Top Tips For Bloggers - One Month Report

One month ago today, I created webspeaker on Blogger. Shortly before that day I had no idea what RSS even is and thought that Blogs are another way to waste time. I learned a few things, and by applying them the result is roughly 1300 visitors and almost $10 from Adsense. Forty-some posts later I feel pretty good about how my Blog is doing, and want to keep it going.

With some help, and by reading a lot I have learned that a few things are important.

• Backlinks: Get sites with related content, and preferrably a higher PR than yours, to link to you. When your PR goes up, SE's will find you and bring you traffic. Also others will be more likely to Blogroll you, which helps traffic a little.
  
• Quality Content: If you want people to come back and/or spread the word for you, make sure you have something worthwhile. Post every day if you can.
  
• Promote: Any way you can. Get your URL out there. Whether you post an article on Digg.com, or sign up on MyBlogLog.com, or some TopBlogListDotSomewhere, make sure you are out there. A really successful way is to become active on forums, especially those with content related to your Blog. Forums usually allow you to add a signature which can contain links. Some even allow your Adsense ads to be displayed! Almost every forum has a Lounge. That's the place where almost anything off-topic is welcome. Post a link to one of your Blog posts.
• Ad Positioning: If you are trying to monetize your Blog, make sure you find out which ads are being clicked. For instance, the ~$10 from Adsense all came from the two ad bars above. Adsense lets you create a channel for each ad unit. That makes it easy to track your clicks and earnings.
• Layout & Look: Last but not least is the logic of your pages. Some Blogs look like a mess and are hard to navigate. Try to group related items together, put important stuff on top, choose colors that are easy for the eye so that your text can be read without a strain.

At the age of one month I'm obviously learning myself, but these are some important tips to get you going. Please add a comment if you have more valuable tips! And don't forget to include a link to your Blog.