Highest-Paid Actresses 2011

Blogging is a very good alternative in expressing ideas combined with pleasure and freedom. Though, blogging is not as easy as setting up or creating a Blogger or a Wordpress account and pushing freedom content to the limits. We have noticed that many bloggers are unfortunately doing it the wrong way and are therefore wasting their time.

I asked for help to my few blogger friends in my hangout site (Bloggers.com) about their own experience in these "wrong-way" stuff and incorporate it with my own experience. Here are the 10 of the Most Common Blogging Mistake I encountered as well as other fellow bloggers.

1 – Poor Content Quality

"Not so describing title for a article/blog post- title should be easy to read and gives a instant idea what the reader may find out within the article." - Moonomo of moonomo.com

This is the number 1 issue with most blogs. The whole point of blogging is to deliver useful content that your visitors can share and link to. You miss out on the whole SEO/SMM value of the blog if your content is not worth reading or sharing.

Tip: Focus on quality, not quantity! Posting 1 quality blog post per week is much better than 5 average ones.

2 – Duplicate Content

"Echo-blogging - posting blogs about news, latest gossips, etc without even adding his/her personal views, review, etc. Failing to acknowledge sources or even link to relevant information when necessary." - Neilyamit of Kartonista.com

"Not giving proper credit for sources (Image etc) or Hiding credit while it's due." - Moonomo of moonomo.com

A widespread disease! To discourage people from doing this, Google recently launched 2 major updates (Panda Update) that ultimately penalized all websites who plagiarize content. Let’s get one thing straight, if you find interesting content on another website that you believe your readers will benefit from, it is OKAY to copy parts of it, as long as you add a link to the source somewhere in the article.

3 – Lack of SMM Capabilities

You could have the highest quality content out there, people are most likely to “+Plus” or “Like” or ”Tweet” it if you give them an easy way to do it. Look at the Network side of this blog post for instance, we display a dynamic sharing bar (AddThis) that makes it easy for our visitors to share our content in one click. It can’t get any easier! Also, our posts are automatically shared on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn through the use of some highly efficient Blogger.com widgets and apps. By having Social Media Marketing capabilities within your blog, you help your content spread and go hit and viral!

4 – Poor Formatting

"Mixing cAsE/using too much special characters in title/post. Having grammar and spell mistakes. Making words shorthanded and ruin English writings for example: i lyk d hell!" - Moonomo of moonomo.com

"Making it hard for someone to read, i.e. using all centred text, or not breaking into proper paragraphs." - TropicalMum of tropicalmum.blogspot.com

"I think unnecessary fancy font and dark shade will be the one for that list... " - Sunitagiri of IDareDream.blogspot.com

"Not consistent in choice of typeface for headings; sub headings and text. Poor knowledge of graphics/ layout/ structuring etc. " - Thiruselvam k of ladbeaunews.blogspot.com

"I think it depends on the type of blog and the formality. Structure, punctuation, grammar and font are not as important as the context of the blog. When I first started writing I had a friend editing my blog and it took away from the rawness of my writing. " - Gail of gailsforum.blogspot.com

"Poor Design, black backgrounds with red text are not fun to read." - Special McSpecial of crippiescorner.blogspot.com


A lot of blogs out there are tough to read because of poor formatting and CSS styling. Make your blog content light and easy to read by splitting your content into short paragraphs. Add headers or sub-headers within your blog post. Add images or videos or quotes or colors! Make sure your font is clear and large enough to read. All these factors influence the interest of your readers.

5 – Inadequate Blogging or Post Updates declining

"Waiting several weeks in between posts, your readers will forget about you." - Special McSpecial of crippiescorner.blogspot.com

This is quite a popular mistake. Posting once or twice a year simply doesn’t cut it. People get excited when they first launch their blog, but the excitement starts to gradually fade out and the blogging frequency starts to drop.

Note: Remember, it takes a couple months of blogging to start gaining a loyal audience. Don’t give up mid-way!

6 – Blogging too often

This is very similar to number 5 though We might look in depth. The other side of the coin! Blogging too often can make you look like a spammer.

Tip: Don’t flood your visitors/subscribers with content, make them look forward to your next post!

We’ve seen some small blogs update posts in up to 4 to 5 times a day! Now, that kind of blogging frequency is fine if you’re a major authority like Mashable, but when you’re starting out, keep your posting at 2 to 3 times a week at most.

Solution: If you have a lot to say, get on Twitter!

7 – Poor Headlines/Titles

Titles are the most important part of your blog. That is pretty much the only factor that determines whether people will click to read more or ignore your post. Make your titles short and sweet. Also, write them in a way that visitors will feel like the info they’re about to read is unique, up-to-date and cannot be found elsewhere.

8 – Neglecting Blog SEO

Blogging is a tremendous benefit to your overall SEO initiative. To get the full value from it, you should make sure your posts have: a descriptive, keyword-rich title, a permalink (also known as keyword-rich URL), section headers that are descriptive and utilize keywords specific to each section, “anchor” text should contains keywords relevant to what’s being linked to.

9 – Self-Promotional or "Love My Own" Blogging

"I don't write or pretend to be perfect but my posts come from the heart and are intended to help, motivate and inspire others." - Gail of gailsforum.blogspot.com


"Less interest about Socializing with fellow bloggers/readers. Or, Too much interest to get huge traffic/rank within short period of time by doing kind of spamming the internet for example: link dropping anywhere possible." - Moonomo of moonomo.com

When you blog, you should focus on providing useful content to your visitors first, promoting your own services/products should come second. It is okay to add a link to your products and invite people to try out your latest service, but you must do it in a way that feels genuine to the reader. Talking about your products in every blog post is a good way to lose all your audience.

10 – Covering too many topics

If you want to establish yourself as an authority in your genre or industry, make you sure you’re blogging exclusively about that industry. It is okay to occasionally blog about an external news item or major event that is taking place in your city, but keep 90%+ of your posts on-topic and make sure you’re delivering useful info to your readers every time.

That's all folks. Let's make a Better Mistake tomorrow.

• Reference/Source: Ironmonk.net

I found this post at Aboutus.org which is very helpful for newbie bloggers and I like the idea of adding it to our lists.

If you’re looking to make your content stand out from the bland content so prevalent on other website, you’ll need more than just writing talent. You’ll need to think outside the box – and you can start by trying these 10 ways to get noticed in your industry.

Here's Top 10 Basic Strategies to be Star Blogger/Webmaster

1 - Make friends with people who have already been noticed.

Being friends with someone isn’t just about adding them to your Facebook page, Twitter follows or Delicious networks. It’s about interacting with someone on a semi-regular basis, whether you’re offering them ideas, acknowledging their professional contributions, or just saying hello. If you’re friends with important people in your industry, chances are they’ll pay more attention to what you publish, and will be more likely to share it with their own networks.

2 - Start small.

If you’re nervous about approaching the big names in your industry, don’t be afraid to start smaller. Join the Linkedin group of a company with interesting executives, follow big names on Twitter, and attend events where industry leaders may also be present, so you can introduce yourself by askig questions or sharing in an open forum. You never know what other interesting people you’ll meet during the networking process.

3 - Be authentic.

The Internet is crawling with scammers, and you sure don’t want to be mistaken for one. Make sure that all of your social profiles have (appropriate) photos of you. Add enough personal details – even if you’re a very private person – so that people can get a feel for who you really are. In a digital world filled with people’s most intimate information, the bar has been raised, and you need to share a few genuine bits of yourself to seem authentic and real.

4 - Do something different.

One of the best ways to attract attention is to push the envelope a bit. If you write about cooking, try making a week’s worth of meals with a single ingredient as your staple, and record your recipes and experiences. If you write about home organization, try living with unorganized people to see if you can change not just the look of their home, but their entire way of life. Documenting your unique experiences in words and photos will help you attract attention just because your content will be truly unique – no one else can replicate it.

5 - Write for retention.

There’s no question that you should write with first-time visitors in mind – you want them to be able to orient themselves quickly and understand what you have to offer. But it may be even more important to write for your established readers, so they’ll want to come back again and again. You also want people to feel like you offer ongoing value, so they’ll share your work with their own friends and colleagues. Don’t hesitate to refer and link to your past publications. That helps new visitors get a feel for your world and expertise, while reminding regular readers of what they’ve already read on your site, and helping them catch up on what they’ve missed.

6 - Stand out on the page.

Chances are good that your website has more than just straight text. In addition to the design elements that are necessary for every web page – for example, navigation menus - you may have advertisements, links to partner websites or prominent buttons and links to other pages on your own website. Nevertheless, the page must be designed properly so your message doesn’t get swallowed up by peripheral information. After all, it’s not enough to drive people to your website – you need to make sure they stay there, absorb what you are offering and participate in the conversation.

7 - Optimize your writing for search engines.

It’s not easy to get your website ranking high in search results - but if you can, this is a great way to get noticed. Your best bet is to write without even thinking about search engine optimization, and then to edit carefully for your important keywords. This method lets you get your thoughts in order without worrying too much about word choice or repetition. Make sure you use your important keywords in the title and several times in the first 250 words. That will help your piece rank better in results for searches on those keywords.

8 - Use infographics.

Infographics can be charts, cartoons or Photoshopped images that help tell your story. While you may feel infographics take attention away from your writing, they do help readers who aren’t going to take the time to read your entire piece. As a bonus, infographics look great in the Facebook news feed, and they’ll win you extra attention there.

9 - Spread the love.

If you want to be respected in your industry, you’ll need to show that you recognize other people’s meaningful contributions – and you’re not afraid to share them. In fact, I’d argue that your loyal readers could get bored if you share only your own take on industry issues. Introducing a conflicting opinion – even a controversial one – can spark a lively conversation, while offering a complementary view can support your own viewpoint. Added bonus: When you generously share and link to other people’s work, they’re often kindly disposed towards you, and may link to some of your work later on.

10 - Use your social network.

If just a few friends share your article, and they in turn share the article with a few of their friends, and those friends share with their friends, you’ve got the beginnings of a viral spread. It’s important to note that a piece can go viral like this only if you write about something that’s relevant to a wide audience.

If your core area is pretty specific, see if you can occasionally create a piece that has appeal for a wider audience – even if it’s not something they’d normally read about.

• Reference/Source: Aboutus.org by Sari Holtz [May 12, 2011]

About

Sari Holtz of DailyForex.com

Sari Holtz is an internet marketing veteran who works as the optimization manager for DailyForex.com, a website that offers Forex reviews, trading resources and financial news.

No, these aren’t “myths” disguised as “common mistakes.” I’ve already beaten the SEO myths theme to death. What follows are 10 of the Most Common SEO Mistakes Usually Neglected. Some of these things catch even the best of us…

1 - Targetting the wrong keywords

This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.

2 - Ignoring the Title tag

Leaving the "title" tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your "title" tag shows in the search results as your page title.

3 - A Flash website without a html alternative

Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index it.

4 - JavaScript Menus

Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can't do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.

5 - Lack of consistency and maintenance

Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6 - Concentrating too much on meta tags

A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except to rank well only because of this.

7 - Using only Images for Headings

Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items.

8 - Ignoring URLs

Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

9 - Backlink spamming

It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks.

10 - Lack of keywords in the content

Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.

• Reference/Source:Webconfs.com