The best place to post a blog description on your blog is on your About page, as it is meant to contain a brief biography (profile) and a blog description, including your blogging goal(s) and tags for the blog.
But this is not the only place you will be using your profile and blog description.
Who are you? What do you do? What are you talking about? What will you be talking about? What gives you the right to talk about anything? What are you doing here? Why are you doing it here? — Lorelle VanFossen in Who The Hell Are You?
A concise profile and accurate blog description
This profile, blog description and the tags can then be used for registration and promotional purposes in all the blog directories, forums and social networks you join. Depending on the character limits each site sets you may have to truncate the information. However, maintaining as much continuity as possible will assist you to create a presence in the blogosphere and in the internet.
An elevator speech
In these days when we use social media and social networks including friendfeed, other RSS services and as twitter it’s also advisable to create a 140 character blog description, frequently referred to as an elevator speech.
Goals and growth models
Bloggers and their readers are co-creators of a blog’s brand. It’s important to invest time into finding the correct niche for your blog and formulating your goals. It’s likewise just as important to examine your blog in terms of growth models.
Content is king; marketing is queen
In blogging content is king and marketing is queen. If you write high quality original content and promote it then the result may be an increase in organic traffic, or not. If you are not adept at applying basic SEO then it will not be easy for potential readers to locate your content in search engines, and there will be no increase in new traffic. Thus, what determines success is two things:
- whether or not your content is found, and
- whether or not the readers who do find it become subscribers.
Mix and mingle in blog directories and social networks
It is not in the best interests of your blog to remain behind the blogspot or wordpress.com garden wall, so to speak. It is in your blog’s best interest to actively promote your blog to bloggers working on all from all blogging platforms. Some blog directories and social networks are general and have categories and sub-categories that define niches within their general membership. Other blog directories and social networks are niche (subject) specific. In both cases doing a effective job of promoting your posts and your blog is based on the foundation of having a concise profile and accurate blog description.
Although the definition of blog niche is limited to the intent to make money from marketing in specific subject area, one can easily comprehend that whether or not a blog is designed to make money it will tend to feature limited and targeted subject matter eg. parenting, movies, food, dating, blogging tips, etc. It’s important to understand that the best way to introduce your blog to other bloggers and to attract traffic and comments to it is to seek out blogs in the same niche (subject area) as your own blog. Focus on leaving meaningful comments, creating blog centered relationships with fellow bloggers, and encouraging them to read and comment on your posts.
Creating a blog and establishing organic traffic flow
To review the steps you have taken when it comes to creating and promoting your your blog I’d like to draw your attention to Creating a new blog. To be sure you have covered the basic steps required to create a flow of organic traffic to your blog I recommend Twenty five steps for increasing blog traffic.
Hi,
I have a blog about architecture, design and fashion and I have been blogging for three months. My blog is in my mother language, Turkish only some entries are in English. I am doing this website primarily because most of the students studying architecture do not know English and they only look at the pictures at web. But it is very important to know about the architects and what to look for in a photo. All my entries have my point of view and comparisons with my country. I believe I have original content with categorization, writings and picture compositions.
The thing is, I have closed the comments because I wanted to concentrete on my writings and other visual stuff. Everyday I write at least 2 posts in two main topics. Sometimes I even write 6. The average number of people visiting my site is 300. I do not know if this number is succesfull or not. Is it really a cucial point to open comments?
Websites tend to be one-way noticeboards. Blogs are designed for interactive communication. Whether or not you choose to open comments is up to you.
great post thanks!
Your’re welcome. :)
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hi timethief, first of all thanks for sharing such working idea’s. I appreciate your research work done on social bookmarking and networking…………hope to see some more alike tips. one’s again thanks!
You’re welcome. :)
I am new to blogging and have just started a site on wordpress to try and publicise my singing lessons- as it consists of pages rather than posts, I have read that I cannot use categories or tags-I would really appreciate some tips!
this information is really helpful. when you talk about blog directories…any suggestions?
@dianeswords
I don’t have any blogging directories that I recommend. I have published some posts you may be interested in.
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2009/10/04/submitting-your-blog-to-directories-a-primer/
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2009/05/06/blog-directories-for-backlinks-and-traffic/
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2009/10/18/selecting-a-bloggers-forum/
Many people don’t understand that the content they post on their blogs may be read by hundreds of people. By using google analytic s tool this information is easily accessible.
What you are saying makes no sense. The Google Analytics program and others like it are visitor tracking programs. They are not blog promotion programs.
Unless of course you consider the fact that good promotion strategy revolves around understanding who your audience is, how they got there and what is currently working for you.
Sometimes you get who you target. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you expect traffic to flow like water from some sites. Sometimes it doesn’t.
A good example was an alternative energy blog I built a while back (now dark.) I was particpating in seven online forums on a daily basis, and my readership was growing regularly. What I wrongly assumed was that my traffic was coming from each of these sites equally.
Google Analytics changed that perception. It let me see that 95% of my traffic was coming through two forums. By focusing exclusively on those two, my readership grew faster. I wasted a lot of energy on those other five that, could have been better spent promoting my content from sites that worked.
Thank you thank you thank you!
@Mariam,
You’re welcome.
Thanks for sharing~!!! I am looking forward to moving forward and help like yours is invaluable. Wow, I trust I will be able to return the favor to up and coming bloggers in the future.
Sincerly,
Brett
Hi Brett. You’re welcome. :)
thats some great infomation i loved the way u explained every procedure in getting more traffic i hope some one checks out my blog thats all i want
Ir’s good to hear your positive feedback. Thank you. They will not find it unless you make it easy for that to happen. Content is king but marketing is queen. Best wishes. :)
I wrote an article and posted a video link regarding the Content is King , Marketing is Queen statement, but I believe Gary’s statement to be true and relevant in the social media world.
Thanks for letting me know about the video. I have included a link to it in a separate post.
Hi timethief,
I have a question regarding my blog site being interactive. At the moment, I am writing stories for the readers to enjoy. In fact, I just did this today, with “The Crossing”.
I have comments enabled; however I am not seeing how I could make this interactive.
As for my target audience, I am striving to write in a down to earth style that would be enjoyed by everyone and not just the church going crowd. :) I’ll be looking through your materials; as I am seeking to see this site grow in site traffic. One item that will help is reducing the bounce rate. Yes, I read your article.
@Barry
You are experiencing a learning curve. You need to determine who your audience is likely to be, how their interest in your subject matter will bring them to your blog before you go much further.
http://onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/blogging-content-is-king/
As you’re talking about social networking, I take it that there is more to it then posting a link on my Facebook Profile page. This is what I’ve been doing this past week. I have about 200 friends and some of them have a ton of friends.
Good for you. :)
I’ve blogrolled your site and will also write a small post about you very soon. You’ve given me a few ideas about promoting my own blog. I’ve been struggling for over a year and a half to boost traffic but my growth curve seems very erratic.
Help!
@TheBrotha
If you work through all the information I have provided on search engine optimization and blog promotion then you will realize an increase in targeted readers. Please let my explain what a targeted reader is and why you want them. Targeted readers are those people who have specifically looked for subject matter using search engines. Provided you have optimized your posts then your titles, subtitles, the body of your text, images, categories and tags contain keywords – the same keywords that the targeted readers are looking for they will arrive on your blog. They will find what they are looking for. They will be more likely than a casual net surfer is to return to your site. They will be more likely to subscribe. They will be more likely to tell their like-minded friends about your posts and blog and share the urls with them, thereby promoting your site.
There is no such thing as “passive blog promotion”. Blog promotion takes place where relationships and reciprocity are established. You must become active to gain targeted readers and build a blog centered community. You must comment to receive comments. You must be willing to actively promote the posts and blogs of the friends you make everywhere you make them in forums, online groups, in social networks, and on social media sites like twitter and friendfeed, if you expect them to do the same for your posts and your blog in return.
Best wishes and thanks for commenting. I appreciate it. :)
P.S. You need a contact form on an About me and my blog page, so people like me can leave you messages saying: “I’m sorry it took me so long to respond to your comment please come and see it now.” ;)
http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact-form/
TT, this is what I mean about “organic growth.” If you’re focused on pumping your blog with steroids, ie trying to make its audience grow in a way that focuses on linking and other technical devices instead of focusing on its on content, the readers will eventually catch on and turn away.
@Ian
I don’t know what you mean by “pumping your blog with steroids”. If publishing original high quality content is the primary focus of the blogger and it’s optimized then the search engines will be sending the blog traffic.
Organic Traffic: Organic traffic is any traffic that comes to your site without being paid for. This includes people who visit via links in forums and blogs, traffic from search engines, traffic from word of mouth, or traffic from bookmarks (social media and social networks). Organic traffic generally comes to a site naturally and is not driven by marketing campaigns.
Inorganic Traffic: Inorganic traffic is traffic that is pushed via marketing campaigns. Banner ads, search engine ads, etc generate inorganic traffic. Generally speaking this form of traffic is semi-immediate depending on how much you blanket the Web with your advertising and slowly dies out over time unless more money is spent to build a new marketing campaign.
See this comment I made for more clarity Blogging: Learning SEO is worth the effort.
Hi TT – thanks! That’s a great compliment, but I’m still wondering… to be specific, lately my hit count has taken a jump, even though I’m posting less often than before. It’s up like about 20% over only a few weeks ago, and staying there. I suppose I shouldn’t complain, but it seems to me that the relationship between steady posting and growth in readership is not always so obvious.
@Ian
Did you join a new social network or register at a social media site? Doing so might account for the jump.
What Google is looking for when it comes to growth is slow and steady growth with backlinks from multiple sites, as opposed to sudden growth with backlinks from the same sites.
What many bloggers do not comprehend is that joining a multitude of blog directories all in a short period of time and receiving backlinks only from those sites does not carry as much authority as progressively joining a few and building links more slowly. Tim Grice describes this in his post Link Acquisition Rate and Overall Domain Diversity.
Hi timethief – your blog is brilliant, but you don’t need me to tell you that. I have just put your blog as a link on my blog – but wanted to make sure you are happy for me to do that and that you are happy with how I have done it (wording etc). Thank you for all your help. x
@Deborah,
It looks like you are off to a great start. Best wishes for happy blogging and effective networking. Thanks also for the link. I appreciate it.
Nice information, thx alot….
Hi Roy,
I’m glad you found the information to be useful. Thanks for commenting.
You are so great, thank you so much for sharing with us…
Love and light to you.
solange
@Solange
Thanks so much for your kind words. Love and light to you too. :)
If you look at the graph showing the growth in the average daily visits to my blog, it shows a steadily increasing line, no matter what I do. Whether I post a lot or a little, whether I leave a lot of comments or none at all, whether I mingle or sit in a virtual corner, the number grows and grows. Is that just a reflection of the organic growth of the internet, or something else?
I would attribute the growth in your readership to your ability to write informative and interesting posts that engages readers. :)
Ian, your comment made me curious and I had a look at your blog. Although I understand that marketing activities are essential in today’s world (well, probably also in the past…) I am a strong believer that quality sells! You write intersting stories, and you add beautiful pictures that touch the readers heart. I guess your readers simply spread the word. Have a great day, Gerrit
@Dr. G
This post was published last November and I don’t think it’s likely that Ian will be replying to you here in my blog. If you wish to converse with him then you have already located his blog so I’ll leave you to do that in his blog.
ian, teach me!!