Many ask on the best way to blog both for the purposes of personal blog and for the sake of building authority to an affiliate site or an ecommerce site. I try to answer them to the best of my ability.
1. What is your choice of blogging software?
Wordpress period. Nothing beats blogging on this platform. The sheer amout of flexibility must offer you a must use reason.
Cost: Since WordPress is open source it is free.
Control: Once you download WordPress it is yours … you control where to host it. This avoids being “held hostage” by a Blogging service where all the content you have created is on their service, and leaving with your content is either very difficult or impossible.
Community: Themes and Plugins are constantly being created and the strong user base report bugs to allow for the platform to be in a constant state of improvement.
Customizable: Since WordPress is written in PHP there is basically no limits to the customization you can do with your Blog.
Comments/Collaboration: Since Web 2.0 is all about interaction, your readers can comment directly on your Blog post and create an “interactive” discussion online which can be powerful. While it can be powerful, it can also be a negative with all of the Blog Comment Spam that is rampant; this is where all the plug-in come in, one can simply use them to cut down on the spam being put up as comments.
Keeping “Current & Cool”: Since adding content is super fast and easy with a blog (as with the WYSIWYG editor), your website can stay “current and cool” with your visitors.
Connect: Facebook, MySpace and Twitter can be an “extension” of your Blog. You can also use video too.
Prescheduled Entries: You can create 52 tips, upload them, and schedule to have one published each week. This “trains” both your visitors and the search engines to keep coming back because there is fresh content being published. This is one of the most underutilized features of blogs currently.
2. In your opinion, what are the most important features for blogs?
Comments, as mentioned above. Comments help me to understand what the readers want more of or less of. Almost like an ongoing survey the comments allow my visitors to get to know me better, thus, drives you to my products and services more.
The other most important feature is you, as the Blogger. Don’t just publish fresh content. Publish fresh and valuable content. Doing so builds your expertise and allows your audience to trust you more.
3. Can the average person conduct an upgrade for Wordpress without losing their entire blog, (ie. accidentally overwriting the files on the server)?
The short answer is: Yes. However, if you upload just the core set of WordPress files to the appropriate files on your server, you’ll be fine. Before I ever do any upgrades, I always download the entire site via FTP … and I mean everything, log files, full site, cgi-bin, email, etc. That way, if something goes wrong, I have the files prior to the change. Yes, it takes some time, however, start it before heading out to lunch and by the time you get back it should be done (depending upon the size of the site, the speed of your connection and, of course, the length of your lunch break!
After you have uploaded the new files, go into your wp-admin folder on your server and you want to load the file “upgrade.php”. So, for example, on my blog, I would execute: blog.seorevolution.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php.
If you don’t have a server admin, contact your host for help. You DON’T want to lose your data.
4. Besides having the XML subscribe button posted, what are the other ways to get a blog noticed? What are your “must have” subscribe chicklets?
My favorite tool is “Share This” by Alex King. Just “Google It” and you’ll find it. What it does is it allows for an icon to appear in your blog so people can share your post through a variety of different ways. This is a great way for other people to be exposed to your blog from your current readership, but what about getting people there to begin with?
Look for other bloggers in your space and engage in the conversations on their blog. In so doing, your reputation as someone who is knowledgeable in the space will begin to grow, as will your reputation. How do you find the right Bloggers? Technorati.
Trackbacking: This a feature that let’s you comment on some else’s blog, but on your blog. It is a pretty cool feature and the hope is that readers of the comments will see your trackback commentary and then flow over to your blog to read more.
Lastly, I suggest putting on your “party hat” and jumping into the Social Media scene by searching out groups relevant to your topic or find where your target audience “hangs out” online. But I also warn you not to be a dork. Act the same way you would at a cocktail party. Be respectful; don’t pitch right out of the gate. Gain people’s trust first. use of video and audio in the Web 2.0 world is desired. Get your video and audio files on the various sharing services. The right title and the right description is just as important in this area as it is in SEO
5. What are some great marketing tips on getting a new blog in front of the right audience?
first you must KNOW your audience. You can do that by going to different groups and social media sites and finding out through the posts what they want and more importantly, the packaging and pricing structure that is most attractive to them. Moving the “Free Line”, what it means is give more of your products/services away to get potential customers a “taste” of what you have to offer.
6. What are your favorite resources for blogging information?
Covered above.
7. Which blog directories are best to submit to? Are there good country specific blog directories? Or is it best to just concentrate on US-based blog directories if your blog is outside of the US?
I suggest going into the Options | Writing area of WordPress and then scroll down to find “Update Services”. Clicking on the link takes you to Codex Section of WordPress and here you can copy and paste the list of pinging services for your blog.
I recommend (listed in order of importance) Best of theWeb Blog Search ($39.95), BlogFlux (Free), Bloggapedia (Free), Blogging Fusion ($1.99), Bloggeries ($19.95) and Eaton Web Blog Directory ($34.99).
8. Does blog and ping still work? What is the best method of getting Google back to your site? (I did a test and found that if you blog at least three times a week and don’t go more than three days of no postings, Google will come back at least a week to reindex the blog. If you blog everyday, Google comes everyday. Your thoughts?)
I like OnlyWire.com and Pingoat.com on top of the services WordPress has as covered above.
9.If a site like Feedburner distributes my content to all the other blog sites, do I really need to submit the content to all the blog directories?
No you don’t. Aside from the initial pings all you need to do is connect with other bloggers as we have already discussed. Always look to expand to new audiences.
10. What is the your to obtaining “greatness in blogging”?
Keep it Real. Stay Who You Are. Always Add Value. Share Good Information. Look into Podcasting and Videocasting to set you apart from your competition.
In other words, don’t try and be someone you’re not just to try and make it big in your industry. Embrace who you are and build on it. If you fake it, it may work for a little while, but you won’t be happy and people will eventually figure it out and you’ll lose trust. Your personality is what made you.
This is just the first parts, there is more to come. Keep in touch and please to comment and also spread some love!