Blog Search Engines / Directories

I just spent the past 20 minutes registering at a number of Blog search engines and directories. If you have a new blog this is always a good idea for it gain some traction and start gathering weight with the engines. It is one of the fundamental building blocks for making a blog that will receive traffic. I did it to aid Google in my test, which you can read about in my earlier posts.

There are a number of fundamental building blocks for creating a successful blog. Some of the are:

12 Basic Steps of Good Blogging!
1) Create a blog about something that has some interest on the web. A good tool for this would be the Google Trends tool (I'm feeling generous, and threw G a link!). I could make the use of this tool for a series of posts alone, but here I'm just going to go over slightly. It is a great comparison tool to determine which of two topics or two issues are search more within Google. If you want traffic and there are a number of ways to search for a detailed topic description using this tool will help. They do not list smaller searches, so if it is a smaller searched term then you'd be better off utilizing MSN Ad Labs Keyword Tool While not great (because they show you search information a year old! - Come on MSN!), this tool is still helpful in determining search levels of smaller search terms. Test different variations of potential blog names and go with the one that is more popular.

2) Post regularly. I repeat regularly. I didn't say I would explain all of the rules!

3) Make connections with other bloggers that post about the same or related topics. Give them a little attention by way of comment and maybe a link from your blog when you like one of their posts. Interact on their blog and leave relevant posts. Some of them will return the favor and its good for link juice, and direct traffic.

4) Register your blog with blog directories and blog search engines. It is a bigger pain today because most make you register before allowing submission. The benefits are not huge, but every little bit helps.

5) Use the Pinging services when you have placed a new post on your blog. This is how most blog info gets pushed out there for the new reader besides the viral traffic created from other blogs. Some of the Conglomerated Pinging services are pingomatic and pingoat. These services allow you to ping many, many, blog update sites at once.

6) Respond to comments quickly and in a responsible manner. Thank those who have contributed valuable content.

7) Give links out where it is deserved, but don;t over do it

8) Blog about other real popular blogs and then give a heads up to the original author about it. It can be very good to take on one of the authors and then post about it with one of the blog posts forums! This can get a lot of notice, especially if you have some valid points and make them look bad (sorry it is true).

9) Be different. Don't post like the others. take a unique angle or point of view and try to blow it out of the park.

10) Do not steal content or images. Be a responsible net citizen.

11) Market your blog all of the social sites / forums like Digg, Stumble Upon, etc. (there are hundreds of them now).

12) Keep the faith that if you work hard and do the right things you'll eventually have a successful Blog. Hey, nobody said it would be easy! Blogging is maturing somewhat and it is heavier competition. That's why I suggested being different - carve out a unique niche.

Go forth, post, and ping your blog!