If you are new to Search engine marketing , you’ll be forgiven for not knowing where to start. You have a website, you have your  own domain, its been out there for a while, but no one is finding you in the search engines, you’ve read a bit about SEO and links but its all a bit overwhelming.

SEO advice good or bad 

We all know that if we want to get lots of visitors and expect to get them from search engines then unless we apply a little SEO knowledge, we’ll never get past page 25 for our target keywords.

But is there a quick way to get off the ground? Especially if we don’t know where to start and can’t be fussed with what seems to be a torturous process of trying to work out who to employ or what to apply and in what way.

Continuing the conversation on your blog

This post isn’t really aimed at the hardcore experienced blogger, its more aimed at those just starting out, people like me in fact. I’m fairly knew to all this and tend to blog from a search centric POV. Whilst its generally true that its search engines that will give most bloggers their traffic, there are nonetheless a variety of other  ways you can drive traffic and build the conversation within your sphere.

Blogging is popular for many reasons. Be it a tool for self expression, a tool for self promotion or just a general communication medium, its a fantastic way to reach out and have a conversation with people with similar interests.

Its Friday, a time to wind down and chill, so I’m gonna respond to this little meme.

I’ve been tagged by Robin over at Fortune Watch (check out his blog for some great finance tips and pointers)

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Brad over at wordsell wrote an interesting piece on being a failsperson. It has inspired me to write a quick and dirty 10 ways to become a crappy blogger.

Do feel free to add a POV or two at the bottom!

Me been tagged. Becky (one of my favouritie bloggers) tagged me on this meme stuff. Its a funny old word ‘meme’, try saying it with scrunched nostrils. According to the define:meme thingy over at google its a cultural viral thing.

Anyhow, why do I blog?

Then the answer is simple. Work damn hard, have something to say.

I watched a video the other day from some guy in New York going by the name of Loren Feldman. I can’t find the link or recall where I saw it, but in a nutshell, Loren was talking about (in his own inimitable style) how this whole A list blogging thing is by and large bullshit. Bullsit in the sense of it really isn’y some mythical hard to attain thing. A-listers dont just happen overnight, they are not annointed to the A-list by the A-list illuminati, uh uh, no siree, they all get there through the same tried and tested route that applies to practically any other area of this thing called life and success relative to it. Hard work and having something to say.

Promote your blog…if you want to of course

Ever wondered how some people get more readers than others? Here’s a quick and dirty guide to gaining more readers and growing your blog base.

Sometimes it works on word of mouth. Some people have an exceptional ability for writing that others are just knocked sideways by and tell others.

Be it via email or IM or linking or just plain old fashioned conversation. After all, we aren’t all budding Billy Waggle Daggers and most of us (if we are interested even) will struggle to gain a big readership. It’ll be a slow long haul, but provided we write something thats legible and appeals to an audience of sorts, then overtime it will build. People like to be commented on and tend to comment on stories or issues that are of interest to them in some way. Be it making them laugh or cry or just striking a general chord.

There are things you can do to get yourself out there though, and there are lots of tools, techniques and websites that can help.

Earning money from your website or blog

This piece isn’t aimed at the uber serious long toothed web marketer, its aimed at people new to it all, people who are just seeking new or different perspectives on monetising their websites.
Adsense - Most of us know what it is, some of us do exceptionally well with it too. The stories about people commonly earning in excess of $10,000 dollars a month really are very true. Trust me, I know, Ive been there and worked with single domain sites that pulled in figures above and beyond,in the right niche its very much achievable.

I’m not going to go into the fine specifics of how its done as there are already lots of little tips and sites out there discussing this.

I like Michael’s videos not only because he knows what he’s talking about but because he presents in a non hyped up way. He also has a great balance between showing the potential that someone using AdSense can earn with it but also making it clear that it’s not ‘easy’ money (ie it takes hard work).

Darren Rowse was refering to Michael Cheneys adsense videos , a product I haven’t looked at personally, but as I trust Darren’s judgement I’m happy to go with what he says on it. I’m not going to purchase them though, because well, besides the bighead view of I doubt it would show me that much more than what I already know, I just don’t have the time right now either, Im too busy blogging and doing other day to day work stuff.

I recently installed a plugin that enables you to show your top commenters. It’s there to the right of the screen. I wanted to reward my mostive active participants.
As some of you may have read already, I don’t nofollow my commenters I think it’s a lame thing to do to people who take the time to comment on what you have said. Some blogging platforms place restrictions at the core program level making it very difficult for people to do very much about it. Not everyone can get in there and hack or change things they dislike. Lots of bloggers probably don’t even realise that their commenters are nofollowed simply because they are not as tech savvy as the next person. Not everyone surfs with a customised css file or firefox search status plugin! It’s refreshing to read that people with a broad reach like Robert Scoble are re-evaluating their positions although some like Anil Dash remain less convinced.

Anyways, this isn’t another anti nofollow rant, its more a case of talking about building a readership and rewarding those who participate and some of the stuff that has to be done to make that happen.