I was very unamused when this morning I discovered on my stats that someone had visited one of my blogs on the term “make money stealing content websites“.

Well I am sure that they were a “bounce”, or if not maybe I converted them to better ways. After all, there are details on my blogs as to how to revenge someone who is stealing content, but other than passing comments on how these people are using RSS Feeds, no more details.

Not that it really takes much imagination to work it out. And that is the problem – it is so easy to steal the content and to make money from it, the only problem is making sure that you are the number 1 blog when people are searching for various terms.

It is a very lazy way to work and I do wonder if we all kept out eyes open for stolen content and raised DMCA complaints every time (easy to do) whether the hosts would put paid to the blogs stealing content?

Also, if we dropped into our posts references back to our own blogs so that it was obvious that the posts were stolen, would that put the readers off the blogs and direct them back to the original sources? Time will tell.

Writing daily is a good way to blogging success. So why should part of your daily routine involve writing your next post?

The purpose of blogging is to build a blog and by writing every day, you are certainly doing that. Daily blogging must be the ultimate aim, but why?

Is the effort worth while?
Well you could write many times a day and with a news blog, you probably would. But with other blogs daily is enough, without going to too much. However, writing daily is a lot of commitment, especially if you have multiple blogs each in need of some daily posts. Why is it worth the effort?

There are many reasons for writing daily, but ultimately they all boil down to one factor – lots more hits for your blog. By writing every day you are building a library of content, interest for your readers and search engine bait.

The benefits of writing daily
Let’s look at that in detail! If you are writing interesting content every day then subscribers through your RSS feed and newsletter will be receiving plenty of updates. Others will see that new material is arriving constantly and will be more eager to subscribe. Building your subscribers list is an excellent way of generating plenty of future hits and exactly what you want as they keep coming back for more!

But writing daily will also be seen by the search engines, who will determine that you have plenty of fresh content and will rate you more highly. Plus, because you are writing daily you will quickly build up a huge stock of posts on your blog and the more posts there are the more chances there are that one of your posts will match someone’s search query.

Does daily have to mean every day?
Does daily mean seven days per week though? Do you have to spend your Sunday evenings diligently writing a new post? Probably not! Most visitors will have a pattern of when they will visit your website and you may find that the bulk of your visitors only visit on certain days, maybe even at certain times of the day. I have had sites that get virtually no traffic at the weekend, but loads in the week.

Write as often as your reader want to read
So to target these sorts of traffic levels you can actually just be writing on those days that traffic usually arrives, say Monday to Friday, It certainly makes life much easier for yourself than writing 7 days a week, unless you are able to!

There are many benefits to blogging every day, but that only needs to be every day that your visitors are coming frequently to your website!

When is a post too much? When should the post be cut down before it gets boring? If you are worried you could be boring your readers, read on!

There is a fine balance between too much and too little when you are blogging. Too much and your readers get bored, too little and the search engines will ignore you. Accepting that less than 200 words is certainly never enough to interest the search engines, just how much should you write per blog post?

Beware the attention span
Why is a long post too much? Well people can have a short attention span, especially when reading things on the internet. And if your post has just ran to 1000 words of highly detailed text, then they are unlikely to finish reading it. Is this a problem? Of course – if they got bored before they finished it they are unlikely to go on to read another post and almost certainly not going to come back again in the future. By providing too much, you have put them off as repeat visitors for life.

Personally, I find that posts in the order of 400 – 500 words work quite well in search engine terms. Much less than 400 and you cannot entice the search engines in to your pages.

If it is too big, split it
This actually gives us a very good guide. If your post gets to the 800 – 900 word mark, then it can easily be split into two equal halves of 400 – 450 words each. Each is then big enough to entice the search engines in to take an interest, whilst small enough to give the reader a break at the end and you have the advantage of being able to send them to a second page to read more information.

Style, not just size
Of course, a lot also depends on your writing style and the content of your post. It is not just how many words there are in the post, but also how it is presented. As a web designer I am frequently given blocks of text from new website owners that run to hundreds of words per paragraph. This can be very difficult to read.

So as well as keeping the blog post to a reasonable reading limit, you should make certain that the layout makes it easy to read. Shorter paragraphs are easier to handle on the page and if you can, add a few titles as you go to introduce different aspects of the post. It tells your reader what is coming up next and makes them easier to handle.

And the answer is…
So, how much is too much? Well posts in the order of 800 words can safely be split into 2 posts, maybe even slightly shorter by the time you add a conclusion to the first half and an introduction / refresh in the second post. But also keep an eye on that layout to make it easy to read and more interesting.

You might have noticed that there has not been a major PageRank update since the first weekend of April. This has broken the longest ever time that Google has gone before of not updating the PageRank toolbar by a couple of weeks and we’re still counting.

So, has Google given up updating PageRank and would it really matter to the internet if it had? Well, I think the answers are “No” and “Yes”.

No, Google has not updated for a long time, but there have been minor corrections. I redirected a site to a grey barred page only a couple of weeks ago and that page now shows the original page’s PageRank. So minor corrections are taking place, just not the major update that a lot of people are waiting for.

Would it matter? Well SEO experts will tell you that directly the answer is “No”. But then, how many of them are buying paid posts from PayPerPost, InPostLinks and so on? And you can bet they are willing to pay a lot more to a PR4 blog than a PR0 blog.

So to those buying & selling links, PageRank is a major factor. There are other factors we could use, such as the number of inbound links (from Google or Yahoo), the Alexa rating or general traffic stats, but these all report on the behaviour of the entire site.

It would be simple to create a quality website and then start to sell links on a blog that is a sub directory of the website and all measures apart from PageRank would reflect what is happening on the main area of the site. The blog could be virtually hidden from view or blocked in some way and the only measure of this is its PageRank.

So I do not think that Google has quite given up on PageRank, not just yet. There are too many small corrections. But I could foresee a future in which it might just happen and the world of sponsored blogs could be turned upside down for a short while.

I was pleased (and very proud) last night to notice that I have been named as one of the two Izea posties of the month for July!

It is always nice to be recognised for something so I am proud as punch to have got a mention, especially as I only joined their systems earlier this year, probably almost exactly 6 months ago.

Writing posts about it might seem a bit like self indulgent showing off, but I am pleased and wanted to thank the guys over at Izea for the systems that they provide and the recognition that they have given to me. It’s also great that I’ve noticed a few people visiting this site from the Izea link and I’ve had one or two familiar faces from the Izea site leaving comments.

It was a nice surprise to get and an incentive to try even harder with the systems!

Many bloggers earn an income through paid posting and others spend money promoting their blogs the same way. So I thought a piece about getting the most from paid posts would be useful – for advertisers to get the best and bloggers to be aware of some of the checks.

Home Page
It is not enough to just create a post that is hidden from archives, categories and the home page. You want a paid post exposed to the home page, so when you check the post also make sure that it is on the home page of the blog.

The problem – well 24 hours on the home page is considered to be fair game. So you must review all posts within this time. If the post isn’t there then you can reject it or ask for it to be placed there. After 24 hours this is a lot more difficult.

If you find a post not on the home page for 24 hours, maybe even raise it with the network.

Making It Found
Getting your paid post on the home page means home page visitors see it, but what about search engines? On a PR0 blog, Google might only visit once per month. It doesn’t take many posts to make sure that hardly any are found there. So it can be better value to pay for a PR2+ blog, where Google should come visiting at least most weeks for a guarantee that the post will be found.

Be Social
You, the advertiser, can help the blogger and your post! If you haven’t already done so, sign up to stumble, digg and other such sites.

For a couple of very good posts use social bookmarking techniques of stumble, digg, facebook, Twitter and so on to share the post. This can increase the exposure of your post as well as helping the blogger’s traffic.

Especially if the blogger displays most popular posts this could even ensure that every page of the blog links to your post giving it plenty of PR, whilst making your post seen by many people.

Link Saturation
The reason many bloggers try to hide paid posts is that they are afraid of Google punishing them. But in my experience of guest posts on blogs, you can easily get away with 2 or 3 links per post. But, there is a condition.

There has to be plenty of content per post. A 30 word post even with 1 link will be highly saturated. In my guest posting experience the posts were all above 450 words, giving a lot lower saturation.

Uninterested Search Engines
Another problem with 30 word posts is that they do not hold search engine’s interest. Some people say 200+ words, others 250+ words are required to make sure a page is cached.

So buy buying even a 100 word post, you are probably not going to see the post cached on the search engines. It might cost more to pay for 200, 300 or even 400 words, but if it means that the post is cached and the link saturation is reduced, the value is increased many times over. It is well worth paying more.

Off Topic
Does a marketing blogger really want to write about bridesmaid’s dresses? Worse still, do the readers want to read about them?

Choose blogs that are remotely on target, or at least where the blogger has a chance of being able to weave your theme into their theme.

This reduces the number of eligible blogs, but these will have readers that are interested and if you pay them to write 300 – 500 words, the search engines will love the posts.

Is The Blog Worth It?
Before you make the offer, glance through the blog and look at the writing. Does it look as though they will have an audience that is relevant to you?

Favourite good posts and maybe ask them for another post in a month or two.

Summary
In summary, social bookmark the best of the posts; check within 24 hours that posts are appearing on the home page of the blog; pay for less posts on higher ranking blogs with longer posts (at least 200 words) and stay roughly on topic.

Not sure what the difference is between a forum and a blog? Wondering which you should install and use on your website? Maybe you should use both?

If you are not sure what the difference is between a forum and a blog then we will start with looking at what each of these does.

What is a forum?
For a start, a forum is a way of members leaving comments and talking with each other. You as the site owner will create different areas of the forum, which are the high level topics. Members can then visit these different areas and create a new thread, which is a conversation. Other members will see the new thread and read the first post, adding their thoughts in new posts.

So a forum is a way of members starting and running conversations. It is good for your website as the members will visit frequently to see what new threads other members have started and to place replies on the threads that they are commenting on. Your members are generating loads of website comment, which could drive more visitors to your website!

What is a blog?
A blog in the traditional sense start with you the site owner, possibly with a team of other authors, writing posts about whatever subjects that you choose to start writing about.

Members of a blog are readers and they might follow your latest writing through email alerts or by watching your RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. This alerts them to the latest posts and they can go straight to the posts that interest them.

Their involvement in the blog is to read your posts and if there is a real community feel they might even get around to leaving the odd comments. You might want to reply and on occasion they might reply back.

Where are they the same?
The purpose of both a forum and a blog is to get your visitors coming back time after time and feeling like they are part of the community of the website. They are both tools that build up a community of the website and hopefully customer loyalty. In both, your visitors can leave comments for others to read.

So, where are they different?
There is a huge fundamental difference between the two features of a website and both can be used together. In a blog, you the website owner write a post about whatever you want and readers may then leave simple comments. But in a forum, it is the readers that start the discussion and they are more than likely to come back and add more thoughts to the topics being discussed. Your involvement as the website owner is probably just to keep an eye on the posts and remove any inappropriate entries.

So a forum and a blog are both tools to make visitors feel that they are part of your site, keep them interested and returning to find out what it going on, but in a blog you are in control totally of the topics that are being discussed whereas in a forum the members can start new discussions.

If you are blogging then the last thing that you probably want is to get know as a bad blog. So, how can you maintain a clean reputation?

Avoiding claims of a being a bad blog is quite a simple task. Maintain your blog to high standards and keep it running well. Very simple, but what does that mean?

Write Good Posts – Make sure that you are posting genuine new content regularly. Your posts should be written by you yourself manually and in good English (or whatever language you write in). If you are typing up directly into your blog’s admin, install a spell checker into the toolbar and once you have finished your writing click the button to check the spelling, correcting the errors identified. Better still, if possible write in an application such as Word in which spelling and grammatical errors are immediately identified.

Make sure that you take the time to read your posts before you submit them to check for obvious errors and swat up on your grammar and punctuation skills, maybe even get someone else to proof read for you.

Other people’s work – Whilst it is fine to include the odd post from directory sites (as long as you stick within their limits of reprints) make sure that you include the original author’s biography in whatever form they require. There is no point claiming their work is yours – it is bad practice and if your readers notice, they will flee. Make sure that for every article from a directory that you post you write a few of your own to prevent the site looking like a spam blog.

One of the worst blogging ‘crimes’ is scraping information from other blogs. Do not do it! These automated post writing systems are bad and should always be avoided.

Balance advertising – We all love a bit of easy cash, but keep it in balance. For advertising on the page just place adverts in one or two blocks on the page. Any more is too in your face and can be counter productive – readers stop coming back and do not trust the adverts so don’t click them.

If you are writing paid posts then make sure that your blog does not consist of just sponsored posts. Aim to write at least 2 genuine content posts of a reasonable size for every paid post that you place and make sure that you are clear that some of your posts are sponsored.

Check Your Comments – If you are not watching every new comment that is posted on your blog then you might find a whole array of unsavoury comments are being left on your posts. Whilst obviously not your doing, the lack of removal of these comments will reflect badly on your blog. Take action to review all comments from new comment makers and as many comments as possible from those that have previously commented.

In short, to avoid claims being made that you are running a bad blog just make sure that you run and maintain the blog in an honest and open way and keep an eye on what is happening.

You might have decided that you need to get a Technorati Authority for your site, but how do you go round it?

First, I used to consider that pinging Technorati works. Don’t bother, they ignore pings now! You might as well take away the ping from your blog and save the processing time. So what do you do? Here are the measures we have used to swiftly get a ranking.

1. Go technorati.com and sign up for an account. Simple. You will need to confirm it as usual by clicking an email link, but in general, nothing clever!

2. Find the claim a site button. Follow the form for instructions here – enter your website URL and press next, then type in the details you find. Don’t submit it only yet!

If you don’t know your RSS feed address, it could be displayed on your blog somewhere. Only right click and then copy link location to copy it and paste it where it is asked for. If it isn’t shown somewhere, you are missing a trick!

3. One of the optional fields is for sites linking back to you. If you have been using FTS or article directories, then you should have some of these. Go to Yahoo and search link:www.yourblog.com and find several websites linking back to you (forget Google, unless you have heaps of links). Copy and paste three of these into the form. I have no idea if it really helps, but the question is there, so in case it does…

4. imagine up some suitable tags and enter them, plus choose the three categories that match your weblog the best. Now, check the details and press submit.

Now, they will email you a claim code that you have to put into your website. This seems to be the biggest sticking point for getting listed – positioning this claim token. The problem is here that Technorati seems to do a double check.

First, they spider the website to check the claim token exists and second they look for it in your RSS feed. The second makes sense, as I will explain in a moment. But why then do the first? If both checks used the RSS feed then an error message might be generated. I think that this is the reason that numerous claims are failing and why loads of blogs are not getting listed. Let me explain more!

The reason to use the RSS feed rather than merely spidering the website is because anyone could place a comment in a site, which could include the claim token. You have to be able to update the posts to be able to get it onto the RSS feed.

So what causes the claim problem? Well, loads of bloggers set the RSS feed to just display a summary, rather than the full post. If the claim token is too far down the post, then it won’t be read by Technorati. Therefore, your blog doesn’t get listed properly.

So, when you receive your claim token, create a new post and put the token in the first sentence. I would recommend within the first 30 words at the most. Also, (in WordPress), go to settings, reading and be certain that the RSS feed is giving the entire post. A belt and braces job, but better to ensure that. Once you start to see a Authority appearing, you could reset your feed to summary merely if you prefer.

After that, you should be ready to get listed. You merely have to get other bloggers to mention you in their posts!

Every one of my labors so far still appear to be efforts wasted in vain, it is still no Technorati on three of my blogs.

After almost certainly at least 4 hours investigating different theories round Technorati and making alterations that a huge variety of web sites advised, yesterday I finally hung up my keyboard and left my sites with new posts, hopeful that today I might see at least one included on the directory.

But, I am enormously disappointed to say the least that not one of the 3 is listed tonight. How To Start My Blog is still displaying updates, and a steady Authority of 119, but with a bit of luck that will start to stir this week as I am releasing articles via a variety of programs.

I truly am running out of hints, theories and so on to get the sites listed. Everything I read makes out that becoming included is easy, all I can say is that isn’t the case! It is next to unachievable, or seems to be from here! One day, I am resolute, that I will be included. For the sake of the ‘badge’ and the anticipation of sharing some of the visitors that could come from that direction!