Rose DesRochers on Blogging – Developing a Readership

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You’ve finally created a blog and you’ve made your first post. Now how do you get people to actually read what you’re blogging about?

Here are some tips on promoting your blog.

1) Quality Content – Interesting content will keep your readership returning. Update your blog regularly. Googlebot, which is Google’s web-crawling robot loves content. The more you update your blog, the more frequent the search engine spiders will return to it.

2) Take part in forums that are related to blogging. Ask other bloggers for their opinion on your blog and take their suggestions to heart.

3) Publish an RSS/Atom/XML feed. If you’re using Blogger, you can turn on RSS feed by clicking on settings in your dashboard and then clicking on site feed and make sure that your settings are set to yes.

4) Carefully choose your subject titles, taking into consideration what other internet users may be searching for. Use keywords in your title. I suggest subscribing to wordtracker.com. Their report of the most popular searches is published each Tuesday and distributed to over 30,000 subscribers. Technorati.com, is a blog search engine that also lists the top search words. The more targeted your keywords are, the greater your return in search engines will be.

5) Involve yourself in commenting on other blogs. You can gain a loyal readership just by offering feedback to your fellow bloggers. The comment feature allows you to add a link back to your blog as well.

6) Be sure to include your blog address in forum signatures and in your email signature.

7) Submit your blog to directories ^[1]. Submit your blog’s url to: technorati.com, daypop.com, blogdex.net and popdex.com

8) Write articles. Include a resource box in your article and submit it to article directories such as ezinearticles.com .

9) If you’re using blogging software such as Blogger, there is an option to notify the central blog update services such as weblogs.com whenever you’ve made a new entry to your blog. Make sure that this option is turned on! In blogger, click on publish in your dashboard and make sure that your settings are set to yes under notify weblogs. Alternatively, you can go to ping-o-matic.com and send out a ping each time you update your blog. This lets everyone know that you’ve just updated your blog.

10) Link to other blogs. Use services like blogrollingcom, which is similar to linking. Blogrolling allows you to maintain an updated list of your favorite blogs. But, don’t build a long blog roll of sites that you have no intention of returning to. There is nothing more annoying then visiting a blog that has a humongous blogroll.

Be patient, traffic doesn’t happen overnight. The best way that I’ve found to increase traffic is by getting to know people. Spend what free time that you have, reading blogs, leaving feedback and building friendships. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you visit as often as you can. While you are waiting for the traffic to come, just enjoy blogging. You’ll be improving your writing in the process. Eventually you’ll build a network of not just readers, but friends and loyal supporters. Blogging is not just about marketing; it’s about creating lasting relationships.

Rose DesRochers is a published poet and freelance writer. Rose has been writing poetry for more than 20 years. She is also the founder of http://www.todays-woman.net ^[2] , a supportive online writing community for men and women over 18. She is also the Assistant Administrator of http://www.invision-graphics.com ^[3]. Rose DesRochers’s blog : http://rosedesrochers.todays-woman.net ^[4].

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Blogging: How to Get Started

If you wish to start blogging, the process is probably easier than you might have thought. I have helped a number of people get started, and often they are very intimidated and seem to let the slightest obstacle upset them to the point where they almost give up. But in reality, you can learn how to be a blogger in a very short period of time, typically a few hours or less depending on the level you wish to proceed at. Your first step is deciding which kind of blog, or web log, you wish to launch. You will generally want a business, news or personal blog. If want the latter, then one of the blog freebies’ services such as blogger or myspace will be adequate.

In this case you simply sign up for a free account, choose the name for your blog, choose a template (this part is self explanatory. Generally you just point and click your selection among several possible choices) and perhaps choose a “skin” which is sort of like a background or wallpaper.

Then you simply start posting. Although this is one of the easiest steps, some people have difficulty here because they cannot find the button. It is different on a lot of different blogs but it often is identified as ‘Creat Post’ or ‘Create Blog’ but it can occasionally be different. You will know you found it when a blank screen with a subject line pops up, much like an email form.

If you are starting a business web log, and you would like to use a free blog, you may want to go with Blogger because they are easily integrated with Google Adwords and you can post your blog entries directly to your website if you choose. They also allow for an unlimited number of posts. If you don’t mind spending a little bit of money for your business blog then I would probably recommend Moveable Type or Type Pad but there are several other good ones depending on your specific business needs. These services generally offer another level of flexibilty and sophistication, elements which are not always needed by the novice blogger.

If you are planning on starting a news blog, there are a number of free services which will probably be adequate for most beginners. http://www.blogeasy.com/ ^[6] has many of the same flexible features offered by blogger, and I really like http://www.blogsome.com/ ^[7] as well. Some of these and other free blog services will allow you to have newsfeeds connected to your blog while virtually all of them will allow you to publish your own RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed, which is the one essential ingredients for a news sites and for many business blogs as well.

Ryan Joseph is a writer of freebies, blogging and many other topics. More information is available at

The Free Samples, Freebies & Freestuff Directory

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