With so many blogs being created every day, it’s a mystery to many bloggers how to make their blog stand out. There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them.Some companies choose to hire a blog consultant, but others like to try things internally. For those “DIY” companies and individuals interested in practical tips for marketing and optimizing a business blog, try out the following list of blog marketing and optimization tips:
- Decide on a stand alone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name!
- Obtain and install customizable blog software – WordPress and Moveable Type are my favorites.
- Customize blog look and feel templates – aka design.
- Research keywords and develop a glossary – Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint, SEOBook Keyword Research.
- Optimize the blog:
- Template optimization – RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, Unique title tags, URLs, Sitemap
- Add helper plugins specific to WordPress or MT
- Create keyword rich categories (reference your keyword glossary)
- Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality.
- Create Feedburner Pro account and enable feed tracking.
- Setup a Google account for Sitemap, validate and prep for future submission.
- Identify authoritative blogs, web sites and hubs for outbound resource links and blogroll.
- Format archived posts, related posts.
- Enable statistics for tracking – Google Analytics, ClickTracks.
- Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines.
- Engage in an ongoing link building campaign.
- If podcast or video content are available, submit to Podcast and Vlog directories.
- Submit blog url to paid directories with categories for blogs – Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt.
- Optimize and distribute a press release announcing blog.
- Request feedback or reviews of your blog in relevant forums, discussion threads. If you have a resourceful post that will help others, point to it.
- Research and comment on relevant industry related blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence.
- Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.
- Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments and mentions of your blog – Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs and Feeds.
- Always respond to comments on your blog and when you detect a mention of your blog on another blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post.
- Make contact with related bloggers on AND offline if possible.
- When making blog posts always cite the source with a link and don’t be afraid to mention popular bloggers by name. Use keywords in the blog post title, in the body of the post and use anchor text when you link to previous posts you’ve made.
- Use social networking services, forums and discussion threads to connect with other bloggers. If they like your stuff, they will link to you.
- Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.
============= - If your blog’s goal is to promote you as an authority, interview other prominent bloggers in your industry. Your own credibility will improve by association.
- Build out your online networks through services such as MyBlogLog, Twitter and Facebook and leverage them to promote particularly useful content on your blog.
- Once your blog has 1000 or more subscribers, show your Feedburner badge
- Host images with Flickr making sure to include an anchor text link in the image description back to the post where the image is used.
- Use your blog to gain press/media credentials at relevant industry conferences and use the event to create content, connections and increase your knowledge.
This post was originally published on June 15, 2006 and has continued to receive many inbound links. As time changes, so do some tactics, so we’ve added a few tactics (after original 25) that have emerged in their usefulness. What would you add to this list?
(99 votes, average: 4.49 out of 5)
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About Lee Odden
Hey Lee!
Great post! I have a question on point #1…
Let’s say I work on a very large, established, and authoritative website that also features an extremely useful “Dear Abby” type section that nobody knows about. I would like to make this section into a blog…
Would it be better to put it on it’s own domain name, subdomain, or directory?
I think a unique domain would be beneficial in the sense that it may spark interest as a new site and have it’s own “brand” to go by… on the other hand, using a subdomain or directory off of the primary domain name would be beneficial because the brand is already recognized…
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Great question kid disco,
It depends on how you plan to use it. I tend to lean towards the directory these days. You can make the blog look different enough to have it’s own identity but still carry over important elements from the main site and the current brand recognition. Also, there is more search engine value it it’s a directory than a subdomain. With a new domain it would take a while to get any SEO value for the main site out of it.
If a truly unique identity is important and SEO is very much secondary, then I would go for the unique domain or sub directory.
Excellent article Lee!
It’s important for Bloggers to have a general roadmap in order for their Blog to be successful! U have outlined some very useful tips & great advice!
Thanks & Cheers! Billy ;))
Thanks Billy. I hope it’s useful. It is a short list though, and when I get the comprehensive doc completed, I may offer it as an eBook.
Lee, thanks to you I finally tried Google Sitemaps. 🙂
Hey Igor, glad to hear it! I hope it works out.
Thanks for your response, Lee! I was thinking along the same lines…
Cheers!
Lee,
Great post! I just signed up for a Google Analytics account but they are currently at capacity right now. Do you know how long it generally takes for space to free up?
Thanks.
I got my Analytics account about 2-3 weeks after putting in for it. It really is thorough – way more than I even need to get excited about how people are moving to, through, and from my site!
Aiden, it has been taking 3-4 weeks or a little more for our clients to get accepted into the Google Analytics service.
Hi Lee
I loved your tips so much that I added a further 10 of my own, giving a grand total of 35 – see what you think : http://acornservice.blogspot.com/2006/07/35-tips-for-marketing-your-blog.html
And thanks
Jim
Hey Jim, nice work on the extra 10 suggestions!
Do you have a complete list of blog directories that actually transfer pagerank and that the SE will actually count? Many directories link via a script that SE cannot spider.
For instance this one does not offer beneficial links as far as a SE goes:
http://www.bloggernity.com
And this one offers real links that SE will recognize:
http://www.highclassblogs.com/
We don’t segment blog or search engine directories out by page rank since our first focus is on driving traffic. In that case, redirections do not matter.
Blogs. Blogging. BLOG. Vlogs. Video Blogs.. Vlogs. Video Blogs
Did I read anyting about Validation ?
Hi Lee, I have no my own website right now, I am trying to make money on Blogspot.com. I am doing seriesly but I am afraid there is no success story on that site. can you tell me please? shall I use my time to do something else or shall I go on posting on that free blogger site?
thanks
Yibeltal, it takes time, patience and focus.
Hi,
you can save a lot of time on step 12, if you will use this firefox extension. There are buit-in database of blog directories, more 100 if i remember right.
Sorry, broken link in previous post 🙁
Hi,
you can save a lot of time on step 12, if you will use this firefox extension. There are buit-in database of blog directories, more 100 if i remember right.
Here are a few more ..
try to look for Niche Audience. Remember Small is Big ( the smaller and nicher your target audience is the Bigger the conversion rate
Try to make yourself a part of the Community/Industry you are catering to.
Post Messages regulary to other Blogs not just for the same of posting and links, but contributing keeping in mind the larger goal of establishing yourself as the “authoratative” voice in your industry
You certainly have nailed the niche concept with your blogs about specific holidays. Thanks for the suggestions – I hit the comments thing on #18 though.
I think that many people have blogs just for fun, and only few try to make money out of it. Also is very hard to compete in some fields of area. If you want to start making money from a blog site try first to find a niche, or an ideea never used before.Good luck!
hey very intresting and useful article…i have made a blog recently and the trafiic is sort of ok, i post one artice everuday. how to create more traffic and how to post my url into search engines..plz help
regards
praveen
For those interested in Google Analytics, I wrote a review of it (complete with screenshots) a few weeks after getting my invitation to join. It really is powerful and easy to use. Check it out here:
http://austinmash.com/blog/wanna-be-impressed-check-out-google-analytics/
Thanks for the great tips, Lee! I’m always loooking for new ideas, and you had more than a few…
Erwin
Thanks for the tips, Lee. I’m a begginer as far as the blog stuff is concerned, so I’ll try to follow your advice. By the way, when you post a comment in another blog does it link back to yur site, that is, will it count as an inbound link?
Thank you very much
Neo
Neo, when you post a comment along with a link, most blog software adds the “no follow” tag to the link, so it may not count. That should really not factor into whether you make comments though. If your comments are obvious link building attempts, the blog owner will simply blacklist your ip and domain as I did with someone earlier today.
Great tips. Hope to make use of your advice! Thanks again!
There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them, so here is a
I have done almost everything on the list except submit my site to he WOW directory. I’m going to do that now.
came??a nune sia?!si ci ciovo!!
Great information, but i have a lot to do. Our blog is brand new and I’m about half way done with that checklist 🙁
Keep up the good work, its appreciated by the little guys
Hey, these are great tips! A little bit of info goes a long way. I will have to implement a few of these in my blog for sure. I linked to your article in my post about blog optimization tips on search optimization school
Hey John, here’s another blog tip: You don’t need to comment on the blog you’re linking to that you linked to them because the trackback will take care of that. Otherwise, it seems a bit too much like a link drop.
oops! Thanks for the pointer Lee…I guess trackbacks is one thing I don’t know that much about (yet)…
Thanks for the great post! Absolutely useful to optimize for our website.
Your suggestions are very concrete and helpful. I’ll pass them on to writers who are maintaining their own blogs.
Just another tip: use multimedia content sometimes: videos, etc.
i must say i am Glad to hear that you are feeling a bit better. I see that the pirate theme is back!
While I was in Disney World, I got a chance to ride the new revamped Pirates of the Carribean (sp?).
It was really cool how they worked Captain Jack Sparrow into the ride.
They even had a guy dressed up as him outside the ride giving tips on how to be a pirate.
The kids seem to love that character
http://www.gordoniihoodia.net
26th tips….do not forget to do some offpage optimizing such as add blog’s url to free blog directory, post free article at article directory..etc..
If I may add: speak about subjects that create strong emotions, so people answer, comment, forward to other people, and most of all, desire to publish on their blogs with links to your website!
thanks for the good tips.
gotta go work on my blog right away..
In the example above, the page header and intro text prints. I’m trying to suppress that as well.
great suggestions
Many thanks for marketing.I found these tips are very useful.
On other way, if you follow up all the rules marked by Lee Odden, i think you’ll live with your computer only, so don’t forget about real life 🙂
That’s a real good step by step guide and/or checklist *cheers*
Google Sitemap has been amazing at getting my blog up higher in keyword searches. That step alone is worth the price of admission.
Hi Lee. (LONG POST WARNING…SORRY!)
I am BRAND NEW to all this blogging stuff and have spent MANY hours researching SEO for Realtors. I was told that reciprocal links & a blog page are the best ways to get SEO. I get about 20-30 hits a day to my website, but I want to increase this number substantially, and was thinking blogging could help.
I have spoken to several companies that create blogs & they all seem to want over $2K for the first year (including setup & hosting fees). You mentioned to use WordPress & this has been something I’ve been considering (but don’t know enough about it to make an educated decision). I want a blog for our website (ONE THAT IS EASY TO USE) & I’ve also wondered about ActiveRain and whether its free blog would be a good & effective starter blog for me to use???
HERE’S THE BIG QUESTION: Can a free blog software program do as much for me as a “paid” for blog (as far as page ranking & visitors to my site)? The companies that I’ve been in talks with are saying they use “Google friendly” coding & spam free software & this is why their sites get to the top of the search engines. They also “customize” the page so that it doesn’t look the same as everyone elses (something that supposedly helps me too). My husband is under the belief that all blogsite are created equal & it is the content that differentiates placement & hits. Do you agree? Any input or advise?
These companies are calling me weekly to see if I’ve decided to “bite the bullet” and pay for the site. I’M SOOOOO CONFUSED & the more I learn, the more overwhelmed I am. :o( PLEASE help.
P.S. If you weren’t in England with the time difference, I’d just pick up the phone and call you. I just want to get this understood and settled once and for all.
Stacy, blogs are tools and like any real-world tool, they are only as good as the person’s expertise using them.
This is why some people outsource blog setup to experts to reduce the time it takes. If you have time to spend rather than money, then sign up with a blog service that operates under a site that you control.
If you don’t already have a website and you want to use a blog as your site, then register a domain name. Then follow the instructions at Blogger.com to point your domain name to the Blogger system.
That way hosting is free and there’s no blog software cost. You will need HTML skills to change the template and add any widgets.
Once you use Blogger under a domain name you control and you want to switch some time in the future, you can.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for responding Lee. If I already have a website (actually I have 3), should I also set up a blogsite & link it to my other sites or would you recommend creating a blog within one of my websites? I want to do whatever is best for search engine optimization. By the way, one of the benefits of going with one of the blog companies I spoke with is the training they provide. Do you have a good website you would recommend…like setting up a blog for dummies? lol No really, I need all the help I can get & this research I’ve been doing is proving to be very time consuming!
I hope you don’t have 3 web sites for the same purpose, that’s a maintenance nightmare let alone possible duplicate content. Better to focus efforts on one web site and add a blog to that.
As a rule, I prefer to create a blog within the main web site. That way links to the blog are also links to the main site. It really depends on the purpose of the blog.
As far as a resource for real estate blogging, I’d recommend “Realty Blogging” by Richard Nacht and Paul Chaney. I am biased somewhat about that book of course, because their company is a client.
You might also try checking out the posts at http://www.blogsquad.biz
No, I have a website for our listings & area information, another website just for luxury homes & the third from our company that we are forced to use (and pay for) for being on their Relocation team.
Some content is carried over on all 3 websites (like the About Us page), I never thought this might hurt me with the search engines. I will have to research this duplicate content issue now as well….Grrrreat! lol
It can be a maintenance nightmare, but it hasn’t been that difficult so far because I’ve been using a “canned or cookie cutter” website for our primary website. But now we are going to be nixing that one and launching a new, custom site hopefully this week. I have no idea how user friendly this new site will be, but I shall soon see.
Thanks for the links & the advice, I will check them out. I appreciate all the help & promise not to bug you anymore! ;o)
I love your comment on back linking – I do that on my website – but how does one do it in a blog?
Peter
some great tips here and i have listed the ones i am not doing. thanks a lot.
Stacy
I coach Chet Holmes clients worldwide and I always tell them, and my own clients, that it’s important to do the following when blogging:
1) Decide the keywords your audience are likely to search on
2) Vitally, get an offline blog editor like Windows Live Writer – it helps with formatting, tagging and inserting Flickr pictures
3) Schedule your post writing and editing time each week
3) Post regularly (I post 4-5 times per week) using the keywords
4) When posting don’t advertise your company, links to interesting items yes. Requests to buy houses no ;o)
Rather than go on at length I’ve continued the list at my blog, click on my name to get more stuff.
Jim
Brilliant tips for bloggers like us. I would definently try to follow your tips. If you have some more please give it to me. Also please take a look at my blog and suggest how to make it better to attract more traffic to it.
Keep sharing your tips on blogs.
-Stella Roy
http://rahul-stella.blogspot.com
Thank you very much. Google sitemaps was easier than I thought it would be.
hi lee, your tips may take a new blog like me take sometimes to do. there are some blog submission services in the market. Do they really help on all the submission?
very useful tips indeed.I have included your post in my list too.
hi lee,
You got a great post on marketing blog online. I would like to contribute another 10 tips over here. I am looking at offline ways here.
#1: Write to offline magazine related to your niche especially newly launch magazine and offer your articles to them. Leave your url on how to contact you at the end of the article.
#2: Print T-shirts and car decal with your url and what your blog does. Give them as freebies or to member.
#3: Hold small gathering with your subscribe and ask them to meet up at local fast food resturant or your house. Provide exclusive information which you have not posted or tell them about your new project launches.
#4: Talk to local cab drivers and ask for their permission to put your name card in the driver seat or the passenger seats.
#5: Give free talks in community library or schools. Don’t sell them anything. Objective is to get them interested on what you can offer.
#6: Get an interview from local newspaper or magazines. This will required some upfront cash.
#7: Setup a referral system that run on autopilot offline. Look for 3 to 5 retail owner on your related niches, (non-compeitior), offer your free report or ebook to them. They can in turn give it to their customer for free as an value added service. In exchange for a small space to put your ads. ( you can built a list secretly)
#8: Hire part-timer to hang sign board on themselves and walk on the streets promoting your blog..haha..this is fun.
#9: Print stickers and paste it on your letter box. Get neighbours to talk about it.
#10: Distribute pocket size calendar with your url printed on it. Do it only at the end of the year for maximum exposure. November is a good time to start distributing them. (of course you’re printing the next year calendar, silly you)
Hope this ways help people on this blog to look at marketing from another perspective! My mind can wild sometimes on marketing. Trying my best to tame it.
Very helpful article.. reminds me my work is never done.
Well thanks for sharing this 25 marketing tips with us. I will try soon some of the tips out and let you know my progress.
One thing that has REALLY gotten my blog some buzz is the ads that I’ve glued on stray cats and dogs in the city with my address on them. Not that I should be giving all of my secrets away…
Great tips.. I also feature a bunch of tips at http://rygo.net
Thanks!
Well its a good article and thanks for some useful tips!
Many corporates have setup their own blog for promoting their services .Other blogger on wordpress or blogspot blog if they like your topic very much.
MyBuzzMonitor (http://www.mybuzzmonitor.com) is a great tool for blog marketing.
like this site very beautifull super tips is super
Thanks for the great post! I will use some tips.
Lee,
In number 15 you mention the paid directories. Have you really seen much traffic to your blog from there?
Pinny, directory submissions are likely more for search engines than direct traffic, although some traffic does come from them.
you can use blogger or wordpress for ‘professional’ too. If you desperately want your own domain name for your blog, you could just get a domain name registered and point it to the blogger or wordpress blog. It does not really matter though. People look for content, not domain names!
I would say that this is a great eye opener to what most new blogger should know about.
Hi all. I need help.
How to install wordpress in webhosting?
Guys I recommend this Tip #19 and firmly believe that posting your blog regularly really boosts your position in search engines and directories.
Excellent tips. I have posted your information on my blog
Thanks for the list.
Kathleen Gage
The Street Smarts Marketer
I would remove using Feedburner click tracking – it reduces the number of links you will likely get as people often make mistakles and use a Feedburner redirect URL.
Good point Andy. Funny how many of these still make sense though. One big update would be a list of plug-ins for marketing, SEO, user experience and back end administration purposes.
Don’t get me started on SEO related plugins – I have only just moved over to 2.3.1 over this quiet weeks (moved servers as well), and it still isn’t possible to do everything I could with UTW.
Then there are the “I can do everything” SEO plugins which have their fatal flaws and people think that just because they have them installed that they are “SEOed”
Great post. Marketing a blog is a headache 😉
I agree with Andy Beard, UTW is much more appealing for me. I moved a couple of my less trafficed blog to 2.3.1 to test it out but with my more heavily trafficed blogs I’m going to stick with the forumla that has been bringing me results until I see a significant increase.
@Andy – I know how you feel mate, I’m adding a third dedicated to my aresenal (mainly to get rid of all the damage CPanel did to one of my machines). I go through this once a year, and always my luck, it’s t the holidays when I’m so busy with everything else.
Some very useful tips. Thanks for sharing.
Jason
Ad-addict.com
hey christina those are pretty good points listed out in that blog and it is pretty much all that you can do ….i should say great tips
Great tips. Please polish language suport.. 🙂
I love this article. Very informative and doable ideas.
http://www.abesha.wordpress.com
Good idea. thanks.
I have used some of these tips and they worked pretty well for me. I am glad I stumbled onto this blog of yours.
Just wanted to thank you for the tips, were very useful for my site!!
Lee,
It doesn’t look like your plugin that pulls the comment posters latest blog post is working correctly.
-Dave
Wow these tips are great. Thanks a lot for this post.
As a new blogger, i found this article to be extremely helpful and informative. I’ve read a lot of articles on building traffic and a lot of them were extremely general.
At least this one gets down to the specifics which is a really good starting point for beginners.
Thanks for the wonderful article…. I’ll definitely follow most of the tips mentioned.
I found this to be extremely valuable. I applied these tips to my own blog as far as traffic generation and overall exposure. Great job and awesome article.
Great article, but I’m interested to learn what kind of effect a successful blog can have have on advertising revenue? Do they turn a profit or just pay for themselves?
Check out http://www.buzzfuse.com – looks interesting
Hi Lee,
No idea if you are still tracking this post, but it’s really useful thanks. Just wondering if you had any advice for small businesses using a blog as a website rather than a “straight” blog? I have an set up the site for my luxury self catering house on WordPress and am looking for any tips you might have..
Thanks Alan
Alan, you can optimize your blog template like any other database generated web site. Customizing the blog with static pages can pretty much make it look like any other web site. Keep your content fresh and useful, be sure to reach out to other bloggers in your industry/target market and make it a destination that people will want to come back to.
Cheers,
Lee
One thing that has REALLY gotten my blog some buzz is the ads that I’ve glued on stray cats and dogs in the city with my address on them. Not that I should be giving all of my secrets away…
hi very good blog
Wasnt doing quite a few of those tips, thanks.
Thanks Lee. Great Tips. I’m just starting a blog for small businesses needing help with marketing so I appreciate all the great ideas so I can get the word out.
Does anyone have a list of Directories to submit your blog into?
James
from
FaceySpacey.com, Your One Stop Social Media Shop
James, here is a list of blog directory submit URLs.
Thank your for the tips! I will be making use of these tips for my new blog startup.
thinkbytes.net
Great post. If I buy ads to my blog is it worth it?
Anyone know any site like megaadonline that sell ads for a buck?
Lee – VERY thorough. I especially like your #26. Now it looks like I have some work to do on Google sitemap…
Chris Mitchell
http://258marketing.wordpress.com/
To be honest, I am a newbie. Thanks a million to you for you indoctrinating me so that now I am a little bit savvy with blogging. Please kindly share your more ideas through my blog since I create the blog to hatch new ideas. Tx
Lee:
Thanks so much for your information about blogging. It’s new to me, but after reading your article, I’m going to try to creat a blog account. I have a brand new website, and am anxious to get the word out about it. Your tips on blogging will help me a lot. It sounds like a great promotional tool.
If you get a chance: (www.artbyjerrylynne.com)
Thanks again. JerryLynne
Blogging is by far one of the most important things I do to gain visibility, keep in touch with my market with valuable information and get my information to market.
The 25 tips are excellent. It’s always nice to have specific steps one can take to do anything.