In this last and final part of Blog Building I will discuss SEO, How to Optimize Ads and Networking.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
The importance of the above aspect of building a site or a blog cannot be stressed enough. Good SEO stems from trying to get your site seen by the search engines enough to give your pages more weightage than others. Now if you talk about everything under the sun you might not have a huge advantage over other sites but if your topic/s is/are specific than you have a better chance at getting noticed more for search terms pertaining to your topic.
In most blog CMS's you can configure the way your title is configured from showing a page number to the whole title of your post. Usually showing the title of your post as the title of the specific page is extra points for you in the search engines as people search with phrases so chances of them hitting your post are more.
Make sure that you give descriptive titles and the content has keywords repeated at least 2 - 3 times, don't do overkill as that will just backfire. Remember search engines are smart enough to realize when text is just plain rubbish and when it makes sense.
Get linkbacks from other bloggers or sites, many of them don't mind if you ask nicely. There are many sites that have free link scripts installed and they usually ask for a link back go ahead and do a search in your specific topic area and see which sites you come up with. Bookmark yourself with popular social sites like del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com, squidoo.com, wists.com, blinklist.com etc...When people discover you they also bookmark you, the more popular your bookmark becomes the more people will eventually visit you. Some of these sites also allow your bookmark to be searchable so search engines pick them up.
I can go on forever about SEO but this should suffice for now. More later about SEO in other posts.
Optimizing your Ads
If you are starting out as a blogger don't plaster it with Ads right above the content. First of all nobody will click and second of all it reflects badly on you to have too many Ads. Wait at least a month till you have built up some content and then slip them in on the sidebar.
After around 2 - 3 months get Ads on your content area preferably on the top right hand side like this blog has or on the bottom as does too this post. But only if you are writing extensive posts. If your posts are no more than 100 words then just decide on one Ad block and stick to a format once you have figured out what looks best to you. If you like it, trust me your readers will like it.
You can also have various networks like eChitika, YPN, Google, Adbrite, Text-Link-Ads etc...some of which you can use in co-existence with others.
If you plan on selling ad space on your blog then make sure that it is seen in a place that is not below the fold and prominently displayed near the top. You can decide to sell on a weekly, monthly or whatever basis, it would also help if you have some stats to show potential advertisers like RSS readers or clickthroughs of links and some traffic stats as well.
Networking
This aspect more or less plays together with SEO but has some differences. If you are part of some forums or read other blogs then it's good to attach your signature in the forums posts and comment at blogs that you visit often.
This gives the forum/blog writers an invitation to visit your domain and maybe become regular readers. Remember if you blog its good to also visit other blogs to see whats happening. Also you can invite readers to send you tips or suggestions for future articles or tips to new things that might belong on your blog, if you are willing to accept it.
Encourage people to comment on your blog by offering an incentive of a linkback as is done on this blog's sidebar through a wp-plugin. This will eventually encourage other readers to comment as well. The more interaction happening on your blog the more repeat readers you will have and the potential to make more money via Ads.
I hope these blog building parts helped you build a better blog. I would very much like to read your comments.
Technorati Tags: how to build a better blog, SEO, Ads, Networking
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