Internet and Technology

Blogging has become more and more popular these days, people are looking for ways how they can improve their blogs so that more people know about their blog and can hence visit their blog. I believe that you can find a lot of blogging tips, guides and even secrets in the search engine, blogging has become one of the most-seek topic because everyone blogs.

So what are the ultimate blogging secrets? In my opinion, those blogging tips such as submit your blog to Technorati, post constantly, get a FeedBurner account, submit your posts to social networking sites, ping your blog and many more are not secrets anymore. This is because by simply typing ‘blogging tips’ in the search engine, you will come out with tons of results of the same kind. Almost every bloggers out there knows about these tips and guides.

So what I’m going to tell you here about the ultimate blogging secrets are something much more ‘mental’, it is more to your mindset rather than something like all the blogging tips that you can find from the net itself. Therefore, for me, the ultimate blogging secrets are:

Secret #1 – Know why you blog

Know the reason that you blog. Everything happens for a reason, and if you create a blog today, there must be a reason for you. So, why did you blog? Is it because you are just following the trend? You see a lot of people are playing with blogs, and you decide to join them as well? Or is it that you want to earn money from your blog? Whatever reason it is, there must be a reason; you have to find this reason.

Once you know why you blog, then nothing can ever stop you. Just like if the reason you blog is because that you want to create an extra stream of income online, then do whatever it takes to achieve it. It is the purpose that keeps you going, motivates you, inspires you and keeps you moving forward. Today, if you don’t know why you blog, it is most likely you are going to give up the moment you find that nobody actually visits your blog.

That is why the reason is important. Know why you blog before you start creating your blog. This is just like having a clear goal, if you have a goal, you will know where you are heading. However, if you don’t have a clear goal, you will be lost somewhere. If you don’t even know where you wanted to go, how can you ever reach somewhere?

Secret #2 – Serve your readers

Many people did not know about this. Did you know that the reason people visit your blog is because of the information that you have? Therefore, the main purpose visitors arrive at your blog is because of your content, so you will have to write quality posts. You will have to serve your readers. This is the one question that you have to ask yourself, “Are you willing to do whatever it takes to educate your readers and without asking for anything in return?” If your answer is yes, then you should start creating your blog right now.

Just imagine that if someone arrives to your blog, but your blog contains nothing, your visitors will leave immediately, because your blog has got nothing that they are looking for. I like to use this word when I talk about serving your readers, Value. Yes, you have to create value for your readers, the more value you created for them, the more likely they will addict to your blog, and thus, follow your advice, and purchase whatever you recommend to them.

This is how it works; creating value for your readers, provide something that they are looking for. I know you’ve heard this, ‘content is king’. This is very true, your blog content is just like the heart of your blog, and the traffic is blood. Without the heart, your blog will die, and without the blood, you blog cannot live. So, often bring out valuable posts for your readers, write with original content and your readers will appreciate it.

Secret #3 – Treat their blog as a get-rich-quick scheme

I believe that almost 50 percent of people who start their blogs with the reason that they hope they can make some money out from their blog, fast. If you think it this way, then you are wrong, blogging is not something that can bring you money in a fast way. In fact, blogging is something just like real-estate, it will appreciate over time.

Meaning that you have to spend time and develop your blog. Your blog is not a money tree and it cannot earn you any money if you don’t develop it properly. Most people start their blog and wish that they can make some money out of it; this is because they have heard that many bloggers are making a lot of money from their blog, easily. They think that by simply setting up a blog, throw some posts in it, set up Google Adsense, and checks will come to them automatically.

If you think that blog is something that can make you rich in a quick way, you are wrong. Indeed that some people can earn a lot of money from their blog in just a short period of time, but did you really think that they are just lucky? You have to spend a lot of time to build your blog, you have to treat your blog as a serious business if you really want to make money from it.

There you go, the 3 blogging secrets that you never know about. Well, maybe you’ve already known about these, but in my opinion, these secrets are also important compare with other blogging tips such as submitting to Technorati, pinging, bookmark, etc. I hope that this article can help you achieve much more in your blog.

Here’s a fact for you, 85 to 95% of websites are found through a search engine.  You may have the most incredible website on the Internet, but it will receive little or no traffic without search engine visibility and ranking.  Can you imagine a billboard in the Sahara desert?  Who sees it?   So, how will searchers find your website? What types of search engines could they use? Search engines fall into two categories.  The first is referred to as natural, organic or standard.  The second is called pay-per-click, paid inclusion or paid placement.   Natural, organic and standard are interchangeable terms describing a search engine that bases its search rankings on a ranking algorithm.  The algorithms involve a number of criteria and parameters, all relating to the content of the website, the website’s size, the number of incoming links to the website, and the content’s relevancy.  You will hear terms such as keyword relevancy and keyword density to describe various components of the algorithms.    For the standard search engines, you, your webmaster or hired search engine optimization specialist could spend considerable time optimizing your website to achieve top rankings. The goal is for your website to appear on the first or second page of the search engines’ results when your target user searches keywords or keyword phrases. The good news is rankings on standard search engines are free.  The downside is the tremendous amount of time and effort required to achieve exceptional search engine rankings.   Let’s confess to each other that top rankings on standard search engines can be tough and timely to achieve!   The interchangeable terms pay-per-click, paid inclusion or paid placement describe a search engine that bases its search rankings on a “bid for position” basis.  Simply stated, you “bid” a price to be in a specific position of the search rankings for a particular search keyword or keyword phrase.  For example, the #1 position on the search phrase “pay per click” recently required a bid of $3.55 per click, whereas the 15th position required only a bid of 55 cents.  As a result, your differential website advertising costs between position #1 and #15 can be considerable.   With pay-per-click search engines, your ability to bid high can dramatically impact your website’s search engine ranking when the search results display website domain names or URL’s for the search keyword or keyword phrase.  The benefit is your website gains visibility with the searcher, but you are not charged the pay-per-click “bid” until a searcher actually clicks on your website domain name or URL displayed in the search engine results. The selection of your website in the search engine results is called a click-through.   In general, click-through rates range from 1% to 5% of the number of impressions.  What is all of this?  A click is when a searcher selects or “clicks” your pay-per-click ad.  An impression is one display of your pay-per-click ad on the search engine results.  So, the click-through rate is a measure of the total number of ad clicks versus the total number of impressions in a period of time:       Click-Through Rate % = Total Number of Ad Clicks / Total Number of Ad Impressions * 100   Let’s do the math for our #1 position bid of $3.55 per click.  In September, 2004 there were 21,535 searches for “pay per click.”  First, let’s assume a 1% click-through rate. The top bidder spent $764.49 (21,535 * 1% * $3.55).  Now, at a 5% click-through rate the top bidder spent $3,822.45 (21,535 * 5% * $3.55).  Budgeting and controlling marketing expenses with such a broad range of potential costs could be tough.  Plus, such costs could be the tip of the iceberg. We still must consider derivatives of the keyword or keyword phrase. So, was being #1 worthwhile?  That depends on your website’s cost per visitor, conversion rate and profit margin of your product or service.   From what we’ve covered so far, you should realize you can achieve a top or high ranking through the pay-per-click search engine. But, a high ranking will cost money and these costs can be volatile. Meanwhile, the standard search engine remains free.  However, pay-per-click offers one significant advantage.  It enables you to achieve website visibility with a high ranking instantaneously or overnight.  If you want to draw traffic to your website fast for any reason, pay-per-click can make that happen. Remember, maximizing the standard search engine process takes time!    Let’s summarize the pros and cons of pay-per-click marketing:  Pros * Improves your website’s ranking and traffic quickly. * Tests the marketability of your product or service swiftly. * Determines the ability of your web site to convert visitors to a call to action or make a purchase promptly. * Identifies which keyword phrases will provide the best conversion rate rapidly. * Provides complete control of the search engine campaign, both position and cost. Cons * Cost Many individuals criticize pay-per-click because of the costs involved. But, have you really thought about the cost issue?  Unless you or someone in your organization has expertise in search engine optimization, you’ll probably pay several thousand dollars in fees to a search engine optimization specialist to improve and optimize your website to achieve higher rankings in the standard search engines.  So, my question to you is.  Are the standard search engine rankings really free? At the end of the standard versus pay-per-click search engine debate, it’s like the old saying, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Or, it’s like the old commercial, “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.” The reality of the debate is you must evaluate your specific website situation and utilize the search engine approach that maximizes your website promotion goals and investment.