Dress for Success - The Blogger Project

Your blog speaks to the reader before he or she even begins to read the words you have written. The feeling your readers get when your blog page first loads is what matters the very most. In fact, many people will leave your site in a big hurry if they don't like the way your site "feels". Their first impression of anything you have to say as a blogger is in your site layout. Some bloggers feel that their words speak louder than their blog's appearance - but this is simply NOT true if the reader doesn't feel like sticking around long enough to read anything you wrote.

Take those few extra steps towards building a better layout, and watch you'll get to watch your readership grow - along with your earnings, if that is a goal for you. Depending on how a visitor found your site, there is an immediate chance for that person to say, "Oh, this wasn't what I thought it was going to be." That's it - they're gone . . . just like that. Your job is to sell your site from the first glance. That's where your project comes in. (Don't worry, you can stay in your pajamas for now - this blog project is about dressing your blog for success!)

The Project

Take a look at your blog. Not just a quick glance, but a good long look. Think about what your blog is saying, and what level of professionalism you will need to attract the readers in your niche. Also take a look at your sidebars and header, are there things that you've been unsatisfied with, but just haven't taken the time to fix it? Well, wake up, because it's time to get your blog into tip-top shape now. The blogosphere is becoming more and more competitive, and there are an incredible amount of blogs being created each day. Unless you've got a really tight niche locked up, you'll probably need to have good looks, too!

Now, take a look at at least 10 other blogs, including 5 professional blogs and 5 not-so-professional looking blogs. For example, take a look at the two blogs below, both of which have great information, advice, useful links and tips for their niche, but one is much more professional looking than the other.

• Professional looking blog: ProBlogger
• Not-so-professional looking: Dummies Guide to Google Blogger Beta

The Next Step

Once you have learned what level of professionalism you want to display to your readers, spend some time thinking about what type of people your blog will appeal to. Consider your readers, and realize that you are a marketer, not just a blogger. Your readers are your consumers, and you want your blog to appeal to them, don't you? If your readers are most likely drawn towards MSN or AOL news sites, you are definitely going to need your blog to reflect a highly professional appearance. However, if you have a blog in which you post your mom's forwarded email jokes - you may not need to worry about how professional your blog looks. Remember, dress like already have the job of your dreams!

Lastly, leave a comment with a link to your new layout once you've perfected your look!

Blogging Writer Got a Facelift with a Custom Layout!

So if you're new to Blogging Writer, we just got a face lift! Recently I dabbled with CSS and took a stab at creating my own custom 3-column layout, and had a lot of fun. Although there were some things that were a little tough, it was a great lesson, but I still don't fully understand everything I've done. In fact, there are a few things I would like to do, but I'm still learning about how to make it happen. Of course, I'm still not satisfied, but I'll work on it more later.

This definitely isn't the last makeover that we've got in store, this is just the framework for what will be in the future. So basically, Blogging Writer is evolving! Slowly but surely, this baby will grow up to be quite a looker! You can pick up some information on how this nifty 3-column layout was created in a post on Switch Gears. Have fun, and let us know how yours turns out!

Tweak Your Template by Adding a Tag Cloud Widget

So you've probably seen the tag clouds on Flickr and Technorati, and wouldn't that be great to get that widget on your blog? It's actually pretty easy. There are a few tweaks that you will have to make to the template, so be sure that you download a copy of it from the HTML editing page.

Phydeaux3 has come up with a really creative and easy-to-customize widget that displays tags on your page. Tag clouds are described on Wikipedia as "weighted":

A tag cloud (or weighted list in visual design) can be used as a visual depiction of content tags used on a website. Often, more frequently used tags are depicted in a larger font or otherwise emphasized, while the displayed order is generally alphabetical.

To get the HTML changes, follow the directions on the phydeaux3 website, it's not difficult.

SEO Tips - Keywords, Search Engines, and Traffic

In order to build a successful income online, you've got to get traffic. This is especially true if you are trying to make an income blogging. You've got to put some work into search engine optimization, or SEO, in order to convert web searches into traffic. But you're not looking to get just any traffic, you're looking for targeted traffic. If you've got a product to sell, or if you're looking to build an income from blogging, you'll want to make sure that you are targeting the right audience to bring readers who will actually take the time to read your blog. It's pretty obvious that if you don't have anything worth reading that people won't stay long, so quality content is extremely important. Blogging for money is not easy, but if you want to succeed, you'll have to compete amongst some pretty incredible bloggers. It can't be stressed enough, but high quality content can do amazing things for your blog. If people actually walk away having learned something from your blog, chances are - they will be back. But along with great content, you've got to have great keywords, and even better keyword combinations, which is a large part of search engine optimization. This is how interested readers will find your blog in the search engines.

Recent statistics show that four-word keyword queries have the highest conversion rates. This means that when people find your website in their search engine results, they actually click on your link. Most importantly, targeting the right keywords or keyphrases for your site can keep people on your site longer, because they are interested in the content, based on their search query. However, if you target the wrong keywords for the wrong reasons, you will only drive traffic away from your site, or even if people get to your site using the keywords - they turn around and quickly leave your site to find what they were really looking for. For instance, if you have a blog about furniture, and you target the popular keyphrase "Paris Hilton" all over your blog just to get traffic, you will notice in your statistics that people are leaving within seconds of arriving.

Once you have discovered keywords that are right for your site, you must integrate them into your content wisely. Repeating the words too often could result in search engines regarding your site as "keyword spam", and it won't be included in many search results, if any. You may even find that your keywords are slightly different for each blog post.

Blogging Vocabulary 101

If you're new to blogging, here's your chance to get acquainted with a few key terms commonly used in blogging. Blogging vocabulary definitions can be found along with an extensive blog term list on Wikipedia, and learning the terms can be essential when reading blogs about successful blogging, or developing blogger-to-blogger relationships. These are some relatively new words, used exclusively in conjunction with blogging, and by not taking the time to understand their meaning - you could be losing out on some rather valuable advice from some of the best bloggers on the net. Here are just a few key blog terms.

Tweaks - Wikipedia Description: "Tweaking refers to fine-tuning or adjusting a complex system, usually an electronic device. Tweaks are any small modifications intended to improve a system."

Splog - A blog composed mainly of spam, or a spam blog, in which the writer provides little in the way of actual writing, skill, or independent thought. Usually the results of an unskilled blogger seeking to make money through spam advertising. Catch me if I define something incorrectly or if you think something important should be on the list. There will be much more blog vocabulary posts in the near future!

Ping - A communicating signal sent from one site to another, such as a blogger sending an update to a tracking site, such as Technorati, IceRocket, or Pingoat, and typically requiring the originating site to link to the pinged site. This can be done manually or automatically.

Link Love - When a blogger voluntarily places a link on their blog to another blog that they enjoy reading or find it helpful. Can be used in phrases such as "Share the link love".

Comment Spam - Similar to email spam, but rather than spambots sending spam emails, they repeatedly post comments with nothing but advertisements. This can be problematic for bloggers who ultimately must either continuously delete the spam, or ban spammers' addresses from commenting.

Photoblog - A consistantly updated blog containing mainly photos, but remaining true to blog form by posting the photos in chronological order.