9 Tips For Setting Up A New Blog

Starting a new blog with the right steps makes a concrete foundation to build a high rise blog. "Well begun is half done" says an old adage. Just give me 10 minutes and I will give you the mantras to start a rock solid blog.

Choose an SEO friendly URL

When creating a blog it is preferable to go for a URL containing words that revolve around the central idea of your blog. Separating the words with a hyphen will help it get indexed better by Google e.g. www.blog-tips-to-earn-money.com is better than www.blogtipstoearnmoney.com. This may not always be possible but try to as far as possible.

Optimize The Title
Blogger titles are not optimised for search engines. Visit this page on eblogtemplates to know how to do it.

Write 20 Posts Before You Publish Your First Post

You may be having sufficient matter of the subject you are going to write about. Make 20 posts in advance, with smart headlines and each about 3-4 paragraphs at least. Addition of illustrations in the form of pics and graphs will be an added advantage. This is not applicable to those who write their everyday events on the same day just as a diary.

Write 20 Headlines For Prospective Posts

Write down 20 prospective headlines for your posts beforehand. It is not necessary to follow the order or even elaborate on all the headlines but it will definitely make a path for you to tread in future. A very effective way to do this is to write it in Google calendar and set reminders for it according to your planned posting frequency.

Choose 20 Tags

With the help of various search engines decide on 20 tags that closely describe your site. These will be used as labels as well as in Technorati when claiming your blog( See claiming later). They will also be of much use when registering on various bookmarking and sharing sites. for e.g Stumble upon and Delicious.

Write 2 Summaries Of Your Blog

Write down two summaries of your blog, one in 250 characters and the other in 160 characters. Most popular blog search sites will provide you with 250 or 160 characters to describe your blog. This will ensure uniformity at all the places you register.

Add Google Analytics Code

Analytics is much more than just counting hits or visitors of your blog. It gives you many other facilities such as entrance keywords, geographical distribution of your readers etc.

Burn Your Feeds

Let people read your site through RSS or Atom feed readers. Feed burner is an appropriate and satisfactory site to burn your feeds.

Claim Your Blog On Technorati

By far the most important blog search and ranking engine is Technorati. Registering at technorati is indispensable. It shows your blog authority depends on how many other sites or blogs have linked to your blog.

Upcoming Posts

1. How To Burn Feeds Using Feedburner
2. Adding Google Analytics Code To Blogger
3. How To Claim Your Blog On Technorati

Evergreen Posts

1. 6 Habits of Highly Efficient Bloggers
2. 6 Animals To Follow For Better Blogging
3. Who Else Wants The 5 First Impression Fundamentals
   

How To Add Google Reader Shared Item On Blogs

Login to Google Reader Account. Find the Shared Items link and click it. See the yellow rectangle in the image below.


On the right hand side of the Shared Link pane, you will find Add a clip link.



Here you can choose the style color and number of entries to be shown. To add it to blogger the button provided will do the rest.
If you want to add it to any website then copy the code given below and use it.


Any questions ?

The Secrets Of Blog Footer Utilization

The footer of your blog can be a stepping stone for success if utilized efficiently.
Though the footer lies at the bottom, by no means it is a thing to be looked down  upon. It can propel your blog right up in the sky, like a rocket engine, which resides at the bottom and delivers all the force. 

A blog structurally consists of four parts.

1. The header
2. The body
   
3. The sidebar
4. The footer

Why Footers ?
According to a survey, even if a user skips reading a blogpost and scrolls to the bottom of a page he looks for something to be done. Keeping this report in mind the post footer ads were suggested and they worked well. So keeping some interesting and informative columns in the footer is bound to help you in one or the other way.

Footers As Sidebar Saviour
It also serves to reduce the the burden from the overly cluttered sidebar. As the footer lies horizontally, it accomodates much more efficiently.  A subtantial portion of sidebar real estate  can be saved.

Prominent Examples
Many successful bloggers have utilized this space for various purpose.

• Problogger has a mighty double storey blog footer. The upper is dedicated to categories and is divided into 5 columns. The lower row is divided into 3 columns and contains recommended Money Makers, Problogger Resources adn The About (Page) Column.
• John Chow Dot Com is yet another double storey footer blog. Upper row dedicated to categories and the lower is divided into three columns for Recent Comments, Friends Of The Community and Blogroll.
• Digital Inspiration uses a 4 column single row footer which includes About Digital Inspiration, RSS Feeds, Contact Us / Send a Tip and Get news on the go.
  

Get some excellent footer examples at 50 Excellent Blog Footer Designs from Hongkiat.

6 Animals To Follow For Better Blogging

Though the human beings are gifted with immense power and ability, sometimes observing and assimilating the qualities of animals can be of great advantage for bloggers. One most important qualities of the human beings is to learn and adapt, so he can definitely learn from all other creations and apply it for his own benefit, be it blog or life.

The Bee
The Bee chooses the most beautiful flowers, collects nectar, digests it properly and makes honey out of it. The inference is that to write you need to study and know your subject well. As a blogger you should hop for the best source of knowledge, research thoroughly, collect gist (nectar), and make an original composition. It is bound to serve the readers will all the goodness just like honey. Won't the readers return in search of more ?


The Woodpecker
With a beak of the size of your fingernail, it pierces hard woods and makes a house to live in. The might of the largest sequoia, cedar or oak cannot come in the way of its determination. A saying goes "If you don't have the best, make the best of what you have". Does it matter if it doesn't have the abilities of the Weaver Bird to build a beautiful nest. It concentrates on its own abilities and the result is well known. What if you as a blogger don't have the resources enough, to spend on domains, hosting, email newsletter service, advertising services, dedicated office, paid writers, fancy accessories etc etc. You can still make a wonderful blog and get it running successfully too. Just utilize what is there and forget what is not there.


The Stork
For its target to be achieved, the stork stands for several hours on one leg. Dedication is a must for any blogger to succeed. Never Give Up.


The Ant
It has the ability to carry loads, several times its own weight. Another important quality is that she marks its way with pheromones, well in advance that she has to follow. Never deviates from that path till one work has been accomplished. Multiple tasks, multiple blogs, part time blogger, theres no excuse, you can do it and you should do it. Moreover choose your path, the niche carefully and stick to it. Success is on the way.


The Peacock
What happens when there is thunderstorm, black clouds, tremendous breeze and heavy rains ? The peacock dances and enjoys every moment. He knows well that this has to pass, its not permanent. Never be bothered if there are difficulties, less traffic, no clicks. Its your choice, whether you pass this period dancing or crying.


The Tortoise
This humble and slow creature has been a part of our moral lessons since the very child hood. Elaboration on "Slow And Steady Wins The Race" is not required.


Would you like to suggest some other qualities to be followed ? Please feel free to write in the comment box. Thank You !

Are You An Adsense Master Or An Adsense Slave

I was in my balcony watching the world of ads outside when this picture struck me. It forced me to think that are we slaves to the ad agencies that are based on cost per click model.

Placing Ads Like A Business Man
If you see care fully on the left hand side is an ad displayed by the 3G mobile company with a bunch of employees. These employees are located at the same place where a business man has parked his ads display vehicle and is coincidentally displaying the ads for the same company.
The basic difference between these two groups is that despite the same location the employees will earning by the number of sales of new 3G connection which of course will be not more than a few percent incentive of their measly salaries.
At the same location the business man is charging here in Jaipur somewhere between 7 to 12 lakhs INR for one month of ads display. Needless to say the employees will not get even a 1/1000 of this all five of them combined.

No Records More Money, All Records Negligible Money
The business man who has bought this spot will never have to produce any document that these many people have got your connection because the ad was displayed at this particular place. In fact this can never be tracked because you never find a customer who tell he is buying a certain product by looking at such and such hoarding located at bus stop no 3 lane no two on the right hand of the gulmohar tree, besides the large blue yellow lafanso ad or whatever.
On the other hand the employees will produce a full details complete with address and all to prove that they have got these many customers to the company yet the amount earned will be far less .

Which Model Are We Serving Through
If you own a website or a blog then you may have noticed that the ads are displayed on your site but you are paid like the EMPLOYEES in the above example. By the time you get a single click you have already shown this ad to a few hundred people but where is its benefit. In fact you should be earning like the businessman because you OWN a site a spot where there are thousands of visitors and why should you produce a click to earn when you can be a businessman. If you are the employee mentality then I think you are loosing a lot despite the inherent potential of your blog or site. What do you say, Agree or Disagree!!!

Blog Comments,Traffic and Adsense Conversions

Among the various techniques of increasing traffic on a blog commenting is a versatile instrument. Just like any other method it carries with itself a set of advantages and disadvantages. This post describes how to comment effectively for appropriate returns.

The Inert Comments
Most comments on various blogs look more like a rubber stamp, inert fixed and struck with a thump. This type of comments are as prevalent as mosquitoes in India, and yes they suck too. The only thing they can force you to put on is the switch of the repellent vapourizer. Avoid inert comments.

The Vibrant Comments
These comments are recognized by their ability to convey the feeling for the post as well as generate enough interest in the reader to draw him to your blog. If you want a long term input of traffic from your comments then try to make vibrant comments on the blogs you visit.

Comments And CTR
In the race to get more traffic many bloggers forget that only traffic will not increase your CTR. I remember from the post of Problogger - Do You Attract Readers to Your Blog that Are Like You? where he found during a survey that the readers of the blog are just like him. You can also say, Like begets like!
If you are commenting on blogs just to get hits, the traffic that comes to you will be of the same type. This comment visit cycle is the reason why most blogs are drowned in the sea of comments, but starving for a single click that converts.

Long Comments Longer Lasting Effects
Long needs a definition here because you may be aware that an hour spent with a beautiful mademoiselle feels like a minute while..........................
So spend some time to read and understand the post you have visited. Make a list of points how this has, or will affect you or your blog and then gift it and watch the fruitful consequences. It indicates that you were there not just to thrust the "Rubbers Stamp" like the horns of a raging bull.

Are You High On Comments And Low on Contents
If the comments you make on other blogs are mushrooming like the TV models and the posts on your blog is getting skimpier than their clothes, its time to pay attention to your blogs contents and posts. The traffic that follows to your blog should find some great contents on your blog as well, if you want to convert them into loyal readers. They will definitely have a tendency to compare your blog with the one they came from and then choice you know well of course.

Google to Help Guard your Copyright

The Problem
It has been noted by many of us that an original content is sometimes copied and posted by someone else. Google now comes to your rescue.

The Initative
Google has come up with Help Centre for copyright infringement.
Also refer to Learn more about our DMCA process Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Google AdSense.

Ref Google Adsense.