Chinese MetroGurl

So busy with studies and helping friends make blogs, it seem like I have no time for my blog!  I read many articles about making good blogs and this is the "BEST OF"

1.  Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don't always translate. Sometimes a little explanation goes a long way.

2.  Be current in what you post. Don't report about events that happen one year ago. You can refer to the particular event if relevant and/or via a link. For these past events, assume that people already know about them.

3.  Keep a regular schedule. Search engine spiders love sites that are constantly updated with fresh content. Post frequently to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts - I MUST REMEMEBRE TO DO MORE OF THIS

4.  Click Your Own Links! When you post an article that links to other post or blogs, be sure to click those links after you post. First, this simply verifies that your links work, which is always a good QA check. Second, this will cause your site to show up in the stats and referrer logs of the sites you link to. Most bloggers track their traffic and referrers religiously, so this will make sure they are aware of your post as soon as it's been published.

5.  Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts.  What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post.  The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.

6.  Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates.

Http://www.bloglet.com

7.  Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to.
The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries. 

8.  If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post should have a title that will attract attention but still be relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than 10-12 words.

9.  Should you want to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly-themed content.

10.  Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.

11.  Pictures are nice. But it is nicer to upload ORIGINAL images or scans realting to your topic that won't be found on every other blog addressing that topic.

12.  A picture and a biography (however short) with a bit of information to give people an idea of who you are. It does add something personal to a blog.

13.  Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com

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