SEO - Blog Marketing

For some reason, spammers think that blogs are great targets. However, any up-to-date blogs really aren’t.

The whole idea is to target dead blogs or old blog posts Then they automatically put in a link in the comments area and move on. Sometimes hitting hundreds of posts at a time. This use to be a good link building tactic, however there is now the nofollow tag.

The nofollow tag gets embedded into a link and it tells search engines not to follow it, thus not passing any link popularity. WordPress is one that automatically puts nofollow in all comments posted. Thus, any spammer is just waisting their time.

To stop spammers in Wordpress, get a plugin like Spam Karma that works great! It blocks so much spam automatically. There are also preferences in the admin area of Wordpress to turn on keyword filters and moderation features so that you control what actually gets posted.

Blogger and Typepad also have a good system for blocking spam. Since they are all run though a much larger system, everyone benefits from the admin implementing anti-spam features.

Bottom line is that your blog will probably get spammed. But there are many resources out there to help and get the spam problem under control.

How about a quick overview of the most popular blogging platforms!

Blogger
Probably the most popular blogging tool.

• Free
• No installation
• Free hosting available or ability to FTP files to your own site
• Missing built in trackbacks and categories
• Only one type of feed available without other services.
• Templates. Good for a quick, good design, however harder to customize your own template.
• Reliant on Blogger.com which has a tendency (or use to) throw errors.
• Upgrades coming, hopefully. Recently added image uploads and hopefully more features are coming.

BlogFusion

• Fully loaded with features
• Cold Fusion based
• Easy to install and customize. Or so I hear.
• Runs on your site.
• Comes with full source code and has an easy to use admin area.
• Downside is that it’s not free. Ok, so it kind of is free for personal use. See their site for details.

MoveableType
Full featured blogging software that can create static or dynamic (php) pages. Runs on most web servers and is priced based on number of users. I have no experience with this, however I hear it’s nice.

WordPress

• Free
• Easy to use
• Fully loaded with all the features you need.
• Installed on your site. (Unless you use BlogSome which is the basic WordPress install that is hosted for you)
• Requires PHP and a MySQL database
• Lots of plugins and themes available
• Built in search

TypePad

• Has most blog features. Only thing missing is trackback functionality when posting.
• Priced per year at three different levels.
• Requires you to post though their website.
• Posting to your own website is possible via Domain Mapping.

Some of the software above I have more experience with than others. It all boils down to price, features and power. I would chooseWordPress above them all for personal use or business use. WordPress takes a little more effort as you have to install and maintain it yourself. Keep in mind that some hosts include it with hosting plans viaFantastico. Fantastico is an Automatic Script Installation program that will install WordPress for you.

Just want to blog and be happy? Then use BlogSome (because it’s WordPress driven) or Blogger. Both are two of the many sign-up and blog sites. No knowledge necessary.

Agree? Disagree? Did I miss something? Feel free to comment.

Some people don’t like the idea of blogs because it means they have to update it often. The main point behind a blog is that it is easily updateable and can be done at any time. Some blogs update continuously, others rarely. I read some blogs that post more than a dozen posts a day. However, that’s not necessary. For a successful blog, I’d say at least once a day but it all depends on your goal.

As you can see here, I’ve been posting twice a week or so. I’d like to post more often, but I haven’t found time. Blogs take time and I’ve spent mine posting over at the Online Marketing Blog the past week as I was filling in for Lee.

Each blog is different. There is no right or wrong way to blog. Some blogs, like Yahoo, only updated when they have something new. Thus it could only be once a week. Others post daily or even hourly. It’s up to you and what you what to do. However, the more posts you make, the more often visitors will come back to read what’s new, the more content you’ll create and the more successful you’re blog may be.

If you are an active blogger, or new to blogging, there are some terms that you’ll come across and may not know what are. Below is a short list of terms to help you out.

ATOM: See Feed
Blog: See Blog Definition
Blogroll: A collection of links on your site that link to other blogs.
Categories: A way of organizing you posts with the same theme.
Feed: Commonly referred to as RSS or ATOM or XML. This is a file that is created by the blogging software that websites and news readers can pick up on and display easily. It is the easiest way of getting new information across the web in seconds.
News Reader: In order for people to subscribe to and read the feeds that your blog sends out they will need a news reader. News readers can be a stand alone program or built into a web browser.
Permalink: This is the permanent link (URL) that will be associated with the post. Different platforms may represent it in different ways.
Ping: Pinging is sending out an alert to other blogs, search engines or news readers that announces that your blog has been updated.
Podcasting: Instead of posts, you would post audio files for people to download and listen to when they want.
RSS: See Feed
Syndicate: See Ping
Trackback: Trackbacks are links from one blog post to another. They are used to keep similar post together. Each post you write should have a Trackback URL. This is a unique URL that is directly connected to an entry. If someone else were to post on their blog about an entry you made, they would enter your Trackback URL in their post to link each post. You should do the same. If you decide to post about a post you saw on someone else’s blog, you should enter their Trackback URL to connect the posts.
URI: The is the same as a URL
Webblog: Same as a Blog, just different name.

If you have any terms to add or have any that you want explained, post them below.

Lets start with the very basics. What is a blog anyways? I checked a few sites and here is what they had to say.

Answers.com - To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog.

WikiPedia - A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order). Although most early weblogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of web application software is now a typical aspect of “blogging”.

Technorati - A weblog, or blog, is a personal journal on the web. Weblogs express as many different subjects and opinions as there are people writing them. Some blogs are highly influential and have enormous readership while others are primarily intended for a close circle of family and friends.

Blo.gs - a weblog (or blog) is a type of web site (or page) that is organized much like a diary or journal — short nuggets of writing added regularly (or not) as a running commentary on almost any subject. other than this time-oriented structure, one weblog may not have all that much in common with the next. to get a better sense of what a weblog is, try clicking through to different weblogs from this site

Ask Jeeves - a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies

What is all boils down to is a blog is just a website that is easy to create and and edit content. Entries, or posts, happen on a regular basis. That could mean more than one a day or just one every few days. It’s very similar to a diary or a journal only it’s online and shared with everyone on the internet.

Entries are usually short and organized by date with the newest entries showing up first.

Blogs can be whatever you want them to be, much like a website, and they were designed to make it easy for anyone to create content and share with the world.

Still have questions? Post them in the comments and I’ll get back to you. If you can wait, I’ll be posting on topics such as ‘what to blog about?’ and ‘what blog service is good for me?’ in the coming weeks.