Beginner Blogger’s Tips

Ryan decided to start his own blog recently, probably in response to my new blogging obsession. So I ended up giving him the low-down on blogging. Here’s what I told him:

…The key point to success with any type of web site, be it a blog or business portfolio, is content. That means you should post, post and post a lot more. This helps out for the following reasons:

1. Google likes to look through content. Your writings quickly become Google’s friend.
2. Google likes frequently updated content. If it sees that you post more, it will index your site more.

One other thing you need is links from “good neighbors”. This means that you shouldn’t just add your link to a free-for-all page; rather the sites that link to you should have good content and be on good terms with Google.

I would also suggest setting up permalinks now. They will help your site’s rank in Google’s index, and in general you shouldn’t change the addresses of your pages once they are set. If you need help, I am pretty proficient in the workings of WordPress, and surely I can provide help.

Blogging isn’t rocket science, but in order to make your way up the ranks (I have gotten that far yet), you need to put in lots of effort. The effort will pay out with lots of traffic, as you will see in due time.

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About the part on rocket science, the effort really does pay out. Once you start blogging, you will read other’s blogs, and you will discover many new things (like how I discovered my WordPress static home page technique). Those new things will help you gain traffic, which is many people’s goal in their blogging career.