There are a few pages that every blog should have. These pages will help give your readers an idea of who you are and what you blog about. They’ll help your readers navigate your website. Also, some pages are required for other reasons, such as web regulations or search engine optimization.

Here are a few of the pages and widgets that every blog should have.

An About Me Page

At the end of the day, people want to know about who you are.

If they’re reading your blog and taking advice from you, they want to know who you are. They want to know about your past accomplishments and failures. They want to know what makes you who you are. They want to know your story.

Put this in an about me page and make it easy to find.

Contact Page

Not all bloggers want to be contacted. However, it’s a good idea to at least have a contact form. Why?

You could be contacted by potential partners or big advertisers. Or someone could be considering referring a huge group of buyers to your site and just wanted to ask you a question.

You don’t have to answer every single question you get, but it still helps to have contact information up.

Social Media & RSS

Give your readers a number of different ways to follow you.

In your sidebar, have buttons that allow people to follow you on Twitter, on Facebook and even on Google+.

You should also have a clearly displayed RSS button that allows people to subscribe to your feed.

The Best Posts

Also in your sidebar should be a list of your best posts, most popular posts or your personal top picks.

When someone lands on your site, they don’t necessarily just want to read your blog in chronological order. A lot of people would prefer to start by reading your 5-10 best articles to decide if they like your content.

If they do, then they’ll start reading your blog regularly. Having these 5-10 top posts easily accessible helps give new visitors the best stuff right up front.

At the very least, have a list of categories so they can see if the content is what they are looking for.

Privacy Policy, Disclosures, Sitemap and Terms of Service

These four pages are meant mostly for search engines and regulatory agencies.

If you’re using Google AdSense, collecting email addresses or using tracking software, you need a privacy policy.

Google strongly recommends having both a privacy policy and a terms of service. Not having them could be detrimental to your ranking. They’re also required for AdSense.

Having a sitemap will help search engines index your site.

These are a few of the pages and items that every single blog should have. Adding them will increase both your usability and your compliance.

Getting comments to your blog posts can be a great confidence builder and validate your efforts if you maintain your blog for personal reasons. If your blog is a significant part of your business or your promotional strategy, then making sure you’re getting enough comments to your posts is often an essential element of your success.

There are a number of different ways to increase traffic to your website and increase the likelihood of getting people to make comments to your posts. But not all of these techniques are equally valid, of course.

Some unscrupulous business owners have decided that the best way to drive traffic to their websites is by spamming other blogs with thinly-veiled advertisements for their own products and services. The hope is that people will take notice of their comment, and that some percentage of those people will click the link back to the spammer’s website. But if these spammy comments show up on your blog, they reflect badly on you.

How Do You Spot Spam Comments on Your Blog?

Sometimes the spamming nature of the comment is apparent on its face. These spammers often don’t make any pretense of having read the post, and their comments are sometimes generic or vague. Often a spam comment will read something like “Great post! Check on my blog here: [link]” or “Thanks for providing this information, it was very useful. I’ve written something you might find interesting: [link].” Spam comments will sometimes also shamelessly list products for sale, and sometimes even prices, and then give a link to the spammer’s website.

Deleting and Filtering Spam Comments

These types of spam comments are relatively easy to spot, and you can quickly delete them from your post after logging into the administrative section of your blogging software. In addition, if you use WordPress or other leading blogging platforms, you can take advantage of any number of automatic spam recognition and blocking plug-ins that you have available.

But if you use some other blogging software, or if you find that your filters aren’t able to catch every single spam comment (which will almost certainly be the case at some point), then you’ll end up having to delete them by hand. Make sure you check your comments list as frequently as you can in order to reduce the amount of time that any spam comment is visible to your visitors.

Site Registration Requirements Can Reduce Spam

Another option for reducing spam on your website is to require that any website visitor register with your site in order to comment right away, and those who don’t register will have their comments held (but not published) until you approve it.

This might also give many visitors an incentive to register with your site, but it still lets people comment (with a bit of a delay) on posts they find interesting. Spammers who target blogs usually do so with automated computer programs that are not designed to go through the process of registering, even if the registration process is relatively simple.

The most important thing you can do to prevent spam on your blog is to pay attention to all of the comments you receive.

I’ve been advocating “blogging” as a marketing tool for a few years now, but it goes far beyond just another tool.  There are many marketing benefits beneath the surface that come from running a successful blog. What are some of these benefits?

Getting Repeat Visitors

Most people don’t visit static websites all that often. Why? Because they know every time they come back, the website will be exactly the same as before. There’s not a lot of incentive to keep coming back.

On the other hand, people know that blogs will keep adding new content on a regular basis. People who like your content will be much more likely to come back regularly.

Natural Backlinks

Blogs are backlink magnets. People who are hesitant to link to a “normal” website will often be more willing to link to a blog.

Blogs are often perceived as less commercial, or as providing more valuable content for free. After all, that’s the main reason people blog – to give away content regularly.

Also, bloggers are active in an industry. That makes it more likely that others in the industry will also link to that blog.

Increase Your Conversion Rates

Imagine two different websites, one that’s just a static five-page website, and another with 200 pages of content on a dynamic blog.

Both websites recommend the same product and direct the same visitor to a sales letter.

Which website do you think the visitor is more likely to buy from? The blog, of course.

Blogs inherently build trust. That trust can be “passed” on to the products they recommend, promote or sell for increased revenues.

Connect with Other Bloggers

Bloggers have a very well-connected network. Bloggers naturally want to help other bloggers. This can come in handy in many ways.

Let’s say you’re launching a new product. Not only will you have your own list you can promote to, but you’ll also have your other blogger friends you can promote to.

You’ll also be able to do all kinds of other things with your network of contacts. For example, if you’re running a contest, you can easily spread buzz by asking other bloggers to post about your contest.

These are just some of the many marketing benefits of blogging. As you can tell, blogging can be an extremely versatile tool – great for people in all kinds of different industries.

If you only have a static HTML website, adding a WordPress blog can easily be done and provides another tool to get your content out, enhance your credibility, and builds trust among your followers.

You know that blogging is a great way to connect with your audience. Blog posts tend to be more personal. A blog motivates you to publish more frequently and consistently, which is always good for business. Blogs are also search engine and user friendly. If you enjoy the benefits of blogging for your business, consider using micro blogging to help your business.

What Is a Micro Blog?

A micro blog is a blog that is focused on a very tight topic or niche. For example, pet care is a broad topic. Dog care tightens it a bit but not much. Elder dog care starts to narrow down the topic to what someone might consider a niche. Elder dog diabetes care is definitely a niche and a micro niche might be elder German shepherd diabetes care. If you create a blog on this very tight niche topic, you have what’s called a micro blog.

How Is a Micro Blog Used?

Let’s go back to the example to demonstrate how a micro blog can be used to help your business. Let’s say you have an information site on how to care for old diabetic dogs. You notice that there’s a demand for information about specific breeds. You do the keyword research and learn that German shepherds, golden retrievers, Labradors and pug owners all want to know how to treat their old dog’s diabetes. You create a micro blog for each niche.

As your audience searches for the term, “Golden retriever diabetes care,” you’ll pop up near the top of the search engine results because you have very little competition. That’s one of the benefits of a micro niche. The other is that you’re able to provide your blog visitor with the information they’ve been looking for. They’ll buy your information products, and click on your affiliate links. And they’ll click on the main link that leads them back to your primary website. Several micro blogs can really help you attain the traffic you’re looking for and help you achieve your business goals.

Getting Started

Assuming you already have a business website or blog, the first step is to start with keyword research. Discover the keywords your audience uses to find your website. Also look at the niche keywords and keyword phrases related to your niche topic.

Consider starting with one micro blog first. Get it established with quality content and start generating traffic. Then you can add a few more micro blogs quickly and easily – you’ve already been through the process once and achieved success. You simply have to repeat the process. As with any internet marketing strategy, create goals and a plan for each micro blog. Promote them via your preferred marketing strategies and watch your business grow.

Do you blog to support your business? Maybe your blog is your business. If so, then a high page ranking would help you grow and profit. This New Year’s consider making your blog your resolution. Strive to achieve a higher ranking for your blog. Grow your profits and your traffic. Here’s how to resolve to achieve a higher ranking for your blog this year.

Step One: Where is your blog right now?

The only way you can set and achieve goals is if you understand where you’re coming from. Take a look at your blog’s current ranking for your identified keywords. What page are you on? Also take a look at your analytics. What keywords do people use to find your blog? This is valuable information.

If you don’t use analytics right now, then consider installing it. Google Analytics is free and it’ll provide a wealth of information. It’ll be difficult to plan and achieve your New Year’s resolution without a means of measuring success. Analytics will help you measure success.

Step Two: Where do you want to go?

Now you might automatically say, “I want to go to number one of course.” That’s a noteworthy goal. However, consider breaking that ultimate goal into smaller, more manageable steps. For example, if your blog is currently ranking on page nine for your primary keyword, then you may want to first aim for page eight. However, also take a look at your supporting keywords. These generally have less supply and you may be able to reach page one more quickly for these.

Step Three: How are you going to get there?

Once you’ve identified where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to plan. Consider starting with the easiest goal first. For example, if you rank on page two or three for a supporting keyword and are on page nine for your primary keyword, it may be easier to focus on your supporting keywords first.

The key to improved page ranking includes:

* Linking – internal and external
* Keyword-focused content
* Tagging and categories

Create a plan for each keyword you want to focus on. Start with your easiest goal. Create an internal linking strategy to support that keyword. Participate in online activities that motivate others to link to blog posts on that keyword topic. For example, social media is great for driving traffic to a blog.

Finally, create more content focused on that keyword. This isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, so create a plan to accomplish it. For example, write one blog post each week that focuses on your keyword.

Make sure you’re tracking the results. When you reach your goal, celebrate your success. Give yourself a hearty pat on the back. Then turn your attention to your next keyword.

Through a systematic approach you can quickly achieve a higher page ranking for all of your primary and supporting keywords. This time next year you may be the first blog to show up on the search engine listings. To your success in the New Year!

P.S. Get a free lesson on “Understanding Google Analytics” when you sign up at http://www.quickstartyourmarketing.com/

I have a question for anyone who has ever been to a Sunday church service:  What happens on Sunday mornings?

The preacher preaches from his pulpit. Everyone sits and listens (or pretends to listen). They’re a captive audience, held by guilt, duty, pressure from a spouse, guilt over the kids or even – occasionally – real interest in the sermon. 

So they stay.

Too many people give in to the temptation to mirror those Sunday sermons.  They climb up on a soapbox, and expound.

Unless the soapbox is a particularly off-the-wall one, the usual result is much the same as Sunday service. Everybody shuffles out, without saying a word…

…or else they click away and close in the first couple of sentences. After all, your blog ain’t church. They don’t need to stay. There’s no guilt or duty holding them on your browser page; no spouse to look over their shoulder and condemn the action. (In fact, any shoulder-peeping spouses are more likely to say: “Good. Now we can talk!”)

Why is it, then, that so many bloggers sound off like a preacher; either dully, or with faint condemnation?

That’s not what gets your posts comments – and links!

“Invite and Incite”

Before you can lay down the law to people, you need to provide proof you have the right to do it. That’s the number one question to ask yourself, when tempted to wax forth on why most marketers fail, or why clear skin is not reserved just for the young. It should be like holding a conversation with your buddy.

Conversations give room for answers and interaction. On a blog, you have to do this by:

- Asking questions (especially ending with one)
- Making sure those questions invite and incite an answer

To do this, you need to keep the focus of your question specific – “What do you think?” is just not gonna cut it:. The average blog reader hastily decides a question of that magnitude is going to take too long to answer… and clicks away.

Give your reader an incentive to answer.  Make the question personal.  Leave your topic open for debate by presenting two sides of the same coin. When you do that, human nature has readers evaluating which position they agree with. They’ve engaged with your post – and that’s a huge step in the right direction.

Most of all, however, care about your post. Care about what you’re asking. Don’t be afraid to let them see the real you; the one with the doubts (that doesn’t mean pouring your heart out about your lousy marriage, by the way!)

After all, when you care, your readers are more likely to care, too.

And that’s the real secret of inciting  valuable, relevant, topic-related links.

Video sells products!

The formula almost seems too simple: Create a product or procedure that gets results, show people those results, and invite them to purchase the product.

You may be thinking that you couldn’t possibly have a product or information to sell, that anyone would be interested in. But you would be surprised. 

This is a true story… 

At a dinner party, my husband was talking about the different methods he uses to brew beer and answering questions such as “where does the beer get its color,” and “how do you get the bottle caps on?” and then someone said, “I wish there was a website that showed these things that you’re talking about.” A light bulb went on in my head.

Using my “Marketing Mindset,” I came up with the idea of The Beer Blog, featuring video lessons on beer making and home brewing. For example, the correct way to bottle beer, typical beer-making setup, the proper storage of beer while it’s fermenting, examples of beer caps and other step-by-step instructions.

If you know or have something that other people want, then you can make money using videos and a blog. And it won’t cost you much to do. Sign up for a free blog at blogger.com, take a video using a digital/video camera, and use free software to upload the video to a blog or website.

Blog, blogger, blogosphere. I thought these were the strangest sounding words when I first heard them. And I admit, it took me a while to warm up to the whole “blogging” idea. I actually imagined the whole blog scene akin to a supernova that would take the Internet by storm but die out as fast as it came in. But, alas, that has not been the case.

A blog (short for web log) is a website where entries are made and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as personal online diaries. Blogs make it much easier for your prospective clients and customers to find you! First of all, when you publish a new website the traditional way, it can take Google a few days to index it (include it in search results). When you publish a new blog site or add a new post to your blog, it is indexed almost immediately.

Next, you can use your blog to improve your traditional website’s ranking because you can link to your website from your blog. The more “incoming” links (from other websites) your website has, the higher it will rank. What’s more, you now have a new way of inviting people into your marketing funnel.

A blog is also essential for creating and deepening your relationships with your current and prospective clients and customers. You can start a conversation in every post, and they can reply by adding their own comments right on the page. Before you know it, you’re at the center of a community of people who all have a similar interest in your area of specialty.

To get started as a blogger, the first thing you’ll need to decide is the question I’m asked most frequently about blogging – “Free or Paid”?

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