Blogging 101

Wikipedia definition.

RSS definition.

How to explain RSS the Oprah way

Good overview on blogging (terms) on WordPress.org

Feedburner - used to track all of your RSS and email subscribers.

Technorati top bloggers.

Technorati Tags: blog definition, RSS, blogging, feedburner, top bloggers

1. It’s Easy. Sure there are some programs out there that make setting up a website pretty simple. But they still take time. You can literally have a blog up and running in about 30-minutes!
2. Blogs are a great way to create a web presence even if you know you’re going to be launching a traditional site in the future.
3. Blogs make it very easy to add content to your site.
4. Blogs get “seen” by search engines much faster than traditional sites.
5. Search engines love the continuously updated content on a blog – assuming you continuously update your blog, of course!
6. Blogs allow you to connect with your visitors. Blogs are dynamic, an ongoing conversation, a two-way relationship. Traditional websites are static, one-way conversations. With blogs you talk with your visitors. With websites you talk to your visitors.
7. It’s much easier to manage content with a blog. A traditional, static website is clunky and cumbersome when it comes to content. Sure, dynamic websites can manage content well, but they tend to be expensive and difficult to set up.
8. With a blog you can get incoming links fairly easily. It tends to be more difficult to get good incoming links to static sites.
9. Because you’re always adding quality content (right!) your visitors always have a compelling reason to come back.
10. Blogs make it very easy for you to invite other “experts” to contribute content.

Technorati Tags: blog platform, advantages of blogs, choosing a blog

Blogging Tips for Beginners from Problogger

Free Blogging Video Tutorial

113 Blogging Tips – might answer many questions you have, also lots of how-to articles

95 More Tips – from the ProBlogger community

Video Tutorials – on blogging, WordPress, html, web and more

Technorati Tags: learning to blog, blogging for beginners, blogging tips, blogging videos

Problogger article on choosing a platform and selecting a domain name for your blog

Wordpress.org - Self-hosted

Wordpress.com – Hosted

WordPress.com Beginner Resources

Typepad.com - Hosted

Blogger.com – Hosted

Setting Up a Blog with Blogger.com – Tutorial

Blog Software Comparison Chart

Technorati Tags: blog platform, blog hosts, hosted, self-hosted, WordPress, Blogger, Typepad

Bluehost – Highly recommended by me and WordPress! Quick WordPress setup. Award Winning Customer Service.

Namesecure - Get your domain name.

Wordpress hosting – WordPress recommended hosts.

Slicehost.com - For when you need to upgrade to a Virtual Private Server!

ServInt.net – When you want to upgrade to a dedicated or virtual private server. Has an easy upgrade path to keep up with the growth of your traffic.

NameBoy – Domain Name generator based on keywords entered.

WhoIs – Who owns that domain name you want?

Technorati Tags: hosting, domain, domain name, domain search, Bluehost, Namesecure, Slicehost, ServInt, NameBoy, WhoIs

WordPress Documentation

WordPress FAQ

How to Install WordPress Manually

Technorati Tags: WordPress, WordPress installation, WordPress documentation

WordPress theme viewer - free themes

Cutline Theme that I use for eCoachBiggi and RidgeviewTech

Brian Gardner - News Styles themes – premium themes

WP Remix – WPDesigner premium theme

WP Templates – 7 places to start looking for WordPress themes from ProBlogger

Technorati Tags: WordPress, WordPress themes

Plugin Directory for WordPress

Problogger blog tools post

Must-have WordPress Plugins

Top 30 WordPress Plugins

Technorati Tags: WordPress, WordPress plugins, WordPress widgets, blog tools

Overview and extensive list of clients for different platforms

Windows Live Writer – this is the client I use

WLW Blog - learn what’s new with Windows Live Writer

BlogJet

Technorati Tags: blog client, BlogJet, Windows Live Writer

Free FTP client and how to use it

Technorati Tags: ftp client, FileZilla, WordPress

1. Business Cards: You do have business cards, right? And your web address is prominently displayed thereon, correct?
2. Letterhead and Envelopes. Put your web address right under your postal address, both on your letterhead and in the return address area of your envelopes or labels.
3. Brochures, Flyers and Postcards: Anything you send out to clients or post on bulletin boards should have your web address clearly visible.
4. Newsletters: Do you send a printed newsletter to your client base? If so, this is a prime opportunity to drive traffic to your site. Include a statement such as, “You’ll find much more information about this topic at our web site.” Or, “Read the complete interview online at: www.”
5. Outgoing voicemail message: One great way to get people to your website is to let them know about it when they get your voicemail. “Hello this is A-Z Plumbing. Please leave a message after the beep, and remember, answers to many commonly asked questions about our services can be found on our website at www.AtoZplumbing.com”
6. Retail shop signage: If you have a “bricks & mortar” shop in addition to your online presence, by all means, promote your website at your shop. You never know when someone’s cousin in Tuscaloosa will need the unique little eyeglass neck hangers that only your shop carries. You might have business cards or better yet, postcards available at the checkout counter promoting your website. You can also put your web address on your “shingle” if you’re a service professional.
7. Signage at trade shows and conferences: If you sell products, services, or offer educational materials at trade shows and conferences, this is a prime time for web promotion.
8. Handouts at workshops, seminars and talks: Do you teach, speak, lead groups or have other opportunities to get in front of a group of people? If so, you have a prime opportunity for plugging your website. Make sure you have something to hand out and make sure that your web address is listed on the handout.
9. Fax cover sheets: Even if you’re sending a fax that is unrelated to your business, you never know when someone on the other end might be intrigued by your domain name and click on over to your site when they sit back down at their desk.
10. Print Ads: If you advertise your business in newspapers, magazines, the yellow pages or other print mediums, make sure that you include your web address.
11. Promotional Products: Magnets to go on your clients’ fridges, pens for the check out counter, t-shirts, hats, Frisbees: All of these can be fun promotional products. And all of them should have your web address clearly visible. Vehicle Signage: If you own a business vehicle with signage make sure that your web address is listed right there next to your phone number.

Technorati Tags: blog traffic, promoting blog, offline traffic sources

1. Organic Search Engine Optimization.
   See the post on Top 10 SEO Techniques.
2. Submit articles to online article directories.
   This is one of the most effective free methods for generating site traffic. See the Article Directory Listings.
3. Add a “tell-a-friend” script to your site.
   Make it easy for your clients and customers to tell their network about you. Remember there is no better marketing than word of mouth.
4. Start a blog.
   Blogs are a great way to generate content fast. The search engines love them. And they encourage interaction and participation from your clients and prospects.
5. Post comments on related blogs.
   And speaking of blogs, get into the habit of interacting with other bloggers out there. The Blogosphere is an incredibly dynamic space these days. You’re bound to find a few blogs that are related to your products and/or services.
6. Join online communities and/or Social Networking Sites.
   Online communities are springing up all over the web. And they are a great source of information, inspiration and connection. When you join, be prepared to invest some time in cultivating relationships with other members of the group and adding value to the community. See the Traffic Building Techniques – Social Bookmarking list.
7. Join online discussion groups related to your business and post to the forum on a regular basis.
   Forums and other online communities are wonderful arenas for establishing your “expert” status. And while they are not the place to overtly market yourself, when you make consistently quality posts other forum members will naturally be drawn to your website – they’ll know about it from your email signature… right?
8. Provide testimonials for services and products on sites that offer a link back to your website.
   Most websites that ask for testimonials will provide a link back to your website. This is a great way to increase your incoming links.
9. Exchange links with related and reputable websites.
   The key here is related and reputable. No link farms please. And a link from Joe’s auto body shop to your massage therapy site will probably not count for much.
10. Send out an e-zine at least once a month.
    Consistent quality communication is the key. If you offer your clients and prospects something of value on a regular basis, they will reward you by remaining loyal and referring their friends.

Technorati Tags: blog traffic, promoting blog, online traffic sources, SEO, article submission, forums, discussions groups

List of 80 quality article directories with page rank and information on how to submit

Extensive list of article directories with registration and submission links

Technorati Tags: article directory listing, article directories

Claim Your Blog at Technorati – one of the first things you should do after starting your blog.

Read how to get started with your Technorati account.

Building Your Fan Club - Copyblogger

Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies - doshdosh

Technorati Tags: blog traffic, blog marketing, Technorati

10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog - Problogger.

Proof that commenting on blogs still works to drive traffic. - Entrepreneur’s Journey.

Guide to Weblog Comments - Lifehacker

Here are examples of great commenters/community builders.

Brian Clark

Liz Strauss

Dawud Miracle

Technorati Tags: blog comments, building traffic with comments

Social Bookmarking sites have the potential to drive huge amounts of traffic to your blog.

Wikipedia Definition of Social Media - includes bookmarking, networking, etc.

Wikipedia Definition of Social Bookmarking

Wikipedia List of Social Networking Websites

Good list of all the “movers and shakers” in the social networking and Web 2.0 world

Problogger’s Social Media Category

Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing - doshdosh

Get traffic and attention from Social Media users – doshdosh

Good site for information on Social Bookmarking. - Pronet Advertising

How To Use Web 2.0 and Social Media Sites to Market Your Business - podcast

Technorati Tags: social media, social bookmarking, blog traffic, blog marketing

StumbleUpon is the social bookmarking site that I recommend you begin with. Spend some time getting to know the site, install the toolbar, connect with some other members, give a thumbs up to sites that you like.

Stumbleupon.com. Sign up here and download the toolbar for IE or Firefox.

Stop by and say “hi” to me. One thing to note is that, unlike other Social Bookmarking sites, Stumbleupon has a limit of 200 friends. So, while you do want to make friends, you want to be a bit selective. If a person befriends you, check out their profile and make sure that they have enough in common that you would really want to be friends, or at least would be interested in checking out their stumbles.

How to make your StumbleUpon profile stand out - SocialDesire

A comprehensive guide to Stumbleupon - Dosh Dosh

StumbleUpon, you’ve stumbled into my heart - SEOMoz

How to draw StumbleUpon users to your blog - Problogger

The power of the Stumble - Dana Walert

Technorati Tags: social media, social bookmarking, blog traffic, blog marketing, StumbleUpon

Digg.com

Add me as your friend.

Beginner’s Guide to Digg.

Tips for Building a Digg Culture.

Digg Category on Pronet Advertising.

Technorati Tags: social media, social bookmarking, blog traffic, blog marketing, DIGG

1. Know who you are attracting to your site and why.
   You’ve done your research. You know who your ideal clients / customers are. You do know who your target audience is. Right? Now you’re ready to create pages to attract them.
2. Know what Keywords and Phrases you are optimizing each page for.
   If you know and understand the people that you are optimizing for, it should be a fairly easy process to determine the keywords that will attract them. Refer to the Keyword Research Tools post to begin the process of finding the right keywords.
3. Optimize your site for your human visitors first, robots and spiders second.
   Great placement in the search engine listings means nothing if, when a visitor comes to your site they can’t find what they’re looking for or have a hard time reading your content. Make sure that every page has a clearly defined topic. Don’t try to cram too much information – or too many keywords into one page.
4. Content: Quality and Quantity Count.
   The search engine spiders are remarkably adept at recognizing quality content when they see it. And this quality content also encourages visitors to spend more time on your site and come back for more. But with the search engines, especially Google, quantity is also critical. Google loves sites with lots of quality content. And it loves sites that regularly add and update content.
5. Use Your Meta Tags.
   The power of meta tags has been somewhat reduced lately. But many, if not most, Search Engines still take them into consideration when ranking your page. So make sure you’ve got a Title tag with your primary keyword/phrase in it. Include a unique Description tag for each page as well as a unique list of Keywords.
6. Make sure the Spiders and Bots can navigate your site.
   If you use fancy bells and whistles on your site – Flash, JavaScript, frames, forms, etc. – be sure to include alternative means for search engine spiders to navigate your site and be sure to let them “know” what is contained in the elements they can’t “see.”
7. Generate a site map for your visitors and for Google.
   You may never use sitemaps, but there are lots of folks who do. So make nice and create one for them. You never know who is going to turn into a great customer or client. And while you’re at it, create a sitemap for Google. It’s a great way to get a new site listed more quickly and to get your site additions and updates spidered more efficiently.
8. Use <Alt> tags for your images.
   This is a great way to get a few extra keywords into your page. It’s also a web design “best practice” to ensure that your site is accessible to site impaired visitors as well as visitors who have turned off graphics – yes there are some folks that turn off site graphics!
9. Use keywords in your page names and / or domain name.
   URLs are searchable and searched by the spiders. And they give some weight to keywords in URLs. So if you’re selling massage tables and you can get the domain name www.massagetables.com that would be a very good thing. If not, you can create a page within your site that is named massagetables.html. If your domain name was www.xyzenterprise.com the URL of that page would www.xyzenterprise.com/massagetables.html. Not bad from an SEO perspective. Plus it clearly lets visitors know what the page is about - a double bonus.
10. Get incoming links to your site.
    The key here is related and reputable. No link farms please. And a link from Joe’s auto body shop to your massage therapy site will probably not count for much. If you have valuable information, you should be able to get some good links. As you search the web keep track of sites that you think could benefit from linking to yours and send a well-written email to the webmaster of the site explaining why a link to your site would benefit their visitors.

Technorati Tags: SEO, search engine optimization, SEO for blogs

Top 5 Keyword Suggestion Tools

Overture Keyword Selector Tool

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

WordTracker - Free Trial or subscription.

SEO Tools from SEOBook.com

HitTail is a product that reveals in real time which keywords people use to find your website.

Technorati Tags: SEO, search engine optimization, SEO for blogs, Overture, Google Adwords

Here are some resources on SEO specifically for blogs.

Aaron Wall’s SEOBook - a much respected ebook on SEO. I highly recommend it! Aaron also has a blog.

SEO Tools - free tools, also from Aaron Wall.

SEO for blogs - Problogger.

Here’s the WordPress plugin I use - All in one SEO.

How to use The All in One SEO Pack

Free Guide to Learning Search Engine Optimization

Step by Step Instructions for Search Engine Optimization, plus free PDF

List of Blog Directories

Search Engine Optimization for Bloggers - podcast

Technorati Tags: SEO, search engine optimization, SEO for blogs

How to make money from your blog - Steve Pavlina

Top 7 Monetization methods - Entrepreneur’s Journey

How To Make Money Blogging - doshdosh

A comprehensive list of articles on blog monetization from Problogger.

Especially check out this article on Direct methods, and this one on Indirect Methods.

Also read this article from Copyblogger on Indirect methods.

Google AdSense

Chitika eMiniMalls – must receive at least 10,000 monthly page views to apply

TextLinkAds – Warning! Google might not like these. Please do some research first.

Technorati Tags: make money blogging, blog income, monetize your blog

How to find affiliate programs for your blog.

Amazon Associates.

ClickBank.

Commission Junction.

Shareasale.

CafePress.

Technorati Tags: affiliate programs, list of affiliate programs, blogging income, monetize your blog, make money blogging

THE Resource on blog copywriting is Brian Clark at Copyblogger.com. He is especially effective at teaching how to write excellent headlines.

Also see Copywriting 101 on Copyblogger

Here’s a good Problogger article on 10 Tips for writing a blog post.

Here’s a good article from A List Apart on How to write a better weblog.

How to Write Excellent Blog Content – by ProBlogger (also follow links to related articles on this page – they are short but to the point)

Top 5 Tips Writing for Blogs

Technorati Tags: blog writing, improve writing skills, writing tips, writing headlines

Building a Better Blog

7 Essential WordPress Hacks Video Series

Learn To Think Like A Blogger

An Introduction to Using Images on Blogs

Technorati Tags: better blog, improve blog, add images to blog

I am recommending two books below for the beginning blogger. I am sure even the advanced user can pick up a new trick or two.

These two books should get you on your way to blogging success quickly! I recommend you get them soon, since they are so current and will include the latest information and blog software versions.

Blogging for Dummies is just being released today!

Amazon.com: Blogging For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))

From the Back Cover

Express yourself, build your business, or promote a cause

Make your blog stand out in a crowd, build an audience, and even make it pay

Whether you’re just finding out about blogs or you’ve been blogging for a while and are curious about podcasting or videoblogging, you can find answers in this book! Get the scoop on software options and how to boost readership, handle comments, make money with ads and sponsorships, add audio or video, and much more.

Discover how to:

• Create and maintain a blog that draws readers
• Protect your privacy and your job
• Deal with spam and inappropriate comments
• Find your niche
• Use your blog to promote your business

WordPress for Dummies is only two months old!

Amazon.com: WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

From the Back Cover
Includes coverage of WordPress MU community software

Create a hosted, self-hosted, or multi-user blog, explore plugins, and more.

WordPress is powerful software known for helping bloggers share their thoughts online. Whether you want to set up a blog in the WordPress community, add a blog in the WordPress community, add a blog to another site, or build your own blogging community, this book shows how WordPress can help. With this book, you’ll soon be navigating WordPress templates plugins, and themes with no problem.

Discover how to:

• Personalize WordPress settings
• Understand common template tags
• Manage and moderate comments
• Deal with spam and trackback
• Troubleshoot common problems

Technorati Tags: blogging book, WordPress book, for dummies computer book, learn to blog, learn WordPress