Blogging 101 How They Will Find You
Don't get me wrong, I’m not saying that all you have to do is start blogging to get people to come to your site. You have to get the word out. You need to tell everyone you know about your blog and invite them to visit and post comments.
But you also want to attract people who don’t already know you. The bots will crawl your site within a few weeks and start returning your blog with their other results. The challenge is that there are lots of websites and lots of blogs out there and people probably don’t look past the first 10 or 20 results. Which means that you have to keep some things in mind when setting up and maintaining your blog so that you rise to the top for the people you want to find you.
Most bloggers blog every day or nearly every day, although some only blog once a week or so. It is important to blog on a predictable schedule so that your readers know when to look for your new postings. Sophisticated readers may have a blog reader that lets them know when the blogs they subscribe to have new postings. But they will still want to see regular postings. If you neglect them, they will neglect you.
As a blogger yourself, you absolutely need to get a blog reader and start reading other people’s blogs. You especially need to read people who are in the same field. I use Blogline. To use Bloglines, sign up for a free account, then find a blog you like. Copy the URL (web address) of the blog, then go to your account in Bloglines, click on the My Feeds tabs, click Add, and paste the URL into the space provided. Every time the publisher of that blog adds a post, it will show up in Bloglines. You can see all the blogs you want to read regularly without having to go to multiple website addresses. The post will show up in Bloglines and you can read it in the reader or click through to the blog to see the entry there.
Blogging is a network activity in itself. In fact the whole web is about networking on a global scale. Bloggers live off of links. Don’t think of other bloggers in your field as competition. Think of them as mass that helps create the gravity that draws your readers to you.
For example, Tom Peters is the biggest guy in my field. He wrote In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies and many other books and is an internationally recognized expert on business-related topics. Happens he has a blog, an excellent blog, on which he shares a lot of information, including every slide show that he creates for his clients. Naturally, he often talks about things that I care about and I post a comment on his blog. That’s a link back to me and it’s seen by my target audience, because my target audience is the same as his. You want to be “polite” about posting comments on other people’s blogs, which means that you keep them relevant and short and don't use them to advertise yourself. If people like what you say, they will click on your name to come over to see your other writing.
When you do post comments on a Blogger blog, you should use the “Other” identity instead of your Blogger identity. The link that is created from your Blogger identity goes to your profile, which is not where you want people to go first. The link that is created from the Other identity goes to whatever web address you specify, which is much better.
You should also link to and request links from anybody whose content is in any way related to your content. For example, an excellent resource for us is the Southwest Writers link page. Southwest Writers gets a lot of hits. Having them link to you is important in two ways. First, someone might follow the link over to you. Second, your page rank (how high your website or blog appears in search engine results) is partly dependent on how many and what types of sites link to you. High ranking sites linking to you brings up your page rank.
In fact, my website has a page rank of 4, which is very high for a new website. Usually a new website starts out at zero. The way I got that was that I wrote an article for a high-ranking website called www.lifeintheusa.com and the publisher of that website put a link back to me in the article. If you have anything that could relate to life in the USA you can contact the publisher, Elliot Essman, through the website and see if he will take an article. Look for other websites who might do the same.
But you also want to attract people who don’t already know you. The bots will crawl your site within a few weeks and start returning your blog with their other results. The challenge is that there are lots of websites and lots of blogs out there and people probably don’t look past the first 10 or 20 results. Which means that you have to keep some things in mind when setting up and maintaining your blog so that you rise to the top for the people you want to find you.
Most bloggers blog every day or nearly every day, although some only blog once a week or so. It is important to blog on a predictable schedule so that your readers know when to look for your new postings. Sophisticated readers may have a blog reader that lets them know when the blogs they subscribe to have new postings. But they will still want to see regular postings. If you neglect them, they will neglect you.
As a blogger yourself, you absolutely need to get a blog reader and start reading other people’s blogs. You especially need to read people who are in the same field. I use Blogline. To use Bloglines, sign up for a free account, then find a blog you like. Copy the URL (web address) of the blog, then go to your account in Bloglines, click on the My Feeds tabs, click Add, and paste the URL into the space provided. Every time the publisher of that blog adds a post, it will show up in Bloglines. You can see all the blogs you want to read regularly without having to go to multiple website addresses. The post will show up in Bloglines and you can read it in the reader or click through to the blog to see the entry there.
Blogging is a network activity in itself. In fact the whole web is about networking on a global scale. Bloggers live off of links. Don’t think of other bloggers in your field as competition. Think of them as mass that helps create the gravity that draws your readers to you.
For example, Tom Peters is the biggest guy in my field. He wrote In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies and many other books and is an internationally recognized expert on business-related topics. Happens he has a blog, an excellent blog, on which he shares a lot of information, including every slide show that he creates for his clients. Naturally, he often talks about things that I care about and I post a comment on his blog. That’s a link back to me and it’s seen by my target audience, because my target audience is the same as his. You want to be “polite” about posting comments on other people’s blogs, which means that you keep them relevant and short and don't use them to advertise yourself. If people like what you say, they will click on your name to come over to see your other writing.
When you do post comments on a Blogger blog, you should use the “Other” identity instead of your Blogger identity. The link that is created from your Blogger identity goes to your profile, which is not where you want people to go first. The link that is created from the Other identity goes to whatever web address you specify, which is much better.
You should also link to and request links from anybody whose content is in any way related to your content. For example, an excellent resource for us is the Southwest Writers link page. Southwest Writers gets a lot of hits. Having them link to you is important in two ways. First, someone might follow the link over to you. Second, your page rank (how high your website or blog appears in search engine results) is partly dependent on how many and what types of sites link to you. High ranking sites linking to you brings up your page rank.
In fact, my website has a page rank of 4, which is very high for a new website. Usually a new website starts out at zero. The way I got that was that I wrote an article for a high-ranking website called www.lifeintheusa.com and the publisher of that website put a link back to me in the article. If you have anything that could relate to life in the USA you can contact the publisher, Elliot Essman, through the website and see if he will take an article. Look for other websites who might do the same.
posted by Marianne at 11:20 AM
6 Comments:
This is great information!!!
Thank you for taking the time to share the "how-to" with us.
Marianne - I just signed up at Bloglines, and subscribed to your blog, among others. It was getting cumbersome visiting each blog daily and searching the posts for new comments.
Thanks for the tip!
I have another question. You mentioned in your lecture that one way for people to find your blog is for you to put your link as your signature when you comment on others' blogs.
Some blogs have features that make this easy. Blogger ain't one of them, probably because I don't know html.
Can you tell me how to sign a comment here with my blog address instead of my profile?
Thanks!
The default is your Blogger identity, but don't use it. Use the Other identity instead. If you are already signed into Blogger on another screen, you will have to exit so that it gives you that choice.
Like this?
Thanks, Marianne!
You're my Blog Heroine.
My Blogspiration.
Peg
You got it!
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