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13 Quick Tips And Tricks To Get You Started Blogging
Yesterday I posted some resources to help you get started and find content. These aren’t quite resources but definitely things to consider when you are starting your blog.
1. Put your contact information on the blog. Everyone wants to know who you are – don’t hide behind anonymity even if you’re using a pen name. You may not want to add a contact page (plugin at WordPress makes this simple) but you should have an About Me page with name and short bio.
2. If you’re self hosting use a host with a Cpanel and Fantasico to make WordPress installation as easy as filling in a few blanks and clicking a button. If you are using a host that doesn’t have a Cpanel use the tutorials at WordPress to get yourself started. But honestly – you can get hosting for less than $5.00 a month with Cpanel.
3. Once it’s installed change the theme. The default theme is just plain boring. It may have been fine about 5 years ago but today it means you are either too lazy to find something different, don’t know any better or have a blog you didn’t want anyone to find anyway. Type in ‘free WordPress Themes’ in your browser and you’ll find quite a few to chose from. Some of these are more optimized for SEO and have more support than others. Cutline is one theme that also has a forum to help you through customization.
4. Sign up for a free WordPress account at WordPress for your API Key to unlock Akismet. This is a default plugin that will stop the spam comments.
5.Once you have a theme don’t think you are stuck with the graphics. You can actually change the header and other graphics by looking at the properties of the images and recreating an image with the same properties. In other words if the header image found in the image folder is ‘header1.png’ and is 700 X 150 pixels then you can make a new header using the same height and width then save it as a .png and name it Header1.png. Insert it into the theme and voila! your header changes.
6. Once installed with the theme of your choice start posting. And post every day or at least five times a week. If you don’t like the theme – as long as you stick with the some of the same elements – you can change the theme with a click of the mouse and the content stays the same.
7. Spend a few minutes each week to find good keywords for your blog posts. You should have at least one great article a week and the rest can be shorter posts about what’s happening in the industry. Use long tail keywords and watch your posts rank for them in just weeks.
8. Use the News. You should be able to find news stories in most niches to help increase the number of your posts without killing yourself to create content. Set up Google Alerts with your keywords to watch for changes in the news and the industry. Have an opinion and post it. Just be sure you really have that opinion!
9. WordPress will automatically ping your blog if you have it set up in the dashboard of the blog. If you want to ping yourself use Pingoat.com and Pingomatic.com. Pinging lets other services know that you’ve added content to your blog.
10. Use the SEO Plugin for your blog so you can insert tags, descriptions and further optimize the way the blog is read by the search engines.
11. Claim your blog in Technorati and the Blog Directory. Sign up for MyBlogLog and claim your blog there as well.
12. Sign your RSS feed up to Feedburner so you can track the number of new subscribers to your feed – among other nice metrics.
13. Don’t use Adsense to monetize your site. Most people are used to seeing them and unless you have lots of traffic you’re giving people a reason to click off your site. Instead insert your own nicely done “ads” to affiliate products that speak directly to your audience.
Do you have any other suggestions for setting a blog for a new marketer? Leave them here!
Topics: Marketing Ideas | 4 Comments »
September 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
WordPress is a great blogging platform and getting it search engine optimized really isn’t a hard task. Using proper permalinks and robots.txt file to prevent duplicate content and a few other methods can really make a difference. The All in One SEO plugin is really the best bet.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Great call Stephen – I use the All In One SEO plugin and love the ease of use and functionality – and it doesn’t hurt that it’s user friendly for us techno-phobes!
September 12th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Another good point is to put vital info above the fold. You cannot assume that people will scroll down and find a link or resource if it is not in view.
All The best
Alex
September 12th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Blogs are a social platform, so social interaction should be encouraged. Get to know other bloggers in your niche and make relevant (NOT spam) comments on their blogs, link to them when appropriate, and use trackbacks when offered. And ask questions or be controversial to encourage comments on your blog.
Great post. . .thanks Gail!