How to Blog Successfully in an ever Changing World

Blogging is easy.  At least it is if you have any interest in writing.  You don't need any other special skills really...... If you just want to blog.

Blogging successfully is a completely different beast all together.  But, what does that really mean? The idea of being a successful  blogger will differ between individuals.  But, in general the essence of what makes a good blogger is the same.  A successful blogger is one who is able to keep up with the times in his or her own demographic.  One who stays a little ahead of everyone else, in order to produce fresh posts that are different from anyone else on the blog.  A successful blogger understands that there is more to blogging than just writing an occasional post.  In fact, that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Using Social Networking to improve Blog Traffic

It is no secret.  Facebook is a Phenomenon like no other has been seen on the internet.  It has so twisted and weaved its way through ever bit and piece of the internet, there is no getting away from it.  I, personally am not into the whole social networking as far as the social interaction is concerned.  I am not that much of a people person and tend to find myself bothered by sites like Facebook.  So, as of this time, I do not have a facebook account.  And I have no intentions of starting a Facebook account.  No real time or interest. 

But from a blogging traffic standpoint, it can not be overlooked, nor can the other forms of social networking be overlooked.  So, lest discuss this process a little bit.

Using facebook as an example first off.  You have a chance with your facebook pace to let a large number of people know that you have a blog, and in turn you can direct a whole lot of traffic in one quick swoop, just by letting all your facebook friends know that you have a blog and would love people to check it out, through a simple status update.  This is nice, this can be, if nothing more a huge ego stroke.  And ego plays a big part in the continuation of your blog.  Even if you don't look at it that way.  You will become much more excited to do something if you are receiving some sort of positive affirmation of your efforts.  It is human nature to do so.  And there is nothing wrong with that. 

I would like to make sure I am not confusing the reality though.  You are not going to rank better in search engines if you occasionally mention your blog on your Facebook page.  Google could care less.  But it is short sighted to think it is not worth the effort then if you are not going to place well in Google from a link. 

All along I have been preaching one thing over and over again.  And that is awareness.  Awareness is the key here.  The coveted "Golden Ticket" you may say is in that awareness.  Because what you HOPE will happen, is sooner or later, from that awareness you create, you will start to receive real, non-solicited backlinks to your blog.  And these are worth more than any link you can build on your own.  Not only to Google and the like, but to your overall traffic.  Every time you get a random link from a new source you have opened up the opportunity to new viewers, new audience pools, and this alone my friend, is how you continually repeat the cycle.  This is how you slowly but surly take your little blog to something that can be much more.

So.  Now I think you get the idea I am going for.  Creating awareness using social networking is a very powerful tool.  Since I am not a Facebooker.  I found other sites I use.

Twitter, is a wonderful option.  It is very easy to build a large follower list.  I am not sure how many followers I have at the moment, but I can tell you it is in the hundreds easily and I do not do anything to build my followers list.  So, whenever I post a new blog post.  I tweet that I have done so.  It usually results in instant traffic to my blog.  Or Awareness article, or Backlink Article.  I will tweet any new property.

On top of that, I use Linkdin.  It is a more business orientated Social Networking site.  It really does not drive much traffic to my properties, mostly because I have very little interest in the site, and do not spend the time to build up a friend list.

And the last site I use is, PeopleString.  Ok, it is pretty much Facebook with a twist.  They pay you to use the site.  They don't pay a lot.  But like I have said before, I am driven by money.  And every little bit will slowly add up.  It all makes a little difference.  People string is a social networking site, with a forum, and games, and message boards, with the twist being, they pay you a portion of their ad revenues, on a scale, depending on how much you use the site.

I am not here to get everyone to Join Peoplestring.  Although, if you do use my referral link, it will improve my earnings (Hint hint).  But What I am saying is, there are other sites besides Facebook, that can work equally well, if you give it time. 
Twitter has been a wonderful tool for me.  I use it all the time.  I would recommend this one highly.  Facebook also is probably the strongest tool out there for self promotion within your circle.  And Peoplestring is a nice alternative for those of you who would like to try and earn a couple dollars along the way.

Again, it has not made me rich.  Some claim that they make hundreds and thousands per month with the site.  I have to casually question these statements.  But who really knows.

Thank you for reading blogging for beginners, please come back soon!

How to drive traffic to your blog

I am gonna get right down to it. There will be no beating around the bushes and there will be none of me telling you that in order to drive traffic to your blog you are going to have to buy some sort of product from me. It is just not the way it is, and in fact. Driving traffic to your blog is more a test of patience than it is a test on your pocket book. At least in my mind it is. And unless you are some sort of Uber Blogger with the most wonderful idea in the world. Chances are your topic has been written about once or twice. And being that. Why would you start dumping money into an idea that is not “fresh”. It just is not worth the cost. Because reality is, your not going to make millions. Sorry. Some people may tell you if you follow them and click here and read this and sign up for this program you will also be able to make millions. But reality is, the market is saturated. New ideas are scarce and competition is unbelievable for almost any keyword worth a damn.

So what do you do? How do you drive traffic to your blog. WHERE IS THE TRAFFIC FOR YOUR SPECIFIC BLOG?

Very good questions my friend. Very good questions indeed. And the answer, of course is not black and white or cut and dry. The answer lies in this hazy area. So, even if it may seem that what I tell you is a little bit like beating around the bush. The reality is, it is reality. It is what it is.

As you see below here, I have created a basic tree of building blog traffic. You can see that at the top of the tree, Website is what I consider the apex. Not blogs. This is what it is. Although many of you will consider blog as the apex. That is quite okay. But not reality.

So, below the blogging portion of the tree. You will see that there are several categories. These are the categories that we are going to cover IN DETAIL! I am going to explain exactly what I do in order to build blog traffic using these methods.

So.....Let me stop rambling! Let's get started

1. Link Building Articles

As far as I am concerned, this is and will always be the #1 most important aspect of building blog traffic. And there is more than one way to skin a cat and there is more than one way you should be skinning your cat. There are, in fact, dozens of ways to do this.

My number one most favorite way to build links through articles is HubPages. I love Hubpages. Google gives you huge mojo for Hubpage articles. Not only that but Hubpages are highly popular and have a wonderful community. And wait, there is even more! You can include your Adsense Id and include Adsense adds on your Hub. Hubpages does keep a portion of your Adsense revenue, but what you will usually find is, you will either be paid for your article or you will get true do follow backlinks. You will usually not get both. With Hubpages you do. Not only can you use Adsense, but you can also use your Amazon Associates Id and add, Amazon ads to your blogs.

This means that You can get multiple effect from your Hubs. You can write very Sales orientated hubs in order to sell product on your hub, and slyly drop a couple backlinks to your blog. It is not so much about the traffic you directly generate from the link, but more about the Juice Google places on that link, and how much that link will help you in SERP. Some blogs I built, I have placed well in Google with nothing more that a couple Hubpages.

Now Hubpages is not the only site that is like this. Info Barrel is another winner. Not quite as established, but still a great site. And it is very important to build variation to your backlinks. You do not want them all to be from the same origin. Your backlinks will be discounted if they are viewed as spam.

Another way to build links with articles is article submitting to article directories. Specifically I am going to suggest Ezine.com and Goarticles.com. These are the two that I use and the two I find to be the best. What article directories do is, allow you to submit articles to a general, public directory. In your article you are usually able to include a backlink and also include an about the author section. Once your article is submitted and accepted by the site, anyone can use your articles on their website or blog. This can be huge. This means that you not only get the high quality backlink from the Article Directory, but you will get a link for any site that uses your article on their site. You will not make any money for these articles. But, its not about making money. It is about building links in large quantities. And it is really a must for any highly competitive keywords.

In general. There is no exact science on what to link to. What you really want to create is a web. Something like I show in this illustration. Articles link to hubs and blogs, hubs link to specific posts and to the main Url of your blog. The thing to really be considerate of is, more links per article is not better. 2 or 3 links per article really should be your max. You will start to see diminishing returns on your links if you saturate your articles with too many of them.

I have to stop. I know you want to learn more about how to drive traffic to your blog, but, this post has already hit 1000 words. Nobody likes a chatty kathy. And I would like to save more for later.

For more about links you might want to read my article about internal blog links. That is a good topic.

Thank you for reading blogging for beginners.

And I want to give thanks to Ed at Oldsputnick.com. His interest has inspired me into writing again. I appreciate that, even though he may have had no idea for what he was doing! Good luck Ed and good luck to all of you. And for anyone who would like personal help, please ask. I will always try to help.

Blogging for beginners: Giving you a couple easy backlinks

Today is probably going to be a short post.  I have a milliion things going on, but wanted to give a little tid-bit.  I wanted to give you beginner bloggers a couple easy backlinks to get your ball rolling so to speak.  I am not really going much out of the box on these so you may or may not have heard of them.

1.)Technorati.com
Submit your blog to Technorati.  This is almost a must.  Technorati is probably the most popular blog directory on the web.  They are indexed regularly, they have a high PR, and will be a great first backlink for your blog.

2.)MyBlogLog
Mybloglog is a lot like technorati.  Submit your blogs here too, for another solid backlink. 

3.)Dmoz
Dmoz or ODP is the largest human reviewed directory on the web.  Search engines love this list.  But, its not the easiest to get on it.  Since it is all human reviewed, it takes a long time, so submit as soon as you can and just hope that you are actually accepted.

4.)blogCatalog
Another blog Directory that gives good backlinks.  Join and add your blog.  This is a good place for good backlinks, and can generate quite a few backlinks too.

See.  I told you it would be short but sweet.  I consider these must have links though.  They are always the first ones I go for.  Hope this helps you all in finding backlinks.

Thank you for reading blogging for beginners

Creating Backlinks through Online writing

Backlinks are something that eludes many of us.  We all want popularity and we all want to be seen, but if nobody knows we are there, how can we ever be seen.  And if we are never seen, how can we generate popularity, and without popularity, there are no backlinks. 

So, what can we do in order to jump-start the process?  Well, luckily for us.  We do have a way to generate quality backlinks using our anchor text or keyword text as the link.  We just have to find those places, and then we do what are already doing.  And that is telling stories, showing people how, or just writing thoughts. 

What I am talking about is online content.  There are many sites on the Internet that offers you the ability to submit your content.  Some of those sites pay you for your content, while others just take it, and it is used how they deem fit.  And it is my opinion that you should be ready and able to use both tools as a means to establish quality and long lasting Backlinks. 

Online writing can be difficult for some.  But if you are a blogger, and if your main form of communication on the internet is through your posts and writings, it should not be too difficult for you to establish a presence through these online writing sites that we are about to talk about.

But before we talk about Online writing, lets first talk a little bit about your blog.  In a previous posting I talked about the various types of posts you can write as a blogger, in order to break up the monotony of blogging.  And one of the posts is something I called a Pillar post.  Pillar posts are your posts that are going to be the most prominently found posts.  They are going to offer the most information, and being so, they will generate the most buzz.  So, when building backlinks through online writing sources, it is important to create backlinks to these posts, as well as your root URL.  Every single post in your blog is like another web page, and just because your root page is doing well, does not mean that there is not room for improvement with your other pages.  So, when writing content with backlinks in mind, remember to not only write content that will be linked to your primary URL, also write articles that will link back to your pillar posts.

For me, I write for several Article submission sites.  They are Helium, Hubpages, Ezine, Goarticles, and Bukisa currently.  They are not the only ones available to you.  Associated Content, Info Barrel, and Squidoo are others that are considered very popular.  But, since I have some I am familiar with, I will talk about those specifically.

Helium
Helium is an online content site that pays you for your articles.  They pay per view, they have standard titles that you have to choose from and you write an article for that title.  And it goes into the pool of articles that are also under that title.  As a writer for Helium, you are also asked to rate the other writers articles, this is how everyone is placed within helium, the better your articles rank within their perspective titles, the more money you earn for that title.  But the money is not the only thing here.  The goal when creating backlinks through your articles is, to write an article that is directly related to your post you are linking back to, or to your Blog as a whole if you intend on linking to the root URL.  And somewhere within that article, you will need to include your primary keyword phrase, and create a link back to your post, or blog.  This is a very strong backlink, and one that Google will not ignore.  Helium as a whole carries a page rank of 6, meaning that any links you establish through this website have a very good chance of being considered a very strong link.

Hubpages
Hubpages are almost like mini blogs.  You can write about whatever you want.  There is an approval so your content will need to be solid and cannot break any rules that Hubpages has.  With Hubpages you also have the chance to make money.  They allow you to place your Adsense or Ebay or Amazon Affiliates ads on the hub, and with that, you can reap the rewards twice over.  Once through a site that has a page rank of 6 and has high traffic volumes, and also through the extra income that can be earned through your affiliate programs.  Hubpages does take a cut of your earnings, but it is a fair trade off.  There is a hitch with Hubpages, if you do not have a writers score of above 75, your backlinks are classified as No-follow links, this means that search engines will ignore them and will not index your blog through them.  If you have at least 7 or 8 hubs that perform fairly well, you should be able to keep your score above 75 though.

Ezine
Ezine is a content submission site that does not pay you.  Here they have some stricktly rules on where you place your backlink, but they offer you an author bio area at the end of the article.  The ezine site itself has a page rank of 6 also, and search engines view this site as a very strong link.  The benefit of writing articles for Ezine is that other website owners use Ezine as a way to find content.  This means that any article you write for Ezine has the chance to be distributed all over the web, offering you an unlimited opportunity for generating backlinks.  The more webmasters that use your articles the more backlinks your articles create.

GoArticles
Goarticles is another site that is basically the same as Ezine.  They do not pay your for your content, but they distribute your content to webmasters who are looking for content for their websites.  This offers you the same benefits as Ezine.  Goarticles seems to have a more lenient review process, but they have a lower page rank of 4.  That still is not chopped liver.  More than likely that is quite a bit better than your blog, and any link that Goarticles provides for you is going to be a good one.

Bukisa
Bukisa is much like Helium, but the difference being, you do not have to follow any set title.  You can write about anything you want.  You don’t even have to write, you can submit slide shows, or videos, well, you used to be able to submit videos, I have never tried, but I have heard they no longer accept video.  But Bukisa will pay you per view, they have something that is called a Bukisa Index, this number represents the amount, in dollars they will pay you per 1,000 views.  It is not going to make you rich, I believe right now the index is about 3.22, meaning they will pay you $3.22 per 1000 views.  So, just like Helium, you get the bonus of building backlinks along with the chance to make a few dollars along the way.

So, there you have it, a run down of some of the more popular content submission websites.  In general, I recommend that you write one article, per post you want to generate backlinks for, per content site.  Meaning, for me, I will write about 5 articles per post that I want to generate backlinks for.  It is a lofty goal I do not always achieve very quickly, but, the beauty of writing your own blog is, there are no deadlines, you write when you can and when you feel it.  But, as a final note, it is important to know that you have to make the content count, what I mean by that is, do not duplicate content.  Articles can be similar in general, but copying your article and just pasting it to these sites will throw up red flags with the search engines, if you can create several, unique articles about the same subject, your rewards will be better.

So, there you have it folks, my lesson for you today, here at blogging for beginners.  Good luck, and good writing.

Building internal blog links brought to you by blogging for beginners

Something that should never be overlooked when blogging is building internal blog links, within each and every post you write. And today’s blogging lesson for beginners is going to cover how, why and when it is important to build internal blog links.

Much like Backlinks, internal blog links play a roll in many aspects of blogging, Things like reader navigation, search engine indexing and page ranking can all be effected by your internal links.

First off, lets talk about reader navigation and how it relates to internal blog links
Readers come to your blog to gain something, usually that comes in the form of knowledge, and being that, they may see something within your post that they feel they need to learn more about. Perfect time to use an internal link. Say you have previously written a post about the best blogging sites for you, and you mention it in a newer blog post. Link to it. This gives the reader a very easy solution in finding out more about the subject without trying to fish through all your label or previous posts to find what he or she is looking for. Making the reader a very happy person, and in turn creating a reader that will more likely return to read more. And the effort in building your internal links is almost nothing. Well worth a happy reader or two.

So, how does it effect search engine indexing?
Search index spiders have their work cut out for them. They have a whole lot of data to index every single day. And all you are doing is giving them a helping hand in making sure that ALL your posts are being indexed. Whenever a spider finds a backlink within your post, there is a good chance that the spider will jump to that link and index the page. This is a definite plus.

And Page Ranking?
Maybe it has very little effect on page ranking, but every backlink counts for something, right? So, remember, when you are building your internal blog links, make sure they include the Keyword or phrase of the post you are linking to, this will help generate relevance. Search engines like this, when they see the anchor text of your backlinks matching your primary keywords within your post, they are able to assume that there is a strong relationship between the two, and that the link is meaningful and useful to the keyword target.

In reality, your internal blog links may play only a very small roll in SEO, but in the world of Blogging, I believe every little bit counts. And as a Beginner, I think it is very important to start creating good habits right from the get go. Building internal blogs links now, from the very beginning will set a tone for you and your readers. Giving them the chance to become more comfortable with your style right off the bat.

On top of this, something else that should always be considered is, spend some time reading through your old posts and add your internal links where you can. It works the same way, your site will always be re indexed and the links will be found. And not only will re-reading your old posts be a chance for you to improve your internal links, but it will also be an opportunity for you to look for new topics. I find myself just grazing over certain topics within a post without elaborating on them. I use this technique rather frequently, in order to help find new and fresh content.

I started blogging for beginners with the idea that, blogging as a concept is easy, writing down thoughts and opinions every single day or talking about hobbies or subjects that you are passionate about is not difficult. The difficult part is every other little step along the way that will need to be taken in order for you blog to prosper. Whether that be financially or just from an emotional level, it is important for us, as bloggers, to be seen and heard. It is why we do what we do. And THAT my friends is why I am doing this.

What are backlinks? Blogging for Beginners basic understanding of Backlinks

What are backlinks?
Backlinks are links to your website that are located on other websites around the web.  They can be generated by you or by others who may wish to link to your content.  They provide search engines and individuals an easy way to locate your blog on the internet.

Why are backlinks important?
Backlinks are important because, search engines use backlinks.  When a search engine is crawling the Internet and stumble upon your backlink, it is an open invitation for that search engine spider to crawl your site.  Opening up the possibility for your site to be indexed.

But that is not the only reason backlinks are important.  They serve several purposes in increasing your blogs traffic.  Not only does that backlink provide awareness for search engines, but it also offers awareness for any individual who happens upon it.  Giving them the opportunity to “Check it out”.  This is an instant traffic generator.  It is a way to increase focused traffic to your blog.

On top of that, Search engines use quantity and quality of backlinks to factor into the SERP and page rank.  The actual value of backlinks to a search engine is well beyond my ability to calculate, but they use a very unique algorithm in order to determine page relevancy. 

So, with that, we can determine that backlinks are important, but how do we generate backlinks?
This is the time consuming part.  There are many forms of backlinks. So, let me cover a couple of your options in creating backlinks.

1.)Blog commenting – I just talked about this in my last post, about the importance of blog commenting, this is an easy and proven method in generating backlinks on sites that are relevant to your own. 

As a side note, it is important to try to generate backlinks on sites and in content that are within your own niche, id does play a factor, search engines will give unrelated backlinks less weight in calculating Page rank.

2.)Within your own blog – As I mentioned before, you will first off, want to make sure your title includes a link to your home page, this creates a backlink, even if it is devalued due to the fact that it comes from within the URL, it still is a backlink.  Also, include backlinks based on your keywords that you will include within your articles.  Some may call these links internal links or inter-linking, they too add to your backlink count, along with offering your readers a way to find other articles within your blog.

3.)Content – There are several content sites on the web that you can write for besides your blog.  I recommend it highly.  Become a member with sites like Hubpages, Bukisa, Ezine and Goarticles.  There are of course many more options to choose from here, these are just a few.  And with sites like Hubpages and Bukisa, you have the added benefit of earning money online, along the way.

4.)Account Profiles – Under most account profiles you will set up on line, they offer you a space to add your personal website URL.  Never forget to add it!  It is an easy backlink.  I am not sure how much real value this backlink adds, but every little bid does count!

5.)Social Bookmarking and Web 2.0 – Social bookmarking and social networking sites offer an excellent place to include your backlinks.  Although some social bookmarks frown upon self-promotion and view it as a form of spam, the occasional bookmarker will not hurt.  This along with any social networks you may be involved in, offer the chance to generate a lot of traffic, at little time cost to you.

6.)Naturally occurring – These are the best possible backlinks you can get.  Problem is, they are not something you have much control over.  In order to get naturally occurring backlinks, you will need other individuals to link to your site, through their own content or websites.  Again, this is going to be controlled by the quality of your content.

So, there you have it the blogging for beginner’s guide to understanding what are backlinks.  I hope this helps you in your blogging quest!