The concept is sound, 125×125 pixel ads aren’t obtrusive, they’re small, lightweight, but still gets the message out there.

Problem is, when putting 8 or even 10 of these in a two column layout you’ll get a cluttered block that looks worse than a set of larger ads would.

The New Format?

But maybe there’s a new format in town to gain ground. The GigaOm network runs 300×100 pixel ads in their sidebars, which looks clean compared to the 125×125 pixel ones found on TechCrunch.

While I think 300×100 pixels is a pretty decent size, design-wise, I believe it is better to look at what default sizes are being offered and sold by ad networks. The closest one is the not so common 250×120 pixels, the half square ad (being 250×250 pixel, or sometimes 250×240 pixels, hence the “half” part). This is an ad that works well in sidebars as well, without being to obtrusive.

Incidentally, both these ad formats (300×100 pixels and 250×120 pixels) offer the advertiser a total of 30,000 pixels to work with.

The Future of Blog Ads

With blogs being more like traditional websites, we’ll see more traditional ad formats. That’s the good thing with the 125×125 pixel ads, there are several mainstream ad networks (such as Google Adsense) that will offer this size, whereas 300×100 pixels is something of an in-house creation from Giga Omni Media. I do think that 300×100 pixels is a better aspect than 250×120 pixels, but when running the latter I’ve been able to get media agencies to push out ads on my site, rather than having to have the one odd ad spot breaking my design.

Big shot blogs are already running traditional ad sizes, just look at the Gawker (Lifehacker, Gizmodo and more) and Weblogs Inc. (Engadget, TUAW and more) blogs out there. This is because they reach a mainstream audience (as opposed to the TechCrunch ones, for instance), and that mainstream advertisers used to the traditional ad formats.

Both the TechCrunch and the GigaOm network are running traditional ad spots as well, with the leaderboard ad (728×90 pixels, “the new banner” size) being the most common ground here. They are also running squares, like the 300×250 pixel ad found in GigaOm’s sidebar, and the 160×600 pixel skyscraper ad on TechCrunch.

What’s Your Poison?

Think about this when you design the ad spots for your next blog.

• Is your crowd mainstream? If yes, look to traditional ad format.
• Is your crowd very much web 2.0 new media-ish? Then you won’t go wrong with either, and might even get away with a custom size if your readership is enough to get the advertisers to do custom ads just for you.
• Is your crowd the same as the blogosphere itself? Then stick to your 125×125 pixel ads for now, but be at the ready!

What ad sizes do you prefer, and why?

There are a lot of things you can do to at least make it harder for these nasty things. Here are some tips.

#1: You’re Not Done Just Because the Site is Up

make sure that you won’t miss a security release

Congratulations, you installed your content management system of choice! Good for you, now get cracking on that content, will you?

Wait! Before you get carried away and forget all about the code behind the system that powers your amazing site, you need to make sure you’ve got a solid upgrade policy. And by that I mean you need to sign up for newsletters, RSS feeds from development blogs, bookmark sites, and so on, to make sure that you won’t miss a security release.

Take WordPress for example. A lot of blogs are insecure because the operators aren’t upgrading to the latest version. This goes for all online code, be it forums or pretty simple scripts. If there’s a security issue, you need to fix it. Usually that means staying up to date with the latest software, so do that!

#2: The Plugins, Extensions, Addons…

It’s not just the actual content management system that needs to be updated whenever there’s a new version released, the same goes for plugins, extensions, addons, or whatever they’re calling the extra features for your particular poison. Think about it, you’ve got this plugin that does things with your database, probably somewhat regulated, but still a vulnerability enough to make things difficult for you should it be exploited.

As a rule, keep your plugins up to date, and don’t use more than you have to. Actually, it might be a good idea to delete the ones not in use.

#3: The Username and Password Thing

The importance of a good password should be pretty obvious to us all. Don’t use a word, use both letters and numbers, use some caps, add special characters, make it at least 8 characters long… Easy tips. Today, most web apps have analyzers that look at your password and tell you if it is a strong or weak one. You should probably take that to heart.

everyone knows that every install will create this master account

However, there’s another thing here. Your username is right there in the open, after some installs. When you installed your content management system, you probably got an admin account created. That account’s username might be admin, root, master, god, or something like that. Login, create a new account with full privileges, and delete the created admin account! Why? Because everyone knows that every install will create this master account, called admin, root, god etc. - and that means that anyone who wants to hack your site already know the username to an account with full access, now they just have to hack the password.

Don’t make it easier to hack than it already is. And make sure that the privileges of accounts match what they need to do. For instance, the user who writes all the blog posts is pretty public, so don’t give it full admin access, just what you need to write, publish, and edit posts. Sure, you’ll have to login with another account whenever you want to change settings, but it is worth it.

#4: Add Security Stuff

You need to find out if your content management system of choice have any particular brilliant security features that could make life harder for hackers. Like the secret key in wp-config.php for WordPress, for instance.

This will be different from system to system, so read up!

#5: Move the System Core from Public View

consider moving the core files outside the public folders

I’m surprised that not more online platforms doesn’t do this by default. Your content management system’s core files is the ones that power the whole shebang. Without them, the site just won’t work, and that also means that if someone hack them, you’re in trouble.

First of all, consider moving the core files outside the public folders on the server. You won’t be able to move the admin interface of course, you’ll need to access that online, publicly, but the other core files might not need to be in the public folder. This makes it a little harder to mess with them, which is a good thing.

However, not all systems allow this. One solution is to put the core files in a different folder than it usually is, which won’t make it invisible online or anything, but people just surfing known URL:s won’t find it without some hassle. Not too much hassle though, this is something that is pretty easy to figure out, so don’t rely on it too much.

I hope these tips will help you make your site a little more secure. Do you have some tips of your own, or perhaps experience gained by being hacked? Then by all means share them in the comments.

Of course you have already heard this all before, and you want to know what the “secret sauce” is that gets certain people on the front page of sites over and over, and the answer is simply: connections.

The biggest weakness in all of the social promoting sites is the fact that if you have many people give a thumbs up to your story, you will move up the ranks and get a fair bit of traffic, even if you don’t make the front page.

While systems like Digg and others are wise to group voting, you can continue to build up great stories and promote them by increasing your group, and only using groups that would enjoy the story to boost it up in the rankings. If you have a friend that wouldn’t be interested in an article you wrote, don’t send it to him or her. You can then create lists of about a dozen or so people, for different sites, interested in different things and tailor your promotion list accordingly. With a big enough pool of people, you can get your best articles promoted rather easily, and then, if they are really good, the community, once they are exposed to the article, will do the rest, and sometimes bring your post to the front page, where it will then be insulted in all its glory.

How do you increase the pool of people you can call on to help with promoting your post? Make friends! Network with people in the same boat as you, and when you have written your best articles, let them know. It might not always get the response you want, but if you give them the option of promoting it through one of the social news websites, they might just do that, even if they are just doing it to bookmark it.

Bloggers are very approachable. Even us here at Devlounge love to hear the ideas you might have in regards to content we should be publishing, so say your peace on the contact page.

Promote your articles often, become part of the social news/voting community, and make friends. All systems have their weaknesses, and in this day and age, if you don’t work those weaknesses to your advantage, you won’t get noticed. It is a sad truth, but a truth none the less.

RSS is a type of XML file which includes content from a variety of websites and web services. It allows people to easily track new content being added on sites. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0), RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.9), as well as Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91).

Many people have said that RSS is what has really made the web better and more useful, as we can subscribe to data, content and information from just about any website.

My grandmother didn't understand the usefulness of RSS until I told her that it is like subscribing to the favorite sections of newspapers around the world and having them all delivered to you as new stories are written.

WordPress and RSS

WordPress has many RSS options built into it, but some theme authors have forgotten to add the proper code to the header to make it easy for RSS feed discovery services, like Bloglines, to find.

To insert the feed into the head of your themes, make sure you use the following code:

To learn more about the feed options that WordPress comes with, check out the RSS Page on the WordPress Codex.

The Tips

Feature Your RSS - If you want to get people to subscribe to your RSS feed, the best way is to feature it the best you can, and as often as you can. If you don't, people won't notice it and thus they won't subscribe.

Write About RSS - I know it seems a bit comical that I am writing a post about RSS and one of my tips to increase RSS subscribers is to write about it, but writing about RSS, or your current subscriber growth is a great way to increase your subscriber base. It is a reminder to those that read the site, but don't subscribe, that maybe they should.

Give Options - With Feedburner offering both regular subscription options and e-mail subscription options, giving your readers many options can help increase the number of people that subsribe. This also includes giving them multiple feeds. WordPress comes with support for multiple feed formats, and allows users to subscribe to single categories if they so choose.

Hold a Contest - There are many ways to insert information into the RSS feed and you could hold a contest where people had to subscribe in order to find the keyword of the day. Usually, unless you are producing amazing content, most subscribers will quickly disappear once the contest ends.

Consistently Write Great Content - This is by far the most simple tip on the list, but for some people, it is also the most difficult. The reality is that sites that break news, have strong opinions, or teach get more subscribers than other sites.

While great content can be subjective, consistency isn't. If you publish one original article every day, your RSS subscribers will slowly climb. If you stop posting, they will most likely fall.

Conclusion

As adoption of RSS feed reading continues to pick up steam, you will want to optimize your blog to promote the options people have to subscribe to your site. There is nothing better than having regular readers, and subscribers are more likely to be regular readers than anyone else.

What are your best tips for increasing subscribers?

Don't Spam
I want to get this out of the way, as it has become a huge problem online with nearly every blog. If you are manually spamming someone else, you are not a good Internet citizen. If you are honestly wondering if your comment is spam, ask yourself if you would like to receive such comments? Or if you don't have a blog of your own, try to remember how you feel when a telephone marketer calls right in the middle of supper.

If your comment is only to promote your own site, then don't be surprised if it gets deleted as it detracts from the conversation.

If you are a spammer, and ignore this rule, I hope that someday there are laws that will stop you from having Internet access.

Fill Out Your Information Properly
If you want to make a good impression, be sure to fill out all the information requested. I know it can be worrisome to give out your e-mail address, but if that is a concern for you, create an e-mail account just for commenting on blogs. That way you can still start conversations with the blog owners if you so choose.

I have been able to build some amazing relationships with top level bloggers by commenting on their blogs. If I hadn't filled out all the requested information, they would have had no way to find me and start that line of communication.

Reference Your Response
When you are getting ready to submit a comment, you will want to reference what it is you are commenting on. Sometimes this might be very apparent, but other times, other people might not understand if you are responding to the main article, or to another comment. This is a larger issue on sites that don't have a threaded commenting system, but it is still helpful, and polite to reference what the comment is regarding.

If you say something like "I disagree", and don't say who you are disagreeing with, it can create confusion, and not help continue to build the conversation. Make sure you answer the basic questions: who, what, where, when and why? I know this can seem basic, but so many people forget to do this, treating comments like cell phone text messages or instant messages, thus reducing the meaning behind their message, and the value of what they have to say.

More is Usually Better
Text can be such a limiting medium, you lose out on pitch, tone, body language, and facial clues, and so adding more words to your comments can help make up for those shortcomings.

The phrase "yeah right", could mean so many different things depending on the tone. It could be sarcastic, honest, questioning, or a variety of other things, and without any more description, it is up to the person reading the comment to try to judge the original intention of the message.

The Reasons

Increase Your Traffic
If you have a blog of your own, and followed the above rules, people may follow that link, and see if you have more knowledge to share, thus increasing your traffic. There are many bloggers that swear by commenting on other blogs to build up their own. It shows that you have knowledge, an opinion, and that translates into something people will want to read.

Learn Something New
Recently, I had commented on another person's blog, and someone else had responded to me. It wasn't the author of the post, but instead someone else that had found the post, and answered my question.

Had I asked this question on my own blog, I might not have received any response because it would have been outside the normal target audience of my blog. On some great blogs, if the topic is right, and the comments are open, there can be more to learn from the comments than in the articles.

Conclusion

Part of the reason blogging has become as pervasive online as it has become is due to the openness of commenting. This has helped blogs go beyond their traditional media counterparts and their "letter to the editor" style approach to creating a open dialog between the writers and their readers.

I would love to hear your opinion on commenting, and any stories you might have on how it has been beneficial or a nuisance to you.

I was recently asked to review TNX, a new text link buying and selling service, similar to Textlinkads or other text link marketplaces. There have recently been a lot of reviews about this service, so rather than try to cover everything, I'm going to focus on the one side of TNX that would beneficial to people like me who own sites and are trying to monetize - the website publisher section.

Selling Ads on Your Site

Upon first visit to the TNX site (which I like to pronounce "Tee-N-Ex" although the actual pronunciation is "Thanks"), you are presented with two options: one for website publishers, and one for advertisers. Each link will take you to a FAQ about the service from the specific angle you might be interested in using the service for. Let's take a look at a few of the Website Publisher FAQ's:

Note: These are straight from the FAQ.

• Q:How do I benefit from adding a TNX system code on my website?
  A: When system code is placed on your website all the links that are purchased by advertisers will be automatically displayed on all pages that have TNX system code included. Whenever link on your website is sold to one of our advertisers, you get paid. The more pages you have on your site, the more links you can sell. Price of each link sold to our advertisers is calculated upon you page's search engine rating. Links on all pages of your website are sold automatically, all you need is to place the TNX system code on all pages you want to sell links from.
• Q: What is TNX commission?
  A: TNX charges its members just 12.5% both, advertiser and webmaster to cover all expenses including web hosting, moderators salary and the most important - advertising all over the Internet so more people join.
• Q: Can I control link ads on my website?
  A: Yes! Once ad space on your website is sold, you can see list of all links and URLs in your control panel. You will have an option to block ads, delete them or ban the entire website which advertising you don't like. We guarantee you will never see advertising of pills, drugs or any kind of ads that do not follow advertising policy. Every day we deny over 10,000 ads that do not comply with our policy.

On the left side of the FAQ page, I happened to stumble upon a Profit Calculator. I figured, what the hell, let's see what's possible. Upon entering in your url, the tool will calculate the amount of pages on your site and the link popularity. Once that is done, you have to adjust the PR for those pages. I set all of ours at PR6 (although we recently slipped to PR5). The calculator estimated I could make $8971.88 a month if I sold 2 ads per page.

Enough messing around - it's time to register.

After registering, either as a website publisher or advertiser, you are presented with the TNX Dashboard. From here, you can generate the code to add to your site, add a new site, sell your TNX Points (used to buy links), create a new campaign, and view and manage your current campaigns (among other things).

You may have noticed how I said you can sell your points. Well, what exactly do points have to do with all this? Points are how advertisers purchase links on your site. Points currently cost $1.20 for 1,000 points.

To get your site setup, you first need to ad the appropriate ad code to all your pages which you want to have ads on. The ads will be placed their dynamically, so once you ad the code to the pages you want, you won't have to go back and manually edit them every time you have a new advertiser. Once you have added the code to your pages, you have to add your site to the system. It will take about 1-3 days to get approved.

Other ways to make money

Maybe you are not interested in having text links on your site. That's alright, because TNX also has an affiliate system which will allow you to place banner ads or your own links to the TNX service, and earn "TNX Points". Now, you might be thinking, what do I want points for, I want cash! You can either turn around and use those points to purchase some link ads for yourself, or you can sell the points, either back to TNX themselves, or to another user.

Concerns with the advertising policy?

Many people get nervous with text links, especially a dynamic service where the code controls what is and isn't shown on your page. No one wants to see their pages littered with links to purchase Viagra pills or anything like that. TNX does have a good advertising policy, which states that they will not approve links that "have nothing to do with the chosen subject or contradict it. Also, we will not approve campaigns that advertise pharmaceutical products and gambling." Plus, because you can manage what ads get approved or not for your website, you have even more control over what kind of ads will be shown on your valuable pages.

Overall, if you are looking for another link marketplace alternative, give TNX a try. Have you ever used them? Let me know in the comments below.

Guest blogging is to write, free of charge, one or more articles on a known contact's blog as a favour. Benefits include a little traffic and recognition, maybe a link or two if you can make it relevant.

That said, to assure the quality of content remains and your readers don't get bent out of shape, I present you with some tips, as a guest and as a host. For this to work both sides must be in mutual competence. Before we get into that, let me share with you my definition of guest blogging.

For the Guest

Being paid to write a post and guest posting are two different things. If you're getting paid, you're a writer for that site. If you're guest posting, you're simply a friend doing another friend a favour.

If you're emailing another blogging asking to write a post for them, have a headline or topic in mind. On the other end of things, if a blogger asks you to help them out, work with them to come to a mutual agreement on a topic you both agree you can write a great article on.

The whole link bait and guest posts ordeal is one myth I wish I could abolish. Unfortunately there is a trend of guest bloggers making poor attempts at gaining traffic from Digg and other viral sites. I don't want to take any shots here, but in the commentary category my creative freedom somehow needs to be heard. The 'make money online' niche is a big one. The guest blogging in this niche is absolutely horrendous and because this whole area reaches such a wide audience, everyone gets a piece of it.

The poor guest posts in the MMO sector are due to misunderstandings between inexperienced bloggers. I'll say it: 95% of MMO online blogs are John Chow rip offs thinking they're going to be rich tomorrow. This produces hundreds of incompetent people without blogging common sense. I know you were thinking it

For the Host

First thing is first: should you squeeze a contact for a guest post? Keep in mind, while pulling a favour in, you might be called to return it in the future, if your guest isn't returning it to you. This isn't always the case. Personally, my blog is under my name and I would never have someone write a post at their own discretion for me. On the other hand, I do the occasional guest post, asking nothing in return. That's just me though, many people are quite on the contrary.

Next, you're not going to want to pick just anyone. Somebody in your niche, or close to it, is obviously the best bet. As someone who is design/blogging focused, it is a little awkward trying to fulfill expectations on a business blog.

For the record, when a guest post is quite sub par and readers know it, it's on the host. Why? As a host (the blog owner for the not so observant) it was you who chose the writer, or approved it. Don't pick any random person who asks.

• Look at their previous guest posts if any.
• Read their blog. I say skip it if they don't have one.
• Do they have something to plug? If they have an ulterior motive for leveraging your site, skip it.

The perfect candidate is one who writes eloquently with experience without being intimidated by the myths surrounding guest posting. Added bonus for having a popular blog in the same niche.

In the End

Don't be afraid of guest blogging. It can be a three way of pleasure (err, in the blogging sense) for the guest, the host and the readers. It's not for everyone, but if you think it is for you, do it right. It seems as if the present is a shaky time for guest blogging, but a little common sense goes a long way.

Connor Wilson is surprisingly enough a blogger also working as a freelance designer.

When

Before even choosing an advertising method, you first have to consider when the best time to advertise is. If you were a store and you had something to sell, the choice would be easy one to make - when ever you are about to launch a new product or service. But for the traditional site who may not have anything to sell, when should you put your advertising army to work? The typical result most people would probably say is, "when traffic is low". But is that really the best time? No.

When traffic dips, it usually has to do with other factors that simply increasing or beginning to advertise won't necessarily fix. It may provide that quick-fix-for-effect type of deal, but the traffic is less likely to stay. You first need to address these issues and get traffic back to normality before considering any major advertising campaigns. The best time to advertise, in my own opinion, is actually when traffic is booming. Why would this be? If your traffic is doing hot, that generally means your site is performing well. Maybe you just published a new article that has caught fire in the blogosphere, or received your first "digg-effect". Whatever the case, you want to build off recent traffic spikes, rather than trying to build back up to the normal line that would happen if you began advertising during slow traffic periods.

How

As I said, there are almost an unlimited amount of ways you can advertise. Hell, you could even drop mysterious boxes all around your city with your site logo and url on it if you aren't afraid of possible jail time. Let's quickly sum of some of the more major and conventional methods.

Banner / Graphical Advertisements:
Considered one of the more traditional methods, banner advertisers are simple and to the point. You get to display what you want in the form of a static or animated gif, jpg, or flash file. Sizes vary from site to site, but banner ads are generally very good performance wise because they are usually easily visible.

Text Link Ads:
The SEO wizards will say that text link ads are the most important and helpful in improving search engine rankings through advertising, because they are simple and direct links. While this may be true, text link ads can be a lot harder to spot, especially depending on the site you plan on advertising through. Some do an excellent job of making sure their visitors can tell what they are clicking on is an ad, and others hide their link ads all over the place, including in the footer, where they are much more likely to go unnoticed and un-clicked.

Viral Advertisements / Social Networks:
Is it possible to advertise on a social network? Yes. But it is very effective? Not usually. Posting every single one of your articles on digg may bring a few stray visitors here and there, but unless you have a lot of friends and a lot of diggers behind your back, these types of free self-promotion advertising methods will do little for you. If you don't make the homepage, you are not going to see much return. Of course if you could shell out the amount of money it would take to directly advertise on any social networking site, such as Digg, the incoming traffic would be a totally different story.

SEO / Hit Boosters:
One of the biggest gimmicks I find in the industry, and something I totally do not recommend. There is no doubt you've seen these so called services plastered throughout the internet. Whether it is in forums, spam emails, or popup ads, you are sure to have been bombarded with this kind of stuff before. You know, services that offer you 10,000 unique hits in 10 minutes for $30, or whatever it may be. I have personally never tried any of these services and never plan to. Each of theme always looks extremely sketchy to me, and I've always wondered how the hell anyone would be able to send some couple thousand unique visitors to me site in so little time. And you can be sure that no matter what any of these services may claim, the traffic is not targeted and not worth a penny. (Anyone think otherwise?)

Page Holes / Tagging Services:
Page holes are another form of simple text link advertising that I've never quite understood. A quick browse around many "designer" forums such as Talkfreelance, and you'll quickly discover that every want-to-be developer has their own page hole sites. Links for a dollar, what a deal! Regardless, what is one link, even if it is a PR6 site, really going to do for you when it's smashed together with all other links? Not much. Page holes and link tagging sites seem all but useless and are all but sure to bring very little traffic your way, but if you don't mind sparing a buck for fewer total visitors then a dollar is worth in pennies, then why not right?

Of the methods mentioned above, in my opinion the most effective and helpful ones are banner advertisements and text link ads. When targeted, they can quickly drive visitors to your site. Giving potential visitors a visual in the form of banner ads gives them something to connect to and draws them in much more than a standard text link would.

Where

Where you advertise is entirely up to you, but of course, effectiveness will only increase if you advertise on a targeted and similar interest site that will bring in quality visitors who will be interested in your content. No offense, but if I was to advertise on a baseball site, I don't think many of the visitors would care too much for design and development news. You have to make sure you are reaching an audience that will care about what the hell you are saying in your posts. Just because Joe's Computer Site may offer you skyscraper size ads on all pages for $20 doesn't mean a thing if your site is about swimming. Get my drift?

Also, you always want to investigate your possible advertisement places before making a purchase and commitment. Don't believe what you read, because not everyone can be trusted. Make sure that your banner will really be found on every page if it says it will, and make sure that PR6 website selling links for $5 really is a PR6 after all. Also, whether you plan on using banner or text ads, placement is extremely important. You want your ads placed high up on the page, but you also don't want them to be too obtrusive, because if their placement causes someone to accidentally click on them, that will only piss the person off and get them to close their browser window or tab even quicker. Even more importantly, and something you can do on your own end, is make sure the design of a banner ad looks good. Sh*tty looking banner will do very little in attracting anyone to your site. If a banner is animated, keep the animations limited and do not make them pause too much. Ideally, you want the person to be able to read whatever the banner is going to say before they have time to move away from it. If you plan on writing a story and adding in 30 frames to an animated gif, you are soon going to find out that not many people have the time or want to be bothered reading a novel just to see what you are advertising.

How do you advertise your site. When do you believe is the ideal time to advertise? Please share in the comments, and your tips may be added to the end of this article.

Running a well read, well visited personal blog is even better. It's no secret that the best traffic is organic traffic, from search engines.

The reason why SE traffic converts so well and is held on such a high pedestal is the SE user is essentially looking for your site. They might not know it, and you certainly don't but once they do find your site they're happy. They'll look at some other pages, maybe subscribe or buy something.

But a personal blog doesn't have anything to sell, except for your self, of course. The thing with personal blogs and search engines are that you'll be getting mostly long tail terms or your name popping up in Mint, or your favourite analytics app.

There are exceptions like everything else, where people may target certain terms that are mildly relevant, but the main purpose is for that oh-so-golden traffic.

What Should you do With Your Personal Blog?

There are tons of things you can do to better optimize your blog for search engines. After all, if you're not getting that one juicy term, then you're going to be relying on the inevitable long tail.

First, let me explain long tail search terms to those no savvy at the moment. The term simply refers to search terms, usually three or more words, that can seem random but the user finds a post or page from your blog that has the aforementioned words scattered on the page. Basically you're getting refined terms. A searcher looking for "design blog" might refine their search by looking for "web design and development tips blog".

So, lets get down to it, shall we? You want to optimize your blog to increase SE traffic which will in turn raise your overall traffic, readership and earnings if you've monetized. Sounds like a good idea to me.

The Definitive Guide to Semantic Web Markup is exactly what it says it is. Tell search engines what parts are important and in what order is very important, and will help your site in terms of SEO. Post titles are back links, and when they're served in <H1>'s they really increase the long tail possibilities.

When you're writing your headlines, you also have to think about search terms. I've personally written a couple of posts with titles laser targeted at range of long tail terms. While these posts are stale to my current readers, they bring in SE hits every day. Blog post titles can come from a couple categories, you just need to choose clever, concise or made for Google.

Another great article made to set you on your way to SEO heaven is "Search Engine Optimization for Blogs". SEO is something most personal bloggers don't know about, but it's something that is really simple at the basic levels. After you start developing, meaning more posts, better posts, more backlinks, more link exchanges and relationships, you'll notice your traffic increase.

Connor Wilson is a freelance web designer living in Toronto, Ontario writing his own personal blog.

We have all faced it - and extremely bad case of bed head...

Opps, wrong article.

But that is what it can feel like when you try to put your own site back on its feet after being off for an extended period of time. It is not something you can just shake off, and even loading on the gel (such as useless content) will only temporarily fix the problem (especially if it is not super hold strength). Everyone from the casual blogger, to large resource like this faces downtime at some point in their online history, and it can come from a vast array of reasons - from personal issues, to having a craptastic host that simply "misplaces" all of your files - whatever the case, chances are you lost at least some readers, and even more are at least slightly annoyed with a large lapse of new content, even if you gave them fair warning about the situation at hand.

After not writing for a while, it can seem very awkward trying to come up with topics that your visitors will find interesting. While if you run a personal blog, you could probably just talk about what your cat did over the past two and half months and all your visitors would come running back to you (yes, they seem to love that), but it is not always that simple.

You find yourself with questions running through your head that, when you were frequently posting, you never even consider. And the larger the resource, the more on edge you are with what you plan on writing. You don't want to come out with an extremely pointless post that will only drive people further away, but you want something interesting that will catch their eye in those long list of feeds and bring them back. How exactly should you do this? Here are some posting suggestions for that first "I'm back" post.

1. Be comical - Avoid a flat out serious tone in your first welcome back post, because readers don't want that. Instead, add some comedic flair to your post to get people laughing. Whether that means throwing in figures of speech you may never use in an actual post, or over-exaggerating the story about why your site / blog / etc may have been closed for so long. Whatever you have to do, make it funny.
2. Hit a Controversial Topic - Don't be scared to jump the gun and bring up discussion on a hot-topic issue. Chances are, it will spark responses from your visitors, especially depending on the topic being discussed. This is always good, because it drives readers back, and if they comment, chances are they are going to return to read others responses and possible respond again. If you're going to say, "Hey, I just got dressed today", don't expect a bubbling of activity.
3. Give Something Back - Another smart way of getting your traffic back up to the top of the mountain is to give something back to your readers. Of course, if you are a designer or developer, now is your perfect opportunity to release that new icon pack, script, blog theme, etc, and etc. Or, give something away in the form of a contest. Even if it's something inexpensive and rather weak, it lets your readers know that they mean something to you, and their viewership is worth a little bit more than just your time, but also your coin.
4. Avoid Getting Stale - I hate chips like this too, but more importantly, as soon as press publish on your first "welcome back" post, your readers are going to be expecting the return on consistency. Don't pound your head over what topic to write about and spend three weeks between posts because you want to be perfect. Chances are, you will not be able to win back your entire lost reader base in one swell swoop. It is going to take some time, so worry about getting fresh posts out as frequently as possible (still, put some thought into them, no one wants to read complete bs), but don't worry about getting dugg on your second post in a very long time.

The most important step: just get back out there and have fun. You may have had the unfortunate luck of falling off your horse for a few days / weeks / months / whatever, but it is still right there waiting for you to get back on.