Ninja Blog Setup

Optimizing Title Tags to Increase Traffic

Ninja Shawn — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:51:58 +0000

If your website is ranking well for various keyword phrases but you don’t seem to be getting your expected share of traffic, you might want to take a look at your page title tags. In case you’re wondering, the title tag is not the title of your post. It is the text that appears in the title bar or tab area of your browser window. If you use the All in one SEO plugin, you can set up a default title format or you can insert a specific title when you make your post.

The search engines use the title tag as part of their method of deciding what your page is about, but of course it’s not the only part. They also look at other factors like the content of your page and the anchor text of incoming links. More importantly however, the title tag is the first line of the listing that you see in the search results of Google, Yahoo, Bing and others. This is what the user sees before determining whether or not to click on your listing and proceed to your website. Writing an effective page title can mean the difference between the user clicking on your website or going somewhere else.

How do you write an effective title tag? Just remember that you have to “sell” the click. Often, as webmasters, we try to cram all the keywords we want to rank for inside the page title. Sometimes people write incredibly long and spammy titles that end up looking more like a novel. Let’s look at two examples of possible page titles for a search for “two piece golf balls”.

Golf Balls|Cheap Golf Balls|Discount Golf Balls|Two Piece Golf Balls|Tour Golf Balls

Wow, that one looks a little spammy doesn’t it? There really is no reason for the phrase “golf balls” to show up that many times in the title now is there? It’s just an indication of a webmaster who is trying to cover all the bases and make his page rank for multiple keyword phrases. But let’s get back to the user who has just searched for two piece golf balls. What if this next title showed up just below the previous one?

Tour Approved Two Piece Golf Balls at Discount Prices

Now I don’t know about you, but if I were looking for two piece golf balls and those two results appeared at positions one and two, I would click on the second result first without a doubt. Why? Because it’s easy to read and tells me the website has exactly what I’m looking for. Notice that the second result has the main keyword phrase of golf balls but still includes the secondary keywords of tour, two piece and discount as well. But unlike the first one, it is much easier to read and will be much more likely to result in a clickthrough from someone looking for two piece golf balls.

Just remember that the page title tag is actually an advertisement. It’s like a billboard telling searchers what they will find on your site. You want them to click on that title and come to your website so they can see all your wonderful content and hopefully generate some revenue during their visit. So if your traffic isn’t quite up to par, examine your title tags and imagine yourself as the searcher. Are you selling the click, or could you be driving traffic away?

What Every Blogger Ought To Know About Tags

Day 4 of 31DBBB: Watch Somebody Do It Right

Ninja Shawn — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:52:08 +0000

I’ve now finished day 4 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. At the rate I’m going it will likely take me 31 weeks instead of 31 days to complete the course. But that’s ok, I said from the beginning I wasn’t on any strict schedule. My main goal is simply completing it. Day four’s task was to analyze a top blog in your niche. I’m going to briefly point out two blogs that I have in my feedreader and list a few things I like about each one.

First on the list is Viper Chill, written by a young blogger who goes by Glenn. Viper Chill covers multiple blogging and marketing topics with the goal of teaching you how to make money online. Most of the posts are geared toward the blogger who has yet to make any significant income online, which probably includes most of the bloggers out there. Viper Chill has a very interactive readership. Just scanning through the posts on the home page at the moment, I see a low comment count of 27 and a high comment count of 95. Obviously, he’s creating content that lots of people like and want to discuss further. Currently, his Feedburner stats show a readership of 3,777.

The most interesting thing to me is his posting schedule. In December, he posted only four posts and with today being the last day of January, he has only six for the month. That’s a much lower frequency than most bloggers aim for but if you take a look at his posts, you’ll see what I believe is the main reason for his success. These posts are often massive and always filled with great content. Personally, I just don’t agree with bloggers who put a numerical goal for post frequency. I would rather not read a post unless there is some serious value behind it and Viper Chill fills that need for me.

Looking at the overall design of the site, it is fairly simple but has just enough visual punch not to be boring. Regarding monetization, well there is none. He does have other sites where he makes money, but this one is dedicated solely to helping others succeed and he’s chosen not to monetize it with affiliate links, banners, Adsense, etc.

The next blog on the list is Niche Store Builder, written by Mark Hansen. Niche Store Builder helps people build and develop niche affiliate sites. It’s a bit smaller in scope than the previous blog, but that’s the whole point of being in a niche. Mark’s blog is one of the best resources out there for anyone wanting to build niche affiliate sites. This is another blog whose readers are willing to interact by commenting frequently. Right now on the home page, there are several posts with double digit comments. Mark is posting about 15-18 posts per month, so about one every other day. Compared with Viper Chill, Niche Store Builder has much less content per post on average, yet it’s still pertinent information for anyone who is into building niche affiliate sites.

You can see from the social icons that Mark interacts with people on both Facebook and Twitter, so he’s marketing himself through the social networks and has a fair number of fans and followers. The overall design of Niche Store Builder is very attractive in my opinion. I like how the construction crane ties in with the whole concept of site building. Regarding monetization, Mark uses affiliate banners to promote various products and services on his blog.

The thing I like about both these sites is that they provide content that is truly helpful to their readers. This sounds like a no-brainer but there are lots of sites out there that just don’t do that. Many sites simply regurgitate stuff you see everywhere else. That’s something I don’t want to do with my blog. I don’t have any goal on number of posts per day or week. I would rather wait until I have something to say that I feel may actually help someone out there than to make a post for the sake of meeting some frequency goal.

I think both of these sites could be monetized better. It’s noble that Viper Chill opts for no monetization, but I think he could throw in a little without readers being turned off. People will still read his site for the great content. In Mark’s case, I think he’s written enough great posts on niche site building to combine several of them into some type of course or ebook and use this as a featured item on his blog. I’ll bet that would result in greater revenue for him than the affiliate banners.

So, what have I learned from these sites and how can I use it to improve my own blog? First and foremost, it affirms my goal of quality over quantity. Both these sites provide content that their specific readers find valuable and that is what it’s all about. People are just too busy nowadays to stop and read some post that is simply there because the blogger had to meet his daily post quota. If people give you their time, you need to give them back something great in return. Secondly, I want my blog readers to interact with me by making comments and continuing the discussion. These blogs do this both by writing content their readers are interested in as well as placing a call to action at the end of many of their posts.

What do you think about these two blogs? What do you like, or what would you do differently?

Next Up: Day 5 – Reach Out and Touch Someone

Day 3 of 31DBBB: Time to Be a Pitchman!

Ninja Shawn — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:19:22 +0000

I’m now through with day 3 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Darren lists 11 different ways to promote a blog post and I used a few different ones on my post from day 2. Specifically I used social messaging, social bookmarking and internal links. Oh, and I also got another blogger to link to it so that makes four I guess. As far as short-term traffic goes from this promotion, I’m seeing minimal results so I guess I’m a poor salesman. However, building links is a long-term process so I’m not concerned. If you had any significant traffic bursts from your blog promotion methods in day 3, let me know.

Up next: Day 4 – Watch Somebody Do It Right

7 Ways You Can Profit from Your Blog

Ninja Shawn — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:47:08 +0000

Whether you’re new to blogging or you’ve been at it awhile but haven’t seen the money roll in yet, you’ll want to check out How to REALLY Profit From Your Blog, a great post by Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income. I know you’ve probably seen these “make money online” posts all over the web and most of them are just a way to drive affiliate sales, but this one is real. Pat lays out several ways for anyone to earn an income from their blog. These aren’t get rich quick schemes. They are real ways to make money online. I use one of the ways here at Ninja Blog Setup (providing a service) and two of his other recommendations are on my list for future expansion later in the year. If you aren’t happy with the financial results of your blog, don’t miss Pat’s post.

Day 2 of 31DBBB: Making a List and Checking it Twice

Ninja Shawn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:32:29 +0000

I’ve made it through day 2 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, but before I talk about today’s task, let me say that I’m trying not to cross a line that I shouldn’t cross as I document myself going through 31DBBB. I don’t want this series of posts to be a free giveaway of Darren’s ebook. However, I do want it to be something people can follow along with after they have already purchased 31DBBB. After re-reading my post from day 1, I feel I went a little too far, so from this point on I will try to speak about the results of my daily tasks without giving away the actual content of Darren’s course. If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of 31DBBB, go grab it now. It’s very reasonably priced…less than the average book at Barnes & Noble.

Ok, with that said, today’s task is about list posts. Darren gives us eight great reasons why list posts are powerful for bloggers and describes three different types of list posts we can incorporate into our blogs. I chose to do the “post as a list” type and published it as my most recent post before this one. It’s titled 10 Free WordPress Themes That Look Like They Cost Money.

Let me know what you think. Also, feel free to post a link to your list post in the comments below!

Next up: Day 3 – Time to be a Pitchman!

10 Free WP Themes That Look Like They Cost Money

Ninja Shawn — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:08:16 +0000

If you’ve been looking for a free WordPress theme to spice up your blog but just can’t find one that doesn’t look cheap, check out these 10 great WP themes. You may find one that gives you that custom look without having to pay one cent!

Day 1 of 31DBBB: Baseball in an Elevator?

Ninja Shawn — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:01:04 +0000

Let me start this series by stating that it will most likely take me more than 31 days to complete 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. My goal isn’t to complete one task every day for the next 31 days. My goal is simply to complete the course in a reasonable amount of time. As busy as most people are nowadays, I think that is a more practical goal.

So here we are at day 1 of 31DBBB. Today’s goal was to write an “elevator pitch” for your blog. What’s an elevator pitch? It’s a short piece of information that you can tell people when somebody asks what your business is about or what you do. The goal is to inform people about what you do or what your site is about and leave them interested and wanting to know more.

This is a good starting point Darren gives us because it forces us to decide for ourselves exactly what our blog is about. What is the main purpose of your blog? What do you want your readers to take away from it? If you’re having to think very long about that, you’re probably in the same boat as a lot of bloggers out there, so it’s time to figure it out and develop your elevator pitch.

Here at Ninja Blog Setup, I provide technical services for bloggers who aren’t interested in handling the technical (or ugly) side of blogging. It’s kind of like changing the oil in your car. It’s a dirty job and most people would rather take their car down to the local lube shop and pay someone to do it for them instead. That’s the main purpose of my site, so I think my blog should mainly be focused on the technical issues of blogging. I want to provide my clients and readers with tips on tweaking their blog theme, various tutorials, informing them about security issues, passing on news about WordPress developments, etc. From time to time, I may stray from the technical arena and cover other blogging-related topics but for the most part, I want to keep this blog focused on the main goal of my site.

With that in mind, here’s the elevator pitch I’ve come up with for Ninja Blog Setup: Ninja Blog Setup makes blogging easier by performing the technical services most bloggers don’t want to do. I may refine this over the next few days but I think it’s a good starting point.

What is your elevator pitch? What do you think about mine?

Next up: Day 2 – Making a List and Checking It Twice

Follow Me Through 31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Ninja Shawn — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:38:48 +0000

Would you like to have a better blog? Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, just announced some great bonuses for current and previous buyers of his ebook 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, or 31DBBB as it’s commonly referred to. These bonuses are only good until January 19th so if you’ve ever thought about grabbing a copy, now is the time to do so. If you’ve already purchased it, you should have received an email from Darren by now explaining how you can get the bonuses. 31DBBB is very reasonably priced already (currently just $19.95), but with these extra bonuses it’s an even better deal.

I wish I could tell you how 31DBBB changed my life. However, my story is a little bit different. I purchased 31DBBB soon after its release last year with the intent to use it on a political blog I had at the time. I made it a few days into the course, but ended up putting that blog on the shelf due to a lack of time and the fact that political blogs are somewhat difficult to monetize. It was something I was passionate about, but I just didn’t feel I was getting rewarded for my time so I shelved it, along with 31DBBB.

When Darren announced his new bonuses, it made me think again about 31DBBB and my blog here on Ninja Blog Setup. This blog has been on life support for the past year and one of my goals for 2010 is to revive it and provide more useful information to my readers. I want to mainly focus on the technical aspects of blogging, but will touch on broader blogging topics from time to time as well.

Anyway, I’m digging out my copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog and will start going through the course again using this blog. Although I only completed a few days the first time, it appeared to be a really well put together course on improving your blog and growing traffic. This time, I’m going to document each day as I go through the course right here on the blog.

If you want to have a better blog (and who wouldn’t), why not follow along with me? It always helps you complete something when you’ve got someone to do it with! If you’ve already purchased 31 Days but haven’t used it, dust it off now. If you’ve not yet purchased it, go grab it now while the bonuses are available. Either way, get ready to get to work!

Day 1: Baseball in an Elevator?
Day 2: Making a List and Checking it Twice
Day 3: Time to be a Pitchman!
Day 4: Watch Somebody Do It Right
Day 5: Reach Out and Touch Someone

Another Happy Customer Switched to WordPress

Ninja Shawn — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:34:29 +0000

Here’s a testimonial from a client who recently switched to WordPress. Be sure and check out Jenny’s blogs and see what she’s up to!

I had my two websites with another company for two years. I paid over $600 a year for both websites. I was not only looking for a way to reduce my yearly cost of the website, but also a way to get them in a blog format. I wanted them in a blog format because I wanted to have a two-way communication with my readers and also wanted the possibility of being able to write a lot one day and have the posts publish for the next week. In other words, I didn’t want to have to write everyday, but my readers still get to read articles everyday! So, I looked into blogging and Ninja Blog Setup and another service were recommended to me.

So I decided that I would look into both companies and after several e-mails with Shawn, I ended up going with Ninja Blog Setup. Shawn is so easy to communicate with. He emails you back very quickly, answers all my questions and if he doesn’t have the answer, he investigates it until he does!

So, although I just wanted to have two websites transferred to Wordpress, I ended up starting two more websites. Unlike the previous company I was with, when you sign up for hosting with Hostgator, you can have as many websites as you want. So I just keep thinking of ideas and ask Shawn to set them up for me.

Now I am in the process of having Shawn upgrade my sites to Premium Wordpress Installations! Thanks, Shawn. I really am excited about the possibilities ahead.

Jenny Dean of http://www.floppycats.com/, http://www.antioxidant-fruits.com/, http://www.businessblogwriters.com/ and http://www.yoga2010.com/.

How to Easily Add a Table to a WordPress Page or Post

Ninja Shawn — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:53:41 +0000

Have you ever been writing something on your blog and needed to present it in a column format? Sometimes certain types of content are just more easily understood in a chart layout but unless you know how to use html, it can be extremely difficult to pull off. Fortunately, there is a great WordPress plugin called WP-Table Reloaded that makes it super easy to insert tables into your WordPress pages.

I just spent the past two and a half months redesigning my site and came across WP-Table Reloaded when I was looking for an easy way to add a chart to one of my pages. It installs just like any other WordPress plugin. You can download it here. Once installed, adding tables to your WordPress pages is a snap. All you have to do is put in how many columns and rows you want, then start adding your content. The columns will automatically adjust to fit your content properly. If you need to add more rows or columns, you can do so at any time. If you want to move a row up or down the table, no problem. Plus, you can even add links or images to the cells inside your table. You can see two charts I’ve built using the plugin by looking at my blog installation and plugin pages.

The next time you think a table would be the best way to present your blog content, check out WP-Table Reloaded. It sure saved me a lot of time.

Ninja Blog Setup

Optimizing Title Tags to Increase Traffic

Day 4 of 31DBBB: Watch Somebody Do It Right

Day 3 of 31DBBB: Time to Be a Pitchman!

7 Ways You Can Profit from Your Blog

Day 2 of 31DBBB: Making a List and Checking it Twice

10 Free WP Themes That Look Like They Cost Money

Amazing Grace

Gravel

Ali Han Natural

DynaBlue

Watercolor

Hanging

Nature_wdl

Retromania

Swift

RedTime

Day 1 of 31DBBB: Baseball in an Elevator?

Follow Me Through 31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Another Happy Customer Switched to WordPress

How to Easily Add a Table to a WordPress Page or Post