Blog Today.com

Recently a news broadcast covered a story of a few local mommy bloggers around the time of the station’s follow up to the Federal Trade Commission wanting to extend product liability to internet reviewers (i.e. bloggers). It seems many mommy bloggers build up quite a following and get recognized by companies who find them on the web and it translates into quite a few perks for some.

Are you an aspiring Today.com mommy blogger or niche blogger? Here are five tips recommended to mommy bloggers that will apply to any Today.com blogger in a variety of niches.

1. Find a niche for your Today.com blog, if you’re a mommy blogger, a mommy niche
2. Update your Today.com blog content every day
3. Network outside your home with local businesses, share your Today.com blog with family and friends
4. Be patient, any blog, including your Today.com blog, will not gain readers right away
5. Listen to your Today.com blog readers and consider their opinions when creating content

Also, don’t be discouraged. There are many misconceptions about mommy bloggers; here are the Top 10 Misconceptions About Mommy Bloggers.

Although Today.com blogs should not accept pay per post from other companies we know our mommy bloggers and other niche bloggers spend a great deal of time reviewing books and products. Even if a product was not sent to you for free consider posting a disclosure statement at your site. For more information on product liability and blogging visit Mommyblogger Product Review Disclosure at TypeAMom.net.

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The first rules of SEO strategy are to get your keywords in your title and first paragraph and interspersed throughout your content every 100 words or so (known as keyword density). So your Today.com blog post title is important to bringing in traffic.

In the Today.com Wiki SEO page we connect you to some SEO articles on the topic of writing a good SEO blog post title. All agree to use a keyword in the title, a keyword that you know users are searching. How do you know what users are searching? Probably the same terms you would search if looking for your Today.com blog topic. If you want to be sure or see if there is another popular keyword being searched, try some of the SEO tools we list at the Today.com Wiki SEO Tools section.

Don’t forget your Today.com blog statistics. Your Today.com blog stats area is complete with Page Requests, Referring Sites and Search Terms. Review your stats regularly to find out what is working for you and also to find out what you could be offering your Today.com readers who found your site looking for something.

We were selective when choosing SEO articles on the topic of blog post titles when putting together the Today.com Wiki SEO page. One thing we considered is our bloggers participating in the Today.com Product Affiliate Program. If you aren’t certain what is more important when putting together a product post visit the 10 SEO and Marketing-Friendly Title Tag Formulas at the Today.com Wiki SEO Title section. This article has useful tips on keyword order and blog post title character length.

Another selected article at the Today.com Wiki SEO Title section helps you evaluate your content. For instance if you are writing a How To chances are good that the phrase “How to” should meet the criteria for inclusion in your Today.com blog post title.

It doesn’t matter what your Today.com blog category is, what matters is that whatever your blog post content is, to get readers to it you’ll need to consider the first rule of SEO. Use a related keyword or phrase in your Today.com blog post title.

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You signed up to blog and you want to be on the fast track. Here are six things to do today to remove that newbie look from your blog.

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Edit your Weblog title and Tagline

When you sign up your Weblog title is defaulted to your URL and your Tagline is “Just another Today.com weblog” which is the same as every blog when they first enter the network.

You can change them in the backend of your blog control panel in one of two areas. Select the Start Page menu link where you can follow the “Show the start wizard” link and at Step 1 edit your Weblog title and Tagline. Second way is to select the Blog options menu link that will take you to the General Blog Options area and the first two options to edit are Weblog title and Tagline.

Add spaces to your title, or create a title that reflects what your blog is about more than the URL does. Don’t get too wordy, that’s what the tagline is for, to extend the description of what your blog is about if the title doesn’t say it all. Use a keyword or key phase in either the Weblog title or Tagline as your first exercise in search engine optimization (SEO).

Delete standard system post and comment

When your blog is created a standard WordPress “Hello world!” post and comment from Mr WordPress are generated. Sometimes they get overlooked and stick out like a sore thumb. To remove them, follow the Manage your blog menu link in your blog control panel and select the Posts tab. Hit the delete link and confirm.

Delete the standard system blogroll

A blogroll is automatically created with links to both WordPress.com and WordPress.org. This is handy for you perhaps but not relevant to your readers unless your blog topic is WordPress. To delete them select Blog Links in your blog control panel menu and Manage Blogroll. Check the boxes to the right of each and then remove by clicking the Delete Checked Links button at the bottom of the list.

Change your custom theme header and theme colors

Personalize your blog with a header relevant to your topic. You don’t need a lot of experience in this regard. You can upload a photo and the system will help you crop it if it is too big for the header area or it will crop it and enlarge it to scale for smaller photos. To learn more visit Images and Themes at the Today.com Wiki.

Update your About page

Another system generated element is the WordPress About page that posts a generic message to you to say something about yourself. It doesn’t have to be fancy or a resume. Talk about why you are writing about the topic you chose for your blog and if you have any relevant experience. Two examples of good About pages are from Frugal Living Today and Coffee Break. To edit your about page go to Manage your blog and select the Pages link.

Assign a default category to your posts

Never have an uncategorized post. Select the Manage your blog menu link in your blog control panel and choose the Categories tab. Add a category relevant to your topic that can be applied to all your posts (you can deselect it later when you add other categories to a post, if you are prepared add about ten logical categories related to your topic now so you don’t have to think about it later).

In the same area you changed your Weblog title and Tagline in the blog control panel select the Blog options menu link that will take you to the General Blog Options. Near the end of the General Blog Options selections you will find an area to select a default category for your posts. From the drop down chose the one that will be the overall category for all your posts when created.

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After settling in, it is time to publish your welcome post. Share your new site with other Today.com bloggers and introduce yourself in the forum.

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Yes I wondered, have you wondered? Is there a best time to blog? Well have no fear, I’ve a search engine near and would you believe when you type in best time to blog you get lots of hits, as opposed to Google’s next search selection, best time to bleed radiators. Let’s just say there are more bloggers than there are do it yourself radiator mechanics searching online.

I’m not surprised who was first on the search. Lorelle on WordPress. I land there a lot when I have questions on blogging and I haven’t counted but I’m certain she is listed in Today.com’s SEO Wiki page a few times.

She too has pondered when is the best time and day to post on your blog… and she does offer great incite on the matter, from when people visit to when they comment or don’t and the ultimate annoyance to all bloggers, when the most spam gets through.

Early on Lorelle gets to the most important consideration in regards to the best time to post and her point is you have to post new content before your readers visit each day. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Most new bloggers focus so much on wanting blog traffic that they post once or twice and then wait for visitors to respond to a few posts. When there is no response they alienate themselves off from their blogs and don’t realize that the first task of the blogger is to post on a regular basis to start to build a visitor base.

So, obviously the easy answer to best time to blog is everyday or as often as possible.

Here are some tips to post regularly and to reach your blog visitors.

Write and post consistently – plan your content a week or two ahead and post in advance if your blog niche allows. You can still be flexible when a relevant topic comes your way unexpectedly.

Pick the same days and times to do your writing – the writers who get the job done are the ones who consistently schedule themselves to write on particular days or during the same time every day.

List your posting schedule – perhaps you are not a daily blogger, let your readers know what days you do post so they can plan to stop by on those days.

Offer RSS Feed subscription info – your readers can sign up to be notified when you post.

Moderate your comments – comments are content and visitors that took the time to respond hope to be heard. Remember to moderate comments and approve them if relevant. Don’t forget to respond to the comment on your site.

If you’ve been blogging a while you are familiar with the dips in traffic when you don’t post consistently. Just know that you can gain it back when you begin to post consistently again. If you’re a new blogger you may be worrying about 101 things related to blogging all at once and the reality is it takes time to build traffic. It is better to start with a strong foundation of posting consistently than trying to do 100 other things related to blogging all at once.

Blog Today.com!

For those that don’t know, we’ve added a search engine optimization (SEO) page to the Today.com Wiki. It is a compilation of ways to optimize your blog to reach search engine traffic. It is a great help and includes links to SEO articles at varying levels depending on where you are in your blogging and where you want to go with your blogging.

Our plan is to gather some tips from here and there and everywhere related to SEO and blogging. If you want to earn money blogging it is a necessary tool and one that will enhance all your online writing opportunities.

First SEO tip…visit the Today.com Wiki SEO page!

Blog Today.com!