Any blogger wants to know: am I reaching people?  Who am I reaching?  These are especially important statistics once you decide to optimize your site for search engines.  You want to know who your visitors are and how they are getting to your site.

There are several different tracking tools that you can use for your blog.

• Google Analytics – very comprehensive and free
• Stat Counter – has free features and advanced features you can pay for
• MyBlogLog – free; a Yahoo! service

Tracking your blog’s statistics is a great strategy.  You can tell how effective (or ineffective) your SEO is, and you can fine tune your keywords.

Some of these resources also help you see what browser your visitors are using.  This information can help you design your layout.  A layout can look different from browser to browser (some browsers don’t support certain features).

And you can see your visitors’ bounce rate.  You’ll be able to see how long visitors are staying on your page and whether they are clicking through the rest of your website, or leaving really quickly.

These are only some of the features that a statistics tracker can provide you with.  Check out some of the trackers listed and see which one works best for you.  Personally, I use Google Analytics and the information it provides for free is incredibly thorough.  But check out some of the other websites to decide what fits best for you.

If you run out of steam and need ideas for content, one great idea is to follow the news and stay ahead of the crowd.  If you check the news regularly, you’ll be one of the most informed and first to know about any given event.  This means that you could help break a news story if you stay up to date with your current events.

Why would you want to break a news story?

If you’re one of the first to post about something online, chances are you’ll also be one of the first that Google notices.  And that means that when people start searching for the news item you’re posting about, your blog will come up.

If it’s an especially juicy news story, then there will be a lot of buzz around the web about that item, and staying ahead of that can be even more beneficial.

Plus, keeping up with what’s going on shows your readers that you’re in touch, that your information is up to date, and ultimately that you’re credible.  It helps establish authority on a subject.

So people will be more likely to find you, and more likely to link to you.  And then you can gain readers.

Useful Tool for Following the News: Google Reader

Alright, so you’re convinced that it’s a good idea.  But with the amount of online papers and media out there, how could you possible stay up to date?

A great tool for this is Google Reader.  You can subscribe to a number of different websites and organize them in different folders.  Whenever a new story is published, Reader will be updated and you’ll see it come up right away.  It displays the headlines in a list, and when you click the headline it expands so you can read either a summary of the article or the article itself (it depends on the website).

You can have all your news sources in one place, so you don’t waste time jumping from website to website, sifting through content.

So start reading the news so you can write about it.  Of course, don’t just repost articles or links to them.  Be sure to include your own opinions and interpretation of what’s happening.  Add a new perspective to make it interesting for your readers.  Remember, interesting and unique content will appeal to readers and keep them coming back.

As a blogger, one of your options when you post is to use what’s called the “more” tag.  If you have ever seen one of those links on a blogger’s home page that comes at the end of an entry and says “Read more here” or “See full post”, you know what I’m talking about.

Basically the more tag allows you to post an excerpt of your entry on your home page, and then if the reader wants to see more, they have to click the link to see the rest of your article.

How to Use it on Your Blog

Here are instructions for how to use the more tag:

• Write your post as usual.
• Click where you want the break to be.  Many people include the first paragraph or first five lines or so on the home page.
• Look for the “insert more tag” button.  It is on the tool bar / editor at the top, usually next to the alignment buttons, the hyperlink buttons, etc.
• Click it
• A line should appear, dividing your post in two

If you are using Live Journal, it will be called an “LJ Cut” instead of a “more tag”.

There are several advantages and disadvantages to using the more tag on your blog.  Ultimately you’ll have to decide what the best option is for you.  What do your readers expect to see when they come to your blog?

For the occasion, I have insert a more tag myself so you can see the result.  Read about the advantages and disadvantages.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a nifty idea for new bloggers looking to get their name out: submit an article to a blog carnival.

Blog carnivals are a group, community or collection of bloggers and article entries.  It’s similar to a magazine and has an editor.  The editor collects blog articles and posts an entry with all the links submitted to them, usually with their own comments.  Blog carnivals come out on a regular basis, just like magazines come out with new editions every week or every month, and there is usually a host blog, which changes each edition.

Basically, bloggers post on similar themed subjects, and their posts are all anthologized and grouped together to make it easy for web searchers to find information and blog posts on the topics they’re looking for.

So here are four reasons to use a blog carnival to promote your blog:

1. They help your audience find you

Blog carnivals will already have a large assortment of visitors, who will be led to your blog.  It’s an easy way to find readers – all you have to do is submit your post, and the readers come to you.

There’s a large assortment of information out there, and it can be tough for readers to find your blog over all the others.  A blog carnival will help readers find you more easily.

2. Connect with other bloggers

This is a great way for you to find other bloggers in your subject area and connect with them.  When the carnival is posted, check out the articles and see what’s around.  Read other bloggers’ articles and comment on them.

Blog carnivals provide an arena where you can network with other bloggers and build relationships.  Now not only are you getting readers from the carnival, but you might get links from other bloggers.

3. See what’s popular

You can see what other people are writing about, what articles are getting responses.  You can see what opinions, subjects and thoughts are floating around and being shared, and this may help give you ideas for what to write about.

Find out what topics are “hot” and see if your blog can jump on that bandwagon.  Or, you could always take a different route, and post the controversial opinion.  Both are good ways to attract readers (just different types of readers).

4. May help establish credibility

You have to submit your article to an editor, who then decides to include it in the article.  Since you have to go through this “approval” process, this can establish your authority on a subject.  After all, if an editor includes you, this means that at least one other person has read your article and is willing to share it with others.  This means readers will be more likely to click your link, especially if an editor has written positive comments about your article or blog in their post.

Intrigued?  Get started promoting your blog, and check out Blog Carnival for more information and for a list of blog carnivals out there!

If you just started blogging, you may have heard this phrase floating around: “page rank”.

As a new blogger, eagerly awaiting your rise in popularity and an inflow of traffic, you will soon discover that there are several systems out there that rank the popularity of your blog.  Page Rank is probably the most well known and most used system.

There are a variety of other ranking systems out there and they each provide their own way of ranking websites and blogs.

• Google PageRank
• Alexa
• Compete
• MozRank
• Technorati

Google PageRank

Probably the most used way of measuring a blogger’s popularity, Page Rank is a system developed to measure the importance and relevance of sites on the internet.  The scale goes from 0 to 10, and “Page Rank” is usually abbreviated to “PR”.

Your PR is determined by the number of pages that link to your website or blog and by the page rank of those pages that are linked to your blog.  So the more pages that link to you, the better. Your PR will also be increased if someone with a high PR is linking to you.  A link from a page with a PR of 1 will not make too much of a difference, but a link with a PR of 7 will.  In fact, this will help raise your PR a little bit, too.

So to recap, your PR will be higher based on:

• The number of pages linking to you (more is better)
• The PR of those pages (higher PR linking to you is better)

Those with higher PRs will appear higher in Google’s search results, although there are a few other factors that help determine how high you appear in these results.

To check your PR, you can go to this PR checker, or you can install Google’s tool bar.

Don’t stress out over your PR for now.  As a beginner blogger, your PR will probably not be that high.  Focus on building unique content first, and then start promoting  your blog.  Don’t be impatient about your PR, it will come in time.

How your content appears on the page can have a huge influence on your bounce rate and ultimately your number of readers.

Blogging isn’t just about writing content, it’s about how you format your content.  Here are a few things you should think about when formatting your content:

• Paragraph length: keep it short
• Use of headings: direct your readers to unique content
• Lists: provide a preview, entice readers to keep reading
• Your Audience: what do they expect to see?

With the popularity of texting and websites like Facebook and Twitter, it seems as though people today have shorter attention spans.  When people text they try to fit the most amount of information into as small a space as possible.  The same goes for Twitter.

This means that longer paragraphs and longer articles may be intimidating to some of your readers.  Most readers probably do not even read entire articles, and instead just skim them.

Use Short Paragraphs

If you have large blocks of text, then most viewers will probably be bored or intimidated, and they’ll stop reading and leave your site.  Using short paragraphs may encourage readers to stay longer, since it’s easier on the eyes.

Think about it: if someone puts a large cookie in front of you, you may decline because it’s too big, you’re too full and you don’t want all those calories.  But if someone puts a plate of small, snack-sized cookies in front of you, you’ll eat one, and then another, and then another.  Before you know it, they’re all gone.

Break up your post with headings

This makes your post more structured looking, and helps your reader know what each part of your post is about.  They can skip headings they’re not interested in and beeline straight for the ones they are.  Thus it’s easier for them to find information they’re looking for, and when a site is easy to use, visitors will keep coming back.

Headings also help search engines understand what your content is about, so they have a better chance of marking your page as relevant.

Lists are fast and easy to read

Lists also look appealing, and add more variety to your post.  With bulleted lists and headings your post will be less intimidating to readers afraid of large blocks of text.

Lists…:

• are easy to read
• are a good summary for your readers
• can act like a table of contents (if included in the beginning of the post)
• sum up the post for readers
• act like a preview to entice readers to keep reading

Your Audience

Keep in mind, of course, that different subjects will have different kinds of readers.  For example, a political blog will probably have followers who enjoy reading long, analytical posts, so it’s good to do long posts now and then, too.  Longer posts with more text may look more academic, and so if you are targeting a more academic audience, you’ll want to structure your posts for them.

Blog promotion is a necessary component to accumulating readers.  In addition to using SEO and building relationships with other bloggers in your niche, you can use some of these ideas to attract visitors to your site.

Join Directories

You can submit your blog to a directory.  These can help you gain traffic.  Some people swear by them, others put less of an importance on them.  They are not used as much as they were in the past, but they are worth a try.

Directories can also help you find other bloggers in your niche, and can help those other bloggers find you and, possibly, approach you for a link.  Directories are usually organized by category, and different directories will have different features.  Some may be pickier than others, for example, but you know that the blogs on pickier directories are successful, noteworthy blogs.

Here is a great article about different blog directories you can submit your blog to.

Use Give-Aways

I’ve seen a lot of bloggers – especially fashion or shopping blogs – with give-aways.  They’ll hold contests of some sort and the winner will receive some product.  Of course, you’ll have to pay for this somehow.  If you can’t afford to give away products, you can always make them yourself.  Blog layout themes, for example, are one popular give away, and you can have the users link back to you.

Use Branding

Branding makes your blog unique and distinctive.  For example, a specific logo design that you always use, even if your layout changes, is a form of branding.  Also having a specific message or slogan helps you brand your blog, site or product.

Branding is mostly used for products, but there’s no reason you can’t apply it to your blog.  Leo Babauta has some great points about how it’s okay – and in fact, a good thing – to use advertising techniques for your blog and how to use branding effectively for your blog.

Craving more information?  Stay tuned for a follow up post with more ideas, or read a previous entry about 5 Steps to Promote Your Blog.

Blogs are about writing, but if you have a variety of media, then you’ll expand your audience.  Different people like different things – for example, some prefer to read, others, however, prefer to watch.  Most people write on their blogs, but don’t limit yourself!  Here are different ways of communicating to your readers:

Artwork

If you are an artist, you can post pictures of your artwork: whether it’s painting, sculpture or something you made photoshop.  You can even include information about what materials you used, where your readers can find those kinds of materials, what you got your inspiration from.  You could also encourage readers to respond by asking them for their comments or constructive feedback.

Photos

Like taking pictures?  Start uploading them.  Keep in mind that the internet is a public place of course, but feel free to take pictures of your adventures.  You could even try posting an entry in several pictures, and let the photographs show the story for you – without words.  Or post a picture and have your readers guess what it is.  Many people do a thing called “Wordless Wednesday,” where on Wednesday they will post a picture that describes how they feel or is just something they like.

Webcomics

You could also start posting a webcomic.  The webcomic world is difficult to get started in itself, like blogs, but you don’t have to do anything serious.  Instead of writing about something funny that happened, just make a doodle or draw up something in Paint.  It doesn’t have to be a work of art, but sometimes it’s nice to express yourself in a different way than usual, and it can unlock the more creative side of your brain.  You could even post a picture of today’s Dilbert comic, for example (and provide a link back to their site, of course).  Make sure that whatever you do, it’s legal and within copyright laws.

Videos

Film a video log or pod cast and upload it to your journal instead of posting an entry.  It could be anything – a how to, an opinion on a current event, or even a story.  It depends on what the subject of your blog is.  Don’t do something random, make sure it appeals to your readers.

Audio clips

Perhaps you’re on vacation and want to blog about your adventures.  Spice your entries up with a little soundbite of the waves crashing on the shore and the seagulls chirping in the background.  Help your readers really feel your experience.

These are all ideas that you can incorporate into your blog. Don’t just do all of one thing – mix it up!  One day, post a how to video.  The next day, write an entry.  Day after that – post your day in photos.  You can even mix them within the same entry.  Think outside the box.

These ideas are meant to help you generate interesting and unique content, to engage your readers and to make both sides of the blog experience fun.  Always remember that you should remain on topic with your blog and that your content is relevant.  For more ideas, check out last week’s post on Unique Content Ideas.

You could write the most interesting, relevant and helpful post in the world, but if you don’t ensnare your readers in the first place, then what does it matter?  No one’s reading it.  A great headline will stand out to your readers, and shout at them “Read me! Read me!” and they will listen.

A headline has to do several things.  It has to attract your reader, and it has to be informative and true to the content of the piece.  As Brian Clark writes in his article about writing headlines:

“Your headline is a promise to prospective readers. Its job is to clearly communicate the benefit that you will deliver to the reader in exchange for their valuable time.”

Your headline can’t just be flashy words that sound intriguing – they have to actually represent what your post talks about.  You have to be able to deliver.  But writing content is for another day – first, here are some tips for how to write an eye catching headline.

Make it Stand Out on the Page

Your headline should be obvious.  To catch your reader’s attention, it should be plainly visible and attractive.  Use a readable font and make it significantly larger than your main text.

This may seem like obvious advice, but I’ve seen some blogs where the post title isn’t so easy to find or distinguishable from the text.  Consider also using a different font color.

Try to put your headline above the fold (this is the line below which users would have to scroll down to see).  This is your chance to entice them to stay a little longer, instead of bouncing off your site right away.  While this is not completely necessary, you should have your headline as high up on your page as possible as it helps users locate your content more easily.

Jazz it Up

How the text looks will help your readers notice the headline, but it’s how it reads that makes the difference.  Your headline should sound interesting.  Jazz it up, put some spark into it.  You can play around with alliteration and other writing techniques.  Keep it short, somewhere from 7 to 10 words – short, yet long enough to sum up the main point of the article succinctly.

Look at Other Headlines For Ideas

One of the first tricks is to look at what headlines other people are using.  Look at blogs that have a lot of followers and commenters, and see which headlines seem to be working the best.  Also look at newspapers, magazines, and advertisements.  Get a feel for what headlines look like, and start experimenting with those formats.  These formats are tried and true, so they’re more likely to be successful.  But don’t ever copy someone else’s headline word for word.

Use Keywords

Do keyword researching using Google’s Adwords Tool.  This will help you understand how your readers are searching for a particular topic and what words they are using.  You should avoid words or phrases that are searched frequently – they will be too competitive to be useful.  Instead look for more specific words or phrases.  Play around with word order, and try combining different keywords (as long as it still makes sense and will read well to your readers).

Using keywords will help your blog entry’s title get picked up by search engines, but it will also give you an insight into how your potential traffic thinks, and it may give you some ideas for words or phrases you hadn’t thought of.  Here are more keyword tips.

Need some more ideas?  Brian Clark has a great series on how to write headlines effectively.

The number one way to build traffic and keep readers coming back is to have interesting and relevant content.  Fascinating articles, critical analyses and helpful how-to’s are great, but part of having interesting content is have a variety of articles.  Here are some more ideas you might not have thought of.

Follow the News

Reading the news daily will help you write the most up-to-date articles.  Current events are great because there’s already a buzz about them, and if you can be one of the first bloggers to post then your chances of search engines finding your site and of other bloggers linking back to you are higher.

Stay ahead of the news by subscribing to various news websites.  You can keep track of all your subscriptions if you use a website like Google Reader, which shows all your feeds and subscriptions in one place!

Interviews

Contact people that are relevant to your content and your readers.  Think of someone your reader’s are just dying to hear from and read about.

You can use a variety of media for your interview.  You can email someone questions, use some kind of chat program or use Skype.  Don’t be afraid to try out different media, and be flexible for your interviewee.

You can interview anyone – maybe another, more popular blogger in your subject area, or aim even higher and go for an author, artist or musician.  Don’t aim too high, of course… try to contact someone you think is more likely to respond.

Video Demonstration

Instead of typing out a “how to” post, record a video of yourself showing people how to do something.  This feels more personal and may even be a better way of explaining the process to your readers.

It could be anything from how to apply make up, to how to cook ratatouille, to how to knit a sweater.  You can even try taking a screencast of your computer screen and show someone how to do something on the computer.