Posts Tagged ‘number one’

A Bucket List for your blog

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

A couple of days ago on a lazy afternoon, I was busy woolgathering and an intriguing thought happened to cross my mind. What are the things that I wish to do before I die? The things that I would like to accomplish in my lifetime? In other words, what is my Bucket List? Now, it’s not everyday that you think about your death.

So the thought got me quite interested. I jumped out of the couch and got my scribbling pad and started to scribble away.

I jotted down a few things which I would like to do before I die. I cannot post them here for more reasons than one. At least not now! I might just post it in the future. But, that’s just a ‘Maybe’! :)

By the way, have you created your bucket list? Think about it! It’s quite interesting.

For those who didn’t know, ‘The Bucket List’ is a list of things that you would like to do before you die. The term became famous when a blockbuster movie of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman released last year.

What got me even more interested in the subject was, creating a Bucket List for my blog. Now that would be interesting. What would my blog like to do before it died? Not now, not in the next few years, but maybe when I got too bored of blogging and decided to bring down the curtains on it.

Maybe when I jumped on to a different profession. Quite possible.

Or maybe when I left god’s green earth for the unknown that lies beyond.

What would my blog like to do? Here’s what I could conjure up for my blog!

1) Have more than 30,000 subscribers via RSS – That doesn’t seem likely for two years at least.

2) To have two posts everyday – Now that one’s achievable. Hmmm. Did someone mention writer’s block?

3) Generate a 6 figure income for at least one month – :)  You see, my blog loves me and wants to see me filthy rich!

4) To become the holy grail for Freelance writers and Amateur Bloggers – This ‘could’ just work out.

5) To visit the Blog World Expo – I will be there at the Expo in 2011.

6) To win a Web Log Award – Cast thou votes!

7) To have a memorial blog created in my memory when I die – Any volunteers?

You see, he is an emotional fella, my blog! Now is a blog a he or a she? I dunno, but I prefer him being a ‘he’.

Now, most of those things are what my blog would like to do as of today. I will keep adding to the list as and when newer things come into the picture. And I will also keep scoring out each thing as I accomplish it. Maybe, I ought to create a different list for all the things that my blog has accomplished.

That can be a real morale booster on a bad day!

So, what’s the bucket list for your blog? Haven’t create one yet? Do it now and keep me posted! Cheers!

Photo Courtesy Flickr: Bucket List, originally uploaded by er3465

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Posted in Blogging | 8 Comments »

Submitting your site to Google

Monday, December 8th, 2008

A lot of people feel that submitting a website to Google is a specialized task that requires the hands and tools of an expert. If you are one of them, then you are misinformed. If you have acquired this information from a business or a company on the internet, then maybe it has something to sell to you. Maybe, something on the lines of a link submission service or an SEO package. Now here’s the deal. Submitting your website to Google is as easy as uploading a file to an online server. (You will know what I mean if you have ever used an online file hosting service like Rapid Share). Sounds easy? Is easier. Another huge percentage of webmasters are confused about the right time to submit a website to Google. 90% wait till the website is developed and up and running before submitting it to Google and this delays the indexing of the website by almost 5 to 6 months. The remaining 10% are the companies we see on top in the search results pages. How can this be possible? Read on to find more. 

Google Submission FAQs 

I have created a set of FAQs related to website submission. Though the focus is on Google, which according to me is the biggest and the best search engine out there, I have also mentioned some other websites which are equally good and worth a glance. 

Q. When do you submit a website to Google?

R. The right time to submit a website to Google is the minute you register a domain. This should be done irrespective of the content, the hosting, the future business plan etc. “Hey, I haven’t even bought a hosting plan yet”. So what? Do not wait. The reason behind this is that a website always takes time to get indexed in Google. In ordinary circumstances, you can expect it to get indexed in about 10 to 12 weeks time (The time may differ). Add another 6 months for your website to start getting ranked based on the kind of SEO strategy you have chosen. Now that’s almost 9 months we are talking about. If you submit your domain to Google, the minute you register it, then you can utilize these 9 months to get the business plan in order, execute it, create a well designed website, write the content for it and start online marketing and search engine optimization. Besides all these factors, you have the Google Sandbox to counter. 

Q. What is the Google Sandbox?

R. A few years ago, some webmasters noticed that their websites were not getting ranked in Google despite them using the best SEO strategies. Almost everything about the website and the SEO strategy was right. But the website would not get indexed in Google. After much research and speculation, they came to the conclusion that Google had made some modifications to their search algorithms and introduced a set of filters called Google Filters. The Google Sandbox is one of these filters. Each Google filter has a distinct function. The function of the sandbox is to withhold the indexing and the ranking of a new website until Google determines its credibility. So every new website that is submitted to Google gets sandboxed for a certain period of time. 

Q. How do I submit my website to Google? Should I hire paid services?

R. Do not spend money out of your pocket for things that you can do on your own. All that you have to do is visit this URL: 

http://www.google.com.au/addurl.html 

You will then be asked to describe your website or domain name in a few words. Think of a few words that best describes your future business plan and click on submit. 

Q. Will this guarantee that my website will be indexed and I will get high rankings in search engines?

R. Unfortunately, the answer is no. This is only an inclusion into the Google directory. It means that the Google spiders or robots which scan new websites every now and then will scan your website on their next outing on the World Wide Web. Everything from there on, including your position in search results pages depends on the website design, the kind of content on the website, the quality of back links and your online marketing strategies. 

Q. Do I have to submit to other search engines? If so, which are they?

R. Google itself is such a gargantuan search engine that almost 65% of web users use it to find what they want. Also it is firmly believed that once Google indexes your site, the rest will follow automatically. It’s follow the leader. About 25% use 10 other search engines. This means that these 11 search engines cover almost 90% of traffic on the web. Now that’s a lot of traffic. I am sure it will suffice for your business needs. Here is a list of the remaining 10 search engines. 

  1. Yahoo
  2. MSN
  3. Alta Vista
  4. Netscape
  5. Fast / All the Web
  6. Ask Jeeves / Teoma
  7. Hotbot
  8. Lycos
  9. AOL
  10. Look Smart 

Now, let me also add that some of these search engines overlap in their submissions. For example, submission to Alta vista is covered by Yahoo submissions and submission to Netscape is covered by Google and so on. Also a few search engines offer separate free as well as paid submission services.

 

I hope I have helped you to clear off a lot of doubts regarding submission to search engines. Maybe I helped you save a dollar or two. If you want to learn more about SEO, Google and related subjects, then browse through my articles below.

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SEO Basics: Link Building

Monday, December 8th, 2008

After the role of content in SEO, it is now time to focus on the other equally important SEO tactics. The second most important strategy is link building. As the name suggests, link building is all about building back links to your website. More the number of links to a website, the better it is considered to be by search engines. If you are new to the concept of link building, then here are a few pointers for you to get started.

What is link building?

Every website is rated by search engines using several parameters before it is listed on the results pages. The position of a website depends on a lot of factors and the number of quality links that come into the website is one of these factors. So, as part of search engine optimization, SEO experts will create a network of back links to your website using legitimate link building methods. This will help your website achieve a much stronger position in search results pages.

Illegitimate link building methods

When link building became one of the key factors affecting the position and ranking of a website in search results pages, then some ‘smart’ websites started to offer link exchange services. As the name suggests link exchange services worked by exchanging links. Website A would link to website B in exchange for a link back to A. This method worked initially and this prompted some people to go one step ahead and start link farming. A link farm is a huge database of one way links. When you join a link farm, your website will immediately get 10000 back links causing your ranking to surge.

When link farms came into the picture, the quality of search results started to suffer. Websites that had little or no relevance to the term searched for by the users started to gain top positions in search engines, courtesy these illegitimate SEO techniques. So, search engine developers went back to the drawing board and modified their search algorithms. Link farming is now considered to be spam and any website that participates or joins a link farm is banned for three years from leading search engines. So you see, you’ll end up doing more harm than good.

Legitimate Link Building Methods

Alright, so how do you build back links using legitimate techniques? There are many ways to do it. But they all lead you back to the same old tried and tested method.

  1. Build a quality website: There is no denying the fact that quality always helps. If you have a superbly designed website or have the best content in the website, then other webmasters will automatically link to your website.
  2. Article Marketing: Most people undermine the effectiveness of Article marketing. But for me, it is the most powerful form of free internet marketing. You write articles or get them written by a content writer and then distribute it over the internet. Everybody needs quality content on their website and when they get it for free, they will never hesitate to give you a link back to your website. Do ensure that the resource box at the end of the article contains a link back to your website.
  3. Forums: Once again, you can do this yourself with a fair amount of ease or hire a professional who can do it for you. Online forums are like a professional beehive seeming with contacts. All that you have to do is start interacting with people. So how do you build the links? Well, the forum board will let you create your own signature which will show up at the bottom of every post that you make. This signature can contain a coupe of lines about you or your business and a link to your website. Start making quality posts and you will have quality links building up.
  4. Blog: If you don’t know what a blog is, then you have probably woken up after a decade in suspended animation or were away hibernating in a cave. Nevertheless, a blog is one of the best ways to build back links. Keep updating the blog frequently and you will have a network of links in some time.

The key is to build quality links from quality websites. Remember, the link popularity of the website that is linking to your website also matters. So accept incoming links only from quality websites that will help you.

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