How to Write a Popular Blog

Amit Agarwal Digital Inspiration ‐ www.labnol.org

Digital Inspiration ‐ www.labnol.org ‐ © 2007 and beyond

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Writing a Personal Blog ? Skip To Last Slide Finding Fodder Blogging Relationships White SEO – Best Practices Effective Monetization Online Plagiarism, Fair Use Gray Areas What Works with Blogging Digital Inspiration ‐ www.labnol.org ‐ © 2007 and beyond

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Platform ‐ Blogger, WordPress or Tumblr Think Ahead When Picking any URL No Trademarks please

Blogging Toolset

Windows Live Writer / Firefox TechSmith SnagIT + Picnik CSS – Borders, Align, Margins FeedBurner FAQ

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Build Relationships With Blog Readers ▪ Respond to Comments ▪ Highlight, Compliment With Fellow Bloggers ▪ Send Tips ▪ Leave Comments

Join Forums Track Reactions & Online Reputation [ego‐surfing] Meet Offline Digital Inspiration ‐ www.labnol.org ‐ © 2007 and beyond

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Limit Re‐blogging (or link‐blogging) One Original Post Every Day

Avoid Echo Blogging Ignore TechMeme, Digg, TechCrunch Or add a very different perspective

Use Google Alerts, Twitter, GAS Quickly Scan Google Groups, Forums Credit Sources [social bookmarking ?]

The actual article, not the homepage Do not link to the print‐only version Digital Inspiration ‐ www.labnol.org ‐ © 2007 and beyond

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SEO for Blogs Is Legal

Bad Titles Can Make You Extinct Unique Number in URLs [Date ?]

Use dashes, not underscores Meta Tags Control Distribution of Google PageRank with NoFollow Text, Text, Text – Never say “watch this” Master Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Central

Never Ignore Flickr, Google Images [alt] Picture Captions, Surrounding Text Adobe PDFs ‐ Organic Traffic + Yahoo! Ads Digital Inspiration ‐ www.labnol.org ‐ © 2007 and beyond

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AdSense Is The King

Section Targeting Split Testing Channel Descriptions – Convince No Banners, Only Large Formats Do not feel shy of showcasing Ads. Remember the letter “F”

Reward Regular Visitors with Ad‐Free Content Avoid Ads on Homepage – Not targeted well AdSense Sandbox Digital Inspiration ‐ www.labnol.org ‐ © 2007 and beyond

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Gray Areas Text Link Ads Link Exchanges Paid Posts [can repel readers] Cross Linking

Solution: REL=NOFOLLOW Case A: <a href="www.buy‐viagra.com/">Cheap Viagra</a> Case B: <a href="www.free‐viagra.com/" rel="nofollow">Free Viagra</a>

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Why Remain Strict Duplicate Content Search Engines Are Generally Clueless

Finding Copy‐Paste Content Typos, unique strings Incoming links to external site

Dealing with Plagiarists Polite email [with deadline] DMCA notice to Domain Host + AdSense When nothing works, forget it.

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Schedule – Don’t disappoint readers Thick Skin – Cannot please everyone Never Flame / Avoid Personal Attacks Spelling / Typos Formatting – Most People Will Scan, Not Read Think and Write ‐ Avoid Embarrassment Later Never Blog When Angry – It Reflects Anything Posted Online is Undeletable Wrote a killer post ? Tip But Don’t Spam Avoid Blog Clutter Offer RSS and Email subscriptions Change that About Us Page ‐ Self Promotion Not Bad Blog Design Matters Readers are 100x Smarter Than You – Respect Their Time Stop Obsessing about Stats and Income The word “Sorry” can do wonders.

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India Blogs http://tinyurl.com/2bvwac

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