Ok, so now you are all set. You have created a blog and leaning back at the chair just thinking what to write about! Aaah!!! This is the biggest thing that happens with each one of us and that’s why many people refrain from writing. This, in blogosphere, is known as ‘the writer’s block’. Overcoming writer’s block is not difficult. You don’t just have to think. Spare some time from your busy schedule and start writing. Start jotting down whatever comes to your mind. You read an article in newspaper today and want to convey your thoughts on it… write it down!

Hey! It started raining outside all of a sudden. What a pleasant weather! Birds chirping, sun shining, people going to work… Just write down what you feel at the moment. You will love it whenever you read your blog the next time. Tell your friends and family about it. They will be happy to read your nice random thoughts.

For a beginner, topic is not important. Once you learn the art of writing, you can write on any topic of your choice. May be later you can write a book by writing a few words in morning and other few in evening!

Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging

There are a few things that you should remember while writing a blog:

• Don’t publish any personal or private information. It may harm you.
• If you want to publish something against someone, do at your own risk.
• Be very polite and use an impressive language.
• Arouse the interest of readers with your words.
• Choose the subject you have a passion for. It should reflect your knowledge about the subject.
• Make blogging your hobby.
• Put some of your valuable time in writing the post and have patience.
• If you are not one of the lucky god-gifted writers, don’t worry, you will learn from practice.
• Do not violate someone’s copyright.
• If you want to quote something you find interesting, do always mention the source.
• Read other’s blogs to get ideas.

See, it was that easy! Share your experiences with me about your first blog. Happy blogging!

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For Google, link command is link:www.askpreeti.com

For Yahoo, link command is linkdomain:www.askpreeti.com

Google have deliberately manipulated their back link query system so that it only lets you see a small percentage of backlinks that it recognizes.

The webmasters can view the backlinks of their site through webmaster tools interface. But one can’t view all the backlinks of third party site through Google.

Recently, Google announced an improvement in blogroll detection which further reduces the number of links displayed by link: query. According to it, if you are linked from the blogroll section of a blog or any other part of the page that doesn’t change with the content, you won’t show up in the results of link query. This is indicative of the fact that Google is emphasizing on contextual links that are relevant to the context of the blog or site. Advertorial links in footer or blogroll will not be given much weightage.

Thus, to increase your link popularity, create unique and impressive content for your website to which people will link naturally, rather than wasting time linking to lots of low quality sites. It’s the quality of links that matters most, not the quantity.

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PayPerPost v4.0 Released

Great news for all bloggers and advertisers out there! PayPerPost v4.0 is now live for everyone. It’s a very simple and elegant way to earn money with no more waiting time for blog approvals.

For bloggers, there’s no more busy dashboard, no more Advertiser-set prices. Advertisers now have complete control over who they invite to take their opportunities, and who gets approved for payout.

Features of PayPerPost v4.0:

1. Instant blog approvals.
2. Blog sites are automatically eligible to receive offers after submission.
3. Unlike classic version, new version allows 3 days’ time to complete the offer. So, enough time for those who are always on the go!
4. Advertiser has 3 days to review your post and if they don’t review it, it’s automatically approved!
5. Only drawback is that, unlike classic version which allowed 3 chances for editing, you are allowed only one chance to make corrections if the advertiser doesn’t approve your post. Thus, you need to be extra careful while editing the post to be eligible for payment.
6. Also, cash out to your PayPal account will be made available once you have accumulated $50.00 as compared to classic version in which it was instant.

Nevertheless, I still find PPP v4.0 a great opportunity for bloggers and advertisers. So, just register for an account and check it out yourself!

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Chris gave a presentation explaining 10 points on writing blog post for corporate blogs. Points covered by him were as follows:

1. Blocking and Tackling – Gather data from various sources about the hot topics and trends of searching.
2. Focus blogging and search – Know what people are doing online. According to a survey, 85% of search clicks happen in organic results. Search is the only metric you can manage. So, isn’t online marketing obvious? More and more people are searching online and therefore, to reach them, you must increase your marketing efforts.
3. Social Media – Rethink everything you hear about social media. It doesn’t mean that you should not get indulged in it, but it means you should prioritize the social sites according to the probability where people might be searching for you. Very rightly said by him, “Don’t spam social media. It’s not a place where you can yell at people anything you want”. (I agree with you, Chris. This is one of the most misunderstood points these days by SEO professionals.)
4. Content and Volume – Content is the most influential factor. Content drives awareness, not advertising. More number of posts drives success.
5. Keyword awareness – You must be aware of what your blog is all about. Keywords guide you. Although there are many keyword tools, but Google AdWords is the best keyword tool these days. Select those keywords which are searched for maximum number of times.
6. Dumb it down – K.I.S.S rule… Keep It Simple, Stupid! Keep your post simple, quick and easy to understand. Think how people are consuming your content.
7. Widespread employee blogging – Blog about customers’ problems and not your products or services. Ask your employees, who would want to blog in your company? More participants give more variety.
8. Great Local – 50% search has local intent. Reach your local customers first. Mentioning streets, cities, zip codes, townships, counties etc. help in increasing local presence.
9. Coupons – Blogging for coupons. Offer your customers coupons to buy your services.
10. Measurement and metrics – Measure the impact of blogging. Measure the keywords that drive traffic. Measure over time and quantity. Less posts, less traffic. When posts increase, traffic will also increase.

Conclusion:
‘Get out of SEO weeds’. Only optimizing your site doesn’t guarantee you top rankings. Write good content and get people’s attention. This is the ‘success mantra’.

Followed by the presentation, he answered a few questions asked by various bloggers. But due to an emergency, he evacuated the place and the session was taken over by Megan Glover, Director of Marketing.

A very good question answered by her was:

Q: How transparent content should be?
A: The content should be such that personality comes out. Try to engage your visitors in a conversation. Rest, it depends on business too that how much information they can reveal.

Unlike the Google webinar, this webinar didn’t offered any way to interact with other fellow bloggers but overall it was a nice experience.

So, are you gonna start corporate blogging? Lemme know if you want to.

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Although the importance of Google PageRank is reducing, yet many webmasters aim to achieve a high PageRank. It is updated after every 3-4 months and thus; don’t reflect the present position of a website. Remember, the actual ranking of a website changes daily, PR updation is just toolbar page rank update.

This time’s PR update is a New Year gift for me and many other bloggers and website owners whose sites jumped up to a higher PR levels. I got surprised to see that AskPreeti.com received PR1 this time and one of my client’s site received a PR4 directly from No PageRank. So, for me it’s a good beginning of New Year. Hope, for you too, it will be great. The fluctuations can be seen till 1st week of January.

How did your sites faired? Please post your experience about this time’s PR updation.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year 2009.

If you like my content, bookmark it on social networks and subscribe to RSS feed. Share with your friends by sending them an email or IM right away from the below widget. Post me a comment to clarify your queries.

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