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Starting a New Blog
When starting a blog there are many things to think about. Some of those thoughts are, what should I right about, what blogging system do I use, how do I get traffic to my site and how can I get people to comment on my sites. There are some many different things you can do you help your site become successful, I good blog should be researched, outlined and prepared before the site goes live.
Finding Your Niche
When you decide you are ready to start blogging, think about what niche you want to write in. I have been writing blogs on and off for several years now and none of them were all that successful until now. I found in those failed blogs, I did not have the passion to write those blogs, find content or work on them more than a few times a month. My current blog Evolutionary Designs, has only been around for about two months and it averages about about 40 to 50 new readers a day with minimal effort. One of the reasons this blog is doing so well is, I have the passion for the subjects related to this blog. I enjoy writing for this blog so much I write a new article almost every day and on a slow day I might be able to write several articles.
What Blogging System Should I use
There are a lot of blogging systems to use. The top blogging systems are WordPress, WordPress self hosted, and Blogger. Each one has their pros and cons; this will be something that you need to research and decide for yourself.
WordPress.com blogs are hosted on the wordpress network and has large community of users. WordPress is free to setup and you will have a domain xxxxxx.wordpress.com. The downside to using this bloging system is the WordPress.com limits the amount space you use, what templates you can use, and the plugins that you can install on the system. Another thing to think about is, if your site becomes popular and you switch to self hosted, you will have start over with search optimization and you will lose some of your readers and incoming links.
Blogger blogs are hosted by the blogger network and has a large community of users. Blogger is a great platform for new users and the causal blogger. As a blogger user you have more options, themes, and plugins to choose from than WordPress.com. But the downside to blogger is you are limited to types of plugins and themes you can use, SEO optimization is a joke, and many users complain about the comment system that blogger users. Another issue to think about is, blogger uses a domain xxxxxxx.blogspot.com as well and this can be difficult to transfer to different blog system and keep your users. But they do allow you have your own domain name. So if you plan to move to a self hosted blog system, you want to go ahead and purchase and setup your domain from the start. That way when you move systems, there should not be any issues with your users and search engine page rank.
WordPress Self Hosted is a blogging system that uses the same system as WordPress.com but you host the system on your own web server. As a WordPress self hosted user, your themes are only limited by the imagination, tons of plugins to choose from, system is easy to optimize for SEO. You can set your blog to be a DoFollow and CommentLuv system through plugins. The downside to use a self hosted system is, you well have to purchase a domain, web space, install and configure WordPress. You should be able to get a blog started fairly cheaply. If you are interested services please contact me, I can help you any all issues with starting a blog and help you configure your new system.
So How Do I Drive Traffic and Comments To My Site?
After finding your niche and deciding on your blogging system, you need to work on strategies for driving traffic to your site. If using WordPress Self Hosted, it a little easier if you have your system configure properly and you have the right plugins installed. Once you have your plugins installed, you can then work on adding keywords.
The best way to drive traffic to sites are; SEO plugins, Keywords, constant creation of content on your site, and commenting on your site.
Let say you decided to go with WordPress self hosted. The first thing you want to do is go to the plugins tab and search for your SEO plugins. The plugins you want to install and configure are:
- All In One SEO Pack
- Category SEO meta tags
- SEO Post Link
- SEO Smart Links
- SEO Friendly Images
- HeadSpace 2
- Platinum SEO
After you have your system configured for SEO, then you want to start adding content. You want add original content daily. As you create your blog postings, and update your various pages throughout the site, make sure add keywords to your Titles, tags, and throughout the actual posts. Karl Foxely at FMS SEO wrote a great article about keywords and beginner information about SEO. I high recommend reading up on this article before you start your SEO campaign.
Part of every blogger’s blogging life, is commenting. One of the fastest ways is to gain traffic to your site is to comment on other high traffic blogs. The reason why you want to comment on other blogs is its free advertisement. Every time you leave a comment, you can leave a link back to your website. Studies have shown that to get the most out of commenting, you need to comment on fifty blogs a day but if you can’t do that many do not worry, even I can not do that. Just comment on as many you can daily. By doing this you will start your link building campaign. Every time you leave a link, this gives the opportunity for a regular reader of the other blogs you comment to visit your site. For a better understanding of link building check out Kelly-Anne Foxley at FMS SEO post What Are The Best Links For SEO And How To Get Them?
If you already have your site up and you are ready to start driving more traffic to your site, check out my article on how to drive traffic and get more comments on your site.
About James
I really appreciate the mention(s) and the link(s). Thank you.
Just to add to what you have covered about blog commenting, I think it is important to add some type of strategy to your commenting, at least in as far as being flexible. By this I mean that I have found our greatest results (traffic and reciprocal comments) when I mix up my commenting by commenting on high traffic blogs, blogs by people who have already visited my site, and blogs that are new to me (found using the search engines or similar method).
Doing this consistently diversifies the sites that you comment on and the viewers that see your comments.
Thanks again,
Karl
My recent post Guest Blogging For Fresh Content And Optimised Backlinks
I see you have 3 SEO plugins in your list, do you use all three or just suggesting them as choices?
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No I do not, I have used all of these at one time or another. On this site, I use All In One SEO, SEO Friendly Images, SEO Post links, and SEO Smart links.
The others I have mentioned because several trusted sources have mentioned them or they are also popular for SEO plugins.
My recent post How to Raise Your Search Engine Rankings
How about the hacking risks on a self hosted WordPress Blogs? I have very short experience regarding WordPress but had to fight hard with hackers with my http://www.psexam.com website which used Joomla CMS. Thanks God! I had taken backup and could restore my site.
Are there security issues with Self Hosted WordPress blogs too?
My recent post Reader-friendly Blog Design – Checklist.
There are risks. I am researching this. I will have a post up soon on this subject.
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I had my WordPress blog hacked and it was only when I installed B2evolution that they gave me a security warning about this line PHP register_globals which was by default set to on and should be off. I am still quite new to hosting but Matt Cutts has a Good Article on how to secure your WordPress.
My recent post Get your Thoughts on the Screen
I'd appreciate if you had left a link of Mat Cutt's article. Anyway, Element! I'll be looking forward for your post regarding hacking risks on wordpress blog. I'm planning to move to WordPress when I can afford hosting.
My recent post Allowing LPCA kick your ass? Thrash it down!
Hi Chris, thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Thanks for the tips. Could you please post a link to Matt Cutts article you mentioned? It would be beneficial for everyone to read that.
My recent post Daily Delicious Posts Jan 28th 2010
Hi Chris, thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Thanks for the tips. Could you please post a link to Matt Cutts article you mentioned? It would be beneficial for everyone to read that.
My recent post Daily Delicious Posts Jan 28th 2010
My recent post Daily Delicious Posts Jan 28th 2010
since I am new here I did not like to post links in the comment form but here is matts article http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/three-tips-to-prote… and also the reason you should watch out for PHP register_globals http://php.net/manual/en/security.globals.php as I said I am quite new to this but I learned about it the hard way
My recent post Get your Thoughts on the Screen
Good post, I have come across so many of these same types of posts about getting a blog kick started and they all blab it out for an hour, traight to the point. Nice.
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We seem write the same topic which is how to start a blog. Start a blog surely is a hard task if we do not know how to do it exactly.
My recent post Effective Way to Learn From Favorite Blogs
Overall I think this article was a great addition to our weekly word challenge. This article doesn't only cover the basics to starting a blog but also covers more advanced features such as SEO plugins and more. I was hoping I could also mention starting a free hosted blog at http://www.bloggingwire.com This is a social network I just started developing and is similar to wordpress and blogger but with a social network twist to it. You don't have to add it to your article but if you don't mind it would be greatly appreciated!
Starting a blog can be overwhelming but with detailed and informative article like this one it surely makes it a less stressful evening.
Thanks for submitting this to our challenge element321(aka James)
Brian
My recent post Why I’m So Passionate About Blogs and Blogging
**The downside to use a self hosted system is, you well have to purchase a domain, web space, install and configure WordPress.**
Like you said, this isn't much of a barrier and, as the only downside I can see is far outweighed by the positive reasons to have control of your blog.
This is exactly why I started my new blogger service, the learning curve is sometime hard for people to overcome, when they really just want to write!
Another thing about SEO plugins, etc. If your theme is optimized, most of the plugins are unnecessary.
My recent post CommentLuv: Get Link Love for Your Blog
Excellent tips, especially about the SEO plugins. I've always been a fan of All in One SEO but I have been reading from a lot of people that Headspace 2 is better because it gives you more flexibility and functionality. Do you have any thoughts about how the two compare? -Mark
James,
In your opening paragraph you talked about researching and planning a blog before it goes live. That's real important although it's something that I'm actually in the process of doing. I just did things in reverse and started up my blog and THEN did the research. I can see the advantage of doing it the "right" way as you suggest and it will be helpful for other new bloggers that find this post. I hope the search engines are kind enough to lead them here. 😉
I also agree with Brian that starting a free blog on Blogging Wire is like the best of both worlds. You get access to plugins and the ability to have ads just like a regular WordPress blog.
Thanks!
My recent post Some Serious Blog Engagement
Thank you for that informative post. I really love to read articles that have good information and
ideas to share to each reader. I hope to read more from you guys and continue that good work that
is really inspiring to us
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Thanks for these great tips. Finding a niche is very important and you have to make sure not to make it too large in the beggining
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There are quite a few wordpress plugins that I didn't actually know about. I would recommend self hosted wordpress for anyone serious about blogging.
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