10 Ways to Optimize Your Blog
There are millions of blogs out there. Getting your blog noticed is easier said than done. However, you need not feel overly pessimistic, as there are many ways of getting your blog noticed and making it stand out.
Getting excited over a new blog is like getting excited over nothing at all. The journey seems to have begun for you and by writing a blog, you have just about started to gain an audience and have the pleasure of seeing your name in print. However, do you think that is enough? Will you end up writing to yourself for the rest of the year? Winning readers and RSS subscribers is how you measure your blog and how you know if you’re not the only person reading your work. It’s all about performance oriented results nowadays. So the big question is - how do you get the results? There is no one fixed way of getting things done when it comes to making your blog successful. In case you want to gain success with your blog, it is best to take tips from those who have already walked these paths before, making mistakes that you would potentially make. I’ve set out a few ideas below, from various sources on how you can optimize your blog and generate traffic.
Getting Web Technical – RSS
Really Simple Syndication
RSS is an acronym that has by popular demand become known as "Really Simple Syndication". Originating from blogging platforms, RSS has spread to other online media to assemble, categorise and distribute content to users interested in the topic area that is being covered. A working definition of RSS is that it is a means to notify you of news updates without using email and can be delivered to your PC or Mac via a web page, email inbox or a PDA.
The fact that RSS does not rely on email to deliver updates, avoids the problems that are associated with Spam filters blocking the information from being delivered. I tend to think of an RSS feed as the ticker tape banner that you see running on news broadcasts on the TV.
RSS is important for web writers, due to its effectiveness in broadcasting your work and reaching new and larger audiences, rather than passively waiting for a visitor to happen upon your article or post. The problem with RSS is that for many (including me) it strikes you as being technical and complicated when you first come across it. Truthfully, it is not so complicated that any novice writer with minimal web experience cannot use it and to prove the point, here is a simple five step tutorial on how to set up RSS feed for your work.
Step 1
Find an RSS Newsreader which will manage the RSS feeds you subscribe to. I recommend Newsgator and Bloglines as they are the ones I use and am familiar with, but placing "RSS Newsreader" in your search engine will uncover many more of these "aggregators". Newsgator will integrate with Outlook email software and in this instance the updates are delivered to you by email - I strongly suggest that you set up an email account that is separate from your regular email inbox to receive RSS feeds, and so avoid getting extraneous email cluttering your inbox. So first off, head over to Google or Yahoo and sign up for a free email account - mine is bizbloggerRSS@gmail.com to give you an idea. In order to keep this tutorial platform neutral we'll use Bloglines, as it lends itself for use by both PC and Mac users without deviation from the following steps.