When you first start a blog one of the first things you’ll do is find yourself promoting it. You’ll sign up for all of the blog directories, you’ll start posting on forums, you’ll start visiting other blogs and eventually, you’ll most likely start e-mailing people/other blogs informing them about your blog. And you should, as it’s a great method of bringing in new visitors to your blog but you need to make sure you do it the right way.
The most important idea you’ll need to keep in mind is that honesty is the key. We all get tons of spam mail and we all know what it looks like, so, make sure YOU don’t sound like spam when you send out e-mails to potential viewers.
Many times I see e-mails from bloggers that look like:
“Hello - There is a great new website which I think you’ll enjoy! Check out www.SITENAME.com here!”
That’s really the equivalent of walking up to somebody on the street you don’t know and trying to force some product on them. More times than not they’re going to ignore you and move on, and the same thing is going to happen in the cyber-world. A more effective approach would be:
“Hello Blogger - Today I wrote a posting that really meshes with the article you wrote on *insert topic*, which you can find here (put link in). I’d love to know what you think about it, and if possible, maybe you could share it with your readers as well.”
The blogging community is one of open arms, generally (although you’ll have your bad apples as usual) so, use that to your advantage. Contact bloggers - introduce yourself - say hello - make friends…it’s not difficult at all. It does take some time and effort, but the reward is worth it in the end. Just make sure to respect boundaries and always be honest and upfront. You do this and you’ll go quite far.
Lately, it’s become very popular to co-author a blog posting with another blog owner for a variety of reasons. First, as the old saying goes, two minds are better than one. When both (or more than two) of you sit down and write a blog posting, you’ll be able to include a variety of thoughts and opinions which will only benefit the articles depth and content. The second reason many bloggers are now co-authoring blog articles is simply for exposure of their writing skills as well as free “promotion” for their own blogs. However, this became a mild challenge as there was only one author allowed per blog article using the Wordpress platform, so, the only way you’d know if the article was co-authored was if it was explained in or at the bottom of the article.
But now, Eugen Rochko from Anime2 has created a plugin that will allow the main author to add in all of the other authors that helped him on the blog article. It’s an incredibly simple and easy plugin to use and is quite the resource if you co-author blog articles with your friends or fellow bloggers.
I should note, it would be beneficial for you and the co-author(s) to register at your blog and have them fill out their profile. That way, there is a little biographical information about them as well as a link to their blog/website which really is one of the main purposes of this plugin. I will also recommend that you put an area on your blog that lists all of your co-authors and a link to either their blog or a little biographical information. It’s very important as a blogger to create a sense of “humanism”, for a lack of better terms. You connect with your readers on a much deeper level if they can get a little more information about you and your fellow bloggers. A picture works great as well.
To download the plugin, click here.
I’m sure we all remember it. Back in high school, maybe even junior high, during English class we were put through relentless practice hours of creating “outlines” for our reports, stories, etc. But as we’ve gotten older, most of us have moved on from the “traditional” ways of writing and might only “write” on our blogs. And while we are “writing” on our blogs, most of us (even I) do it in a very nontraditional way, a very stressful way.
Sitting down in front of a blank monitor with a blinking cursor is intimidating. Seriously, it is, especially if you don’t have a solid idea of what you’re planning to write about. So, a great way to overcome that challenge is to quickly write out a small outline of what you want your post to be. You don’t need to go overboard by any stretch, but, a quick title, a few bullet points as to the meat of your post, and a conclusion written down before you sit down to type is a huge benefit. Not only does it help you during the writing process, it also keeps you on track and you avoid rambling about unrelated topics in your blog post. It seems like such a silly idea, but it’s one of the better blogging tips I can give. You most likely already do it in your head without realizing it, and it doesn’t hurt to try it, so give it a shot.
When you get stuck in the middle of your article, just refer back to your outline and you’ll be back on track in a second. It’s extremely helpful.
If you remember, a few weeks back I talked about the need to avoid URL shortening websites such as TinyURL because of potential risks to you, not only as a blogger but from a readers perspective too. As always, a bad apple in the bunch ruins a great service and people were “hiding” URL’s in these shortened links, sending people to pornographic websites and/or websites that contained viruses. So, all in all, the safe way to avoid this was to not visit any “shortened” url.
However, today I’ve found some great news from the folks over at Wordpress.com. They’ve introduced the new “WP.Me” URL shortening service which will automatically be generated in all Wordpress.com blogs.
Below I’ve listed the new features of the service:
- WP.me is the only two-letter .me domain in the world.
- Every blog and post on WordPress.com has a WP.me URL now.
- These are all exposed in the <head> using rel=shortlink.
- It doesn’t work for any URL in the world, just WP.com-hosted ones.
- The links are permanent, they will work as long as WordPress.com is around.
- WP.me is spam-free, because we are constantly monitoring and removing spam from WP.com.
WordPress.com bloggers should now see a ‘Get Shortlink‘ button next to your permalink when you edit or write a post.
Even more interesting is that self hosted Wordpress.org users can now use this feature as well. You’ll see it in your “stats” page.
For more information on the WP.Me links, visit the Wordpress.com blog by clicking here.
