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Written By Steven Porter

Here are some backgrounds on blog before we get started. Blog used to be very easy to get traffic back in 2005 when everyone just sets up blog and ping the blog inexorably to attract the Google spider to crawl the blogs to obtain higher ranking in Google. However, Google has discovered this and has taken immediate action to stop this easy way to get Google traffic. Today, pinging your blog will has little or almost no effect on increasing your Google traffic. So, since you cannot easily get traffic from Google, then what should you do? Give up blogging? No! Blogging is the easiest way to get targeted traffic because if you update your blog frequently, the people will revisit your blog.

Firstly, since pinging will have no effect on increasing your Google rank. We should understand this fact and we should go back to the more traditional way to drive traffic – Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. It will be very difficult to teach you the whole concept of SEO, but please allow me to break SEO down to several ideas :

What Is SEO?
SEO means you optimize your blog with certain keywords. So, when Google Spider crawl through your blog, it will perceive your blog as highly relevant in that topic, hence your blog will receive higher credit than other blog.

What Can SEO Do?
SEO will allow you to increase your Google Page Rank, and hence, subsequently increase your Google ranking.

How Can I SEO My Blog?
There are many points to keep in mind when you are going to optimize your keywords.
1) Make sure your head line, the first paragraph, somewhere in the body and the last paragraph have the specific keyword. For example, if the keyword is “cook a chicken”, Then your blog post should be something like this:
Head line : Tips on How To Cook A Chicken
First Paragraph : I have searched through the Internet to know how to cook a chicken…
Body : …… I used a pot to cook a chicken ….
Final Paragraph : …. So, that is all the advices on how to cook a chicken.
Do, you see that I have repeatedly using the word “cook a chicken”? That is what we call keyword optimization.
2) Increase your backlink. This can be done by exchanging your link with other blogs which have related topic. Please bear in mind that you should exchange link if the other blogs have higher or same Page Rank. Do not exchange link with blogs which have no relation with your topic at all. For example, if your blog is about cooking, do not exchange link with a blog which is about computer games. Besides that, you can submit your blog to free rss directories and site directories, some of these do not require a reciprocal link at all, hence, this will increase your one way backlink. You will be able to find Free RSS Submitter and Free Directory Submitter available in the net.

SEO is the best way to drive long term traffic to your blogs, but please keep in mind that SEO requires long term effort, so do not give up!

http://bestinternetblogs.com

Truth be told, most blogs aren’t really optimized for marketing effectiveness. Even more so, some blogs are absolute marketing machines, but they at the same time fail to fully capitalize on that fact by not being really optimized marketing-wise.

Blogs may be Web 2.0, but bloggers should not ignore some of the good old internet direct marketing tactics that have been working for marketers online almost for a decade or more.

Here are the absolute 101 basics you really shouldn’t ignore …

1. DON’T FORGET E-MAIL DELIVERY

Bloggers are often abandoning or completely ignoring e-mail as a tool to deliver their content to their readers. As an RSS evangelist I certainly believe in using RSS to get your content to the world, but only as a supplement to e-mail delivery.

While RSS provides us with many unique benefits, it is yet to reach mainstream adoption. Until it does, marketers and publishers should not even consider abandoning e-mail delivery, or risk ignoring most of their potential readership.

If you’re still wondering why you need e-mail, consider the potential you might be wasting without it. Someone visits your blog, likes the content and would like to be notified as new content of interest becomes available, and he does not know what RSS is or even care. If you fail to capture his e-mail address and consent at that exact moment, he might never again return to your site, either because he forgets about it or because dozens of other sites capture his interest even before the next day.

2. E-ZINE PUBLISHING IS STILL A MUST

Publishing a blog is not a replacement for an e-zine. If nothing else, publish a weekly or monthly e-zine of your top blog posts, available in a single easy-to-consume format.

Some simply do not have the time to watch your blog regularly and others will only want to receive a quick summary to get only your best and most crucial content. Publishing an e-mail e-zine will do that for you, giving you the opportunity to communicate with the widest possible long-term audience for your blog.

3. E-MAIL AND RSS SUBSCRIPTIONS

Providing e-mail (e-zine) and RSS subscriptions is important to the success of any blog. But neither of these will do you much good if your visitors don’t actually see them and if you don’t give them enough incentive to subscribe.

Foremost, display your e-mail e-zine and RSS subscriptions information at the top of your blog, instead of somewhere far down where no one will see them.

And second, use enticing copy to get visitors to subscribe. Briefly explain the benefits of subscribing, what kind of content they can expect to receive, and also do not forget about your privacy disclaimer, calming potential subscribers that you will never abuse their personal information.

4. EXPLAIN RSS

Most internet users still do not know what RSS is or how to use it, and consequently the RSS buttons on your blog mean absolutely nothing to them.

To overcome this problem, create a special RSS presentation page and link to it next to the RSS subscribe button. On that page explain:

- What RSS is
- How the visitor will benefit from using RSS
- Where they can get a free RSS aggregator (recommend one yourself!)
- How they can install it (provide step-by-step instructions)
- How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds
- Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds
-
Then, on this same page, include the links to all of your RSS feeds.

5. TOP CONTENT

If you update your blog frequently, your less recent top content keeps being pushed down and down, where most of your blog readers will never bother to look for it.

Overcome this frequent blog problem by creating a list of your top posts, clearly displayed and available from each of your pages. Depending on the topic you cover, you might want to place these headlines as close to the top of your blog as possible, in order to quickly entice your new visitors to start reading the best of what you have to offer and then use this content to convert them to loyal readers and subscribers.

6. THE HEADLINE

The site or blog headline will tell your visitors what to expect from reading your blog and will answer their key question: “What’s in it for me?”

Make sure that your blog headlines gives this reason and the story inviting enough for your readers to keep reading.

7. LEAD YOUR VISITORS TO YOUR MDA

MDA is the Most Desired Action you want your visitors to take on your site, ranging from a subscription to your e-zine to requesting more information about your services or ordering your product / getting more information about it.

Your blog will be of great help in this area, but only if you actually lead your visitors to this action. Putting this information in your menu simply is not enough.

Experiment putting some copy for your MDA directly below each blog post (on your permanent blog post archives pages) and also prominently in your left- or right-hand columns.

If you’re providing multiple services or products, promote each of them next to the appropriate posts, based on post topics.

And yes, this is more important than having dozens of Google AdSense ads on your blog … if you want to use your blog as part of your marketing mix.

8. LOOK DIFFERENT

Blogs are usually not heavily designed and most of them look exactly the same. While light design is one of the positive sides of blogs, you should invest some effort in making your blog stand-out visually. Don’t cram it with design, but still make sure it’s different than every other blog in the market.

9. USE YOUR OWN DOMAIN

Having a subdomain.typepad.com type sub-domain might be the easiest choice, but don’t forget that your domain name is your permanent online address and part of your online brand.

Consequently, invest a couple of dollars to get your own domain name, to enforce your brand, as well as making it easier for your readers to access your blog.

10. DON’T FORGET YOUR KEYWORDS

What keywords do you want your content and blog to be found under in the search engines?

Don’t forget to implement these keywords in the titles and body content of your blog posts. I’m not saying you should write your posts to please the search engines, but at least keep them in mind and use them when possible, without taking anything away from the actual content.

11. INTERACT WITH YOUR READERS

If you’re blogging for business, don’t forget about business oriented reader interaction.

Mainly, solicit questions from your readers, pertaining to your field of expertise, and then respond to them via your blog. Post interesting client case studies. When you get a review, post it or link to it. And so on …

12. BLOG SPECIFIC PROMOTIONAL TACTICS 101

a] Intensively market your RSS feeds

b] Ping the search engines and directories after you update your blog, using a free service such as http://www.pingomatic.com

13. DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE CONTENT

And of course, none of the above won’t make any difference at all if you don’t provide high-quality, interesting and frequent content.

These 13 points are of course only the most basic stuff, but enough to help you get on the marketing optimization train.

Find out immediately how you can power your online business with RSS and use it in all of your marketing. Request the free 28-page Business Case for RSS report, with easy-to-follow instructions, examples and advice on how to get the most out of RSS in the shortest possible time. Get the free download here: