Just left this mornings session for NSA Bloggers facilitated by Rebecca Morgan and Ian Griffin. Many thanks to both of you for an excellent session. The National Speakers Association is an industry association focusing on the businss of speaking. The attendance has quadrupled in 3 years. As the world of blogging continues to evolve, attending live sessions has become an important tactic for learning what works in the blogisphere.
The session focused on how to monitize your blog, content generation, Search Engine Optimization. A platform survey revealed a 90% dominance by WordPress, half of those hosted at WordPress.com the rest self hosted (WordPress.org). Here are some tips I found valuable:
- Blog titles are king - Everyone agreed, titles are the key that compells visitors to unlock your valuable content.
- Keyword inclusion across all posts - To sustain search engine visibility, always include your top keyword phrases in each post. One attendee suggested keeping a list in view while composing a new post.
- Build a natural flow - Posts should serve as a waypoint, not the ultimate destination for your visitors. Timely posts attract visitors seeking current information. Provide them with an invitation to valuable information on your website including articles, products, services and special offers.
- Promote your posts - if blogs are for marketing, social networking is for PR. Promote your blog by linking it to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and anywhere else your prospects hang out online.
- Favorite Links from NSA Bloggers - Alltop, SmartBrief, Copyscape, Hello Bar, hootsuite, and fiverr.com.
- (My) favorite book - Digging into WordPress.