you’re talking about PHP coding techniques but the next time they visit your blog you are reviewing the movie you saw over the weekend, you may find yourself having a hard time building a steady core of followers.

It’s not that you can’t do that with your blog; you can. That’s exactly what I do with my personal blog. I blog about anything I feel like blogging about: movies, music, Jennifer Love Hewitt, whatever. The problem is that blogs like that have no niche to fill. With no niche you have no target audience. That’s ok, if you don’t want expansive audience.

Give people what they want and do it consistently. Being a one-hit-wonder in a band or in blogging is not a good thing. I take that back, being a one-hit-wonder in a band can still make you millions these days, but in blogging it’s no good. Try and have quality content on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be daily, just on a regular basis. You may decide to post once a week or twice a week, whatever, just be consistent. If you post three times a week for a month then that’s what your audience will come to expect.

I would encourage you to post quality over quantity. Don’t post just for the sake of posting. If everybody else has covered the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone then you may want to let it go. Ask yourself, “What can I bring to the table?” If you can take an angle that you feel hasn’t been covered then by all means, continue, but if you are just going to post a “me too” post, skip it.

Give people what they want and do it consistently. You do that and people will visit you – and – continue to visit you.

One Post at a Time

“One post at a time…” I never said that the post had to be on your own blog! Get out there and visit other people’s blogs. Be friendly and comment. I visit about half a dozen blogs a day, I usually comment about four times a day. Again, don’t just post for the sake of posting, have something to say.

If you’re just going to post something like, “Hello, nice blog, please visit my blog”, then skip it. Try and contribute something to the conversation at hand. If you can’t do that, then maybe you should not be in the business of blogging.

Also, commenting on other blogs is a great way to sharpen your blogging tongue. I often find myself returning to my own blog spurred on by something I read on another blog. I will often comment and then expand upon my comment back in a new post on my own blog.

It also needs to be said that if you are going to comment for the sole purpose of trying to appease the search engines, you can skip it. Most blogs add the no-follow tag to links there by neutralizing the value of the link to the search engines. So once again, bring something to the table.

There’s no quick fix for promoting your blog. It takes work, good old fashioned blue-collar work. If you like your blog’s topic enough then there’s a good chance you won’t mind putting in the time and it won’t feel like work at all. Making a successful blog starts with one post at a time.

Blog Rush Traffic Building Service

2008-01-04T01:05:00.000-08:00

promote your blog is a free and most effective way to advertise your site. With quality content in your articles you will not only receive traffic to your site but also a lot of backs links. The back links will cause the search engines to notice you and send even more traffic as they consider this as the popularity of your site.

Placing your articles in article directories gives you the opportunity to have your articles republished on other websites which can create another flow of traffic to your blog. Between 400 and 600 words is a good length for a marketable article. Most people don't have the time to read a really long article, but if your content is compelling enough a longer article could be beneficial.

When writing your articles to be put in article directories you can use your author's bio to place your URL to direct people to your site. You need to make sure that your articles relate to the theme of your blog or these people will be disappointed and will not come back. The search engines would also not be happy if your article was about back pain and your blog's them is internet marketing. You don't want to disappoint the search engines! They are your key to building a successful blog.

If you can't write, you can outsource your article writing to people who can write. You can just consider this as part of your advertising expenses. Articles written for you can be as low as $5.00 each but usually you will get a better quality article by paying more for it. Doing a search on Google will bring you your pick of article writers in many different price ranges.

The content that you already have on your blog can be utilized to generate traffic by turning it into articles. Group together two or more of your posts to make a good article and submit it to the article directories. If you are worried about duplicate content, then you can do some minor rewriting and have some fresh articles to submit.

You can place Google Adsense on your blog for your article marketing traffic to click on and bring you some income. Your Adsense ads will be relevant to your theme and therefore your targeted traffic will be more likely to click on the ads. Google pays a certain percentage to the owner of the blog every time an ad is clicked by a visitor.

1. Mr. Ploppy’s Monday Tool List - Volume XXXIII - Weblog Promotion Tools
Last January, Mr. Poppy pulled together an organizaed list. It works well to frame research into the promotion playing field.

2. The Thinking Blog has an outstanding guide to promotion.
Ilker points out that it’s the posts that count not the blog itself. Ideally, the simple act of blogging in and of itself would attract enough traffic to please the author but there are cases in which more is better.

3. 21 Ways to Promote Your Startup Business
This article on starting a business offers 21 venues for promotion, many of which are also useful in promoting a blog.

4. How to spend $1,000 promoting your established site.
TDavid has a wealth of information about growint readership, without and without investing cash. Now that the $1,000 is gone, there are still many little things you can do to promote your site that will cost you time, but not necessarily any out of pocket dollars. [via Newsome.org]

5. SEO Tips: Increase Page Rank By Revitalizing Your Old Posts
Writing at the Blog Herald, Lorelle explains how to Increase Pank Rank and Ad Vitality and Traffic Interest in Archieved Posts

6. Best blog promotion techniques
SEO Blog offers another list of basics perfect for new bloggers.

7. My blog promotion advice for Ali in India
Aakash Sharma has developed an acronym that makes the basics easy to remember.

8. Blog Promotion: What makes sense for you ?
Scot Herrick explains what to consider when choosing the promotional techniques most appropriate for our unique situations.

9. Offline Blog Promotion Ideas - It’s All About Branding
Blogger.com offers a list of ways to get known in our home towns. While online should be where most of your promotion efforts should focus on, do not overlook the opportunity to do some promotions off line. When done correctly, they can be more effective than your online promotions.

10. Using Video to Promote Your Business
Zeppelin Media Blog explains the structure of using video to promote a business. Becky McCray from Small Biz Survival gave me the inspiration to extend the conversation she started over at her blog. Be sure to start there! [link follows] . . . Specifically, I wanted to mention some ideas for using video that would help any business or organization.

11. How to use video to promote your small business
Any small business could use simple online videos for promotion. Video builds relationships and can be very persuasive. You can make simple videos with just your digital camera and some free software. Need some inspiration for how to use it?

12. How To Use Community-Driven Blog Promotion For Your Blog
I Help You Blog suggests that we have our community help us too. Community-driven blog promotion is the term I use for describing any technique a blogger uses to promote his or her blog and that involves getting a blog’s readers to do something that will result in greater exposure for that blog.

13. 10 Techniques I Used To Go From 0 To 12,000 RSS Subscribers In Seven Months - With No Ads Or Leverage
Trent Hamm explains how he did just that. I launched The Simple Dollar at the very end of October 2006. I had no pre-existing blog that I could use to drive early traffic, nor did I have any personal contacts that I could use. I also had zero advertising budget. But by June 2007, I had 12,000 RSS readers

14. Blog Promotion 101
Tristan from Blogopoly guest posts on problogger with 10 points to review.

15. Webmaster Forum > Blogging
Webmastertalk.com Webmaster Forum covers the topic from many angles.

16. Blog Archive Promotion To-Do List
One from me on how to use your archives to promote your blog.

17. Promotion, self-promotion and [insert ad here]
Seth’s take on a variety of free ways to promote a blog.

18. 42 Methods for Blog Promotion???
Web Analytics world sets the SEOmoz and Aviva suggestions side by side.

19. 5 Surefire Steps To Increase Readership 300% (or more)
Ryan Caldwell gets right to it with a focus on increasing readership in ways that count.

20. 7 Great Ways to Connect with Other Bloggers While You’re Out Reading Blogs
One of my favorites from my own blog. The title says everything.