Top ways to Build Audience for Your Blog

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1. Blog for Your Readers not Money

Time is the leading reason that blogs don’t grow to their full potential. You need to be able to be in it for the long-term, not to quickly generate an income from. If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly and become your loyal readers.

#2. Target the Right Crowd

If you look at your analytics and demographics, make sure that your visitors are coming from the “target” area - a group of people who have their own blogs or websites - who will likely spread word about your site, linking to it and sharing your resource to their readers.

#3. Social Networking and Social Bookmarking Sites

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Social bookmarking sites like Digg can bring a massive traffic. These are places where publishers are readers meet and that’s where the big fishes are. Get active in there are get good inflow. Read more…

 

Launching Your Blog and Making $1000 in 30 Days

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First Things First

1. Choose Your Blog System
There are hosted systems, like BloggerTypePad, and WordPress.com, but I don’t recommend them. Some hosted services are free, but others (like TypePad) can cost as much as hosting your own site. If you’re serious about making money with your blog, you’ll want to have your own domain name. I recommend using free software like Textpattern or WordPress (you can research and demo a number of systems at opensourceCMS). Since I use WordPress, I’ll be talking about how to launch a WordPress blog.

2. Register Your Domain
Don’t put this off; you’ll be amazed at how many of the ingenious names you come up with are already taken. I register my domains with GoDaddy, and that’s as good a place as any to do your research. But don’t register your name yet; many hosts offer one free domain registration.

3. Find a Host
I’ve already written about this elsewhere. Be sure to get a host with a good affiliate program. I use AN Hosting. They’re inexpensive at only $4.95 per month and offer a generous 500 GB of storage and 5 TB of bandwidth, 24/7 phone support, and a free domain for life. Plus they have all the tools you will need to get going quickly like one click wordpress installations and superb backup tools.

4. Get Statistics
Your web host will offer statistics packages, but you’re better off with one of the free services. I useAddFreeStats and StatCounter to get a quick hit on what’s happening and Google Analytics for an in-depth view.

Getting Started With Wordpress

WordPress

5. Install Wordpress
It only takes 5 minutes.

6. Find a Theme
WordPress makes it easy to change the look of your template; just upload and select a WordPress theme. Thousands of free themes are available. Start at the Theme Viewer.

7. Edit Your Theme
Most themes work fine out-of-the-box, but you’ll probably want to make a few minor tweaks. Instructions are usually included with a theme. WordPress is fairly easy to learn, and thedocumentation is excellent.

8. Install Your Statistics Tracking Code
To use stats like Google Analytics, you’ll need to paste a snippet of code into your template.

Read more…

 

Why Blogs for SEO Fail

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There are many benefits to publishing a business blog and improved search engine visibility is one of the most popular.  It’s pretty common advice to hear: start a blog and the fresh content will attract links, improving your search results.  Such tactical advice can be very effective.

Unfortunately, the advice gets filtered and distorted, not unlike what happens in the game “telephone” kids play. Pretty soon one or more blogs are implemented for the sole purpose and expectation of improving search engine visibility and nothing else. At least nothing else that’s accountable.

What’s wrong with this picture?   Blogs started solely for SEO objectives will inevitably fail.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. Lack of planning and oversight - After the honeymoon of starting a blog wears off, those tasked with writing content often get distracted by their other responsibilities. Bit by bit, posts look less and less like keyword optimized web pages and sink back to the familiar writing styles common to public relations and corporate marketing. Gone are the keywords that consumers are searching on. Gone is the traffic that used to come from search engines. Read more…