Three Simple Strategies for Optimizing Blog Titles

1. Put keywords first.  I appreciate catchy titles as much as the next guy, but the fact is that search engines tend to rank higher pages with titles that contain keywords early in the title.  Here’s an example of two article titles that essentially say the same thing, but one is more favorably viewed by search engines.  Keyword Target:  envelope budget system

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Which one do you think ranks higher in the search engines? That’s right; the first one, because the keyword phrase used throughout the article also appears right up front.

2. Get rid of “stop” words. There are two places to consider removing “stop” words:  the article title and the post slug (what makes up the unique URL for your site).

In the example above, you can see that the second title reads well, but has a number of words not related to the article topic.  The words how, to, use, an, to, and don’t really add any value to the title for the topic “envelope budget system.”  In the first title the words saves, time, and, money have some relationship to the topic (besides and), and they do not break up the keyword phrase.

3. Clean up the post slug.  If you cannot easily come up with an article title that avoids “stop” words, at least remove them from the post slug.  If using an editor like WordPress you should see an editable “Permalink” field just below the title.  This field, by default, includes all words from your post title, separated by a dash (you can change what post information displays here in the Settings/Permalinks area of WordPress).

Remove “stop” words from the permalink, leaving only words relevant to your topic.  So using the same example again, the post slug for the second article title would read “/envelope-budget-system” without the other words.

If you are like me and neglected these title optimization tips early in blogging, you can go back and optimize your article titles.  However, it is advisable that you do not manipulate the post slug after it is published because search engines listings and individual site referral links to your post will no longer be valid.

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I just had someone contact me inquiring as to the price of a box ad in my right-hand sidebar.  I have no idea what is a reasonable price.  What would be a reasonable amount?

Most advertisers interested in banner advertising are want to get eyeballs on their banner to improve brand recognition, and potentially increase conversions.  For this reason, they are primarily interested in traffic.  You may want to consider providing statistics from a stat tracking service such as Google Analytics.

Typically, the 125×125 banner ads fetch anywhere from 0.75-1.5 CPM.  Where your particular price point falls on that scale depends on a number of factors.  Will the ad appear above or below the fold?  How strong is your own brand?  How closely aligned is the product or service being advertised with your particular message?

The higher above the fold, the stronger your own brand, and the more aligned the product or service is with your own brand, the easier it will be to price banner ads at higher CPM factors.

How To Come Up with A Number

I’ve often had success shooting for somewhere in the middle of that range as a starting point. Let’s put some real numbers to this example.  You run a blog averaging 50,000 page views per month over the last 3-6 months.  Using that low-end CPM factor of 0.75 you could offer the spot for $37.50.  But, this particular ad would be at the very top of your sidebar, a prime piece of real estate on your blog.  Using the high-end factor of 1.5 CPM, the ad spot would run $75 per month.

Unless you are #1 in your particular niche, or receive a ton of traffic, it will probably be hard to land a deal at the top end of that CPM scale.  Settle for somewhere in the middle, maybe around 1.2 CPM ($60 per month, in this example) and be willing to negotiate if you receive a decent counter offer.

A final word about advertising.  New bloggers, or bloggers just beginning to receive interest from advertisers, have a tendency to sell themselves short in order to get that first deal in place.  Resist doing this, but remember not to be too proud of your brand either.  Look at the deal from an advertiser’s point of view.  Ask yourself what you would be willing to pay to place an ad for your blog on another site with identical statistics, clout, etc.  Keeping this perspective throughout the negotiation should help you arrive at a number that both you and the advertiser can agree on.

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The post does reinforce a couple things I have learned being in and around blogging for the last couple years.  Some small sites do a great job of monetizing and make more money than sites with significantly higher traffic. This could be because the smaller site is better optimized to attract search engine traffic, or because it focuses on a tighter niche, which allows advertisers to target their specific audience.

Some topics convert beter than others, too, so no matter how many visitors a blog about organic gardening gets, it just may not convert to much money earned for the blogger (my apologies to anyone blogging about organic gardening).

If you are blogging for a side hustle it is important to consider which topics monetize well, and which topics you are passionate about.  When selecting a topic it is probably a good idea to list all the things you are really passionate about, and then research which ones have the most potential to earn money through affiliates, Adsense, etc. Pick the highest ranking topic that interests you the most, and start writing.

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One of the more time consuming posts for bloggers is the roundup post. A collection of link favorites seems easy enough to the untrained eye, but until you sit down to actually create a few of these posts you cannot appreciate the work involved.
First, the links must be identified and flagged in some way that you can refer back to later when creating the roundup post.  Then bloggers must create the actual post, which could simply contain all the links titles dropped into a post, or some additional editorial comments from the blogger on each article’s subject.

I usually do a little of both – some links don’t need further discussion, and other times I like to put my personal spin on the topic.  Depending on the number of links you choose to include these roundups have the potential to take a while to draft.  Here are a few tools to use to cut down on the time spent creating future roundups.

Alltop.com

AllTop.com recently made my life a little easier by creating a MyAlltop feature which allows members to select from AllTop’s list of feeds to create a personal AllTop page. I’ve been sorting through the list of feeds to select a few of my favorites, and these will serve as the foundation of most of my roundup posts.

Alltop lists the most recent five posts from each blogger, which is helpful if I am behind on my feed reader (as I usually am).  If I don’t have any links currently identified I scan the list of posts from my favorites and read those that appear interesting to me, or on theme with my current roundup.

StumbleUpon

Throughout the week as a I work through my feed reader, or follow links from those who comment at my blogs, I like to stumble those that are worthy of linking to in my next roundup post.  To go a step further, I leave a few notes on the article when submitting to StumbleUpon that will be the basis for my editorial comments on the post when I draft the roundup.

Each week, when it is time to write the roundup post, I simply go to my StumbleUpon “favorites” page, grab the link to the article and copy and paste my comments into the editor.  Most of the time I add a little to the comments to expand on my review of the post.

Notepad (Text Editor)

If all else fails I revert back to my handy text editor – in my case, usually just the simple notepad function on my computer.   At the beginning of the week I create a file called Roundup-date.txt where date is the day the roundup is scheduled to run.  When browsing articles and reading emails throughout the week I copy and paste the URL of those articles that are potential candidates for the roundup post.

You can accomplish the same thing by creating a draft post in WordPress, but this method has some drawbacks.  Obviously, if you don’t have online access you can’t modify or add to your list of links.  This may not be a big deal when adding links, but you may be offline when the time comes to set up the post, and without anything stored locally you won’t have much to work with. I prefer to use tools like Alltop and StumbleUpon throughout the week and then move favorites into text format a couple days before my roundup post is due.

Do you have any additional tips for making roundup posts easier to put together?

Photo courtesy of ianmunroe

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“I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while.” In a (hopefully) creative twist, I’m using that overused apology to my own readers as a way of showing what not to do when you’ve been away from the keyboard. In reality, I’m just looking for a way to spin my own apology to you for my absence! Either way, I hope to get across both points in this post.

How To Say I’m Sorry Without Saying I’m Sorry

Sounds like a riddle, I know, but there really is a more elegant way to return from absences on your blog than an apology.  Some bloggers like to jump right in with their next post, while others feel a need for an “apology” post, which is one of my biggest pet peeves in the world of blogging. I would rather hear about what’s been happening in your life than you wasting a paragraph or two to tell me you are sorry for being away and promise to write more – just write more; I’ll be waiting for you.

I think as bloggers we underestimate the loyalty of our readers and overestimate our own self-importance. After all, I recognize that the 150 of you that subscribe here have other things on your feed reader to read, and other things to do than read a blog about blogging.

However, I also recognize that at least some of you are fans (I hope), and are willing to hang around for a while waiting for my next post. In fact, some argue a little time away makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know about that, but I do admit to a twinge of excitement when I see one of my favorite bloggers has posted after some time away.

The Best Approach

Over the last couple years I have had the most success sharing a bit of my personal life with readers, regardless of the blog’s primary niche. It never hurts to work in a personal story or two to let readers know what is happening in your life, and it is usually rather easy to weave the story into your something that relates to your topic.

When I’ve deviated from my blogging schedule, I dedicate my return post to updating readers with what’s been going on offline. Maybe I was hammering out a freelance project. Maybe I was sick, or I took a great vacation (share pictures), or I just needed a break. Whatever the reason for your hiatus, keep things positive and be open with readers. Over time, they will feel like they know you, and this bond is what keeps them coming back to your blog.

One word of caution – avoid saying I’m sorry. Don’t spend the entire post apologizing, instead devote the words to updating readers and building anticipation for the next post or two. I have a blogging friend who took a week off for a family vacation to a beautiful spot. When he got home he promised to share photos of his trip throughout the week. I was glued to the blog for the next several days waiting to see evidence of his journey.

So Why Was I Away?

Those who follow FrugalDad.com may know that my mom is recovering from a cerebral aneurysm and stroke. She had a setback about a month ago and has been hospitalized since. Between working full-time, writing for Frugal Dad part-time, and caring for her the rest of the time, I’ve been away from Side Hustle Blogging longer than I like. My mom is doing better and we hope to have her home in a couple weeks. As things calm down I’ll resume a more normal schedule here. In the meantime, thanks for sticking around!

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If you’re a blogger—regardless of whether you’re starting out or have been doing this for a long time—do yourself a favor and bookmark Darren Rowse’s series on ProBlogger called 31 Days to Building a Better Blog.

That could be the end of this post and it would still be a fantastic tip. But since I’m here to give Jason’s readers as much value as I can (and because I love hearing myself talk), I’ll say a little bit more about this.

After you’ve bookmarked the series, try to go through every single tip and execute it. Some of you will make it and some of you won’t (I almost did), but your blog will inevitably reap the benefits.

I did this early on and it really helped get me grounded into the basics of blogging and becoming a more advanced user pretty quickly.

I tried to write a whole series on The Writer’s Coin based on each one of his tips, but eventually I got lazy and bailed out after day 13 I think.

Luckily for me, one of the best tips of the whole series was the second one: running a first-time reader audit. That may sound like some complicated accounting term, but it’s actually really simple. You ask someone who has never been on your site to sit down at a computer and explore it for the first time.

You stand/sit behind them with a pad and paper and take as many notes as you can.

What are they clicking on? What are they not clicking on? Are they attracted to pictures? Colors? Is the animated .gif of the ninja fighting the pirate getting a chuckle or not? Are they doing what you had imagined they would do when you were designing your site?

Eventually you’ll realize all your assumptions were wrong. But that’s OK because now you have a chance to fix them! You can ask a question or two, but try not to get in the way too much. Just watch and see what that person does.

I did this with my wife and I learned a ton about how people (or at least one person) reacted to my site. She liked colors and images, and if there was too much text in a row she was kind of bored and skimmed. Bold text helped break it up. And she was even tempted by some Adsense ads (which I told her NOT to click on!).

It was fascinating because I had made so many assumptions based on my own ideas about what a person “might” do on the site instead of real data.

The problem was I couldn’t find anyone else to do this with. At least anyone as convenient as my wife.

Fear not, weary blogger, I have an answer for you! You can get as many first time readers as you want through a company called User Testing.

Here’s how it works: you pay them $19 for every user you want and they’ll record that user on your site for around 15 minutes as they browse your site and talk their way through any questions or tasks you wrote for them.

I’ve seen several of their videos and it is really incredible to sit there and hear as many people as you want give you some pretty deep feedback about your site as they surf it for the first time.

Don’t take my word for it, check out the FAQ and watch one of their sample videos.

Now, if you’re really serious about blogging, you can use this site to get a TON of really helpful data on which to base decisions about how to make your site look and feel. After all, testing is the key to getting this stuff right. You don’t have to get 20 users, three is probably plenty, and the investment will be well worth it.

In case you’re curious, no, I don’t work for this site or have any affiliation with them. I’m just really excited about sharing it because the first-time reader audit I did with my wife was so insightful and so interesting, that I really believe it is a great service for bloggers. Especially since it’s so cheap!

This is a topic that I’m really into, so if anyone tries these guys out, please let me know what your experience was like and how it helped you with your own site. Who knows, maybe we can report back here and do a fun little survey of what the biggest things people noticed about their own site by doing a first-time reader audit.

Photo courtesy of Reinout van Rees

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This does provide a good opportunity to share with you a couple places to get updates regarding the Adsense service.  When I suspect there is a problem, I immediately check out Adsense Help Forum.  A quick view of the recent activity (bottom half of the screen) should reveal whether or not there is a global problem, or what you are experiencing is an isolated incident.  I rest a little easier if I see others reporting the same problem (as is the case with this latest issue).

Another place to check is Twitter.  Chances are someone you are following is chatting about the problem, and you can follow their discussion to learn more.  Tonight, I checked Twitter and saw Jenstar was already chasing down an explanation.

I suspect your stats will be updated tonight, or early in the morning for us East Coast bloggers.  Check back in tomorrow to see if things look normal.

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Most people blog because they want to share something–their opinion, their knowledge, or a bit about their daily life.  Others do it for more cathartic reasons; after all I have found writing to be very therapeutic and it often helps relieve stress to “get stuff of my chest” through the keyboard.  Regardless of your motivation, it is flattering when others read what you write and find inspiration in your words.  I recently shared a few ways to attract an audience, so now I’ll share ways to lose one.

Five Ways to Lose Readers

1.  Be a know-it-all.  Nobody likes to listen to a know-it-all, and they don’t like to read stuff from one, either.  If you want to really connect with people then you have to share both your successes and your failures.  I readily admit to my screw-ups when blogging, and then share the lessons learned from that experience in the hopes that it will help someone else.

2.  Don’t write anything for weeks.  There will be times when you simply cannot meet your traditional blog schedule.  That’s fine; most readers recognize that you have a life and will forgive a short vacation from posting.  However, when a few days turns into a few weeks, or even months, your site goes stale.  Readers have a lot of options these days, and if you fail to put out any new material for a long time you might just become dead weight on their feed reader.

3.  Be insulting.  What’s that old saying, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all?”  Yeah, I heard that a lot growing up because I was rather opinionated (still am).  But this is a case where you want to take the moral high-road.  It’s fine to disagree with other bloggers, or readers who leave comments, but do so respectfully and then thank them for sharing their opinion.  I love a good argument, and oddly enough am closest to those I typically disagree with, but only because they are as respectful of my opinion as they are of mine.

4.  Do not engage readers. Most bloggers will admit that they could do a better job of interacting with readers–via email or comments.  So could I.  But I do try to make an effort to respond to those who take the time to email me with questions or comments, and I try to respond to comments on individual articles.  One note about this, blog authors can sometimes be “thread-killers” in that they’ll jump in the middle of a particular volley of comments and squash the whole discussion.  It isn’t necessary to ALWAYS repond to every single comment, or interject your own opinion in a heated debate.  Let your readers battle it out; that’s what builds a sense of community at your blog.

5.  Allow ads to dominate your theme.  A few blog advertisements are acceptable.  In fact, I take them as a sign of a healthy blog, and I personally have no problems with bloggers earning a part-time (or full-time) living from their work.  After all, they are providing content to me for free, usually at their own expense.  But you can take monetizing too far and allow ads to dominate your blog’s theme.  While sneaking in the occasional affiliate link is fine, you wouldn’t want every single sentence to include an ad.  And you wouldn’t want 3/4 of your page to be taken up by banner advertisements, leaving only a small fraction of space for your content.  After all, it is your content that readers return to see, not the latest deals from eBay.

Photo courtesy of lepiaf.geo

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Since my last post on monetization, several of you have commented or emailed asking for more information on earning money via advertisers. One question especially stood out because it was a challenge I faced early on, and by not addressing it early I feel like I may have left some “debt snowball” money on the table.

How Do I Sell Ads On a New Blog?

That’s the question I received from a Side Hustle Blogger reader.  The short answer is, you can’t.  Think about this scenario from the advertiser’s perspective–you have little to no traffic, no rank in search engines, and very few subscribers.  Would you spend your advertising dollars to advertise on a similar site? Probably not.  However, that doesn’t mean you can’t look for ways to monetize your site early on.

Affiliate networks.  Early on, affiliate networks might be a quick way to earn some money through your site.  I belong to four networks, and can vouch for the quality of their programs, payment system, etc.  Commission Junction and LinkShare.com have been around a while, but upstarts like Pepper Jam Network and FlexOffers.com are giving them a run for their money.  I’ve found each network offers partnerships with a variety of advertisers that will likely fit the niche you are blogging in.

While affiliate banners might add some color to your site, banners do not typically convert well, so don’t have high expectations of ten people signing up for eBay through your banner.  Still, there is some value in adding aesthetically pleasing banners to your site as it does improve the look of the site, and it adds some validity in the eyes of search visitors.

Google Adsense.  Google Adsense is probably the most widely used advertising network by bloggers, and even larger scale sites.  Advertisers use Google’s Adword program to bid on keyword-relevant links that appear on member blogs.  When a visitor clicks one of those links, the advertiser agrees to pay the publisher a certain amount based on each click.

There are two schools of thought on early implementation of Google Adsense.  Some believe you should wait until you have significant search traffic before adding Adsense.  I say why not add it now and be earning some money while your traffic grows.  After all, even $20-$30 a month would be enough to cover many started hosting plans.  You won’t see a payout until you reach $100, which might take a few months from the time you launch.  But don’t despair; it adds up eventually and that first $100 payment feels awfully rewarding!

Amazon Associates.  This is one that I have yet to really figure out. Some months I do quite well ($100+), but others I don’t earn enough to buy a used book.  I do like the program itself, and I imagine for some niches it would do quite well.  Darren Rowse has made thousands of dollars through his Digital Photography School blog by making product recommendations and linking to relevant products at Amazon.

One of the best things about the program is that you earn commissions on everything a visitor buys, not just the things you link to from your blog.  I once earned $30 from a single sale because someone clicked on a book review link and bought a laptop, plus a few peripherals.

Affiliate networks, Adsense and Amazon Associates are my top three recommendations for making money with a new blog.  If you are fortunate enough to attract some serious traffic in those early months you may also be able to attract private advertisers interested in displaying their banner on your site, as a way to increase brand awareness for their product, or in the hopes you will drive traffic to their own site.

However, banner advertisers are interested in eyeballs; that is, how many eyeballs look at your site in a given month. From that perspective, blog advertising is much like any other format–billboards, print media, television spots, etc.  The more eyeballs you attract, the more opportunities to sell screen real estate.  If you continue to write quality content, interact with readers, and engage in social media, those eyeballs will come.

Photo by Rich Moffitt*

*By the way, the billboard in the photo depicts one of my favorite inspirational stories–Team Hoyt.

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