Posts Tagged ‘position’

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 »

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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Posted in SEO | No Comments »

SEO Basics: Why SEO?

Monday, December 8th, 2008

I have tried to explain this in extremely simple language from a layman’s perspective. Now that you know what SEO is all about, it’s time to know the importance of content in SEO. SEO techniques involve using targeted keywords in the content, restructuring the website to make it more search engine friendly, building back links, and using quality internet marketing techniques to get a steady flow of traffic to your website. Now, first and foremost comes the content. I am sure you have heard the phrase, ‘Content is king’. Here’s why it is one of the truest statements that you would have ever heard. 

It’s all about keywords 

Picture this. Mr. White who lives in Staten Island, New York wants to throw a party for his 8 year old son. He plans to hire an event management company for the party. A friend of his suggests to him to look up online. So he logs on to Google and searches for ‘Event Management Companies’. The search engine instantly pulls up a huge list of websites. But wait, most of these are irrelevant. Some of the companies are located in places as far as China. That’s not what he was looking for. So he refines the search and searches for ‘Event management, Staten Island’ and Bingo. He gets a list of event companies in Staten Island offering complete event management services. You see, a change in keyword brought about a huge change in the kind of search results that he got. This is what SEO content can do. The websites that Mr. White got in the second search attempt have targeted SEO keywords like ‘Event Management Staten Island’, ‘Staten Island event services’ and so on and so forth. 

While using targeted keywords can bring about a huge change in the search results, the content writer has to be extremely careful while using it. There is a very thin line between using and abusing keywords. Keyword stuffing is considered to be spam and many search engines have a zero tolerance policy against keyword spamming. So the onus is on the content writer to create an informative write up for the website, which showcases the myriad services on offer. Hidden within this write-up will be the keywords that will bring traffic. 

The content will be written for web users but with search engines in mind. Simple, isn’t it?

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Posted in SEO | No Comments »

The role of content in SEO

Monday, December 8th, 2008

I have tried to explain this in extremely simple language from a layman’s perspective. Now that you know what SEO is all about, it’s time to know the importance of content in SEO. SEO techniques involve using targeted keywords in the content, restructuring the website to make it more search engine friendly, building back links, and using quality internet marketing techniques to get a steady flow of traffic to your website. Now, first and foremost comes the content. I am sure you have heard the phrase, ‘Content is king’. Here’s why it is one of the truest statements that you would have ever heard. 

It’s all about keywords 

Picture this. Mr. White who lives in Staten Island, New York wants to throw a party for his 8 year old son. He plans to hire an event management company for the party. A friend of his suggests to him to look up online. So he logs on to Google and searches for ‘Event Management Companies’. The search engine instantly pulls up a huge list of websites. But wait, most of these are irrelevant. Some of the companies are located in places as far as China. That’s not what he was looking for. So he refines the search and searches for ‘Event management, Staten Island’ and Bingo. He gets a list of event companies in Staten Island offering complete event management services. You see, a change in keyword brought about a huge change in the kind of search results that he got. This is what SEO content can do. The websites that Mr. White got in the second search attempt have targeted SEO keywords like ‘Event Management Staten Island’, ‘Staten Island event services’ and so on and so forth. 

While using targeted keywords can bring about a huge change in the search results, the content writer has to be extremely careful while using it. There is a very thin line between using and abusing keywords. Keyword stuffing is considered to be spam and many search engines have a zero tolerance policy against keyword spamming. So the onus is on the content writer to create an informative write up for the website, which showcases the myriad services on offer. Hidden within this write-up will be the keywords that will bring traffic. 

The content will be written for web users but with search engines in mind. Simple, isn’t it?

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Posted in Content, SEO | No Comments »