Successful Blog

Are You Up for a Posting Marathon?

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It’s a Marathon

The blogger at It’s So Fantastic has decided to do Darren Rowse’s list of 20 Blogging Post Types one better and do a marathon, posting one of each type for 20 days running. She’s invited all comers to post with her and leave a link to their posts.

Are you fit and ready? It’s a great way to make contacts, hone new writing skills, and get some links. You can find the details and the list of types at her site link above.

Good luck. If you participate, let us know how it goes.

As Darren said, “Great idea! Wish I had thought of it.”

ME “Liz” Strauss

Successful Blog Community News

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Great Discussion

If you weren’t able to join us back stage after Brian Shih’s article on sidebars, you might check out the comments section that follows it. We had a great discussion on sidebar design with several people bringing in examples of a variety of design options to use while making a point about what works or doesn’t work.

It was hands-down the best example of community discussion in action I’ve ever seen. Way cool! We’ve got something really special happening here.

Thanks to everyone who participated. It really was fun as well as enlightening.

Can we do that again soon. Huh? Can we? Can we? 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss

10 Things Google Wants per Liz

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In March 2005, Google’s patent document for their search engine was made public. This is the abridged Liz version.

10 Things Google Wants

Think of Google as a kindly caretaker who only wants the best for the blogging community. Google wants your blog to

    1. Put down roots. Google values blogs that last. If you can make it your own domain. Quality takes time, but spam occurs with a wink.

    2. Be a valuable citizen. Add value to the community by developing quality content. Content is what Google users go searching for and that leads to Google selling more ads. Google likes that.

    3. Grow like an oak, not like a weed. Authentic relationships take time to form naturally. Young blogs gather links over time like trees branching out, and grow with them. Fewer, slowly-acquired linking relationships impress Google. Too many links coming too quickly make Google wonder whether something hokey is going on.

    4. Know beauty is nice, but brains always win. Quality, relevant fresh content is king, queen, prince, princess, and all of the Google information kingdom. There is no substitution and in the end nothing can beat it.

    5. Ignore hangers-on. Cultivate quality friends. Google knows you can’t control who links up to you–that you’ll find backlinks of the most dubious sort. Care about who you link to so the community becomes stronger because of your links. Not every link needs to be reciprocated. Reciprocate those that serve your blog, your readers, and your niche community.

    6. Keep your address and your name. Everyone knows that spam blogs make name changes suspicious. Name changes also make re-indexing issues. Keep your name and domain. Then Google won’t have to worry about losing track of you, and you won’t have to wait while Google finds you again.

    7. Be popular among readers and among your peers. Google watches clicks–clicks on searchs and clicks from referrals–to see what draws visitors to your blog.

    8. Show up with fresh, new content–often and consistently. Posting fresh, new content often is important. Even more important is posting consistently. Google likes a nice steady pattern to your posting. It’s better to post only Tuesdays and Thursdays, than to push out ten posts all on one Saturday.

    9. Keep your visitors interested and know which doors they use. Google is interested in how long your visitors stay, where they came from and where they go when they leave you.

    10. Keep clean and tidy–and that includes spelling. Google is a bit anal about design, code, and spelling–things that make spiders trip. No dusty corners, broken tags, no misspelled words please.

Are these all of the things that Google cares about?
Of course not. That would be like listing all of the things that your mother wants you to be.

Which of these does Google care most about and in which order do they rank?
If Google told us that, then we’d know, wouldn’t we?

ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Check Google Backlinks Through Yahoo
Google Homepage–Got Yours Yet?
Google–Do You Have Something to Tell Me?
Google Zeitgeist–Will Make ME Millions

SEO–The Value of Outlinks to MY Blog

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It started in the most natural way, someone read a post of mine and wrote one in response. I liked the response and respected the blog that it came from. I wanted my readers to know about it. It happened more than once. So I setup a feature called Two in a Row. It looked like this:

Two in a Row
Read this
Leaving a Guy a Place to Stand (the post on my site)

Then read this
Giving a Guy a Place to Stand (the post on the other site)

I had built an outlink. Later, when my post became archived, I transferred the outlink to the post.

On the surface, a cynic might say such outlinks only serve the receiving site, but I disagree on several points. Here’s my best thinking on it.

  • These outlinks serve readers and serving readers is why we’re here.
  • Outlinks to quality sites get readers to associate us with good information, which means they’re likely to return.
  • If I combine quality content with quality outlinks, the receiving blogs will be inclined to link back when the occasion arises. After all, they are already reading my blog, or the outlink would never have happened.
  • Outlinks connect my content to other quality content which underscores the relevancy of my content and that of the receiver.

All of these values add strength to the community. In terms of community, generosity is always good.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

deep dark blue strip A

The rest of this week: More on Links and How Google Ranks Pages

The Sidebar Is How Readers Know Things

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Brian Shih of Brian Shih.com offers suggestions for Improving sidebar usability in his post on blog sidebar design.

Who wants to read about sidebars?

Think of your sidebar as a reader does, and you’ll soon enough realize that it’s a critical part of a blog. It’s your readers’ grounding point. The sidebar, after all, is how our readers know things–like who we are and what we offer.

In this well-researched post, Brian discusses the use of sidebar components, quoting experts and adding his own viewpoint to bring the article back down to the ground. He also takes examples from real-life–the blogs of Steve Rubel and Paul Stamatiou.

Though I disagree with Brian’s comments on a “popular posts” section–I’ve had great success with mine–this article is a solid review of design basics and worth the time of every reader–either as a first time hit or a quick reminder. That’s why I’m adding it to the Successful Blog Survival Kit.

Brian ends the post with his own thoughts on side bar usage. (Note the great example of a collaborative link–a thank you to a colleague for looking over the article.)

When WAS the last time you thought about your sidebar?

Thanks Brian for sharing this design post with us. A community blog needs to hear from many voices. I’m glad yours was one.

It’d be great to hear a response to what Brian brought to the table. So have a read, and come back to leave a comment. We’ve hardly talked design and navigation. What are your experiences with sidebars? Tell me what has worked on your blog?

Talk to me. Let’s discuss it. I get in trouble. when I’m alone. 🙂

ME “Liz” Strauss