Tag-Archive for » SEO «

May

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

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, SEO Tags: Blogging, Blogs, search engine traffic, SEO, WordPress 20 Comments

May

Outsourcing Your Blog – Never Say Never

Barbara Swafford

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

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Save Time, Writing Tips Tags: Blogging, Blogs, SEO 21 Comments

May

Blogging – Year One – Lesson Twelve

Barbara Swafford

I couldn’t end this series without talking about making money with blogs.

Most bloggers start a blog with money as part of the equation. I did.

However, the truth about making money with a blog is often misleading.

Search online and you’ll find many sites, e-books, or “subscribe to this” that claim you can make big money, FAST, with a blog. It will only cost you $X.XX. Sign up, share your credit card number, and you can make thousands in a short time. It must be true. After all, they show a copy of a check(s), made out to themselves, for an astronomical amount of money.

Pictures don’t lie. Or do they?

When I started blogging, I plastered ads on my two blogs. I signed up for Google AdSense, LinkShare.com, Commission Junction and Amazon.

I then proceeded to spend countless hours adding ads, moving ads, changing ads, resizing ads, and then constantly checking the statistics to see how many hundreds I was making. HA! That was a joke. I wasn’t making anything. Months passed, some of the ads remained, but my pocketbook wasn’t any thicker.

I didn’t spend any money by joining these “companies”, but I did lose tons of time.

To recap where I am 13 months later, from Commission Junction I received a $17 check. Linkshare shows I have a $14.75 balance, but they don’t payout until you have accumulated $25.00. I haven’t seen any checks from Amazon either, although they say I’ve earned $12.39.

Google AdSense was a slow starter, but the pennies finally added up and I got my first check from them. (They payout at $100.00+). I should see my second check next month.

I was also blessed with a donation from Mark, at Creative Journey Cafe.

All in all, what I’ve “earned” (not received) has covered my overhead for my BlueHost account, domain names + renewals. By doing the math, I’m a little ahead of the “game” as long as I don’t put a value on the time I spend blogging. ((((laughs)))))

Interestingly, the money I have made was the result of my second blog. It’s a blog that receives nearly all of it’s traffic from search engines (organic traffic), and does not have a “community” of commenters. This tells me, if you can get your blog to receive organic traffic (by using SEO and keyword phrases, etc…), your chances of making money will increase.

The one problem with using keyword phrases (keywords), it forces you to change your writing style. In some ways, it can hinder your creativity.

So what have I learned?

I’ve learned, I don’t know how to make money blogging. LOL

Lesson Twelve: Money can be made with blogs. I believe search engine traffic is the key, and you need lots of it (thousands of visitors a day). Your subject matter must appeal either to the masses or to a specific niche of people (not bloggers).

At this point, the money I make is irrelevant, however, don’t tell my husband that. He believes this “hobby” of mine will pay for itself, and maybe than some. Let’s keep this just between us.