When you register your first website, you will soon find that lots of search engine optimization companies have “discovered” you and are eager to email you SEO quotes.  At first, it might seem like a good idea to get someone else to promote your blog – and if you have lots of money to spare, there’s certainly no harm in paying for professional help.  However, bloggers need not retain seo experts to drive traffic to their sites.

You don’t have to be a pro to make use of all the great techniques the pros use for website promotion.  In fact, you can do for yourself most of the things an SEO could do for you.  Here are a few tips for getting started:

- Think about your blog in relation to your audience.  Ask yourself what people might be searching for when they find you.  Consider the topics your blog covers and how people might come to read about them.  These thoughts can help you assemble a list of keywords to target when generating traffic.

- Reach out to other bloggers.  Surely you aren’t the only person writing about your topic (or maybe you are – that’d be neat!)  Find people who write about similar things and ask if you can trade links with them.  Follow their blogs, especially if they are more popular than yours, so that you can see what they’re doing to attract so much traffic.

- Sign up for blog directories so that people who are looking for blogs can find yours.  Also, the more links you can get back to your site, the better.

Remember, many advertisers will want to know that you have a good following before they choose to advertise on your blog.  The more traffic that comes to your site, the more money you can make as a blogger.

College life can be expensive. Between paying for books and going out with friends, the bills can add up. Unfortunately it can be difficult to find a job in these hard economic times. You may have trouble fitting a job in with your busy schedule. Even if you do have a job, it can still be difficult scrounging up extra funds, as textbooks can costs hundreds of dollars.

If you are looking to earn some extra cash, you may be interested in learning how students can make money online. Obviously, if you’re reading this site, you know that it’s about blogging, so you can guess what the next line is going to be: One great way for students to make money is by blogging.

So how exactly does blogging benefit college students?

As a busy college student trying to balance classes, homework, clubs, sports, internships, etc, you probably have little time to work long shifts. And even if you do, the costs of housing, tuition, books, and actually having a life outside school can add up. You want something easy and flexible.

With blogging, you can set your own hours. You can work in those ‘in between’ moments, between classes. You only need to write a few paragraphs. Take a break from your essays and write about something fun, something you’re actually interested in.

Plus, if you’re a writing student, starting a blog is great practice and a great way to build your presence online. The print industry is dying – less people read magazines and newspapers. They read the news online. To be a successful writer these days, it is much easier to start writing a blog. If you want to find a job at a publisher or a major news site, then you’ll need to be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of how to maintain a blog, do basic HTML, etc.

Even if you’re not a writing student, many advertisers are looking for all sorts of niches. You could be a fashion student – great. Start a blog about fashion; get paid to talk about something you already love. Computer science major? Start a blog about the newest updates in technology and gadgets. You get an outlet for your passion.

Any kind of major can start a blog:

• medical
• nursing
• dental
• vet
  
• law
• graduate/MBA
• cooking
• fashion
• design
• art
• architecture
• travel/study abroad
  
• information technology
  

How do I make money blogging as a student?

It’s easy to set up a blog. You can go to any site like wordpress.com, blogspot.com, etc and set up one up in only a few minutes. Pay for a unique domain name – it’s worth it not to have that .blogspot.com attached to it and will help brand your site. (Advertisers like it and it will be easier for your visitors to remember).

Once your blog is set up, start posting! Write as frequently as you can and maintain your blog. Writing often helps you practice and get better and writing, and also helps build up unique and original content on your site. Once you have a few posts up, you’ll need to start getting followers. The more people that read your blog, the more appealing it will be to advertisers.

Here’s where being a student comes to your advantage: as a college student, you’re probably active on Facebook, Twitter, or other various social media sites. This puts you in a great position to promote your blog. Encourage your friends to check out your entries. Post the link when you publish a new article. Use catchy headlines to attract your friends’ attention and encourage them to share your post if they like it.

Student blogging is a great way to make a few quick dollars. You can earn money online and get some extra cash to go out with your friends or pay for those expensive college text books. When you’re in school, every little bit helps.

I know it’s been awhile since my last post; I’ve been busy unfortunately, but now I’m back. This time I’m going to do something a little different, and focus on who can make money online.

Anyone really can earn money through blogging, but there’s one main group of people who are really taking advantage of paid blogging, and that’s Work At Home Moms (or WAHM). So HOW exactly do they do it?

Before we get to the how, though, let’s focus on the why.

Why start a blog?

Flexible Hours

The good thing about blogging is that your schedule is flexible and your hours can be whatever you want. You can write at any time during the day and answer emails at any time during the day – whatever time works for you. You can fit your work schedule around your life. Plus, you don’t have to worry about getting up early to sit in traffic to be at work on time!

As a work at home mother, you are your own boss, and you can work whenever is best for you and set your own deadlines. You decide how frequently you want to update your blog, what posts you want to write and what advertisers you’re interested in working with.

In Demand

Many advertisers are looking for good “mommy blogs” to advertise on. Advertisers want to reach as many potential customers as possible and convince them to buy their product. Many potential customers read mommy blogs. Advertisers know this, and so many of them want to advertise there. They will often send products for families to test and review.

Extra Cash

To be honest, you’re not going to make millions from day one. Blogging takes time, dedication and patience. But you can make enough to cover shopping trips. Enough for diapers or food. And who’s to say you can’t earn even more than that? Blogs that have a large following and good content can charge more for reviews and advertising and earn more.

How can WAHM make money blogging?

Many stay at home moms know they can make money with blogging, but aren’t exactly sure how to go about it. First of all, there are tons of ways Work at Home Mothers can make money online, and blogging is only one of them. You can sell items online (thinking about having a garage sale? You could always sell those items online). You can sell services online (are you a work at home mom who used to be a teacher? You can sell tutoring services online).

There are even different ways to make money with your blog:

• Reviewing products
• Directing traffic to advertiser’s sites
• Putting ads on your blog

You can use any of these strategies, or even use all three. But you can’t just start and expect to make a lot instantly. Here are some tips that can help you earn more:

• Write frequently about a topic you know a lot about – updating your blog often will appeal to readers, and when you know a lot about a topic you establish credibility
• Network with other bloggers and work on increasing your audience – the more people that read your blog, the more interested advertisers will be in using your blog
• Be original and unique – this goes for everything from the writing/content to the look and feel of your blog. Don’t just use a default setting, try to customize your blog so that it represents you

Writing blogs is a great way for mom’s to earn money online. If you know what you’re doing, if you work hard and write well, then you can succeed with blogging.

Looking for a way to monetize your site other than using ads? While blog advertising may be the most common method, bloggers have plenty of options when it comes to earning money online. Even if you are monetizing your site using advertising, you could still use any of these strategies in addition to your ads. Here are just a few other monetization strategies:

Use a Premium Content Section

You can section off part of your site and have bloggers pay to access it. If you do this, make sure that you are offering content and ideas that aren’t normally available for free. That said, do continue to update your blog with free content. The free content will attract readers to your blog, convince them of your credibility and knowledge of the subject, but should only cover the surface of topics so that your readers will want more. For example, in the premium section, offer more details, specific case studies, etc. Thus they’ll be willing to pay to see your content. Include a list of features somewhere on your website so curious readers can see the type of content that’s not available for free, enticing them to pay for the premium content.

Offer Your Own Book or Product

You can also write your own book, compile your blog entries into a book format, or sell your own product. If you do decide to write a book, you can promote it on your blog and in your email newsletter. Consider publishing in an ebook format so that it’s easier for your readers to download it right away instead of having to wait for a hard copy in the mail. In your book, you should expand on topics that you haven’t covered as extensively in your blog so that your readers have a reason to purchase the product.

Ask for Donations

Simple and straight forward, asking for donations might seem a little like begging, but can still work. Just put a button at the top of your page that readers can click on if they want to donate. Consider also including a small button – visible, but not too distracting – at the end of your post too. Readers understand that writers blog for money, and will probably be generous enough to donate a little bit. If your readership is particularly large, then that will increase your chances of making money this way, too. If you only have a handful of readers, hold off on this method and work on building your traffic.

Offer Consulting

If you are an expert in something, then another option you could do is offer private consulting. It really depends on what your niche is if this will be a good strategy for you. If you are knowledgeable in SEO, for example, you could easily offer consulting work for clients’ websites. However, if you write a cooking blog I’m not sure what consulting services you would be able to offer. Think about your blog niche and see if you can offer consulting services.

Paid Blogging Jobs

There is another option that I recently learned about in this article about getting paid for writing articles. Basically you can get paid to write articles for bigger blogs. Sounds like freelance blogging. Apparently you can look at writing job boards (as the article explains) and find writing jobs there. The great thing about these jobs is that you not only get paid to blog, but you are gaining exposure on a bigger blog. This doubles as a way of promoting yourself and your site, so you can increase your blogs traffic, too. Check out that article, it explains more about how you can find blogging jobs and how the process works.

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Keep in mind that advertising and these other methods are not mutually exclusive. You can still use advertising and do all of these. In fact, it’s probably better if you do. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, and try monetizing your site with a variety of methods. Keep track of how much money you make with each strategy too to see which method is the most profitable.  Don’t be afraid to try new strategies when it comes to monetizing your blog.  Different methods work for different blogs, and by experimenting you can find out what works best for your blog.

There are three main ingredients needed to make money blogging: content, traffic, and a monetization strategy. All 3 ingredients are necessary. Even if you have good content, it means nothing if no one sees it. And even if you have a ton of visitors, you won’t make a dime unless you are doing something to make money – whether it’s through advertising, selling your own product, or having a premium content section, you need traffic to earn money with a blog. The more people viewing your site, the more valuable your site is to advertisers.

So how do you get those visitors to stick around and explore your blog? How do you get them to subscribe to your newsletter and RSS feed? You write good content. As they say, “Content is King”. True success boils down to good content.

Writers block, however, can sometimes get in the way. Here are some content ideas to keep your bloggers interested and coming back:

Write How-To Pieces

How-tos are simple to write and incredibly valued by readers. If a reader can come on your site and easily find a post explaining how to do something – how to make ratatouille, how to sew a sweater, how to do something – then they’ll be happy. And happy readers are returning readers.

Break a News Story

Staying ahead of the news is great way to get some search engine traffic, but it’s also important to readers because it shows that your information is topical and up to date. When you do post the news, be sure to include your own thoughts on the events and encourage your readers to post their own comments as well.  You can use Feeds to follow the news and break a story, so you can always stay on top of what’s going on.

Be Controversial

People love controversy. Write a controversial headline, and you’ll be sure to catch the readers’ eyes and get them to stick around for just a little while longer. It’s also good for getting your post shared and getting traffic through Social Media. Plus, other bloggers might link back to for your unique opinion. Controversy is great for getting traffic to your blog!

These are just a few ideas you can use to write a blog post.  Try making a content web of everything you know about a topic.  Start with your main subject, whether it’s cooking, or travelling, or sports.  Then draw lines branching off from that with subcategories.  For example, for sports you could split that into different types of sports, like basketball, soccer, or fencing.  You could also branch it off into professional, college, and high school.  You could do another branch for entertainment, for training tips, to equipment reviews.  As you go along, you’ll probably find yourself leading to more and more specific topics, which can give you ideas for what to post about.  You could also read this article for ideas for blog inspiration.

Other Posting Suggestions

Use Other Media

Don’t just post long winded articles – that won’t appeal to everyone. Make video blogs and post pictures as well. Opening yourself up to a variety of different media can help you reach more viewers who might not like to read.

Vary Your Topics

Mix up the topics you post about and mix up the type or format of posts. For example, let’s say you write a travel blog and update three times a week. Your blog typically covers trips you take around the world, activities you can do while travelling, and how to find good deals, how to plan your trip, how to book a hotel, etc. Don’t write all 3 posts in one week about a trip to Spain. In the same token, don’t do three posts that are all about how to find good deals. Mix them up through out the week – write about your trip to Spain on Monday, then write about how to find good deals for hotels in Europe on Wednesday, and about fun family activities in Orlando on Friday. The variety will appeal to different readers throughout the week.

Of course, there is one exception to this rule: If you are doing a Series of posts.

Write a Series

If you have a lot to say about one subject, then a good idea is to break that up into different posts. This keeps you organized, but it also helps you to encourage your readers to keep checking back to your site every day.  Sometimes people just don’t want to read 1 long post that goes on forever.  If you find  yourself writing a lot about one subject, then breaking up into smaller posts can help you become more focused, and thus more clear.  It gives you an opportunity to explore a subject more thoroughly, which is a good way to provide relevant information to your readers.  The more thorough you are, the more credibility you will develop too, which help you increase your traffic.

To earn money blogging, remember this: Good content leads to more traffic, more traffic leads to more money. These are only a few tips for writing content. Also remember that you need to post regularly. Having good content helps you increase your traffic, but in the beginning it also helps to promote your blog, so be sure to network with other bloggers as well.

Are you using an analytics tool to track your site metrics?  If not, you could be severely missing out on valuable information to help your blog traffic increase.  Measuring your site metrics is a great way to analyze information about your traffic, which you can then use to make changes to your site.

What is “web analytics”?

Web analytics programs are programs that measure various details about your visitors.  They can measure all sorts of things, including your bounce rate, your number of new visitors (vs. returning visitors), how your visitors are getting to your site, what browser they are using, what operating system they are using, their screen resolution, what keywords they are using to find your site, etc.

Some examples of analytics programs are Google Analytics, Feedburner or SiteMeter.  Here is a list of web analytics tools.

Why Use Web Analytics?

Understanding your audience is one of the most important things a blogger can do.  One of the first lessons in writing is “keep your audience in mind” and with blogging it’s just as important.  Here are 4 examples of what a web analytics program or site can tell you about your blog, and how you can use that information to your advantage to get more readers.

1. Bounce Rate

One of the more basic things that a Web Analytics program can tell you is what your bounce rate is.  Your bounce rate is the percentage of your visitors that are leaving the first page they access when they access your site.  Lower bounce rates are ideal, because that means that your visitors are staying on your site for longer and are clicking around and exploring your site.  If your bounce rate is high, you want to analyze how your blog might be scaring off readers so that you can make adjustments to your site.

2. Site Design

If you know what browser the majority of your visitors are using, then you can use that information when designing your site.  Browsers have different capabilities, and some things might look one way in Firefox and another way in Safari.

For example, let’s say you’ve been designing your layout based on how it looks in Firefox, but you find that more of your readers are using Safari.  Your site might not look as good in Safari, but now you know and now you can adjust the layout so that it will look better.  If the majority of people accessing your site use Safari, but your site doesn’t look right in Safari, then you might have a higher bounce rate.  (Another good thing to do is use a website like BrowserShots.org to preview how your site looks in each browser).

3. Keyword Optimization

One of the more important things an analytics program can tell you is what keywords people are using to find your site.  This can help you understand how Google views your blog and what Google thinks your site is about.  It’s always important to know what your potential visitors would search for when looking for a site like yours, that way you can use that knowledge to use the right keywords and therefore increase traffic to your site.

You might find you are getting a variety of keywords for something unexpected or tangential to your topic.  Knowing that, you can reevaluate your SEO, the keywords you’ve been using and the topics you’ve been writing about. Maybe you’ll decide you want to focus more than that specific area of your topic and recreate what your blog is about. Or maybe you’ll decide you don’t want to rank for those keywords and you can rethink your SEO strategy.

4. Traffic Source

Where are your readers coming from?  Is most of your traffic coming from organic search results, or from links?  This is important to know because you don’t want to “put all your eggs in one basket,” so to speak.  You don’t want to have all of your traffic coming from one source.  If there is ever a problem and all your readers are coming from one place, your website might take a huge hit and, if you get a lot of money from advertising, your income could be hurt as well.

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These are only a few things that a web analytics program can tell you.  Try one – or even a few – out and see what else you can learn.  Play around with it.  When it comes to making money with your blog, you want to have all the information you can about how effective your design and your SEO are so that you can make adjustments to get blog traffic.   Having as much info as possible is necessary for the growth of your blog.

If you’re trying to monetize your blog with advertisements, then you ought to be aware of “ad blindness”.  Ad blindness, also called banner blindness, refers to a person’s ability to ignore ads on websites.  If your readers have ad blindness, it means they’re not looking at the ads on your blog – let alone clicking on them.

Obviously this is a huge problem if you want to earn money with your blog using Pay Per Click ads or Pay Per Sale ads, etc.  In order for your blog to make money, you need your readers not only to look at your ads, but be interested enough to click on them.

So how to do you combat ad blindness?

Adjust Your Layout

How your blog is organized can have an effect on where your readers look.  You can guide your readers into looking at a particular spot by using elements of your layout, by using color and by positioning your ads in strategic locations.  Ad placement is very important, and as this article shows, the best place to put your ads would be in the top left part of the screen (according to studies investigating where people look the most on the screen).  In addition to placement, you can also use different colors to make your ads stand out.

Write About Them

Some readers can be very adamant about avoiding ads.  They purposefully avoid looking at the ads.  Why do they do this?  They are expecting to be sold on something, but they do not expect that something to be useful or beneficial – just costly.

If you write a post explaining the benefits of the websites your ads go to, you’ll put the readers at ease and you’ll pique their curiosity.  They’ll have a better understanding about what the ads are offering, and therefore will be less skeptical of them.

Limit Your Number of Ads

Less ads can mean more income.  It seems counter intuitive, but think about it: if your page is covered in ads, this is just going to increase the reader’s ad blindness, and could even scare them away from your blog completely.  With less ads, your readers are more likely to see them, and also your site will be less cluttered, meaning you’ll have more traffic and more trust.  Therefore – increased profits for you.

Use Relevant Ads

If you want readers to click on your ads, you need to have ads they’ll want to click on.  If your blog is about cooking and you’re using ads for sports games, then your readers are not going to click on the ads – they just aren’t interested.  The reader is on your blog because they want to know about cooking.  If they want to know about cooking, then chances are they also want to buy something cooking related – a recipe book, a blender, or a butcher block maybe.

So in conclusion, to make more money, you can you can decrease ad blindness and entice your readers into clicking on your ads by using color and positioning, explaining the benefits of the products to your readers, only using a few ads, and using ads that your readers care about.

From banner links to pay per click, there are many different types of ads you can use to monetize your blog.  While these are great methods to earn money blogging, it’s important to know that there are other ways to make money with your blog that are a little different, that you might not have thought of or heard of.

RSS Feed Ads

Yes, you can put ads in your RSS Feed.  Different services like AdSense for Feeds and Pheedo place ads in your RSS feed post.  The different services use contextual ads or ads based on topic or category – a great benefit as you would only want to use ads relevant to your readers anyway.

Monetizing your RSS feed in this way is an interesting idea and can be a very clever strategy for increasing your blog income, if you do it right.  Some of your readers might not visit your site if they are reading your RSS Feed. If they’re not coming to your site, then that means they are not seeing any advertising on your site, which means you aren’t making money from these subscribers.  If you want to target those subscribers that do not visit your site, then putting ads in your RSS Feed might help.  You will need to have a lot of subscribers to your RSS Feed, though, for this to be worthwhile.

Consider before implanting this form of advertising: what will your subscribers think?  You need to understand your audience, and if you feel they won’t like it, perhaps you should consider another form of advertising. Many readers, however, will be used to seeing ads so I don’t feel it will be a huge problem.  You should also think about where you want to position the feed ads within the feed post – on the top or on the bottom.

In-Text Ads

In-text ads are a type of contextual advertising where particular keywords in your blog entry are used as links.  Typically these ads will have a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and when your visitor hovers over them, a box will appear.  Bloggers get paid on a per click basis.  Popular companies include Infolinks, Kontera and Vibrant Media.

While intext ads can be a profitable way to get paid for blogging, it is very important to take a moment to consider the possible implications of using them.  Think about what it means for your audience.  Some readers might find them annoying or frustrating.  This doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t use them, as some bloggers find that even when their readers didn’t like them at first, they did get used to them.  If you feel comfortable with using this form of advertising, but aren’t sure what your readers will think, consider implementing them on a trial basis, and monitor any fluctuations in traffic with your analytics program.

Some bloggers avoid these links because they are afraid it will confuse or deceive their readers.  Personally I think the double underline helps to differentiate between these links and normal links, but it doesn’t hurt to include a disclaimer on your site explaining what they are to your readers.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing refers to a type of advertising where you get paid for directing traffic to an advertiser’s site that results in a sale.  In other words, you place an ad on your site, and when one of your readers clicks the ad and then purchases something from the site, then you get paid.  It is actually similar to pay per action type ads.

These are very popular ads and bloggers can make a good amount of money from them.  Amazon has one of the more popular affiliate marketing programs.  To be successful and earn more money with these types of ads, you will need to make sure that the products you are advertising are products that you would stand behind and products your readers would find interesting.  They need to be appropriate for whatever your niche is.

For example, say you have a cooking blog.  If you use ads trying to sell sports books, you are probably not going to see a lot of conversions and therefore, won’t make any money.  However, if you use ads trying to sell cooking equipment or recipe books, then you’ll increase the chances that your readers will click the ads and purchase the item.  You can also go a step further, and write a post about the items or website that you are advertising for, and why their products will benefit your readers. Here are some more tips for monetizing your blog using affiliate marketing.

Keep in mind whenever you are using any form of advertising – whether it’s pay per click, banners, affiliate marketing, RSS ads, etc – that different forms work for different blogs.  One of the fundamental lessons in writing is “Keep your audience in mind,” and of course this goes for blogging as well.  It’s important to understand your blog niche and the audience that comes with it.  Some subjects will lend themselves to advertising, but some might not.

Your audience is so important when comes to monetization because the more readers you have, the more money you can make. So you don’t want to lose your readers by advertising too much.  Experiment with different types of ads until you find the balance that works.

If you want to see your blog traffic increase, guest posting is a really great way to promote your site.  It opens up opportunities to reach readers that you otherwise might not have been able to, as well as strengthening your relationship with other bloggers in your niche.  A successful guest post will also help the site that post on, and if everything goes smoothly they’ll be more interested in working with you in the future.  Plus, more readers will see your name and know who you are.

How to Write a Guest Post

1. Find a blog in your niche

Posting on a blog in your subject area is important for two reasons: a) the blogger will be more wiling to accept your guest post offer, and b) it will help you find readers who are actually interested in your blog. Since the point of guest posting is to attract readers and promote your blog, you want to post on a blog that has readers interested in what you have to offer.  If you try to post on an unrelated site, then even if that blog’s readers do investigate and take a look at your blog, chances are they won’t stay for long and they won’t come back.

It’s also a good idea to find a blog that has a little bit of a larger following than you, but not too big of a following so that getting a guest post on the site will be more competitive.

2. Build a relationship with that blogger

Read the blog, comment on the posts there, and let the blogger get to know you a little bit.  People are more open to working with people they already know or are already acquainted with.  Show through your comments that you are familiar with the subject area and that you have something to add to the topic.

3. Check for a guest post policy

Before contacting the blogger, check their site to see if they have any policies about guest posting. Some bloggers have specific guidelines they want guest posters to follow, and if you don’t follow them you could ruin your chance to post on their site.  You want to make sure you follow all of their rules so that the process runs smoothly.

Check to make sure that the blogger is likely to want to do a guest post – see if he has done them in the past. Also check to see if he has any rules about how to submit a guest

4. Approach the blogger

Send them an email explaining who you are, what your blog is about, what your guest post would cover, why it would be beneficial for their blog, etc.  Here is a great article that explains how to approach a blogger with a guest post.  This article has a lot of great tips for contacting the blogger, but there was just one thing I wanted to mention.  They suggest to include your post in your email, but I would probably avoid doing this in the initial inquiry because it might seem too forward.  Really, it depends on the blogger (which is why you need to check their guest posting policy) and is up to your discretion.  For some it might be fine, even preferred, but for others it might not. So just be careful and make sure you know the blogger’s preferences.

5. Write the Post

If they say yes, congratulations. Now it’s time to write the post.  Remember, this post is your opportunity to get more visitors to your site, so you want to make sure it’s perfectly polished.  Copy edit and proofread, even have a friend take a look at it.  This is meant to draw traffic, so you want to present your best work.  Plus, if your post is good, then maybe the blogger would be willing to do more guest posts with you in the future.

If the blogger writes back to you with suggestions or criticisms of your post, accept them graciously.  The blogger is helping you by accepting your post; they don’t owe it to you and have the right to turn you down.  Fix whatever you can and see if it meets their expectations better.  Of course you also have the option of not making those fixes, but then you might miss out on a great opportunity.

6. Respond to comments

You’re still not done, even after that post goes live.  Once the guest post is published, be sure to respond to any comments.  This is your opportunity to interact with other readers, and is an extension of the guest post.  If you follow up with the readers’ comments, you’ll establish credibility and build online presence.  The comments are another chance to get blog traffic, so don’t let that chance go by.

And that’s it! Once your post is published and comments come in, be sure to check your stats and see how the guest post affects your blog traffic.

One way you can try to get traffic to your blog is by optimizing your site for search engines using the Title tag and Meta tags.  This can help you draw in organic traffic, or traffic from search engines, as opposed to getting traffic from links pointing to your site. You can do this by using specific keywords related to your topic through your blog.  A “keyword” is a word or phrase that is related to your blog topic and is something that a visitor might type into the search box.

Using keywords helps search engines understand what your blog is about.  Search engines use something called “spiders”, which are bots that go through the content on a blog or website and help the search engines learn more information about the website.  Using particular keywords in your content helps the spider realize that your blog is relevant to that term when a reader searches for it.  The better the search engines understand your site, the more it will help your blogs traffic.

What are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are HTML code that you can put on your webpage to help search engines understand what your site is about.  Meta tags don’t actually show up on the page itself, so your readers won’t see them.

Title

The title is the white text that appears in that blue bar at the very top of the screen.  It’s also what will show up when your blog appears in search results.  Make sure that it is something eye-catching, keyword rich, and natural sounding.  You want something that will appeal to both the searchers and the bots, so that they understand what your site is about.  This is one of the most important things, and the right keywords can really help generate traffic.  So think about your title carefully.

Meta Description

The meta description is a short paragraph that describes the site.  Write 2-3 sentences explaining what the post is about that are – again – keyword rich.  Don’t stuff keywords in the description; it should make sense to humans.  The meta description is the text that appears beneath the link to your blog in search results.

Meta Keywords

The meta keywords tag allows you to list several keywords related to your site.  A “keyword” can be a word or a phrase.  A good thing to do is try to think of what potential visitors would search for to get to your site. For example, if you write a blog about vegetarian cooking, what would people who want to read a blog about vegetarian cooking type in the search box?  Different people have different ways of searching for things, so mix your keywords up.  Always make sure that you are using keywords that relate to your blog, and don’t use the same one too many times. Important: Never stuff your keywords and don’t use too many.

How to Use the Title and Meta Tags

Meta tags are just simple HTML code, which you can find here. For Blogspot bloggers, here is a site that can help you edit the HTML and Meta tags on your blog.  If you’re not an HTML wizard, though, then you can look for widgets or plugins.  WordPress has a few, like All in One SEO, but here is a list of other SEO plugins for WordPress.

One Final Tip

In addition to using keywords in your meta tags, you could also try to incorporate them into the text of your website or blog posts.  When writing your blog posts, make sure they are keyword rich.  Use these words in your writing naturally and where they make sense (don’t just stick them in there). It should make sense to your readers.  Don’t use the same keyword over and over again because that won’t sound natural to your readers, and it won’t look natural to search engines.  Vary them throughout your entry.