Image courtesy of Darwin BellIt’s happened to us all. One day you’re merrily surfing along, you click a link, and Bam, you get a page not found error. Why, what happened? Well, chances are the link you followed used to resolve to a legitimate page, but the page has now been taken down or moved to a new location. Couldn’t it have left a forwarding address? Well actually, yes it could (and should) have.
Archive for August, 2008
This whole month I’ve been struggling to get this blog to show up on Technorati. I’ve been pinging them every time I’ve done a post; I’ve even pinged them manually, all to no avail. Every time I’ve checked their blog directory, I’ve been greeted with this put-down:
People have all kinds of reasons for starting blogs, from the downright inane – “it seemed like a good idea at the time” – to the highly strategic. I decided to explore some of these motivations in a little more depth, not only because it’s interesting, but because I believe it’s an important question for all of us to think about. Why? Well, it gives purpose and direction to the activity, and is also a way of measuring your progress. Now, I’m not one of those 5-year people who can tell you in detail what they’ll be having for breakfast on 14th June 2012, but I like to have a broad idea of where I’m heading.
Image courtesy of Georgios Karamanis
Here are some reasons I believe people get involved in blogging:
- fun
- staying in touch
- fame and fortune
- professional exposure
- lifestyle
Participating in Bog Carnivals is a great way to increase your exposure in the blogoshpere. The main benefits you get are:
- a few more backlinks to your site for free (proper follow links too, not the less useful nofollow variety)
- referral traffic from the carnival itself
- networking opportunities with other proactive bloggers
If you’re a blogger keen to develop your readership, those are all essential things you should be aiming to do at every opportunity! They all directly and indirectly lead to increased traffic to your site (more on that later).
Continue reading ‘Collect traffic and backlinks by participating in Blog Carnivals’
Every blogger or website owner should check their stats regularly to measure the progress (or lack thereof) of their site – things like:
- traffic
- subscribers
- revenue from ads and affiliates
The key, as with so many other things in life, is not to overdo it. Every minute you spend checking your stats is a minute you could have spent crafting that latest post or networking with other sites via commenting, social bookmarking, or whatever other means you choose to build your traffic.
I know I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to this, which is why I was thrilled the other day to come across a plugin that automates the process for you and brings your stats right into the WordPress dashboard.
Continue reading ‘WordPress statistics plugin’
