Thursday, May 14, 2009
Keep on Blogging
If there is one thing that I have taken from this class this semester it is that the use of blogs is essential in my professional career. I have been working on my blog all semester. I started out this semester not even knowing what a blog was, and now I have successfully maintained a blog. I even know how to change my HTML! If you listen to one piece of advice I have given to you throughout this whole blog, let it be to keep on blogging. Don't stop when this class is over. This is a great opportunity to impress potential employers. Practicing this form of social media will truly benefit you. I am so thankful that I took this class this semester. I have learned so much and I think you will too. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment. I will be more than happy to help you. Good luck and have a great semester!
Resume
Besides using a blog to speak your mind, to tell a story, or to simply practice the growing trend of social media, there is one more way to use a blog that I think is brilliant and will benefit you in the long run. Take for example, Dana Schultze's blog. She has used her blog as a way to post her resume online. I think it is a great idea because you can link to other works you have done and allow potential employers to see your technical skills. I think it would really benefit you to try this idea too.
Making a Profit
If you are as clueless about blogging as I was when I started this semester, you are probably thinking that making a profit is only for experienced bloggers. That is not true! You can make money from your blog in numerous ways.
The best way to do this is to sell advertisement space. Project Wonderful is a site that focuses specifically on how to use advertisements on your blog. Also, ShowMeTheMoney has some good advice on how to use ad space to make money. I have to admit, I did not experiment with this throughout the semester because I felt a little overwhelmed since it was my first blogging experience. There were some people that did experiment with it and did make a profit! Jack made close to $20 off advertisements through his blog. I suggest you try it out too.
Building Traffic using SEO
The term SEO is one that you will hear A LOT this semester. Make yourself familiar with it and learn how to use it. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. I had a lot of trouble with traffic the first couple of months. After I learned about SEO, I implimented all of the following tips and my traffic skyrocketed. I even got some hits in Europe and Asia! So, here are some tips I recommend you use to increase traffic.
1. Use Google hot trends: Google Hot Trends gives you a list of the top 100 words currently being searched for using Google search engine. For example, my blog was on graduation. I used Google Hot Trends and found that graduation gifts was commonly searched for. I made a post on graduation gifts and I got comments from people not in class. It definately increased my traffic.
2. Use Google Keywords Tool: Google Keyword Tool is helpful in telling you what your competition is doing. You can find out they are posting about and then make posts on the same subjects. You can even link to them! Back to my example about boats. If someone else has a blog and Google Keywords tells me they are blogging about sunburn, I should write a post about how to prevent sunburn and link back to their post for more tips and information, thus increasing traffic.
3. Use Google Webmaster Tool: According to Google, Google's free webmaster tools provide you with an easy way to make your site more Google-friendly. They can show you Google's view of your site, help you diagnose problems, and let you share info with us to help improve your site's visibility in our search results. When I used it for my blog this semester, it helped me because it told me that one of my URLs was unreachable. That allowed me to go back and fix my problem.
4. Use Negative Keywords: Negative keywords help to target a more specific audience. For example if your blog is on a writer named Tom Bobama, but you don’t want people searching for Barack Obama being directed to your site, then you can use Barack Obama as a negative keyword. You can do this with the help of websites or by adjusting the html of your specific blog by customizing the settings. If you are using Blogger, it is easy to edit your HTML. For more help on using negative keywords visit WebmasterWorld.
1. Use Google hot trends: Google Hot Trends gives you a list of the top 100 words currently being searched for using Google search engine. For example, my blog was on graduation. I used Google Hot Trends and found that graduation gifts was commonly searched for. I made a post on graduation gifts and I got comments from people not in class. It definately increased my traffic.
2. Use Google Keywords Tool: Google Keyword Tool is helpful in telling you what your competition is doing. You can find out they are posting about and then make posts on the same subjects. You can even link to them! Back to my example about boats. If someone else has a blog and Google Keywords tells me they are blogging about sunburn, I should write a post about how to prevent sunburn and link back to their post for more tips and information, thus increasing traffic.
3. Use Google Webmaster Tool: According to Google, Google's free webmaster tools provide you with an easy way to make your site more Google-friendly. They can show you Google's view of your site, help you diagnose problems, and let you share info with us to help improve your site's visibility in our search results. When I used it for my blog this semester, it helped me because it told me that one of my URLs was unreachable. That allowed me to go back and fix my problem.
4. Use Negative Keywords: Negative keywords help to target a more specific audience. For example if your blog is on a writer named Tom Bobama, but you don’t want people searching for Barack Obama being directed to your site, then you can use Barack Obama as a negative keyword. You can do this with the help of websites or by adjusting the html of your specific blog by customizing the settings. If you are using Blogger, it is easy to edit your HTML. For more help on using negative keywords visit WebmasterWorld.
Building Traffic
Finally! I have been doing all this talking about how the little tips and tricks I have offered you so far will build traffic and now its time to talk about all the ways to increase traffic and why its so important. The New York Times offers a great article on how to increase traffic to your site. Along with those tips, I have some of my own to offer you that I have found worked for me this semester.
We have already talked about how the use of Facebook and Twitter will build traffic. Also, we discussed how linking and commenting can help too. Keep practicing those, but there are other little things you can do too.
Inviting a guest blogger to your site could really benefit you. Lets go back to my example of the boating blog. Lets say I found a fellow blogger who has a blog about the best type of bait to use when fishing. Maybe I could ask him to do an interview with me in which we discuss the type of fish specific to the east coast and the type of bait we should use. Then, I can link to his blog and hopefully he links to me as well. That way, avid followers of his blog may also become followers of mine.
Making your page attractive is also a way to increase traffic. Just like I mentioned earlier, Huffington Post book recommend you don't use bright font on a dark background. If a website is hard to look at and the font is hard to read, it will discourage readers from returning. If you practice all of these tips, I assure you that you will see an increase in traffic.
We have already talked about how the use of Facebook and Twitter will build traffic. Also, we discussed how linking and commenting can help too. Keep practicing those, but there are other little things you can do too.
Inviting a guest blogger to your site could really benefit you. Lets go back to my example of the boating blog. Lets say I found a fellow blogger who has a blog about the best type of bait to use when fishing. Maybe I could ask him to do an interview with me in which we discuss the type of fish specific to the east coast and the type of bait we should use. Then, I can link to his blog and hopefully he links to me as well. That way, avid followers of his blog may also become followers of mine.
Making your page attractive is also a way to increase traffic. Just like I mentioned earlier, Huffington Post book recommend you don't use bright font on a dark background. If a website is hard to look at and the font is hard to read, it will discourage readers from returning. If you practice all of these tips, I assure you that you will see an increase in traffic.
Video and Photo Blogging
Using video and photos to tell a story in your blog is great! Its fun, its eye catching, and it show you know how to do more than just type. Rocketboom does a great job of incorporating video and pictures in every single post. Now, you don't have to use them in every post, but at least experiment with it.
As I mentioned before, I have never used Wordpress, but my experience with Blogger has shown me how easy video and photo blogging can be. You can post YouTube videos or your own videos using Blogger's tool. To insert a YouTube Video, you have to edit your HTML so make yourself familiar with this. I found BloggerTricks to be a helpful site. I have shown you some examples oh how you can post photos in your blog (see my Facebook/Twitter post). If you noticed, I put my pictures on the right and the text on the left. After discussing this in class this semester, we all decided that we prefer the text on the left and the photo on the right since your eye naturally reads left to right. And don't forget, taking someone else's picture can get you in big trouble! There are plenty of free sites out there that offer the use of images with no charge and no trouble.
Also, when posting a video, make sure you introduce the video. Just like this. Here is an example:
After the video, always finish up with a sentence or two. Don't ever just post a video with out saying anything about it. And always tell where you got the video from! (Thanks for this one YouTube) No plagiarizing.
As I mentioned before, I have never used Wordpress, but my experience with Blogger has shown me how easy video and photo blogging can be. You can post YouTube videos or your own videos using Blogger's tool. To insert a YouTube Video, you have to edit your HTML so make yourself familiar with this. I found BloggerTricks to be a helpful site. I have shown you some examples oh how you can post photos in your blog (see my Facebook/Twitter post). If you noticed, I put my pictures on the right and the text on the left. After discussing this in class this semester, we all decided that we prefer the text on the left and the photo on the right since your eye naturally reads left to right. And don't forget, taking someone else's picture can get you in big trouble! There are plenty of free sites out there that offer the use of images with no charge and no trouble.
Also, when posting a video, make sure you introduce the video. Just like this. Here is an example:
After the video, always finish up with a sentence or two. Don't ever just post a video with out saying anything about it. And always tell where you got the video from! (Thanks for this one YouTube) No plagiarizing.
Find Your Niche
Now that I have overloaded you with information, its time to start thinking about what your topic will me. Once you know your topic, we can find our niche audience. What is that, you ask? Well a nich audience is simply your target audience- the people that you are talking to. Lets go back to my boat example. I am making a blog about boats. Now, thats good and everything. But who am I talking to? I need to be more specific. Maybe I want to focus on people who live on the east coast and use their boats for fishing. That is much more specific. You will find it makes it a lot easier to figure out what to talk about too. For more tips, check out this great article by Joan Stewart.
The topic for my blog this semester was life after graduation. I founf myself talking a lot about jornalism and linking to other blogs written by people in the PR and journalism field. At the time, I had defined my niche audience as college students, college graduates, or just anyone interested in looking for a job. Dr. Spaulding recomended I fnarrow it down even more to Mass Comm. students. Thats an example of how being specific with your niche will benefit you.
The topic for my blog this semester was life after graduation. I founf myself talking a lot about jornalism and linking to other blogs written by people in the PR and journalism field. At the time, I had defined my niche audience as college students, college graduates, or just anyone interested in looking for a job. Dr. Spaulding recomended I fnarrow it down even more to Mass Comm. students. Thats an example of how being specific with your niche will benefit you.
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