One of the mistakes I made while starting off this blog was that I crated huge number of categories. One day I sat down with a piece of paper and decided, these are stuffs that I am gonna write on my blog, and these are my categories.

I ended up with a lot of categories and sub-categories. There are some categories that doesn’t even have a single post, to this day.

Here are the lessons

Making Good Use of Categories and Tags

Have a few categories only. Ten or lesser is good. Say you have 500 posts, and 10 categories, 50 posts per category is fine.

Make the categories broader so that you can accommodate more number of posts. A category named WordPress can include a larger share or posts than a category named WordPress Themes. How broad you wanna go depends on your Domain.

Do not go for sub-categories. Instead use Tags to sub-categorize the posts. For instance, Say WordPress is the main category. You can have tags like WordPress Plugins, WordPress Themes, WordPress Hacks etc.

Tags may be plenty, 3 to 5 tags per post is healthy.

One post goes into one and only one category. There is no point in categorizing a post in many categories. Instead use Tags to group similar posts. For instance, posts about a WordPress plugin hack could go under the category WordPress and Tags as WordPress Plugins and WordPress Hacks.

If you use the All in One SEO Pack, and your tags contains keywords, make sure you check ‘Use Tags for META keywords’ in the All in One SEO Settings.

Good luck!

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Leave a Comment: Solving the Category v/s Tag Dilema

Guest Post by Anand Subramanian

Best Blogging Practices might sound like an oxymoron when blogging itself is loosely defined. Blogging itself is defined in many ways by many people and I am going to try to give away some of the tips which I find will help corporate blogs reach out to their audience better.

1. Personalize your communication – Blogs are commonly referred to as an informally written journal and taking that definition into your company blog is very important to your readers. They need to know who they are reading about and the posts need to connect to the user on an informal level. Personalize and humanize your blog instead of making it a press room.
2. Join Conversations – Listening is perhaps one of the most important activities in Social Media if you ask me. There are discussions on your service, your product somewhere out there in the wild web. Find them, join in the conversation on your blog linking to the sources and when you start a new conversation, people will listen to you.
3. Be Consistent – One of the major reasons we advocate a firm to think twice before starting their own company blog is updating it! Most companies starting their own blog lose steam in a few weeks and they end up becoming an eerie dead pool. Underestimating the energy, time and commitment to maintain a blog is a major mistake by most companies.
4. Provide Value – Are you a gardening supplies company? Tell your readers about the best ways to grow a garden. Are you a web designing firm? Tell your readers about the latest trends in web designing.
5. Comments – Treat comments as posts. The comments in any blog are an important part where you get feedback, bricks and roses and be ready to acknowledge the good the bad and the ugly. Give your readers the feeling that they are being listened to and their suggestions appreciated. This will increase your blogs credibility and authority.

If you have a corporate blog, I would be really interested in hearing from your experiences of maintaining one. Do share your views on the comments!

This is a guest post by Anand Subramanian, an Internet Marketing Consultant from India who helps businesses get online and use internet as a marketing medium.

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Leave a Comment: 5 Corporate Blogging Best Practices

Do you remember the first comment you ever got? Not the one that came in after emailing all your contacts, but the one that came on its own.

What did you do then?

Obviously, you were excited. The feeling that someone else is listening to what you say, and when you get that for the first time, that’s one of the best moments for any author.

Probably, you followed the link to know more about the author. Google-d the name and even checked out his social media profiles and added him up.

First comments are starts of great relationships. Friends come and go, but the first friends you made in school in your early ages always stay, right? You may not see them around anymore, but if you ask yourself, they do have a very special place in you.

The point is: if you give attention to those who are not already getting all the attention, you will get it back too.

And when you do that genuinely and not for the sake of the comment, that’s a key to great long lasting relationships.

When you see a post without any comments, try to leave one, because the happiness your comment gives to the author is beyond measures. It’s like a smile; it doesn’t cost much, but means a lot to the recipient.

I am not advocating that there is no use in commenting on popular blogs. I’m trying to say that the first comments are always special. Just like first love

I hope you do have a first comment story to share. What did you do then?

P.S: Hope you guys are having a great time. I am on my final year of graduation which is why I don’t get much time to write here. I do check my emails and tweet often, if you need me anytime.

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Leave a Comment: A Simple Deed to Make Good Friends and Spread Joy

Guest Post by Poch Peralta

During my first 6 months of blogging, I made a lot of mistakes which is just normal in my humble opinion. Just learning from them made me grateful. And I was lucky I didn’t make the really big ones! (user name, theme). So here is what I learned and my suggestions.

Consider first these other tasks in starting and promoting a new blog (don’t be discouraged, you can do these one at a time):

• Writing posts – I believe writing a whole page of a post or posts everyday is the right thing. People don’t tend to buy one post that is more than a page long.
• Joining social networks.
• Commenting on other blogs.
• Writing guest posts (like this)
• Nurturing relationship with your followers (maybe the hardest task)
• And if your blog is ‘monetized’, finding the right advertisers and affiliates.

1. Finding the best blog platform or host

Before I found my current host, I left three from which I didn’t get a single comment! So do a research first. Decide if you want a ‘monetized’ or an advertisement-free blog. Some hosts allow monetizing, some don’t. So if you choose to self-host your blog, then it’s better to monetize it to cover your expenses.

2. Choosing your user name (or domain name) carefully.

Some blog platforms do not allow their users to change that so you might be stuck with what you choose. And changing a username is like changing a BRAND name –you’ll probably lose some of your followers who don’t want the change.
I suggest you choose one as if it’s a website name because you wouldn’t know if your weblog might someday be a big website. A name which can be ‘verbalized’ is best. See how websurfers turned the proper noun Google into a verb? (It’s just bad that my own would sound bad if verbalized – pochpeed).

3. Choosing your blog Theme

There are specific themes designed for your niche or speciality.

4. Choose your niche carefully

This was my first mistake. At first, I started writing just about everything that floats my boat. Then I learned that you could monetize your blog at least to cover your writing expenses, time and effort. Some professional bloggers even teach that you shouldn’t spend on your blog or site until you’re earning from it.
So decide if you want a monetized blog or not –then decide what your blog will be specifically about. Will it be about Technology, Science, Business, etc?

5. Continue search for better blog platforms

Most probably, your first blog host will not be the best.

6. Practice Ethics of blogging/networking

This is the continuing and maybe, the hard part. How do we make sure we’re blogging politically correct?

a. Your content
We have freedom of speech so it’s really up to you what you write even if it’s offensive; which of course I practice but don’t endorse. But if you will write a rant or offensive piece, target specifically so the innocents wouldn’t think they are part of it. You wouldn’t want your followers to think they are part of your target. If you’re after popularity or sales, then you wouldn’t want to offend everyone so be careful what you write.

One way to make sure your piece isn’t offending: have a kind-hearted person or editor read your article then ask if it’s reader-friendly.

b. Your comments
Now this is where most bloggers offend each other the most. I myself have offended through comments without intending to although one or two I admit were careless though innocent; and that is why I’m reluctant to write about this – it would smell hypocrisy.
We just really can’t be sure how our words will be interpreted. And that is the reason why we should be extremely careful. Tips:

1. Never make or reply to an offensive comment when you’re still angry.
   Most of the time, we will find that it’s not really worth our anger as time passes. What I do is ignore offensive comments if I want someone to stop sending it. You bet it works. We will even sometimes find we can learn something from the offensive comment. The offensive commenter might even become your fan if you befriend the person!
2. If you think you have made an offensive comment, follow-up at once and apologize before you get a reply. The more time passes, the more damage the comment will do because it spreads.

c. Spamming
This not only apply only to commenting but also to e-mail marketing.  The rule is DON’T SPAM. What do you think your reader will do when the reader learns you spammed him/her? Of course the reader will spread the news which would brand you as a user of your fellowman. I suggest you use a blog host or platform that uses Akismet.

Now there are human spam comments that you really need to spam. Human spam comments are innocent and not dangerous right?

Wrong!

It can be an attempt to steal hits, comments, or hijack your weblog altogether which I have experienced. If comments are not related to the post, it is spam especially if it asks you to click a link. So check the link first before clicking.

A good way to block spam comments manually is this:

Go to your WordPress Dashboard and follow Settings –> Discussion. In the comment blacklist, enter words like porno, gambling, and whatever words, IP’s, and e-mail addresses you think should be banned. Be extra careful who you spam or blacklist!

This was a Guest Post by Poch Peralta of Plato On-Line. You may like to read more about him or if you have something to share, write a guest post here.

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Leave a Comment: Starting a Blog the Right Way

Guest Post By TIP Guy

The motivation (or perhaps the idea) to write this post sprung out of (1) An online discussion I had with one of the fellow bloggers; and (2) A lunch time discussion I had with my colleague at work place. Based on these discussions and reading quite a few blogs, ironically, and to some extend intriguing is the fact that many folks want to start a blog with some objectives in mind. Many want to start their own blog to learn, to share, to interact, etc. Majority open the blog with the hidden desire to have a side income but they are little hesitant to accept it openly.

For the sake of statistics, only one to two percent of the bloggers succeed in generating truly passive income. The rest 98% to 99% bloggers who attempt to generate any serious side income from their blog fail. The barrier to enter a blog-o-sphere is very low. Theoretically, one can start a blog in less than 15 minutes with zero investments. Furthermore, there is a school of thought (or misunderstanding?) that reading few how-to articles and to-do list, the so called passive income or side income will trickle in.

In this post, I am discussing few key aspects that every individual wanting to start a blog should think about even before you actually setup the blog.

Blog to Add Value for your Readers

Pick a niche subject for your blog where you can share your expertise. The subject matter for your blog should be such that you are passionate about it. Many folks have no clue what is their niche. I suggest you do a simple experiment. To test your expertise or passion for any given subject, check to see whether you can write or think on same topic in two or three different ways. I do not mean re-wording in two or three different ways. It means two or three different perspectives that lead to different conclusions.

One of the foremost aspects of blogging is to have utmost respect for our readers. Blog readers are smart, intelligent, and always eager to learn more. The topics or discussions that you write about should be valuable to the reader (i.e. reader should feel that it was worthwhile to come to this blog). They come to your blog for adding value to their thought process and not to teach you.

Let us take two examples: (1) Everybody knows about BCCI battering down ICL. Many in blog-o-sphere and media has covered it but failed to analyze the lost opportunity. (2) Recently, removal of mutual fund entry fee received wide coverage. Again, in this me too world, majority of blogger repeated the beaten track that it is beneficial. Did you read any pros and cons whether there are any real benefits?

Shared Learning is Two Way Street

Another aspect that I have seen on the blogs is many folks start the blog introduction with the description that says, they are here to learn, they are here to share what they know, etc. That is a mistake. My question to all those bloggers is this; when you are learning, why would one come to read your blog? If I want to learn how to play cricket, I would go to the professional coach. I would not go to play with a learner! One should realize the fact that shared learning is a two way street. You provide any thought provoking argument, and comments will follow, which will help you get a different perspective.

It is perfectly acceptable to start a blog to learn and interact with fellow blogger. There is nothing wrong in it. However, demonstrate your learning process by showing and discussing your thought process. Let us take an example. If you are learning to analyze a stock, you should write post that shows what is the basis for analysis, what method you are using, what are your resources, and what are your conclusions. My observations have been that majority of the folks do a blog survey, and publish with re-wording or summarize. That’s not learning.

Don’t Fool Yourself

Another mistake new bloggers do is, they say they are here to help others in their endeavor, and not for making money.

• If that’s the case, why does your blog have three Google ad sense advertisements? Bloggers include all three allowable ads, and still say they are not blogging for money.
• On many investment sites, bloggers have subscription based stock tips and advices and still proclaim that they want to help individuals to succeed in investing or personal finance.

Ironical, intriguing, or hypocritical? You be the judge.

It is perfectly acceptable to say you are blogging to earn side income. Again, there is nothing wrong in it. However, being honest to your readers and letting them know upfront will only help you make your case.

Remember, growing your blog is like growing a Mango tree. It requires proper seeding and nurturing for a period of time. If done right, fruits are bound to grow for you to enjoy them. It requires patience and persistence to grow a Mango Tree, while a grass grows with much effort. Before you click away what is your thoughts on following two questions:

1. What do you prefer, growing mango tree for fruits or grass for nothing but aesthetic beauty?
2. What is difficult, to get a web traffic or to sustain the web traffic?

I would like to hear from you so leave your thoughts and comments below.

This article was written by TIP Guy. He writes on his blog, TIPBlog.in, where he encourages individuals to invest on their own. He discusses an any and all aspect that influences portfolio construction and its sustainability. The unique aspect about his blog is that all of the discussion is in the context of do-it-yourself individual investors and bloggers.

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Leave a Comment: Beginners Guide before Starting a Blog

Some time back I shared a link on SEO Optimizing Permalinks on Blogger Blogs. A reader with the name, iWrite2Know replied to the post as:

I was aware that republishing a post does not change the permalink of a blogger blog post. In such a scenario the title of the page is allowed to change.

However I wasn’t sure it worked well for the SEO. Does that mean that the title should be keyword specific? How to choose a perfect keyword for the title? Is there software or a tool that will recommend a keyword depending upon the no. of searches on it?

Please suggest.

Thank you.

If you have missed the link, let me just brief it: In blogger (unlike WordPress), the permalink once assigned to a post do not change even if you go back and edit the title later on. This flaw or bug or what-you-name-it can be used to create custom permalinks. (For details see the link above).

Does that mean that the title should be keyword specific?

Titles are the ones that are listed on Google and other search engine results and are very important for social media. Yes, the title should be keyword specific. Keywords in the title will act as the trigger word for a person searching for the topic. People search with keywords (oh, that’s why they are named as keywords). If they do not find the keywords on the title, probably they won’t click it.

Google knows that, so eventually the position of the post depends on the keywords on the title and many other parameters, of course.

But do not stuff your title with keywords. Search engines might consider that as spam and you will get a negative result.

Reference: Do Keywords in Post Titles Really Matter?

How to choose a perfect keyword for the title?

If you are too concerned about SEO, then you may want to do some keyword research. But in most cases, it would be enough if you choose the keywords that look important to the post. Make the title for the people reading them rather than the bots.

Is there software or a tool that will recommend a keyword depending upon the no. of searches on it?

Here are some tools for keyword research:

• Google Trends and Google Insights to Search. (Here is a guide to Google Insights. Also read how Google Insights can be used to find new niche ideas)
• Adwords Keyword Tool. (Probably the most heavily used one.)
• SearchSpy and Twitter Search can be used to find live keywords. (This guide on Finding Hot Search Topics would help you better)
• How to write compelling headlines by Copyblogger.
• How to write Magnetic Headlines. (A series of posts again by Copyblogger)

Some more tools to find trending topics as recommended by Amal Roy of Personal Computing Unleashed:

• Yahoo Buzz
• AOL Hot Searches
• Lycos (see the top Searches widget)

Hope they will help, if you have any more questions, I would be pleased to answer them.

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Leave a Comment: Tools and Resources to Write Compelling Post Titles

A friend of mine, who is just about to start a blog, asked me some interesting questions:

1. You think promoting your own links on Social Networks is fair?

How many links do we Re-Tweet on Twitter? Links that you have no relation with, sometimes we do retweet them even before reading the page. Some of them might be utter useless links, that’s fair?

When you write something on your blog, your intention is to pass on your knowledge to the community and create value. Are you not proud of what you write? Don’t you honestly think it would help someone?

We are proud of our own posts than anything else and we are more definite of them. You can be at least sure that your pages would never infect a computer. When you believe what you write is good, it’s not a sin to share them.

But, if you start spamming around with tons of promotional links, sending them to all your friends, forcing people to read them, then you are already sinning. Share them; let the peeps decide to read them or to comment on them. If what you write is good, rest will take care of itself.

2. What about affiliate links? Is it ok to include affiliate links in your posts?

When you are genuinely writing about a product, not because they have an affiliate option, but because you think the product would be useful to someone, it’s not a sin.

If you use Adsense, are you sure of the quality of the ads that appear? You don’t even know what ads are going to come on your pages, but we trust Google and believe that Google wouldn’t be evil. Still, you haven’t seen the products.

But, when you have seen the product, have felt the quality of it yourself, you are going to write about it anyway. I don’t think your readers would mind if you keep the referral fees.

Affiliate links become evil when you start using them in your posts just because the product gives you a good share of the profits, and you haven’t known the product at all.

I have included affiliate links in some of my posts, mostly those about WordPress themes, and in all cases I have personally known the product. I can be sure that, no one would come back to me complaining that a product I referred is good for nothing.

Some might say, both these are sins and cannot be explained in any form, but if you are trying to please everyone, you are making a big mistake. If 5% of the internet loves you, you are a millionaire already!

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Leave a Comment: Self Promotion and Affiliate Links are Sins?

Ever wondered why the giant companies rush to acquire other ventures? The reasons could be many, among them; one would be that the top level management knows the cost of opportunity.

For instance, twitter might sell itself for 25 million dollars today, but after 2 years it wouldn’t even be available for sale, not to mention the extra millions that would be then needed.

Just have a look at the most successful Bloggers out there. John Chow started off in 1999 with his TechZone. Darren Rowse started in 2002 with LivingRoom. Amit Agarwal launched Labnol in 2004.

Being the fist gave them the opportunity to learn stuffs and master them before the rest even noticed them. By the time people started thinking of making money online, and Blogging, they were the Guru’s and the masses had only one option – to follow them.

Why do Bloggers rush to pull out updates of the latest from the web? They know that the first always gets the traffic.

There is no use brooding over the missed opportunities and we don’t have a Time Machine to go back and do it all again. Good thing is that, something new always happen. Then it was google, now it might be Bing. Don’t wait till it takes over. Grab the opportunity when its fresh, Jump IN – Be the First.

• When a new opportunity comes your way, (a partnership deal, a chance to have your post re-published and the like), don’t deny it, and grab it before someone else does.
• When a new Social Networking site comes out, don’t think that you are already engaged with Twitter and you don’t need it. We never used Twitter 3 years back and we were still engaged. It might be the next in social media, so jump in.
• When someone writes to you to have a look at his product, do it asap. Missed chance is a missed chance.
• If you have an idea that seems to work, make it happen NOW. Else it might never happen at all.

I wish I had known these in 2001

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Leave a Comment: The Cost of Opportunity

Guest Post by Mr. I

‘Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals’ – Jim Rohn

Let me ask you a question, “How many articles have you read about being a better blogger?”

While same techniques work for those bloggers, they do not produce even 10% result for 90% readers! Ever thought why?

The answer lies in one word: Basics. Because those 90% who do not get results do not basics right!

To be successful blogger, you here are 5 Basic Blogging Lessons You Must Remember:

1. Making Money From Blogging is Not Easy: I can hear you screaming, “But Hey, Darren, Daniel, John Chow and many others make lot of money! And they make it easily!” Yes, they make money easily but they have worked on and mastered basics! They did not started out with a high traffic blog. They started out like you, as a small blogger. But they invested time and now, they are there, Making Money without Much Effort!
2. Content is Not the Only King: Write a top class article and put it on your blog without any picture and formatting. Only a few will read it. Why? Because now, along with content, presentation is also important. Most visitors will not read your article if it is accompanied by poor design! So, take time to find relevant and good pictures, format the text well, use headings, lists and anything.
3. Traffic is the Key: Unless and untill you have good traffic, nothing will work. You will not get money, comments, subscribers, customers from a blog having very little traffic. Learn promotional techniques and work on increasing traffic!
4. You Need Goals: Ever walked on road without knowing destination? Blogging is just like that! You need to know what you want to achieve and most importantly, how you want to achieve! Without knowing destination, you will reach nowhere! So, set your goals!
5. Loners Are Not Famous: To be successful, you need connections. You have to connect with readers, other bloggers and advertisers. You have to interact with readers to get comments. You have to contact other bloggers for help and advice. You have to talk to advertisers to earn! Nothing will happen without interaction. So, learn how to communicate well and you will go a long way.

These were the 5 Basic Blogging Lessons You Must Remember. Have something else to say? Feel free to air your basic lessons in comments.

This was a guest by Mr. I. If you liked this post, check out 10 Magnetic Techniques to Attract Ideas by him or Subscribe to his Blogging Newsletter.

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Leave a Comment: 5 Basic Blogging Lessons You Must Remember

Bloggers are basically writers. Unless you came from heaven with all the skill sets pre-loaded, you need to constantly fine tune your writing skills to make it efficient and effective.

Here is an article which summarizes Effective writing tips from Stephen King’s book – “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”.

I shared it on twitter first, got some awesome responses (here and here), so I instantly know, I have to blog this!

The first tip coincided with an article I wrote sometime back:

Get to the point.

Don’t waste your reader’s time with too much back-story, long intros or longer anecdotes about your life. Reduce the noise. Reduce the babbling. In On Writing King gets to his points quickly. Get to your point quickly too before your reader loses patience and moves on.

Read the rest of the tips on the Positivity Blog. Get inspired!

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Leave a Comment: Better Writing – 7 Tips from Stephen King’s “On Writing”