Community Tips for New Bloggers

Blogging is like building a community. In a community you have these guys that cheers you up, they believe you and respect every opinion you put on your blog. Those bloggers who try to ignore their community will have no success in blogosphere. Because blogging is about creating a connection.

Creating a fans club and connecting with them is a sure way for a successful blog. So, I have here tips on how new bloggers can get the most of their community.

1. Know your Fans. One of the most important thing you should do in creating a successful blogging community, is knowing the people around you. At first they could be just a few, but for a long time they could be thousands. You may not remember them all, but atleast try to say "hi" or visit and comment their blogs sometime. Use Twitter to get more updates on your community

2. Reply to Comments. When I started blogging, I don't get much comments, so, I get used to it, and when someone posts their comments, I usually ignores them. And for newbies, you should not ignore them. Comments are important, it shows how alive a blog is. Exchanging comments creates a community, where author and reader can connect each other. When someone says "hi" or gives compliments to your site, compliment them back and so on.

3. Mention them in some of your blog posts. People love to feel special. When someone writes an especially good comment on your blog or a social network, use it as a jumping off point for a blog post of your own, linking back to the original inspiration of course. When you highlight community members, you’ll telling them that you’re happy they’re invested in the success of your site.

4. Ask for Advice. Let the community join you, ask advice or opinions. Create a poll on something they might be interested in. Give your blog community a way to get vocal.

5. Stay Active.  Posting regularly is very important for new bloggers. It is a way to know your readers that you have a serious blog and you plan on doing it for a long time. Interact every day via social media, answer all of your emails is also important. Make them not forget you. Just be active in blogging and you will be successful.  

How to get benefits when someone copies your article

Are you annoyed when you put all your effort on a single article and the next day when look in the search engine, someone copies it exactly the way you wrote it. It is because of the power of "ctrl+ c" and "ctrl+ v" two of the most famous shortcut commands of our computer.

And in over millions of websites around the world, chances of being copied is very high, and sometimes there is nothing you can do about it.

How about if there is a tool that could even give you benefits of being copied, sounds good right.

I Introduce you to a free tool that can give you benefits when someone copies your article.


What is tynt?

Tynt, the world’s leading publisher toolset, accurately predicts interest-driven user behavior on the Web for its vast network of premium partners. Tynt sees three out of every four of the world’s unique Internet users, and captures their interests and social interactions in what represents the “Interest Graph.” This data provides highly precise measurements of consumer intent and equips publishers with the tools they need to react quickly to new opportunities. Tynt has revolutionized online customization and enabled publisher brands to deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

How does it drive web traffic?

When someone copies and pastes text from your web site Tynt Publisher Tools automatically adds a link back to the original article with the paste. When the recipient clicks that URL, they are directed back to the original content. This drives incremental traffic to your site when your content is shared without your knowledge while maintaining a consistent user experience.

For more visit  http://www.tynt.com

Check your website speed

A blog or website's speed is very important, because most web surfers will not waste their time on slow loading websites. If it is very slow, they will automatically close it and will never return. They won't subscribe, they won't even like your site. Speed is really important and you should optimize your site for the visitor to have a great time surfing your blog/ website.

The lower speed time the better and there are tools that could help calculating its loading time:

http://tools.pingdom.com

http://www.webpagetest.org/
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ 

These sites are self explanatory, all you have to do is put the necessary details.

Increase your loading Speed

One of the solution to speed problem is having too much javascript files. Images can also be heavy, so before you post an image on your site make sure you convert it to .jpg or .gif and also resize it. You can download this tool to convert images. click here

On your main page, try to display your post from 5- 7 so it wont take so much loading time. And make sure it is an expandable post or it has a "read more" link to it or jumpbreak. If you show your complete post in your homepage, expect a slower loading time, and it is annoying to scroll down a very lengthy home page.

If your blog still takes a lot of time loading, try changing its template but do not forget to back them up.

How to Promote your blog effectively

I got here some tips on promoting your blog or website effectively.

Your blog is like a home base. Tell the world your blog exist by promoting them on social networking sites that you are active on.

• Facebbok
• LinkIn
• Twiiter
• StumbleUpon
• Pinterest
• You tube
• E-mail Newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Reddit
• Flickr
• Other Blogs

If you are a beginner you got to focus on creating a brand, use sites like Facebook or Twitter for promotion.

Do some research, visit blogs that are similar to yours and learn how they advertise.

Use Google or any major search engine and type "free advertising". Use those sites to promote your ads, just remember to bookmark them so you can return for a repost.

Using Twitter

• Tweet first before you publish your blog by using a shortened URL
• Tweet again later on the day using a different intro. But do not tweet every hour.
• If you mention someone on the your post, ping them

Facebook

• Share your post on your personal Facebook account
• Create a page about your brand. 

Create relationships with other bloggers

• Look for a team of bloggers who are just like you and add them on social networking sites. Make sure they are within reach
• Visit and make comments on their blog as often as you can. Make sure you attached your blog URL on your comment.
• Share some of their post on your facebook or twitter. You don't have to do it everyday, just be friendly and give feedbacks when they ask to.
• Do not ask them to comment on your blog, if they like you they will do it on their own

Promote your sites writing Articles

Article marketing is very effective to get free traffic to your blog or website and it is free. If you love to write you can go to Squidoo, or Ezine Articles. These sites will help improve your SEO visibility

Post your blog on free Web Directories. 

Go to these sites and submit your blog or website; www.dmoz.org, www.worldsiteindex.com, www.domaining.in, www.webworldindex.com, and www.searchsight.com.

Submit link to high traffic websites.

This is called backlinks and backlinks are important because it tells how valuable your blog is, the more backlinks you have the higher chances of getting high traffic for your blog. If you know a website that is similar to yours, you can exchange backlinks with them. Some sites has pages like "blogroll" or "link list" if you see them, contact the site author for a request for backlinks, compliment their site first so that they will like you.

10 Time and Space wasting widgets that you should remove

When we start our first blog, we usually put widgets as we like. We experiment some of them, trying to find out which one will make our blog look cool. During that time we always think about ourselves. 

But, if you wan't to make your visitors stay longer, you got to think about them and not about you

I have here 10 Time and Space wasting widgets that you should remove.

1. Calendar. This used to be fun when I was starting, because I always forget what date is today. But now, it took so much space, and it is useless. Everyone has a calendar in their home, so why put them on your site.

2. Recent Post. Add popular post instead, because recent post can be found easily on your blog archive.

3. Subscription count/RSS. I suggest not putting them on your blog if you only have a handful of followers. If you don't, it could work against you, readers will wonder why subscribing when no one else is doing it. 

4. "Hosted by" Widgets. Most visitors doesn't care who hosts your blog. And if they do, they're more likely to respond to a well-written review post about the pros and cons of your hosting service. If you want to make affiliate sales through your hosting provider, it’s a much better way to go about it than a standalone widget in your sidebar.

5. Blogroll/Link exchange. If you have link list of other blogs, I suggest put them on a separate page just like mine. Your sidebar should be reserved for more important things for the visitors to see. Having them clicked is not your priority, you just exchanged links with them.

6. Facebook Stream. Facebook page status update could be distracting to your readers. If you want them to become a fan, just make your own Facebook fan page.

7. Irrelevant Affiliate Advertisement. When I was starting, I used to be putting a lot of affiliate banners. For me, that time having a lot of Ads looks cool and alive. But now, they seems to be annoying, especially if those banners are not relevant to what you are blogging about. Just remember that people won't click on your ads because they're there, and having tons of ads will definitely irritate them not to click more. Relevance is always important and you should stick to it.

8. Blog Ranking. If you have an Alexa or Techonorati rankings widget, I suggest you put them on a separate page, because these rankings doesn't mean to your average reader. It is OK if you are blogging about blogs.

9. A lot of Social Sharing Button widget. I have seen some blogs that actually has social sharing widgets from A- Z.Put only those sites that most people use like Facebook, and Twitter, having Friendster or some unknown social networking sites will just be in display and no one will use them to share you blog contents.

10. Donation button. This widget will usually not work, because blogging is not about begging for money, it is about helping, and entertaining your readers. This widget will probably work if  you are blogging for a cause like, animal conservation or you run a site like Red Cross

Space is very important on your blog, just keep it simple and appealing to the eyes if you wan't your readers to stick longer.