How to Build Your Blog As a Brand

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Most fellow bloggers are aware of the ever increasing blogs and blogger count in the web sphere, rather to be precise, in the blogosphere. So, there is every possibility that your blog is among millions of those competing for even small number of visitors per day to get some psychological happiness or to earn some Adsense cents etc. But the perfect analogy to the problem can be comparing yourself with one of the millions or I suppose billions of stars competing for stargazer’s attention. And you yourself think ---what is the probability of your blog being seen by a person on earth if you are just another star? So the obvious solution to this analogical problem is that you either become some sought of Pole star status star or be a part of constellation to get viewed by maximum.

Steps

1. The first and foremost solution is to have UNIQUE and frequently updated content in your blog. Be true and yourself to your visitors. The big search engines are smart enough of to detect which blogs are providing new, fresh and unique stuff, and reward them with better ranking in search results.
   
2. Try your best to make your blog heading, blog post title and blog post content ‘Keyword rich’. By ‘keyword rich ‘ I mean to say it should contain some of the phrases which you think are potential searches that people will do and your same post will act as answer to it. For example: I am writing a post on how to open a CD-Rom on others computer from your computer and a potential visitor must be searching for Open CD –Rom trick or prank etc etc …So, what I have to do is to write my post including these “Open CD –Rom trick or prank” strings in my post. This is really useful for coming on top in Search engine rankings hence improving your visitor count.
   
3. Take advantage of social networking sites. Blogs are social web elements and require a community or society of their own to sustain and grow, exactly the same way human ,being social animal , is dependent on society .So, do go for social bookmarking like Digg, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Feedburner, etc.
   
4. Be a celebrity blogger by commenting on various blogs of your taste and interest and leave a back link to your blog. This helps a lot in spreading the name .Also blogroll or do link exchange with blog you feel will be helpful for your visitor.
   
5. Submit your blog to various search engines, at least to the main search engines like Google ,Yahoo, AOL ,MSN etc is must to get name and fame for your blog .
   
6. Last but not the least always have the motto of spreading knowledge and enlightenment to the visitors and please don’t do blogging for the sake of any monetary benefit as your motto, take my word you will never be a successful blogger going this road.
   

Tips

• Keep blogging, be real and be pure
  

Warnings

• Donot start your blog with the aim of earning money
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Start a Blog
  
• How to Write a Famous Blog
  
• How to Write a Fictional Blog
  
• How to Keep a Travel Blog
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Build Your Blog As a Brand. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Advertising through Technorati

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Technorati now offers an advertising option.

Technorati Engage, a self-service advertising network of blogs and social media sites is now in beta and open to a limited set of advertisers and publishers.



Currently, Technorati Engage offers a 125x125 Square Button display ad, Text and PhoText ads. Additional display ad formats are scheduled for release after the beta launch.

Text and PhoText ads can be very easily created from within the Technorati Engage platform. Text ads are the most efficient vehicle for communication or to drive response. PhoText ads can communicate your message more effectively than either a text or image ad alone, and convert more effectively than traditional text ads.

Ad units currently offered by the Technorati Engage beta program:

Weekly Ads

A Weekly Ad is an ad that is displayed on a single blog for a specified period of time. Because Weekly Ads are time-based, they are sold on a Cost per Week basis.

The shortest period of time that you can buy an ad for is one day.

A PhoText ad is a selected image or picture that is displayed beside a relevant text ad.


Technorati Engage will take any image and resize it to make the picture fit one of 4 set square dimensions: 25, 50, 100, and 200 pixels in width. The dimension depends on what the publisher selects for his or her particular blog for all PhoText ads in a single ad box.
Blogs that support PhoText ads are marked with a camera icon that is displayed in the Site Directory and on the blog's profile. However, to be certain, check the blog description and the blog itself to find out if they display PhoText ads.

Although Technorati Engage has guidelines pertaining to the size and quality of the picture, the content of the picture is entirely up to the advertiser and his or her advertising goals. All ads are reviewed by Technorati Engage before being displayed.

Technorati Media offers two types of ads: a Weekly Ad which runs for a period of time on a single blog priced in dollars per week, and a Targeted CPC (RON) ad that runs on many blogs priced in cents per Valid CPC click.

A Weekly Ad has the advantage of allowing an advertiser to target the visitors from a single blog and the disadvantage of only having historic information to predict how many times the ad will be clicked.

A Targeted CPC (RON) ad has the advantage of allowing an advertiser to know exactly what the cost per valid click will be and the disadvantage of not knowing from which blog the valid click will originate.

Technorati Media recommends Targeted CPC (RON) ads when an advertiser wants to:
1) Know the Cost Per Click before running the ad, and
2) Promote an offer across a large number of blogs without buying an ad on each blog.


You can target your CPC ad by choosing (1) the region(s) you want the ad displayed, (2) the ad format (text, PhoText, or display), and (3) the blog content category (e.g. Humor, Music, Movies).
C (RON) ads before they are displayed on the network. We will not approve a Targeted CPC (RON) ad if (1) the site that the ad is linking to is illegal, (2) the site the ad is linking to endorses "get paid to click" or "get paid to read" type offers and (3) if you use all capitals in your text description.
[top]
What Targeted CPC (RON) ad content restrictions exist?

Technorati Engage reviews all Targeted CPC


The period of time the Targeted CPC (RON) ad runs depends on:

1) The number of clicks purchased;
2) The compelling nature of the product being offered and the resulting Click Through Ratio (CTR);
3) The number of Targeted CPC (RON) ads running on the Publisher Network at that point in time;
4) The number of page views occurring on the blogs where the Targeted CPC (RON) ad is running.
For more information

Networking Tips

Do not underestimate the power of social networking. When you least suspect it, social networking can more than serve your purposes and help you to attain your goals. With the use of the internet, social networking has never been easier and more efficient.

Here are 12 tips to remember when networking;

1. Focus on one networking site at a time. Take a week to sign up, investigate how it works and build your persona.
   
   
2. Don't over-kill by joining every single social network that is out there. Think quality of your participation and not quantity of your participations.
   
   
3. Build your persona. This will become your branding so put some time into it. If your purpose of networking is to bring more traffic to your site, don't forget to mention your site subtly. Add a link under 'my sites' and mention that you are a blogger in your job description.
   
   
4. Join groups that have to do with what your purpose it. If you are attempting to promote your hacking blog, join a hacking group.
   
   
5. I would recommend a micro blogging tool- such as Twitter, and a larger network such as Facebook. Focus on belonging to two and promote the other in your posts.
   
   
6. Look for friends. Usually on Facebook, someone will accept you as a friend if there is a common friend between you. When you are accepted or confirmed as a friend, check out the other persons friends for new friends. Don't request them all though.
   
   
7. When you request a friend, add a note such as, "I saw that you are a member in this group and we both have John Doe as a common friend."
   
   
8. Don't get carried away with sending things like bumper stickers etc. This can become annoying. Let the other person guide the level of friendship.
   
   
9. Take advantage of the mailbox address importer to see who you may know. You never know who they may know.
   
   
10. Never underestimate the power of a friend, no matter who they are.
    
    
11. Be friendly, conscious and courteous when you post something such as your status. You never know who will see this.
    
    
12. Update often. You'll be more apt to be noticed in a sea of millions.
    
    
    

Social networking is vital if you want to be a success in the online community.
Make what works for you work for you.x






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Getting into the Contest Thing

Hosting a giveaway or a contest can be an excellent source for new traffic and potential subscriptions.

How to get started;

Finding the right item to give away is important. It is what can bring people to your site. Think about the end before you choose. That is, how will you get the winning item to the winning contestant. That is why easy to send items are nice- look for giftcards or sponsors who will ship the item for you.

How long will your contest run?

Usually one to two weeks is the norm. Any more is too much time and any less is not enough time. People looking for blog contests tend to be short in the attention span because there are so many contests to choose from.

Market your contest.

Hook up with a contest site that will list and feature your contest. Here is one that will include it in their newsletter to all of their subscribers. In exchange, they ask that you display their banner.

Your listing-
Describe the item accurately and honestly.Be sure to include rules for entering such as age and location. And the end date for the contest is important as well. You will need a method of contacting the winner.

Your winner-
There are random generators that many sites use. Other sites choose name out of a hat. As long as it is fair. You should check the winner to make sure they did all that they needed to do to sign up for the contest. You'll find that many of your people have not.








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