Set the Foundation
Write high quality content
You’ve probably heard this for the millionth time, but that’s because good content never gets old. Lately, I’ve tried to write
content that’s original, timeless, thought provoking, and highly useful. It’s all about creating value for your readers. If you
constantly provide value, your readers will return the favor by frequenting your site often.
Develop a comfortable posting pace
When I first started out blogging, I would post 3-4 times a day to get my blog noticed quickly. Although my traffic was
getting stronger every day, the quality of my content suffered. Remembering #1, quality is more important than quantity,
at least in the blogosphere. Don’t worry about keeping pace with TechCrunch or other mega sites. I subscribed to their
feed for a total of 2 days because their updates kept clogging Google Reader. I prefer giving readers 1-2 posts a day,
instead of overloading my readers with several mini posts. Can I get an amen?
Customize your theme
Theme customization will set your blog apart from the masses. When I picked out my WordPress theme, I knew I had to
build upon it. So I bought a header for $5, designed a site logo, and went from there. It took me a while to customize my
blog to perfection, but what’s important is that I made the necessary changes.
Tip: Design your blog as an extension of your own personality and tastes. My favorite color is blue, could you guess?
Read Other people’s Blogs
Reading other people’s blogs via Google Reader has really opened my eyes to blogging. Back in October, I was a
clueless blogging newbie who had no idea what a track back, ping back, or blog roll was. I credit my progression as
a blogger to the following sites:
ProBlogger.com – Tons of great tips on blogging in general
John Chow dot Com – Help with advertising, blogging, and marketing
Steve Pavlina – Great read on all personal development topics
JohnTP.com – Resourceful tech and blogging news
Get Rich Slowly – Money management tips
CopyBlogger – Tips on writing effective copy and articles
I pull up these feeds on a daily basis because these guys are all experts in their fields. If you’re going to learn about
blogging and other related topics, you might as well learn from the best.
Communicate With Other Bloggers and Your Readers
Start reaching out to other bloggers via e-mail, forums, message boards, blog comments, AIM, Yahoo! messenger,
or even by phone. Considering that more than 55 million blogs exist, there are plenty of people that you can connect
with. Forming relationships can lead to guest posting opportunities, tips on advertising, blogging advice, and other
valuable resources.
I think forums provide unlimited opportunities for networking and communication. There’s usually someone surfing
the forums no matter what time it is. Here are the forums that I like the spend time in:
Digital Point Forums – A large webmaster’s network.
Money Blog Network Forums – Forum for financial bloggers.
MSN Message Board Community – Tons of financial information, plus bonus participation from lead MSN writers.
Search Guild Forums – SEO tips and info. They provide great tips on my Google indexing problem.
I enjoy forums so much that I decided to host a forum here on Investor Trip. I know everyone has a lot to say regarding
investing and general personal finance, so here’s your chance to connect with global investors all over the world.
Read Newspapers, Newsletter, Books, and Magazines
Lately, I haven’t done a great job of reading printed resources, but I am committed to reading the newspaper daily in
2007. There are so many great articles and opinions floating around in printed resources that everyone should get there
hands on at least 1 or 2 resources a day. Don’t have time to read the paper? This is where the internet works in your
favor. The best thing about the internet is that many of these resources can be read online. We no longer have to pay
newsstands for literature. So bookmark your favorite printed resources, and read them often.
Validate Your X-HTML Markup
When the Apple iPhone (?) releases, do you want your blog to show up on the internet browser? Of course, you do. So
make sure your HTML is correct, or your blog will be look terrible on most browsers. Don’t rely on Firefox to correct all
those mark-up errors. I use a combination to XHTML markup services to catch any and all errors. Try W3C Markup, and
download the WordPress XHTML validator. Don’t use WordPress? Try W3 Schools as an alternative.
Optimize Your Images
Slow loading images are a huge bummer. You can prevent this by using PhotoShop’s Save to the Web feature, but I have
no interest in having Adobe programs clog up my hard drive. I use Dynamic Drive’s Image Optimizer Tool. It’s simple to
use, and you can upload images from your computer or from the web. Once you upload the images, the tool gives you 10
different image options, based on quality, to choose from. I often choose quality: 70 because it cuts the image size in half
without reducing eye appeal.
Optimize Your Permalinks for SEO
When I first started out blogging, I adopted the conventional /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ permalink
structure, and thought nothing more of it. After reading a ton on SEO, I realized this move was a huge error. The numbers
prevent search engine crawlers from reading your permalinks effectively, so lose those numbers.
The /%category%/%postname%/ is more search engine friendly. If you use WordPress, I recommend installing this
permalinks migration plug-in.
I don’t know much about migrating permalinks for other blogging platforms, so I suggest either consulting with your host
or seeking help in a web forum. I recommend Digital points forums because you’ll receive help almost instantly.
Speed Up your loading times
Studies show visitors exit pages that take more than 10 seconds to load. If your blog takes more than 10 seconds to load,
you’re losing a large number of readers, potential feed subscribers, and maybe even long-term visitors. I use this Web
optimization tool to calculate how long my home page will load on average, depending on a visitor’s connection speed.
Currently, it takes 15 seconds for my pages to load for 56k speed surfers, so I need to work on a bit more.
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Product Tester