How to Blog, SEO Optimization, Twitter

As mentioned in our Skills of a Blogger post. One of the essential skills of any blogger is basic HTML knowledge. HTML has been around a long time and is easy to learn and use. You do not need an exhaustive amount of knowledge in this area just enough to get you through the standard rituals that all bloggers go through on a daily basis.

Continue Reading.

7 Must-Visit Blogger Template Resources

• Mashable offers 70 free blogger templates, plus they’ve also had a few posts in the past with more templates.
• Blogger Buster is an excellent resource for those who use the Blogger platform. The post linked here lists 125 free Blogger templates for your perusal.
• Btemplates.com is a huge Blogger template resource site with templates organized by number of columns, theme (like “elegant”), color, and so on.
• Blogger Templates is a clean and simple web site featuring nice templates for the Blogger platform.
• Our Blogger Templates provides tons of different templates for you to choose from ranging from simple to complex to graphic based.
• Eblog Templates provides both free Wordpress themes as well as free Blogger templates. They have over 300 blog templates currently available.
• BlogspotTemplate.com has over 100 templates available to use for your Blogger blog.
• Final Sense is a huge resource for those looking for a new Blogger template–hundreds!

Anyone can be a blogger, but some people are better skilled at this than others. These skills can be obtained by anyone, but if you are lucky enough to be skilled in these areas you will be on the quick track to a successful blog!

Essential Blogging Skills

Writing

You have to be at least a coherent writer. I know I’m not the greatest writer so I’ve taken english classes to help move me in the right direction. If you have a tough time with grammar or sentence structure than taking a class or two at the local Junior College can be greatly beneficial. There are also web sites available to help you in this area:

• Grammar Girl
• Lousy Writer

Being an engaging and competent writer is probably the most important skill you can have as a blogger.

Passion

If you don’t have passion for your blogging niche or topic than you are going to struggle to find the inspiration to write posts and make your blog the best it can possibly be. A lot of people start blogs just to make money and this is a mistake. While making money can be one of the reasons to start a blog, it shouldn’t be the only reason. Blog about something you love, or something you are interested in. Don’t just blog about a topic because you think it has the potential to make you money.

Learn what else you need to be a successful blogger! Continue Reading.

What Statistical Provider to Use & How to Use Them

There are a variety of different sites and programs offering to track and provide you with statistical data. It is daunting, but there are a few key ones that are can be considered industry standard. Some of them are more useful than others, but other times it may depend on your industry.

Alexa used to be an often-cited metric/statistic — your Alexa rank. Alexa ranks and tracks website from users that use their Toolbar. Your Alexa rank is where your web site ranks in terms of traffic/popularity/reach out of all websites. One reason Alexa ranking is not necessarily an important metric is because some web site owners have found a way to trick the mechanism and create a higher than accurate ranking. Another reason is that not enough is known about the Alexa Toolbar population, which means we cannot infer whether it is a normal population or not. There may be bias, which would lead to less accurate results. In my particular industry–beauty–I don’t think many know how to fake Alexa ranking, so I still do keep an eye on my Alexa ranking.

Compete is a web traffic analysis service that provides its service via their toolbar for users, ISPs, etc. According to Wikipedia, Compete has 2 million members as of 2008. One downfall in Compete is that it is often inaccurate for web administrators. For instance, this is the least accurate for my primary blog–by leaps and bounds.

ComScore is a professional tool used by industry big wigs, media relations, public relations, etc. They measure the internet audience by industry and provide key statistics, demographics, and other metrics. They also provide other consulting services, depending on your need. Most people will not be using ComScore themselves, but you might find yourself asked to assign your ComScore traffic to another media entity (many advertising networks make this a requirement). This allows them to include your web site’s traffic into theirs as one big entity.

Google Analytics is likely to be the go-to for site statistics, both on a personal/user level, but also by professionals. Whenever I am asked for proof of my web statistics, I’m asked for my Google Analytics report. I also find that Google Analytics offers just about everything I need to know about my site, from where people click to how many pageviews each post is receiving in a month or day or hour.

Quantcast is similar to Compete, but they do not utilize a toolbar in order to gather statistics about web sites. Web administrators are able to get their site “quantified” by installing the analytics tracking code on their web site, which allows for more accurate measurement by Quantcast. Quantcast also provides extensive data regarding your site’s demographics, wihch can be useful, especially when selling your own advertising.

Sitemeter is a popular web statistics provider, but unfortunately, I have always found it to offer rather inflated statistics. It offers all of the basic statistics (like visitors, pageviews, etc.)

Find out which ones I use and why… Continue Reading.

Web Statistics 101: An Introduction

What Are Web Statistics

Web statistics are descriptive metrics about your site, its visitors, content, browsability, and the like.  Web statistics can be as simple as tracking how many people visit your page to as detailed as tracking what kind of internet connection those people are using to view your site.

Why Stats Matter

Statistics matter because they tell you a story about your site.  You can chart your blog’s growth by having months of statistical data to see how, where, and when your visitors are coming from.  If you want to see what kind of search terms people use to find your site, you can get that information.  If you’re wondering if a big site has linked you, statistical data will often provide you with those details.

A secondary point is that other companies and networks utilize web statistics in order to create deals, contracts, and opportunities with you.  If you want to join an advertising network, you’ll often be asked for your site statistics–especially if you’re looking to cut a better deal.

Find out what are some key statistics and what they mean! Continue Reading.

Why You Should Spend More Time Thinking About Your Topic

When you start your blog (or even if you’re trying to finetune or reinvent it), the topic is something people don’t always give enough attention to.   If you’re truly just writing for yourself, friends, and family, then this isn’t a post for you.  In that case, just keep truckin’.  If you’re looking to build a name for yourself, maybe even earn a little money on the side…

Research the topic you want to blog about. Don’t just dive in head first.  It’s important that you recognize what kind of environment you’re about to get into.  You’ll want to assess just how saturated the niche is already.  For example, my primary niche is beauty, and at this point, it is a fairly saturated market.  The more saturated the market, the harder it is to breakthrough.  On the other end of the spectrum, perhaps your topic is too micro and there might not be a large enough audience to make it worth your time.

If the topic you want already has a lot of blogs… think about how you can make your topic more specific, more niche-driven.  My expertise is in beauty, so you’ll find many of my examples are from that niche.  Instead of having a blog just on beauty, why not do a blog only on skincare or only on makeup?  What about a blog that is written from a mom-on-the-go’s perspective?  You want to narrow your niche, or else you need to find a way (an “angle”) that makes you stand out from other bloggers.

If the topic you want already has few to zero blogs… expand your topic.  So, you wanted to blog on golf balls.  All right, a little too narrow, yeah?  If you know enough to blog as an expert on golf balls, why not include more golf equipment, too?  You don’t have to jump from golf balls to everything golf, you just have to find a way to embody what you want with similar things (that you can talk about).

Get three more reasons why topic is a big deal! Continue Reading.

5 Tricks to Better Managing Your Time

It’s a busy world, and we are all pressed for time.  Especially in a recession, things start piling up at work as you end up doing your job plus some.  Here are some ideas to help better manage your time!

Write down a list of all the things you have to do. You’ll want to keep the list to daily chores/work tasks and the like, just a running list of the things you think you need to get done everyday.  Prioritize your list, and then you’ll find you can probably eliminate the last 2-3.  Stop doing them and see if anyone misses them.  (If they do, clearly they’re more important than you thought.)

Recruit friends/family. If you can, look to your closest friends and family (especially if any are skilled writers!).  See if they can fill in with a post every now and again.  You can use them as a sounding board, too, or ask them for post ideas if they share your interest.  Not everyone wants to blog, but they may have some fantastic ideas for topics and ideas you should write.

Make a to-do list. You should have one, since you prioritized your daily to-do activities, but nevertheless, you should come up with a to-do list, even for your blog.  I find whenever I make a to-do list for the day, I am infinitely more productive.  It feels so good to cross things off your list as you do them, and this way you’re also prioritizing what you need to get done.

Save up similar tasks and do them together. My blog involves a lot of product reviews, so one way to streamline some of the nitty gritty details of reviews is that I save up and take photos of several products, rather than just one at a time.  This way I can also upload, crop, resize, etc. a whole bunch of photos in one sitting.  This also means that, should I have extra time (ha!), I’ll have the photos ready for a review, too.

Tell your friends/family about your blog. Your blog shouldn’t embarass you, especially when it comes to your good friends and family.  Let them know about what you’re doing, and then maybe you’ll feel better about saying, “You know, I just can’t stay out until 2am tonight, I’d really like to blog a bit!”

Design is a very important aspect of your blog. First impressions are everything, and a lot of the time you aren’t going to get a chance to make a second one. While I don’t believe that design is everything it is important to portray a personal yet business touch to your blog.

Tips About Choosing a Theme

Simple Everything

Choose simple colors, a simple layout, and a simple graphics. Blogs are known for ease of use and navigation. It is important to not get anything too fancy, or something that is too bright or loud. You want to draw your reader in not repel them away. Stick to the basics.

Versatility

Keep in mind that the theme you choose isn’t going to look nearly as good when you get done with it. This isn’t an insult, this is a cold reality! When you get done plugging in your logo, ads, blogroll, and various sidebar widgets, you are going to be looking at a collage of disarray. Make sure to visualize how the site will look when you get done with it and not how it looks now.

It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect

Right out of the gate your blog is going to be small and relatively unknown. You are in a building phase and the design of your blog does not have to be perfect. When you experience growth and success down the line this will be the time to hire yourself a designer and get serious about the look of your blog. For now, just get the cleanest and most usable theme you can.

Free Wordpress Theme Sites

Wordpress’s Theme Index

This site is run by the people who made wordpress. Which is surprising because it is not laid out in the greatest of manners. It has a lot of functional designs and a Most Popular Theme section that helps filter out the riff raff.

Smashing Magazine 100 Free Wordpress Themes

Smashing Magazine is a quality resource for any would be web designers. They have featured 100 free wordpress themes for your viewing pleasure.

Wordpress Themes 360

Wordpress Themes 360 has a great layout of many wordpress themes for your perusal. It also features a most popular list and an easy to follow navigation.

4 Easy Ways to Start Monetizing Your Blog

Monetizing your blog merely means that you’re looking for ways to start to earn some money from all of your blogging efforts.  While some may call themselves purists/idealists and only blog for the love of it and refuse to run advertising of any kind, many others love it and strive to make it a real-job possibility.  The best kind of job is the job you love, so there is no shame in wanting to make money from a blog all about your favorite subject!

Affiliate Networks. Affiliate networks such as Commission Junction, ConnectCommerce, Linkshare, ShareASale, etc. are all great opportunities to sync up with major retailers.  Some programs require you to apply, other programs you’re in from the get-go, but either way you can become an affiliate of a major retailer (e.g. Overstock.com).  Once you’re an affiliate, you can run banner or link advertising as well as you can merely link to products you’ve reviewed that can be found on an affiliated site.  This way, when someone clicks on that link, you can get a small commission should they make a purchase, too.

Advertising Networks. There are several established advertising networks that you can sign contracts with, and they will take your advertising inventory, sell it as part of their network, and then ads will run on your site.   Just be cautioned that many major advertising networks take large cuts (e.g. 50%) of the revenue.  This is just an easy way to monetize your blog without having to sell your own ad space.

Participate in Google AdSense. Sometimes you’re not ready for an advertising network, and Google AdSense is one of the easiest ways to start running some advertising and see what kind of money you can make.  It’s easy to sign up for, even easier to run, and you can track your earnings daily.

Sell your own ad space. It doesn’t have to be for a lot, and you don’t have to be aggressive about it either.  You can just put up a dummy ad that says “Ad Space Available” or “Your Ad Here,” and then you can have your rates in a file, ready to go, should someone inquire.

6 Things You Should Be Doing to Leverage Your Audience

One of the best parts about blogging is that it is a two-way conversation.  It’s not just about what you have to say, it’s about the feedback your readers can leave you.  It’s about creating a dialogue with your readers, amongst them, and within your community as a whole.

Invite them to comment. Readers have something to offer you, too.  You might be an expert in your niche, but many of your readers have great insights to offer you to complement your own writing and knowledge.

Always be open to taking questions. Running a beauty blog naturally creates an environment where questions can be asked, and I love to answer them.  It gives me purpose and cements the blog and myself as someone readers can go to for the knowledge and answers they want.  Even if I don’t know the answer, I can still refer them to another source, or another reader might have the answer.  One way to do this, specifically, is to have a weekly/monthly Q&A session.

Get their honest feedback. Your audience is likely a major reason why you blog.  You should want to serve them better, and the best way to do this is to get some real feedback about your performance, the blog itself, what they like, what they’d like to see in the future, etc.  You can create surveys using a variety of third-party services, plugins, etc., and then allow readers to submit them anonymously, so you can get the best feedback possible.

Get three more tips on leveraging your audience! Continue Reading.