You have a blog. You need traffic.

A blog is a great way to create an online presence for both personal and business reasons. You can build a blog for free and begin posting content right away. But what good is that content if no one is reading it? Of all the successful blogs on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you are willing to put the time in and treat it seriously, your blog will likely fall by the wayside.

Now, that’s not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious about blogging. Most new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get a flood of traffic. You need to give your audience a reason to see what you have to say.

Here are ten ideas to bring in the traffic your blog needs to survive.

1. Fresh Content: No one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same posts. Update your blog content on a regular basis. It sometimes helps to write several posts ahead of time and schedule them to post at the appropriate times.

2. Article Marketing: The niche you’ve chosen for your blog is hopefully one that interests you. If it is, then you’ll spend more time doing it, and you’ll enjoy it more. Create content not only for your blog but also to be submitted to article directories. Use the resource box to advertise your blog so people can find you.

3. Social Networking: Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of likeminded people who are also bloggers or entrepreneurs.

4. Viral Marketing: This is where you spread the word about your blog. Talk to friends, family and even strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them. Be visible.

5. Use RSS Feeds: RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online.

6. Submit Blog to Search Engines: Doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the most popular search engines you want to crawl your blog pages. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. Youíll have to do some SEO work for that.

7. Joining Forums: As a blogger, you are a budding entrepreneur. Right now you’re marketing yourself to find traffic and then profit. Become a member of business forums, work at home forums and others to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8. Visit other blogs: Show your appreciation to those who visit you by also posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Add links to your blog in your comments.

9. SEO Marketing: Whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three and ten percent is good for getting higher page rankings in search engines. Base your keywords on a research you do to find the most popular words used in search engines for your niche.

10. Social Bookmarking: Submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog.

Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It takes time, but if you work at it consistently, you’ll build a quality readership.

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As if WordPress wasn’t already awesome enough, now we have WordPress TV. WordPress TV is your official source for video training, tutorials, links to WordCamp presentations, and more.

Here’s the scoop, straight from the source:

On WordPress.tv, you’ll find tutorials for both WordPress self-installs and WordPress.com to help you get blogging fast and hassle-free. We’ve kicked things off with the basics — now you can shape what comes next. Just drop us a line and let us know what you’d like to see added.

WordPress.tv is also now the place to find all that awesome WordCamp footage that was floating around the web without a home. See the presentations you missed and get a peek at behind-the-scenes action. We call it WordCampTV.

You’ll also find slideshows of presentations made by WordPress gurus, plus interviews I’ve done with the media and fellow bloggers.

I hope you’ll consider WordPress.tv not just a support resource, but also a place to hang out and keep up with all the geeky goodness going on in the WordPress community. Tune in regularly for fresh content and updates to the WordPress.tv blog. Lots more is on the way.

* Source: WordPress.tv

I love WordPress, and am looking forward to watching this awesome resource grow. If you work with WordPress, be sure to bookmark WordPress.tv and refer back often.

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3. My Top 12 Favorite Wordpress Plugins

This post was originally going to be a list of my top 10 favorite plugins, but I have more than 10 to share, so you’re getting 12.

If you’re familiar with Wordpress, you probably use at least a few plugins. You’ve got your favorites, your “go-to” plugins – the ones you can’t do without. Right? Yes, we’ve all got our list.

If you’re new to Wordpress, just look around a little. You’ll see that there are literally hundreds of plugins out there to add functionality to your site, and more are being developed every day.

I use the plugins on this list every day on my own sites, so I’m comfortable recommending them. They’re all available for download on Wordpress.org/extend and are compatible up to Wordpress version 2.7.

Here are my personal favorites:

1. Akismet: This plugin is an incredibly effective spam filter, and it’s already included in your Wordpress software. It blocks spammers from posting comments on your blog. It will also give you the opportunity to view the spam comments – in case one of them happens to be legit. In that case, you can release that comment from the spam folder. You’ll need an API key, that you can get by setting up a free account on Wordpress.org.
2. All-In-One Adsense and YPN: This plugin is for blogs using Adsense. It inserts your Adsense or YPN code into your blog posts automatically. You choose the ad size, position, location, and frequency. Pretty simple.
3. All In One SEO Pack: This essential plugin helps you optimize every single post on your blog. When writing a post, you’ll specify your custom title, relevant keywords, and description, then All In One SEO Pack overrides your theme’s default settings. The rest is done behind the scenes. I should add that I use this on every site that does not use the Thesis theme. When I’m using Thesis (like I do here on Best Website Tips), I still install the plugin, but I use it sparingly. Thesis is so well optimized “out of the box” that it already does the work for you.
4. Best-Posts-Summary: This plugin will create a post that lists all your best posts in one place. It can post once a week, once a month, etc., and you can tell it how many posts to include, if it should consider the number of comments for each post, etc. It’s a pretty cool way to create an automated “best of” post.
5. Broken Link Checker: As your site grows, it can be difficult to keep track of all the links on all your pages. This plug-in keeps track of all your links and alerts you immediately if one isn’t working. One of my favorites.
6. Cforms II: Use this plugin to quickly and easily create forms to use on your Wordpress site. This is a pretty advanced plugin and may do more than you need it to, but if you want to add a form to your blog, this is the easiest way to do it.
7. Google XML Sitemap Generator: This plugin will generate a sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo. All you need to do is activate the plugin. It even submits the sitemap for you.
8. MyLinkOrder: This plugin allows you to easily set the order in which links and link categories will appear in the sidebar by using a drag-and-drop interface. Not crucial, but certainly handy.
9. Odiogo Listen Button: Though it has a few quirks, this is an awesome plugin. Odiogo adds a “Listen Now” button to your blog so your readers can actually listen to your posts. The voice is a little robotic, but I hear that the developers are working on adding additional voices in future updates. Aside from pronouncing a few words incorrectly, this plugin rocks!
10. Sociable: This essential plugin automatically adds tiny icons and links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites. You choose which sites to link to, and changing the mix is as simple as a few clicks. (I used to use TweetThis, but I now link to Twitter through the Sociable plugin.)
11. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin: (Yes, that actually is the name) This plugin pulls together a list of posts related to the current post, using titles, post bodies, tags, and categories. I have mine set to list the related posts at the end of every post, but you can change the positioning if you like.
12. Wordpress Automatic Upgrade: This plugin topped my list as one of the most important to have – but now it’s integrated into the latest Wordpress version (2.7). I’m including it on this list because not everyone is running on v. 2.7. If you’re using an earlier version of Wordpress, be sure to snag this plugin. It makes upgrading a breeze.

So there you have it – my favorite Wordpress plugins. Got any of your own to share? Shout them out in the comments below.

P.S. If you need help installing a plugin or a Wordpress upgrade, contact me!

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The two most popular blogging platforms these days are Blogger and Wordpress. Both are reliable, and which one you use is purely a matter of choice. However, if you’re interested in blogging, it pays to know the difference before you get started.

Blogger

Blogger was one of the original blogging platforms, and is now owned by Google. Blogger is very user-friendly and is free to use. You can either use a Blogger-hosted domain (yourname.blogspot.com) or you can register your own domain to host on Blogger’s server. Your site will still be hosted by Blogger and will not be available through FTP. You can design your own theme for the most part, but it is not as customizable as Wordpress.

Wordpress

Wordpress is by far the more popular option with bloggers these days. Wordpress is also free software, and like Blogger, you can either choose a Wordpress hosted domain (yourname.wordpress.com) or you can choose your own domain. If you choose your own domain, with Wordpress you can upload the software to your server and access it through FTP.

Self-hosting is important if you’re blogging for business because it looks more professional. If you just want to keep an online personal journal, then a free account on Wordpress.com would be just fine.

Wordpress blogs are highly customizable, and limited only by your imagination. Developers have created hundreds of themes, plugins and widgets, and most are available for free. Premium themes can be purchased and customized to fit your needs.

So before you start a blog, think about if you’re blogging for business or pleasure, and what type of hosting option you like. Then, get blogging!

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Just a super-quick heads up to let you know that the latest upgrade to WordPress is live and ready for you to grab. It’s called Coltrane and is a huge change from what we’re used to.

I love the new interface. I’m having fun customizing things, and I’m writing this post straight from my dashboard – how about that?

Check out the video – this is pretty cool!

Have questions? Need a little help? Just let me know.

Update: Check out this post from Lorelle VanFossen (Lorelle on WordPress). It will tell you everything you need to know!

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I found this goodie in my inbox this morning and thought I’d pass it along. It’s a free download and it give some really great tips on how to use digital photography on your blog. Photos add to the user experience and add personality to your blog, so if you’d like to share photos but you’re not sure how to go about it, here’s a great guide to help you get started.

This guide covers:

• Benefits of using photos on your blog
• Nine ideas for adding photos to your blog
• How to add & position photos on your Blogger Blog
• How to add & position photos on your WordPress blog
• Answers 20 common digital photography questions

Some of the questions include (from beginner to advanced):

• How to decide on the right digital camera
• How to decide is a picture is worth taking
• Advantages/disadvantages of raw vs. Jpeg format photographs
• What are the best settings for low light/nighttime conditions?
• What is hyper-focal distance?
• Time lag from the time you take a picture until it is on the memory card
• How to avoid redeye in dim light
• Small object close up pictures
• How to take pictures into the sun and avoid lens flare

…there’s lots more, too.

Get the answers by downloading your free 35-page guide:

Click here to get yours.

Note: The report is a PDF document and you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view it. If you don’t have this software, you can get it here.

If you find this report useful, I’d love to hear about it! Post your comments below.

Enjoy!

P.S. Thanks to Alice Seba from InternetMarketingSweetie.com for passing this along!

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This is a really common question these days. Blogging is the latest craze, and it’s growing faster than you can imagine. The more popular blogs get, the more pop up every day.

But what exactly is a blog, anyway?

A blog is essentially an online diary.

It’s any collection of writings that is published online, at one domain, and viewable in a web browser. Specifically, a blog is a chronological journal containing text, photos, and other media objects. Your blog can be about anything you want, and you can update it as often as you want to.

Blogs were first introduced online as weblogs (thus, the shortened name – blogs) in the mid 1990’s. This new concept quickly grew in popularity and people started to use a blog as a means of communication on the web. The earliest blogs were personal – used to share news and photos with friends. Today’s blogs are being used more and more as a key marketing tool for businesses as well.

Business blogs can help promote services or products to boost sales. The great thing about business blogs is that they create a more personal relationship with the customer. For example, a business with a main static website can add a blog to that site for publishing not only new items and specials, but also local news, company and industry news, staff picks, or even just the weather. Since a blog is interactive, visitors can post comments on each blog post, creating that two-way conversation.

Personal blogs are created for any variety of reasons. Like a journal, people can write their daily adventures, dreams, goals and whatever else they want to share with their visitors. Remember, a blog is about whatever you want it to be about. There are no guidelines, rules, or Blog Police. You set the rules. Just be sure to post to your blog regularly, though, because if you don’t keep up with your posting, your readers will get bored and move onto someone else’s blog.

While blogs and websites have their similarities, they have a few key differences. A website is static as a blog is not, meaning that a “regular” website doesn’t change that often, and it isn’t as interactive. A website is a collection of related web pages, where a blog is collection of published entries in chronological order that can be published immediately or scheduled for a certain date and time.

A blog is supported by a content management system such as Wordpress that provides a very useful collection of features to update the blog with. Blog features include comments, trackbacks, categories, tags, and an endless array of plug-ins for added functionality. A “regular” website won’t have any of that, and is more static in nature.

So that’s a little bit about the the difference between a website and a blog. If you’re looking to start a blog, head on over to Wordpress.com to sign up for your own wordpress-hosted blog at no charge. If you’re looking to add a blog to an existing business site or other site with your own URL, you want to go to Wordpress.org to set up a self-hosted blog with your own URL.

Need help setting up a new blog? Hire me and we’ll get you up and running in no time!

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