Archive for May, 2009
How to promote blog comments on your website
Blog comments for me bring a sense of satisfaction to writing. You know someone out there actually read what you wrote and felt interested enough to leave feedback or a response in some way.
Increasing blog comments can also increase traffic to your blog by bringing it to life. Many times you will see whole conversations spawned off in a blogs comments that might not have anything to do with the original post. This is good. It means people are not only reading what you wrote but it has sparked a debate or conversation. This will make readers want to come back the next day to see what is next to talk about.
So how do you increase blog comments? Great question and not an easy answer. Here are some of the suggestions I can throw out there to try and help. I have found these all work to some degree but as no two blogs are alike, not all of these will work for your audience but hopefully one of them will:
- There are the normal ways you can leave a question at the end of your post and hope someone feels motivated enough to write an answer.
- You can try to use some plug-ins which show the top poster on your site
- You should always show the latest comments as a widget in your sidebar
- Give some comment love by using plug-ins such as commentluv which goes and grabs the last blog post from the commenter and leaves a link.
- Ensure your blog is a dofollow blog so that links are created
- Don’t require people to create accounts. Keep it simple, allow them to key in a name, URL and email at most.
- Join blogging groups like blogcatalog and be active in comment swaps (though this are usually not really the types of comments you should want)
- Comment on other people’s blogs that post about similar topics. In many cases this will result in comment back from the blogger.
Have any of you tried these tips? Did they work? Any you would suggest?
![[del.icio.us]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Feed Me Links]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/feedmelinks.png)
![[Google]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Kaboodle]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/kaboodle.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Reddit]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://thebloggingcenter.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
Consider your reader when you layout your blog
When I go to visit a blog or any website for that matter, certain things pop out that annoy the heck out of me. The first thing is a pop up window. I hate pop up windows this includes advertisements or surveys. They are cheap and annoying. For me, if I visit a site with a popup I move on right away. You lost this reader forever.
What is the lesson here? Understand your own likes and dislikes about blog layouts and apply them to your own. Do you see certain things on blogs and think it looks cheap or out of place. Do you have the same thing on your own blog? When you read blogs do certain colors bug your eyes or fonts find hard to read? Are you using these colors?
You are your best judge for what works and does not work for a blog. Always consider the reader experience when you are building your blog. I have found too many bloggers who get money hungry and try cheap tricks to get people to click on advertisements to make money. This is not a long term strategy. You may get that click but the reader will never come back to your site. You want repeat traffic. You want word of mouth to spread about your blog. This means a good reader experience.
When you are making your rounds to various blogs today keep in mind your first impression of their sidebars, content, blog theme layout and overall design then look at your own. Make changes as needed to make your blog more of a user friendly experience.
Increasing blog traffic in 3 easy steps
Traffic I think is one of most popular ways to determine the success of a blog. High traffic blogs tend to get more comments and make more money. Call it just a percentages game that one in ten people might leave a comment or one in one hundred might click on an advertisement. The more you increase traffic to your blog, the more likely these things will happen.
If you are looking to increase traffic to your blog, here are three easy steps you can take to build up your readership.
Join forums and blogs: Go to places that are already getting high traffic and become an active member. Post and comment intelligently. Put a link to your blog in your profile or in your signature. If you make interesting points on the forums and blogs you post in, people will wonder what you are blogging about and that will result in an increase of traffic to your blog.
Check your statistics and post accordingly: Understand how people are finding your blog already is a good way to dictate your future blog posts. If someone found your blog by asking a question on google and your blog does not really address it, make a post about it. For example, if someone googled “what does long tail keywords mean” and found my blog I could review any posts that have that topic. If none properly explain it, then I should write a new blog post describing more detail. This will help increase traffic to my blog by posting on a topic that is already working in my favor.
Post in series: If you are writing about a specific topic or explaining how to do something, break your posts up into 300 or 400 word blog posts and spread them out over a period of days. This is a great way to increase traffic to your blog by making visitors want to return to learn more and you are providing the content in digestible sized articles.
Increasing traffic to a blog is not something done overnight but takes a while to build up a readership. If you keep learning about what works and does not work and study your own traffic patterns you can increase a blog traffic to become a successful brand name.
Filed under Blogging, Traffic and Blogs
What is blogging all about really
Something hit me today. I really wonder why people blog and what is blogging all about really. I mean, writing has been around for ages but before blogging where did all of these people write their thoughts or information they want to share.
Did they keep journals or black and white notebooks filled with pages of notes never read by anyone? Did they keep a diary that is now collecting dust as they share their inner thoughts with the whole world?
What is blogging all about really? It seems that blogging has offered many people a podium to voice something. The something depends on the person and whatever it is they feel passionate about. Maybe politics, maybe the environment or maybe just their day to day life. Whatever it is, blogging has become the dominate way to spread information.
What is blogging all about? Look at newspapers today that can not keep up with the spread of blogging. People want instant information as it happens and they want various voices on one page. Newspapers just can not keep up with the use of RSS feeds and readers and the ability to have updates constantly from any number of online resources where bloggers break news more often then newspapers.
What is blogging all about? Blogging is all about information at fingertips. The problem I see is now making the reader learn the difference between good information and misinformation. Defining creditable resources from the junk someone through on their page to get traffic.
What do you think blogging is really all about?
Filed under Blogging
Four places for you to sign up for free blogging software
If you are just getting started with blogging and want to test the waters, it is a good idea for beginner bloggers to try out free blogging software before they spend too much money.
To set up a blog is not complicated or overly expensive but if you are not technical and do not want to spend money until you are 100% sure blogging is for you, sign up for free blogging software first. Once you have confidence in writing posts, building traffic and managing the technical aspects of blogging, then buy a domain, find a host and create your blog.
In some cases you never really need to leave the free blogging software. If you are creating a personal blog and do not plan on every making money online with your blog then don’t worry about running your own and stick with the free blogging software.
The only key thing to keep in mind is that free blogging software can be limiting on what themes you use, plugins available and overall control of the look and feel. If you are happy with what you find, stick with it. If more freedom is what you need, then go off and host your own.
Here are four places you can go right now and sign up for free blogging software today and be up and running in no time.
Here is a great comparison of Blogger and WordPress. Keep in mind the features and be sure to check out the free blogging software you chose to ensure it has what you are looking for.
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
Can anyone make money online these days blogging
I think it is easy to fall in love with the idea that anyone can make money online, just create a blog and bam! Before you know it, you can retire. This is just not the case even for the top bloggers who have set the example of how anyone can make money online.
The thing to keep in mind when you read the top blogs is that they started their blogs years before the market was flooded. They have been working on making their site SEO friendly for years and have defined exact keywords each post should have to maximize ranking. Month after month for years they have posted comments on other blogs, posted articles in directories and updated content consistently.
After the first six months if you have made no money, do not be surprised. Anyone can make money online it just will not be the six figure months that the top guys have. Not yet. Give yourself seriously years to get there. Set a more reasonable goal such as to cover your heating bill or cable bill each month from blogging. Once you achieve it, add your water bill to the goal.
Often people see the big numbers and do not focus on the small goals needed to get there. The first obvious goal should be to pay for itself. Does your blog pay for its own hosting and domain name? If not, make that goal number one and go from there. Drop the idea of making millions blogging because while anyone can make money online it is a slow process that takes years to get there.
Dig in for the long haul and pay small bills while you get there.
Filed under Blogging, Blogging Tips
