Mcneri: blogger

Showing posts with label blogger. Show all posts

Thursday, May 1

Mcneri's Blog Directory For May 2008

The Blog Competition winners are published above. The image to the left is a list including other contestants. Because of incomplete entries, some entries will only appear in this image. This competition is running on a monthly basis and everyone is free to participate. For the next month, incomplete entries will not be published at all. The published entries will have links from within a post in addition to the top entries being listed as Blog of Focus for that month. Become a winner today. Pat attention to the rules.

Wednesday, April 30

How to use Entrecard to grow your blog

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win April 2008Entrecard seems to be the new/future of social networking. Keep dropping on me and I will continue to drop on you. I really do not mind bounce rates in a non-self hosted blog yet. Conversions are all important so if you get 100 droppers a day and 5% convert to your blog, at the end of 100 days, theoretically you should have 500 converts! That is the way to look at entrecard. There is a wonderful blog dedicated to entrecard and it has great posts that will help beginners and older users as well.

Many droppers just drop and go, well, you are welcome. I do that too sometimes. However some blogs are welcoming and interesting. They have what I am looking for or what I did not know I needed and that gets me reading and leaving comments. Believe it or not that comment brings me visitors. Dropping brings me visitors. Blogging brings me visitors.

Getting your visitors to come back is all-important. How to do that with entrecard is relatively simple. If you look hard and long enough, you will find blogs/bloggers that interest you. Warm up to them, make useful comments on their blogs, reciprocate their drops, put them in your favorites list. That suddenly becomes social networking. Soon you have a community no matter how small and it will grow into what you dream of some day. Consistency is the word.

Do not lose focus and do not be in a hurry. If you realize that with 5 subscribers to your blog daily in one year you will have up to 1825 regular readers of your blog (from Entrecard alone). then if you use Blogcatalog or Digg or Stumble also, the number further increases. Soon adverts on your blog will be going for double and triple figures.

The good thing about entrecard-grown blogs is that majority of the readers are entrecarders so you will continue to get drops. The hard work is at the begining. I think the first 100 days. If you make 300 per day drops in those early days, certainly you will have loads of converts. However, you must have great fresh and useful content if you want me to be back to your blog. Pro-blog reviews also has a few lovely entrecard and blogging posts.

Drop and go, but please bookmark me, subscribe to my RSS feed and drop a comment. I will reciprocate.

Tuesday, April 29

How do you blog, Blogger?

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win April 2008"How do you blog" would be a good way to greet a blogger visiting another blog. It would be an in-road into the visitor's mind and blogging practices. My guess is that there are as many blogging styles as there are bloggers and that variety is what makes blogging so much fun because humans love variety.

There are several styles of blogging and I will discuss a few today.

1. Blogging on the fly!
This I believe is about the oldest style. It originated from the good old early days when pioneer bloggers simply created web logs of their lives. Most were of their daily activities and programming breakthroughs. The blogger then did not think anyone was indeed really reading the blog. As we expect only us to read our diary, so was the expectation. This has been carried forward and in today's blogosphere, we see rants and raves. This is more common in the personal blogs. A few bloggers from time to time do this also and I have done it in many of my posts. It helps one put a personal touch to the blog, even though it may be a niche that one is blogging in.

2. Blogging as the Press.
As blogging has developed, so has readership widened and many blogs boast of readerships that eclipse my neighborhood newspaper's numbers. Major examples include Google's blogs for its gmail, and google itself and online resources like Lifehacker, Techcrunch (802K RSS subscribers. I hope they have a 401K), The Huffington Post and Mashable. These blogs/websites have editorial teams and the output is really something else. The corporate blogs seem to be a somewhat unofficial source of official information. Press releases serve their role, but also, releasing the information in a sub-formal way via blogs seems to be the way to reach more customers. The challenge faced by the everyday blogger is to measure up to such standards. Well, I wish you luck.

3. Blogging to the top in your niche.
This by far is both the easiest and the most popular. The blogger simply tries to be the best in that little niche that he/she blogs in. Usually the style is a mash-up of the first two styles. Guest bloggers post interesting articles, professionally written and edited a thousand times. Blog owner recruits readers from as many social circles as possible including link exchanges, Digg, Stumbleupon, Blogcatalog and Mcneri's! The Blogger also occasionally produces timeless articles that would measure up to the big fish and have a chance at front page on Digg. It is easy to be in this category because you simply are just trying to get ahead and non-committal to any particular style. You are a Maverick Blogger. Soon you become A-listed and as your readership grows, you have to choose a conventional style, otherwise you will fall back to oblivion where you came from.

I will advice that bloggers keep an eye on thier style and know when to start conforming to a particular style. Know when you need more professional copywriters, when you need to go on that writing course, and when you need to re-define your niche or start another blog.

What is your blogging style, How do you blog?

Friday, April 25

What will you give me when I spread the word about you?

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win April 2008 If you have an answer, state it in the comments box. This blog is giving something really big away, but many readers do not know. If you tell your readers, they will be grateful and thank you. Imagine the opportunity to reach ALL those recieving my RSS feed.

You may be wondering what I am talking about. It is the unique blog contest. I have scoured the internet and I am yet to see anything like it. I will not repeat the contest components in this post, but I will wager any blogger to show me a better contest, or any contest for that matter that offers value better than this. Many blogs host contests that give things away to their associates, selected by unmeasurable parameters: "randomly selected". Such a hoax in the name of competition and greed.

In my definition of competition, there is a clear criteria for winning, nothing random. The winners of this competition will benefit every month with the directory listing them and their keywords and the top contestants will have their links and keyword phrases in this cute box above. On every post. That way, the reader even sees them before they see me.

That brings me back to my question: What will you give me when I spread the word about you? If you have any compelling offer, you tell us, we are listening.

Saturday, April 19

Betting on my winning Blogs

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win in April

People often ask me what it takes to know a winning blog. Well, for one you have to be observant. In the last few weeks, I have come across a few blogs that are on the upward trajectory, definitely.

The first one is MattNutts.com. This is an amazingly creative blog by a guy called Matt. he is unassuming, intelligent and goes for the kill. he has created several widgets that make the life of a blogger simple. The icing on the cake is that he is an author. In this book which he has on his blog, he gives you a complete guideline on how to use and help on BlogCatalog, a social networking microblogging platform. That is where I met Matt. I know he will be in the A-list soon enough because he is being of enormous help to bloggers, new and old.

The second blog that has impressed me recently is : Health Nut Wanna Be's Blog. This is a married stay-at-home mum-blogger who has been changing the lives of her readers with wonderful resources for healthy eating and living. She writes engagingly and has intrigued me with her blogs even though she claims no medical knowledge. One visit to her blog will get you addicted. She preaches eating healthy and when you look at her portrait on her profile page, you will understand why. that blog and blogger are definitely blogs of progress. Let us watch that space. See her recent post here.

The third Blog I would want to talk about is milliondollablogs.com. The blog master got my attention....somehow. Visit his two sites, Potpolitics dot com and milliondollarblogs and see how. Anyway he is a great guy living in San Antonio at the moment. I think his style is trendy yet aggressive and he will get through the roof very soon. Watch him and his friends, I for one.

Friday, April 18

Three hard facts that every blogger has to know

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win in April

There are quite a few ways to get your blog up to speed and I decided to share them here today. I will discuss these first ones that easily come to mind. The rest, you will pick up as you read through my posts.

1. Start your blog development by reading other blogs
This is a no-brainer. You simply have to look around the blogosphere for ideas to boost what you have passion to blog about. This will help you develop your ideas into wonderful blog posts. As you visit other blogs, you will come across some "dope-headed" blogs that are almost unconcious, while you will see others that are very vibrant, have a lot to say and are on the go. The artful blogger must clone ideas from the best blogs they visit and add to it to produce new original content for their own blog.

The interesting thing about this aspect of blogging is that some of these blogmaster will be willing to help you with ideas to improve your blog. The blogosphere thrives on goodwill and to get it you have to be humble and pro-active.

2. Not all top-rated Blogs have the originator in-house

Many newcomers to the blogosphere often want to develop their blogs into top-rated blogs and sometimes are lured into copying top blogs erroneously. I am sorry to tell you this, but I have to. Not all top blogs have their originators in-house. Often times the originator of the blog has moved on and sold the blog. The business model may have changed into something that cannot move a new blog up, but can only sustain an old one with status. If you copy such a blog's business model, your blog may never get off the ground.

I want to encourage you and to say that your blog will get to the top if you stay the course and read this blog regularly (RSS is available). There are loads of tips and give-aways that you will get from here to help you grow. Mashable recently highlighted six simple tools to rate your blog's success. Keep your focus on these and with time, success will spill all over you.

3. Traffic exchanges and social sites are part of blogmaster school
Some bloggers do not like traffic exchange for the simple reason that it reduces Google Adsense Pay-per-click and increases bounce rate. Others believe it gives a flse sense of traffic when the traffic is just bouncers. I have to tell you that being part of a traffic exchange is an essential aspect of blog education. You have no choice. If you can afford it, you can advertise on CNN.com or WSJ.com. You could even buy front page on Yahoo. If you can not afford it then go to school organically.

Some traffic exchange programs like LinkReferral (see sidebar) force you to review other sites that you visit in order to gain points and position. Others just put that blog 'in your face'. I belong to Entrecard also and I would encourage newcomers to quickly get registered and start dropping their cards here. My blog and several other blogs even offers a streaming feed of recent card droppers. that way with Entrecard, you get prime position for just dropping your card with me. Many of the blogs in these exchanges are at your level. They are hardly A-listed, though many are on their way there.

The beauty of it is that you are exposed to a wide array of sites, probably more than you would visit in a normal browsing day. You see things you like and things you do not like. You find out those you can associate with and those you want to run from. Traffic exchanges give you an opportunity to see a lot of niches that you would have never dreamed of.

The best aspect of the exchange is this subtle educational opportunity to meet people of like or varrying interests and learn from them. If we do not go to school, we still meet people, probably at church or some cousin or neighbour's place. School does significantly increase socila contact, interaction and bonding. My advice: Go to school, join link exchanges. You can even team up to form advertisement groups and leverage on each other to swing good bargains.

When you outgrow the networks, you will know and you can move on. Come on, you need that traffic. If you have good content, you will convert some and there you go on your way to stardom.

Wednesday, April 16

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 4 of 22)

Unique Blog Contest: Register and win in April

Image via Wikipedia#4: Permatabs add-on for Firefox

Just like the name says, Permatabs keeps some tabs of your choice permanent. That way, you can have web pages that you visit often stay permanently in your browser in-between sessions. This comes in very handy for the blogger. The reason is that any and every blogger knows that one sure destination on the web is your blog.

We may read our emails in a desktop-based email application, but we really want to sight that our creation. More importantly, if you have multiple blogs, or some "high-yield" blogs that always give you ideas to blog about, then the permatabs makes it easy for you to always get to that destination.

Permatabs makes it impossible to accidentally close a tab. As Universe Firefox put it, it locks the essential tabs in. The other examples are like your RSS, or calendar. This add-on makes it impossible to accidentally close a tab.

With a little tweaking....which I will talk about elsewhere, you can even use one of your tabs as your windows explorer. Thus all your computer operations will that go on inside your Firefox. Do you want me to tell you the tweak? Ask for it, c'mon. feel free to leave your comments you like here.

Monday, April 14

22 Must have Firefox add-ons for Bloggers (Blogging tip 2 of 22)

Image via Wikipedia
#2 Zemanta add-on for Firefox

This is an awesome Firefox add-on that beats me. I only recently started using it and all I can say is that it is great. According to the Zemanta homepage, the tool lets you

"Have your browser understand what you are blogging about and suggest pictures, links, articles and tags to make your posts more vibrant. We are making blogging fun again."

It is an impressive tool, as it eases off the having to flip between tabs to get content to make your blog relevant in the blogosphere. Zemanta goes and fetches the most relevant content from blogs around the web. More importantly, it fetches content that is recent and from higly ranked pages. That way, when you reference these posts, you are more likely to get references from the trackbacks. That is how to become a powerblogger, becoming more relevant in the blogosphere over time, as your blogging gets more references.

Wordpress 2.5 was recently released and that brought up a challenge for the Zemanta team, however within a few short days, the team came up with a fix. At the moment, the tool is compatible and works with all versions of Wordpress including the recently released 2.5 version. It also works with Blogger and Typepad.

In one of the earlier reviews was from Techcrunch's Mike Butcher entitled 'A content suggestion engine for blogging ?That could work...'. Other earlier reviews include this more extensive one on wordplayblog.com
This suggestion tool that also fetches images is really a blogger's dream. It is still an alpha release and the founders are a start-up, however the tool is likely to get popular real soon. The strongest potential I see is that of being referenced by subsequent blogs on the topic since you would be one of the most recent bloggers about that topic using Zemanta!

If you were to use Zemanta to blog this moment about say.....Zemanta, the tool will fetch relevant keywords, tags, blogs and images for you. Most of the images come from Wikipedia. Below your rich text editor, it keeps suggesting links and keywords which you may decide to take some , all or none. Beside the editor window also, you have the Zemified option of selecting related articles and letting them appear at the bottom of your post. In like manner, other blogs will see you at the side if they are using the add-on.

This tool is new and I do not know how robust its engine is, but there are indications that it is really smart. I will like to hear from you, how useful this one has been and any hiccups you may have experienced using it. It is a must have for bloggers, even though there are some skeptics who are worried about sploggers. What I do not know is when an IE plugin will be available (still beta testing). Or are we all going to FIREFOX?

The video below is from Zemanta. Enjoy!

Sunday, April 6

Part 2: The best kept secrets of blog traffic building

Socialize it
Socializing a blog involves some of the most time-consuming efforts in blog management. You have to first visit the social sites of which there are many. There you have to join groups and form alliances. then you have to visit the blogs of these new-found allies and 'endorse' some of their works. Some, usually less than 30% will reciprocate, as their eyes will be trailing the big fish bloggers, not you rookie.

Is it right to do this? Well, it is all relative, but a little bit of this would not hurt. However, one must not forget the primary business of the day:blogging. Do not lose sight, just continue to blog. New quality content. The internet will find you. You do not need to spend all your time seeking social sites and not have good quality content at home. If you do that, you may get visitors to your blog, but they will leave disappointed and will never come back. Put sticky content that people can not do without on your blog. Even if it has been said before, say it in a different way.

RSS Virus
This virus is more potent than anything I have heard of. You must have an RSS feed....whether you like it or not if you want your blog to survive. In addition to having one, encourage visitors to subscribe to it. Mine is powered by feedburner and I want you to subscribe. It is at the upper left hand corner of my page. If you do, you will always get the latest entries on this blog.

Include an advanced RSS burner or reader that will allow you to sign visitors up by email too. The RSS virus is so viral and we usually can not tell where it will get to in the blogosphere. When a virus carries your information, rest assured it will get to many continents. Blogs fail if they fail to concentrate on stuff like this.

Watch your Stats
If you blog, you want traffic. I am often amused when 'experts say, do not get obsessed by traffic. Apart from content, trafic is the most important aspect of blog development. Traffic validates content. If you remember in the first part of this post, I said that your blog is just numbers, 'one's and 'zero's sitting somewhere. If nobody reads it, it is useless. when you watch your stats, you see how things that you do daily, affect your traffic.

Wordpress has excellent dashboard stats. You can also use google analytics which is free. I have a link to site meter also as backup. Look at it closely, visit those that have sent you traffic, learn from them too. Mahalo actually gives excellent tutorials on the tool. Do those things that drive you traffic more.

Read your blog, read other blogs, get 'hot'content
This must sound crazy, but I am saying it. Read your blog. A must read for others is also a must-read for you. there will be hidden typos, 'nuke' them. read other blogs to get great ideas and blog about them. third is to hunt for hot news. Your blog is not necessarily about news, but being the first, or among the first small sites to blog about some new remotely or closely related news activity or development has a way of getting you ranked really high on searches.

Do not hesitate to blog at 1 am. You may find something from an Australian blog and there you are. Also, a blog like Techcrunch has mid-night bloggers, so be the first to comment/link to one of their articles. They do publish your trackback and that could inch you up the ladder too.

And the beat goes on.....
. There are many other tips and secrets, but I have shared the experiences I have had with blogging in my first 30 days. This post is definitely non-exhaustive, so expect more guidance as we move along. the best is yet to come.I can continue, but I will stop here so that we will have space in the concluding part of the series to discuss where blogging is going. thanks you for stopping by and please link to me. You can visit my first blog here.

The best kept secrets about blog traffic building

In this 3 post series, I will outline certain principles that should guide you if you want to build a blog from the scratch. I will also explain why many blogs fall by the wayside and why blogs are the future of mankind.

In the begining:

I started my wordpress blog and approximately 30 days later, we recieved our 1500th unique visitor. By some standards, that is mediocre, while with others that is very impressive. Personally I am impressed. I am sure some readers are guessing that this is my umpteenth blog, no no no. My first blog.

Start

If you want to build blog traffic from the scratch, you have to start. Go to wordpress dot com and get a free blog. It is easier than getting an email address. Other alternatives include blogger, typepad and a zillion others out there. There are differences between the various platforms and wordpress dot com seems to be very advanced and user-friendly, especially with their continuous upgrades. The down side is that you are limited in terms of flexibility and if you hope to make money from blogging with advertisements, then this is not the free platform for you. Blogger dot com allows free users to insert adverts, so go there if you are keen on that.

Looking for content

Many advisers and bloggers will always tell you: "create your own niche", "be an expert in your niche" etc etc etc. While that is a valid fact, how many experts will there be? If I like techy stuff, how will I keep up with Techcrunch, Gizmodo and Lifehacker? There are editorial teams blogging about everything and anything on the web. I decided to blog so I have to start with what I have. Simply, you have to blog about the things that interest you online. With time, it will take shape and you will morph your blogging technique into what you really are best at. For some other topics, it may be a struggle. Do not stop. Let your target be at least 200 words, 500 would be better.

Many bloggers want to read as many blogs as possible within a short time and who has time for a 3000 word essay. Go straight to the "money". If you have a picture or a video, include it to give your blog some color. Even after writing, review your essay and correct any typos identified. If you run out of ideas, find out what the top blogs are blogging about and spin a variant of that. Let your personality reflect in what you write. I do not think one can get it wrong, being one's self.

Looking for readers

The best blog posts are just ones and zeros on some remote computer in a room being cooled by giant cooling systems in some high-rise building, somewhere out there. If theses numbers are not accessed by the blogger, they do not become blogs and are never read. Just like the customer, the most important person in the blog equation is the reader. Go and get them.

I looked for them in several ways for my Mcneri Wordpress Blog. I first sought to use the best background colors I could find:white. The most successful websites have white or almost white backgrounds, so I waded through wordpress themes until I got to journalist theme and stopped.

I activated my Feedburner for RSS. There is also an email subscription box available. I joined BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. I submitted my posts to Digg. I signed up with Technorati. I also included my link in a couple of forums that I belong to. I also submitted my posts to Google submit url the moment I finished posting it.

Starting the buzz

Your blog has to give something to the blogosphere, if you are expecting anything in return....naturally. I have initiated a complimentary service where I will highlight one website per week as site of the week. We have recieved a few entries and soon our first site will be show-cased. The how to become a world class section is also a new addition that guides readers on aspects of their career.

The traffic has not been fantastic, but has steadily increased. I did not spend any money on adverts, backlinks or link exchanges. I have attempted exchanges, but it has not yielded much and I am not keen anyway.

I have also commented on several blogs and some pay me a visit in return, while others do not even allow a link back to my poor little blog. We learn everyday. I have also tried to respond to any comments on my blog. Not too many for now so I have managed well. I guess, anyone with more than 200 comments in a day will have a real difficulty responding. However if you are small fry like me, make sure you respond to the visitors, promptly.

Monetizing the blog

This is an important aspect of blogging and I believe that since Google and Microsoft are making money, everyone that contributes to the web should. How do I do that? Juggling a full time and a half job leaves me very little time after family to blog, so I am taking it easy. Now I have started this blog on blogger. We have Google Adsense and Amazon Associates ads there. I may even be able to add Text Link Ads. I will then be positioned to monetize my blog. that is why there are very few links out of this blog post.

To be continued