Tag-Archive for » SEO «

617949864 4dae57bb9b 300x225 Casual Friday   Open Mic

Ahhhh, another Friday. Time to slip into our favorite jeans and tee, kick up our heels and relax.

Here at Blogging Without A Blog (BWAB) we had lots to think about this week. We talked about our target audience, giving our readers eye candy, and how our online image is projected through our blog.

As a footnote on growing niche blogs and reaching our target audience, we also need to know how to get “those” visitors to our blogs. The most important way is by use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). To avoid being redundant, I suggest reading John Hoff’s post on “25+ SEO Tips for Getting Ranked Well In Search Engines”. He covers the subject from all angles and provides links to many great sites and plugins.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m bad about not using SEO. Using keywords and keyword phrases does change the way we write, and often I sit at my keyboard and start typing. Like many of you, I, too, have a lot to learn in that area.

Looking back on the week, or forward on what you need to do with your blogs, are there any areas you would like to discuss further? Do you have any questions? Any suggestions for future posts you would like to see here?

How has this week impacted you?

Are you planning to make any changes to your blog?

Or, to the WAY you write?

The floor is yours.

Have fun!

Keep it clean!

Don’t forget to “subscribe to comments” (bottom of page) so you can follow the discussion and join back in.


Photo Credit: nugun’s photostream

lorelle of wordpress logo 300x215 Interview With Lorelle VanFossen   Part 5   Managing 350+ Feeds Managing our feeds can be time consuming. The more blogs we subscribe to, the more time it takes away from our other blogging activities. When I read Lorelle (of Lorelle on WordPress) has over 350 blogs in her feed reader, I wanted to know how she does it.

Here’s her response.

5) In a post for Blog Herald on preventing blog burn-out, you stated you follow over 350 blogs in your feed reader. What determines which blogs you follow and which posts you read? And do you do what most bloggers confess to, and scan articles without reading word for word?

Of course I scan. I couldn’t function otherwise. Most people scan. That’s a normal reading behavior and doesn’t apply to bloggers specifically. We all scan blogs, newspapers, magazines, even books. For me with that many blogs to track, I have to in order to survive. However, when I boil it down to really important articles, I read them thoroughly, digesting all of it, as do we all when things of interest confront us.

What determines the blogs I follow and the posts I read? Depends.

Every Wednesday I publish the covering a wide range of WordPress news, tips, events, and topics. Thus, I have a huge list of WordPress-related blogs that I have to track in order to generate that weekly post. Are they blogs I would track normally? No. Most of them are BORING and dull, but I love geek talk, so I find something interesting in all the code babble, too. It’s my job, and it helps to enjoy even the dull stuff. :D

I have a wide range of subject categories I track, though not as often as I do the weekly WordPress news items. I track blogs about writing, science, science fiction, gardening, eco-building, environmental issues, nature, knitting, cooking, genealogy, web analytics and SEO, web design, blogging, and the news. I also have a few favorite friends that I track through their blogs. My list is no different from other people as I track the things I’m interested in, monitoring industry news, tips, and information.

As to which blogs make it into my feeds, I think that I’m also like other people. Subject matter dictates inclusion. I have very few blogs I will track that aren’t focused on a specific subject as an expert. I track some genealogy blogs because they write about their research and I can learn about the tips and techniques they use to uncover their family’s history, but if they spend too much time rattling on about their broken down car, family, marriage, work, or ranting about politics and things of little or no interest to me, I’m gone.

To end up in my feed reader you have to feed me. You have to give the information that brought me to your site in the first place. You have to keep providing me with the information I can use or you lose.

Today’s Assignment

What determines which blogs make it into your feed reader?

How do you manage your feed reading time?

To avoid redundancy, the subject of scanning posts was addressed in a recent article titled: Bloggers Flunk The Reading Assignments. If you would like to share how you feel knowing others are scanning the posts you work so hard on, please feel free to leave a comment below.


Photo Credit: Lorelle’s Logo

539968945 24cddb24f0 The Biggest Mistake I Made In Blogging

We all make mistakes when we start blogging.

I know I did.

Today’s Lesson

I didn’t do enough homework and was unprepared for what blogging entailed.

I made small mistakes like typos (and I still do), and big ones like crashing my blogs.

I didn’t know HTML, coding or the blogging language.

I had no idea what SEO (search engine optimization) was, nor did I have time to learn it.

I didn’t know the difference between a plugin and a widget, or a trackback vs a ping. (Thank you John Hoff for the great explanation on pings and trackbacks)

I spent too much time checking my visitor stats when I should have been concentrating on other areas of blogging.

I wasted many precious hours signing up for, placing ads and then checking stats to see how much money I wasn’t making.

Social networks like StumbleUpon and Digg got me addicted, and they too consumed my time.

Although all of the above are important lessons to learn, (and I did), the biggest mistake I made was…….

Not making the time to comment on other blogs sooner than I did.

I had read many times how important it was, but thought it didn’t pertain to me.

When I did consider commenting, I was often intimidated by the other comments, and felt my words might sound stupid.

Instead, I worked quietly behind the scenes, wrote for my imaginary audience, and told myself, “If I build it, they will come”.

I was content……..for awhile.

Then I realized blogging is actually about interacting with others.

I was a one way street.

It wasn’t until I made time to visit other blogs that I got caught up in the thrill of comments.

Not only getting comments, but leaving them as well.

I’m not afraid of admitting my mistakes, and that was a big one.

What about you?

Today’s Assignment

What do you feel your biggest mistake in blogging has been thus far?

Care to share?


Photo Credit: toddneville’s photostream

2185881708 c5118a9b94 Can We Ever Know Too Much About SEO

We all want our blogs found and would love to have a steady stream of traffic.

For bloggers, finding a way to meet this goal, usually tops our list of priorities.

Today’s Lesson

When I started blogging, I often felt like I was talking to myself, or just documenting my thoughts in cyberspace.

I searched “how to drive traffic to a blog”, and read about the importance of SEO (search engine optimization). What I read was above my level of expertise, and even though I knew it was important, I didn’t understand what I needed to do.

Several months ago, Catherine Lawson did a guest post on my blog, and wrote an article titled: Increased Search Engine Traffic For Lazy People.

I took her advice and began using the SEO plugin All In One SEO Pack, by uberdose. Whether I have it maximized, is another question.

Additional research on SEO recently took me to Lorelle’s site. In her post titled: Do It Yourself Search Engine Optimization, she answers all of our burning questions. Lorelle takes it from the beginning and guides us through the complete process of optimizing our blogs. The post is long, but it’s filled with tons of valuable hints, links and tips. It’s a page worth bookmarking.

As I work my way through the steps she outlines, I continue to realize the importance of working “behind the scenes” of our blogs. It’s one thing to post on a regular schedule, but to get found, we must make time to learn the workings of SEO.

Today’s Assignment

Is your blog optimized for search engines?

Do you fully understand SEO?

What challenges have you met along the way?

What have you found works best?


Photo Credit: sergis blog’s photostream

389527311 dc492d9cb6 Outsourcing Your Blog   Never Say Never
Outsourcing your blog, or parts of it, is actually quite common for some busy bloggers.

Today’s Lesson:

As Catherine Lawson points out in a recent article, outsourcing is a great way to save time in all aspects of your life. Although outsourcing does cost money, if the cost outweighs the benefits, it may be the way to go.

When I first started blogging, I would have loved to outsource the “mechanics” of my blog. I didn’t know anything about HTML, CSS, or any of the behind the scenes techniques. I didn’t know what SEO (search engine optimization) was, nor did I know it was important.

When I read the basics of blogging, I learned blogs are an online journal. Type our words, and the whole world can read them.

When I think back to what was necessary to learn blogging, it would have been much easier to instruct someone else to “set it up” for me.

That didn’t happen. I was on my own, and became self taught.

To me, all that I learned, has become part of the journey.

I’m proud of myself for sticking with it, and learning from my mistakes. Light bulb moments came often, as did pats on the back for meeting the challenge.

Now I read how some bloggers are outsourcing certain aspects of their blogs. It may be behind the scenes, or monitoring comments.

One form of outsourcing is the utilization of guest posts. A guest post could potentially save a blogger many hours of time, plus being attention to the writings of the guest writer and their blog. It’s a win-win situation.

With blogging becoming so popular, and bloggers becoming so consumed with their blogs, outsourcing may be the answer to alleviating some of their “not so favorite” aspects of blogging.

Today’s Assignment

Would you, or do you, outsource any part of your blogging activities?

Would you use a guest writer?

How do you feel about bloggers who use outsourcing?


Photo Credit: Librarian Avenger’s photostream
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