Similarly, it is good to get inbound links with your preferred keyword anchor text. However, if you get too many in a short space of time, it can be bad for your blog. Google is increasingly viewing “over optimisation tricks” in a bad light. Basically, Google have never liked people who try to artificially inflate their rankings with clever SEO tricks.

Also, what worked in the past doesn’t mean it will work in the future. If you are not careful, overzealous SEO techniques can lead to severe Google penalties, like the 950 penalty. This means your rankings drop 950 places for every keyword on your site. It can and does happen overnight – and it hurts.

Case Study: John Chow

John Chow is a top A List blogger. He made $12,000 dollars in June 2007 alone. John started a scheme where you could trade links. You review his blog with the keyword text “Make money online” and he would link to your blog. Nearly 1,000 people participated giving John’s blog 1,000 inbound links with his target “Make Money Online”.

1,000 inbound links, from a variety of blogs, with his preferred keyword anchor text. Pretty smart SEO? But, how did Google respond?

They kicked him off all search engine rankings. Even searching for his name “John Chow” doesn’t return his blog. And this is an A list blogger, who is in the technorati top 100. Personally I think this makes Google looks stupid, if I search John Chow I want to see johnchow.com as number 1. So I doubt this penalty will last forever. However, it shows that Google want to really try and hit people who are gaming the system.

Does this Mean SEO Is dead?

No, far from it. What it means is that you have to be careful and judicious. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I.e. getting inbound links should be still a small part of your strategy; however, if you put all your effort into one strategy it will backfire.

Natural Growth

Google like natural growth. If you suddenly start getting a huge number of links, especially from unrelated sites, Google may well penalise you. Instead work on generating content and promoting articles. Work on getting links, but they should be gradual and natural

More is Often Less.

It is good to get 5 inbound links with your preferred anchor text. But this doesn’t mean getting 10 inbound links is twice as good. If you get 50 inbound links, in a short space of time with same anchor text, it will probably do more damage than good.

Don’t Rely On Google

Is John Chow worried? Well earning 5 figures a month and having a huge RSS readership, he can afford to take a hit from Google. But could you? Does your strategy rely on traffic from Google? If it does, be extra careful. Alternatively, try working on a generating a loyal readership through RSS subscriptions. Organic referrals are much safer than relying on Google. Google are developing an alarming capacity to be very volatile ( In my opinion, this shows Google are struggling to do a good job, but that’s another post)

Diversity

If you are very committed to getting more inbound links, you have to see the importance of diversity. This means diversity in terms of anchor text.

• Good place for getting links is through blog carnivals.

Duplication of Content

Google is declaring war on splogs. Splogs are sites that just duplicate content and offer nothing original. This is good, but other sites are getting penalised in Google’s new zealousness. Therefore, be wary of duplicating content.

• For example, if you use ezines to get links I advise not having article on your own site as well. This means you will not be associated with all the splogs who copy the article.

1. Pleasing Only Search Engines.

It is a mistake to judge your blog only on the position in search engine rankings, and how much traffic you get. I think it is important to get satisfaction from your blog, even if not many people are reading it. If you feel you are contributing something worthwhile it will inspire you to keep blogging. The strange thing is that quite often when we ignore search engine rankings, we start to do better.

2. Focusing on One aspect of a Blog.

If we spend all our time, trying to get links, the quality of our content will suffer. Also I find, writing content much more enjoyable than the process of promoting your blog.

3. Lack of Focus in Blog.

Most people stumble into blogging, with no clear purpose. My first blog was a personal blog, entries included diverse topics from “Credit Card Debt”, “cycling” “Fawlty Towers” and “the Spirituality of Advaita Vedanta” – If you happen to share these interests, I’d love to hear from you, but it is unlikely people will share your eclectic range of interest. The point is your blog should have a clear focus so people know what to expect. Posting on various topics confuses everybody; search engines, google adsense, and most importantly your readers.

4. Trying to Juggle 20 blogs at once.

I have at various times started various blogs, only to lose interest later. It is better to do a small number, or even one blog, well, than irregularly update more than you can cope.

5. Blogging on things that don’t interest you

I once started a blog on remortgage quotes in the UK. I soon stopped, why? – Because its boring and there’s nothing to write about. It might have a high paying keyword, but that’s no good unless you can create a good blog about it. If you blog because you have a passion for it, you will be less discouraged by lack of traffic and visitors.

6. Not acknowledging Comments and Visitors.

It is easy to feel, you don’t have much time to respond. However, responding to comments is a great way of encouraging a regular readership.

7. Reticence in Linking to Others.

There’s is a strong feeling that linking to others leads to a loss of Page Rank. Like misers, we try to hold onto our beloved Page Rank. But, does page rank actually matter? (does PR matter) By linking to others pages, you add to the usefulness of you entries; it can also be a good way to make contact with other webmaster.

• Tip: If an external link adds to your post and is useful to your readers – don’t hesitate; don’t worry about whether it is a high PR or not.
• Tip: Do be careful in linking to sites that are irrelevant and only have pages of recipricol links.

8. Obsession with stats.

OK, this is one mistake I continue to make; but, am I alone in finding stats pages really interesting?

9. Envy of Other Bloggers.

Sometimes we can be jealous of other people’s success. It seems whatever they do, they can get 1000s of traffic. Whereas on the other hand, we struggle to get anywhere. Everybody has these difficulties in the beginning. But, you don’t get anywhere by harbouring feelings of jealousy,

10. Over admiration of Other bloggers.

Don’t spend too much time lionizing A list bloggers. Appreciate others success, but don’t blog under the shadow of others. Have the confidence to develop your blog.

11. Criticising other bloggers.

Critical blogging may get a temporary boost in traffic; however, in the long run a critical blogging stance tends to alienate readers. It is better to highlight good things others do. It is also, always a mistake to get personal with criticism; always think carefully before criticising in comments, you may regret later.
The advice of Thomas Jefferson is always worth bearing in mind.

“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred. “

The same principle applies to commenting, and don’t forgot that whatever you say may last for a long time in electronic form. It can be hard to erase past comments.

• If you really feel it is necessary to criticise at least: give yourself time to change your mind, don’t post straightaway, and avoid personal criticism.

12. Lack of Blog Identity.

Don’t underestimate the importance of branding. It should be clear about what the blog is about. For example, I started off with 7 blogs on the same domain www.richardpettinger.com. However, I think it is something you will regret if the blog becomes successful. A good domain name is important. Net Writing is much better than www.richardpettinger.com/blogging/seo. (the forerunner to this blog). Similarly their are many bloggers who later regret having their blog on a .blogspot or .wordpress domain.

13. Irregularity of Posting.

Lack of posting frequency disappoints readers, especially those who don’t use RSS. Try making regular posting, use the odd short posting. (how to make successful short posts)

14. Too Much Advertising.

On different blogs, I have experimented with different types of google adsense. Once I had 3 big blocks of adsense. It looked pretty ugly, but also in the long term it can lead to less revenue. One well positioned block can give the same revenue as 3 big blocks and you will alienate less readers.

15. Not giving credit.

This is related to reticence of giving links, if you use others ideas, or even use content from elsewhere, make sure you acknowledge with a hyper link. Generally avoid copying content unless it is creative commons licence.

16. Over Emphasis on Design.

I once spent 10 hours trying to make rounded corners for a website. At the end of 10 hours, I had still failed to implement this very complicated CSS design. I had nothing to show for it but hours of frustration. Do you really need rounded corners? People come for content not to admire your rounded corners.

17. Incorrect URL structure.

On one of my first sites, the URLs were not optimal; too deep, and I used abbreviations rather than words. see optimal URL structure

18. Spending Time Changing URLs

The only thing worse than having sub optimal URLs, is wasting many hours changing them. I regret changing URLs to make them more search engine friendly. It created 404 errors, wastes time, and to be honest has little SEO benefit anyway.

• Tip: It is best to go forward rather than wasting time going backwards.

19. No differentiation of Blog

Although I suggested it is wrong to spend too many hours on design. I also feel it is a mistake to make no attempt to differentiate your standard blog template. For example, when I see blogs which use most common blogger template, I am more inclined to expect a spam blog. Just adding a logo can make a big difference. This blog is basically standard blogger template with a logo and a few tweaks: Economics Essays

20. Lack of Perseverance

Given how easy it is to write a list of blogging mistakes, I’m surprised I didn’t give up a long time ago. At times, you may lack inspiration to blog and post, but it’s a mistake to give up because success seems hard work. See inspiration for writing.

• Ten Blogging Mistakes
  
• Top 5 Blogging Mistakes by Mani

Do you have any blogging mistakes you would like to share?

Invite Comments.

If you have a readership base, who are willing to leave comments, this can be a great technique. For example, in this post on Best RSS Feeds, it is the comments that make the post. Another advantage, of this kind of post, is that it makes the readers feel like they are participating in the blog.

• The problem is that you can’t do this too often. Also, it is essential that you have a large readership, who are willing to leave comments; otherwise it’s a bit of a non-starter.

Tip of the Day

Never underestimate people’s desire for short pithy quotes. Quotes of the day are always popular. For example, once a week you could give a “top writing tip of the week”. Don’t feel obliged to always have to give a top 10 or top 5.

• E.g. Tip of the Day. “The Good thing about Pull quotes is people always read them”

Link Round up.

Each week you can collect your favourite sites and pages you have visited. It makes a relatively easy post. It is also very useful, for both yourself and your readers. Quite often I regret not bookmarking my favourite links, and then waste time trying to find them again. My favourite posts at Problogger are often the speedlinking.

• (An additional benefit, is of course, other webmasters will love the linkage)

Post a Video.

Flash videos are a great way of adding quality content, with minimum of effort. It can also help break up the monotony of writing based blogs. For example, I have to admit my “Economics Essay blog” is pretty boring, but I once managed to find a funny video about Economics – no really Economics can be quite funny!

Post a picture

Quite often the most popular pages at Social bookmaking sites like Reddit and Digg are single pictures. This suggestion may depend on the theme of your blog; e.g. a blog on SEO and writing does not lend itself to pictures, but there’s no reason why it can’t have the odd picture.

Link to Your Best posts.

It may be that when you started your blog, you wrote very long and careful blog posts that nobody ever read, because your blog was new. When you have more readers, post a link and short introduction to these old posts. Even if people have read it several months ago, they will not mind the odd reminder.

For example, When to use the Comma – This post was actually the motivation for starting this new blog.

Don’t Just Rely on Short Posts

Short posts have many advantages, but if you rely only on short posts, your blog will lack any real substance. Short posts will be most effective when you can combine them with longer, substantial posts (often called pillar posts)
If you have written many of these longer posts, you will definitely be able to benefit from taking the odd rest and fitting in a few shorter posts.

If you have any other ideas for making successful short posts please leave a comment.

In a previous post, I looked at how to increase traffic from an SEO point of view: Increasing traffic through search engines. However, this is only one aspect of creating a successful blog, if we are focused only on search engines we may struggle to develop the blog in other ways.

Growing your blog organically doesn’t mean using lots of horse manure (apologies for feeble play on words). Organic growth comes through attracting a regular and loyal readership. This is visitors who come to see your latest posts, because they expect good quality content. In many ways, this kind of traffic is preferable to a search engine visitor. Visitors from a search engine often leave quite soon, because it is not what they were looking for. Regular readers, however, are coming because (hopefully) they like your content.

Ways to Attract a loyal readership

1. Good content.

The most important thing is that the content has to be good enough. If your blog is informative or interesting people will keep coming back. If the content is poor or recycled, there is not much you will be able to do.

2. Focus on a certain Niche.

If you blog on everything under the sun, you will lose readers. People don’t want to have to wade through several articles on cycling gear ratios if you blog is about writing and seo. Regular readers will expect a certain type of post, if they start getting different topics they are likely to unsubscribe.

3. Interact with your Readers.

One of the main attractions of a blog is that it enables a two way communication. Successful blogs are ones that engage with their readership, rather than just blogs that talk to readers. This means, if people leave comments, take time to respond; this is especially important if it is their first comment. In this regard, I should do this more often. John, for example, is a top commenter on blogs. I admire his enthusiasm for leaving comments, and responding to others.

4. Encourage comments.

Some blog posts instinctively encourage comments. At the end of a blog post, invite readers to leave their suggestions. This makes readers feel part of the blog. When people take the time to make a comment, it shows that they have a real interest in the blog. Here, John, made a feature of comments. Things like this are a good way to encourage participation.

5. Invite Questions.

On my economics blog I invite readers to ask questions on Economics. I get ideas for articles and unique content. I also get the opportunity to interact with readers. If I have time it could be a very useful resource for visitors, this is the thing that will attract repeat visitors.

6. Develop a Brand.

Don’t underestimate the importance of developing a brand for your blog. A good title and tagline are important. The tagline should be a summary of what the blog does. It is important to develop a Unique Selling Point. (apologies for business speak – perhaps a better phrase would be develop a clear unique, image for your blog.)

7. Make your Blog Attractive.

In SEO speak we hear phrases like “content is king”, and search engines don’t look at design. This is true, but humans do look at design. After 5 seconds, we have often made a judgement on a webpage, mostly be visual design alone. Design doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be clear and be appropriate for the theme of the blog.

8. Don’t overclutter with Ads.

Related to the last point is the judicial use of Adsense and advertising. If there are too many ads on a site, people tend to be more critical (perhaps unconsciously) Especially in the beginning, it is important not to overdo ads. Once you are established it is easier to put ads on your site. Note also: adding more ads, may not actually increase revenue. Summary Readers will accept ads, but don’t get carried away.

9. Be regular in posting.

If you have a regular posting schedule, people will be more likely to come back. If you are going to be away for a few weeks, it is definitely a good idea to write a short note. – People will at least know to try later. e.g. Sumangali.
It is worth noting that one of the top reasons at Problogger for unsubscribing from RSS feeds was “too frequent posting”; so be careful about overposting. Especially if leads to a decline in quality.

Be regular in posting, but the optimum frequency will, to a large extent, depend on the particular blogs.

10. Share your Passion.

Blog on something that you enjoy; make sure you can offer something unique.

11. Develop relationships with like minded bloggers.

It is definitely worth developing relationships with bloggers who you admire and enjoy reading. Good relationships can help both your blogs grow.

12. Make RSS feeds easy to subscribe to.

RSS is the best way to maintain a regular readership, make sure the RSS button is visible. You may also like to maintain an email list as well.

If you have advice on growing your blog organically feel free to leave a link or comment.
Related

• Increasing Traffic to your blog – latest blog entries
• Top 5 ways to Increase Traffic
• How I got 1,500 readers first month

Offering a review of a film / book / product is a good idea. Articles that explain how to do something are also valued. If you give meditation classes, why not write about different types of meditation exercises. If you organise races you could write an article on “Things to remember for organising a running race.”

2. Have Reasonable Expectations:

Don’t feel you have to attain perfection in your writing. If you have the idea the article must be perfect, it becomes difficult to write and it will take longer than it should. In some respects, quantity has its own perfection. I have found that as you write more, writing becomes more fluent. See your first 10 articles as “warm up” articles. When you get into the rhythm of writing you will find that you can write 500 words in 20-30 minute.

3. Short Attention Span of Readers

Always bear in mind people’s attention span is often short. Therefore it is important to:

a) Write with clarity and simplicity
b) Breaking up an article into different sections is helpful
c) I often like to write an article by numbers. Top 7 tips for.. are always popular.

4. Write on What you Know.

Concentrate on writing articles on subjects where you have some specialized knowledge. A reader can tell whether you are re-hashing ideas from others, or whether you have something new to offer.

5. Choosing a title is important.

It is better to have longer titles which explain the contents of the article. It is also better to choose articles, which are specific to a certain niche. An article on “Lord of the Rings” will have too much competition on the Internet. However if you are real Tolkien enthusiast. Why not try an article like “Celtic influences on the writings of Tolkien”.

6. Get Right Tone

Personal experiences, for example, what you felt like at breakfast are not that interesting, – Unless you are either a highly gifted writer or, you eat most extraordinary things for breakfast. Interesting article here at List Apart: How to Write a better Blog

7. Writing is similar to Speaking

Writing shouldn’t be seen as an onerous task. If you get stuck writing, a useful exercise is to imagine you are speaking to a group of people explaining something.

8. Start Anywhere

If the first paragraph seems difficult, start in the middle and go back to the start later.

9. Good grammar and spelling are important.

It is important to maintain a certain standard of English. Otherwise it creates (subconsciously) a bad impression on the reader. If you learn the basics of grammar, you will enjoy writing more.

10. Humour is good.

If you can find a way to add humour, it will be appreciated. Obviously, not all subjects are as suitable for comedy. And humour is optional it doesn’t mean you have to put a bad joke in just for the sake of it. But it is good if you don’t take yourself too seriously.
Useful Links

• Writing Copy for Websites
  
• Writing Content Tips at Problogger
• Beating Writers Block at Nick Daw’s Writing Blog