kdays.com » Blogging

Google Webmaster Tools

kdays — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:15:47 +0000

Google Webmaster Tools is free and an easy way to keep track on ensuring your blog is Google-friendly. Google Webmaster Tools allows you to see your blog the way Google sees it. You can view which of your pages are included in Google’s index, check any crawling errors (including blocked pages or 404 errors), view search queries that listed your blog in the results pages and any more.

Visit http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/.

You can use an existing Google account or register for a new one. When you sign in to your Webmaster Tools account, the first page you’ll see is the Dashboard. This page lists all the sites in your account, along with information about Sitemaps and site verification.

Enter your blog’s domain name in to the Site field and click Add Site.

The next step is to verify that you are an authorised ‘webmaster’ for this domain name.Click on the link Verify your site.

There are two methods of verification. You can either upload a HTML file with a name Google specifies, or you can add a meta tag to your site’s index file. It’s entirely up to you – my preference is the meta tag option for blogs.This way I know that I am not going to delete the file by mistake and it is in the header together with other meta tags I’ve added.

Select Add a meta tag and then copy the meta tag displayed.
The meta tag needs to be pasted into the header of your blog’s home page.

The easiest way to do this in WordPress is to include the meta tag in the header.php file. Log on to your blog’s WordPress Admin and select Presentation then Theme Editor from the menu.
Click on the header.php file from the right hand side menu. Locate the tag. Paste the meta tag just after the tag as shown below.

Double check that the meta tag is between the tag and the tag before the first tag. Click on Update File.
Back in Google Webmaster Tools, you can now click on Verify to let Google know to check your blog for the presence of the meta tag.

You may wish to spend a couple of minutes now to explore the tools. It may take some time for Google to gather statistics for your site but you should get an idea of the data that will be available and how this will help you and, in particular, your quest for SEO, in the future.

Participating in Blog Carnivals

kdays — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:35:43 +0000

So, what is a Blog Carnival? In short, a blog carnival is a collection of blog posts on a particular theme submitted by authors to the carnival host. Think of an editor publishing a magazine – the authors submit articles to the editor, the editor selects articles that best fit the next issue, writes an introduction for the articles and then publishes the finished magazine. A blog carnival is the blog version of a magazine.

In addition to the benefits of reading blog carnivals, there are exciting reasons to also play your part in the carnival too. Bloggers participating in blog carnivals can see real advantages for their blogs as well as the benefits of meeting fellow bloggers and the sense of building blogging communities.

Why participate in blog carnivals?

One of the biggest advantages of participating in blog carnivals for new bloggers is exposure. It takes time for readers and search engines to find you and participating in blog carnivals spreads your word, showcases your work and increases the number of backlinks to your blog. All these are valuable strategies in building up the readership of your blog.

Readers of blog carnivals in your niche are also more likely to be regular readers (and active commenters) on your blog when compared with readers from social bookmarking sites.

Where do I find a blog carnival?

The Blog Carnival site has a comprehensive listing of blog carnivals and is a good place to start. It’s easy to search for blogs in your niche and the site even has an easy submission form to submit your articles to the blog carnival’s host. There are links to previous editions and a featured Blog Carnival each day.

The list of Blog Carnivals (from the main site) is also listed at The Truth Laid Bear site on their Übercarnival page.

Which post should I submit to the blog carnival?

Carnival posts tend to have a higher standard of writing with quality content relevant to the topic. Bloggers may write the post specifically for the carnival or highlight a quality post they have written before. Pillar articles which stand the test of time are often the most useful for submission if your objective is to advertise yourself and your blog. Pillar articles tend to be longer articles that highlight your expertise in your area.

Not every post from your blog will be ‘blog carnival worthy’. Only submit posts that you are particularly proud of the writing, it’s unique content or the specific point of view. And remember, the blog carnival host has the final say in whether your article is accepted for the next edition or a future edition. Check previous editions of a blog carnival for the type of article selected and the language used to get an idea before submitting your article.

The blog carnival host will appreciate articles submitted in plenty of time before the edition deadline and including a description or supporting comment about your submission will be an added bonus for them.

Finally, a link to the published blog carnival from your blog is always appreciated. Contributing to a blog carnival helps drive traffic to your blog and this can be reciprocated by linking to the blog carnival.

Reading Blog Carnivals

kdays — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:39:21 +0000

According to Technorati, as at February 2008:

Technorati are currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.

The World Live Web is incredibly active, and according to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs (that’s just blogs) every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.

How can you find what you are looking for in the vast blogosphere? This is where Blog Carnivals step in. Blog Carnivals allow readers to find other blogs relating to a specific topic from a wide variety of authors. Carnival posts tend to have a higher standard of writing than usual and quality content relevant to the topic, with bloggers writing specifically for the carnival or to highlight a great post they have already written. So, blog carnivals are great to be able to find out what bloggers are writing about in your area of interest or to find out which bloggers that you would like to read more from.

Most blog carnivals can be found on the Blog Carnivals site – a great place to start on your journey into Blog Carnivals.

Day 21 – Booming Business of Blogging Experiment

kdays — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:19:47 +0000

Starting in the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be daunting. I’m going to be approaching it one step at a time and I’ve decided to start with keywords. As I’ve mentioned before, Google’s Webmaster Tools are still showing keywords that look like the belong to my domain name before I took it on. They all relate to Canada and travel and they are definitely not words that even appear on my site even once. So, keyword optimization – what’s it all about?

The first step is to determine your keywords and keyword phrases and then sort by popularity. With a very young blog, like this one, you may not have the logs and reports to analyse keywords from hits. I’ve downloaded a copy of Good Keywords to help me understand what my site is saying to search engines. This will give me a good start in really looking at the way I use (if I do) keywords currently. A snapshot today shows:

Looking at the Keyword Table in Good Keywords I can see that there is plenty of work to do. My next task is now look at refining and combining keyword phrases for maximum impact.

In the meantime I have also read about a couple of WordPress plugins that are available. I’ll report on my progress with SEO plugins in another post once I’ve had a further look.

Day 20 – Booming Business of Blogging Experiment

kdays — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:26:48 +0000

As part of the first month’s goals of the Booming Business of Blogging Experiment, I’ve started dabbling in the different income opportunities for bloggers. My blog is now just under three weeks old and, as a mere baby, there are some opportunities that are not yet available to me as I’m quickly finding out. Here’s a quick run down of my experiences into the world of monetizing a blog so far.

Exploring blogging income opportunites

Google Adsense

The first program I signed up for, on Day 4 of this experiment, Google Adsense seemed to be the de facto standard for making money with blogging. Within a couple of hours I had received a welcome email from Google and started selecting the options for ad sets that I thought might work the best.

Over the last week or so I have played around with the layout and ad size and type and think that I now have something that looks pretty good. I’ll probably leave it as is for a couple of weeks at least so that I can build up some stats over time on how they are performing.

On Day 18, I finally installed the Adsense Deluxe WordPress plugin and it definitely makes life easier. This is one of my favourite plugins and is great for including all sorts of scripts into posts and templates.

Amazon Associates

In one of my first posts, the Top 10 Running Quotes, I really wanted to provide more information with each quote rather than just a name. I signed up on Day 7 and have since added links to books on Amazon where I have mentioned a book or where I recommend a book for further reading.

Join Amazon Associates

Text Link Ads

As there is a limit to three Google Adsense ad blocks on a page, I also signed up for Text Link Ads at the same time as an alternative. On Day 4 I received an email thanking me for becoming a member and after activation I received another email congratulating me on becoming a publisher. It wasn’t until Day 15 that I submitted my home page to publish ads.

A day or so later I received an email with the title “Your inventory was declined”. There were a couple of reasons listed but basically they all boiled down to not having enough traffic yet. I guess it’s a matter of waiting a month or two and then trying again. In the meantime, I have decided to advertise Text Link Ads as part of their affiliates program with one ad on the home page.

It’s interesting to note that a search on Google for ‘text link ads’ does not bring up their site.

Azoogle Ads

On Day 9 of the experiment, I signed up for Azoogle Ads and my application was approved on Day 12. Azoogle asked for a completed copy of the US tax form W-8BEN. I have researched this a little and while some bloggers say that it is not necessary (as I am based in Australia) and other bloggers don’t think there is any harm in completing the form. I must admit the form is still sitting on my desk. Completed – but not yet posted.

There are a couple more that I’m starting to read up on. For any other new bloggers, what have you found worked best for you in those first few months of blog infancy? I look forward to your comments.