Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival of Better Blogging (CoBB #1). This Carnival covers pretty much any aspect of blogging: writing, design, analytics, infographics, etc. There are a lot of great entries in this issue. So please go check out as many of the articles out as you have time for.

If your entry was accepted, please support this carnival by giving a link back to this edition as soon as you can. If you submit regularly, and get in but don’t link back, then your own readers don’t benefit with the opportunity of being introduced to other blogs - which is part of the reason for a blog carnival: networking. If you did not get in, it’s likely you will be accepted in the next edition. [Please: no one-paragraph articles or trying to push your affiliate links.]

Enjoy.

Featured Posts

Here are the featured posts for this edition.

1. Pat B. Doyle: 23 Great Ideas For Blog Posts.
2. Carole Fogarty: Is Your Blogging Work Space With YOU or Against YOU?
3. Sutocu: Link Building Naturally with Link Baits.
4. isabella mori: flaming vs. appreciative communication.

Weekly Picks

Here are the remaining entries for this edition.

1. Edith Yeung: Want More Traffic? Find Out Here.
2. Ken Xu: Top 3 Idea Stimulators.
3. Silicon Valley Blogger: How I Boosted My Woeful Web Traffic.
4. K T Cat: The Pareto Principle and Corporate Blogging.
5. Rob: How to Improve your Google Ranking. [Video]
6. Bill Henderson: Writing a Good Blog Post.
7. Vanalli: How to Write Successful Blog Posts to Make More Money Blogging.
8. Etienne Teo: A Change in Blog Design and a Change in Fortune.
9. Charles H. Green: Trust Networks vs. Search Engines.
10. Doris Chua: Don’t Stop Blogging!

Bonus Entries

Here are some additional entries that I felt might be of interest, which are not specifically about blogging tips, design, or monetization.

1. If you’re interested in the finance/ economics niche, Laura Milligan presents the Top 100 Economics Blogs.
2. Don’t know what to do all the money you make from your blog? Read Millionaire Mommy’s The Powerful (and Addictive) Nature of Giving. She’s using her bounty to finance women entrepreneurs.
3. This has nothing to do with blogging, unless of course you’re not making money from your blog and have the blues. Read Gustav S‘ 10 Ways to Keep Yourself Happy.
4. But if it’s simply productivity issues you’re dealing with, read Julie Anne Bonner’s My Unbalanced Life - Top 7 Things I Do To Stay Sane and Productive.

That’s it for this edition. If you have an article that you think fits in, please use the Blog Carnival submission form. A couple of notes to consider before entering:

1. If you submitted your article on or after Sep 8th, it may appear in the next carnival.
2. Please do not resubmit the same article to the same carnival.
3. One entry per person per week (Monday through Sunday), please.

Not everyone agrees, but Technorati does have value to bloggers. If you agree, then you also probably feel that being on their  Technorati Top 100 at least gives your blog authority, and probably additional traffic as a side effect. It might also result in your blog accumulating more back links. So it behooves you to at least try aiming to get on their list - an activity which is essentially an exercise in link building.

Disclaimer

The fact that none of the blogs I write for are on the Technorati 100 (but a few of them are actually closing in) should tip you off to the fact that this article is speculation. However, it is speculation based on sound link building principles that I’ve learned after over a year of intense application of these principles. So, here are some tips for making your way towards the Technorati 100.

Premise

Being on the Technorati 100 list will bring you fame and fortune. Well, at least blog authority in your niche.

5 Rules

Here’s what you need to keep in mind, before you apply the 7 methods listed below.

1. Aim high.
   Build at least as many backlinks as the blog at position #100 in the Technorati 100. Then build more.
2. Plan ahead.
   Have a strategy to keep garnering backlinks from both new blogs and those already linking to you.
3. Factor in the momentum value.
   Technorati only counts blogs giving you a backlink for 180 days. That is, if Blog B links to Blog A today (as far as Technorati is concerned), blog B needs to link again before 180 days are up - counted from today. If that doesn’t happen, the backlink from B ceases to be considered in A’s Authority measure.
4. Could you repeat that?
   Repeat your link building strategy. If you gain, say, 10-20 new links every week of the next year, that’s about 500-1000 new links per year. Even with Technorati’s 180-day link value expiry, you’ll get noticed and gain links from elsewhere.
5. Set limits.
   Give yourself a time limit to reach #100. You can and should aim higher, though do it in stages. If you are aiming for #1, expect it take a while, even if you have a team of bloggers, link baiters, and SEOs.

7 Ways

These are only seven ways that might get you on the Technorati 100. They are neither the only ways nor are they guaranteed. It’s the sum of the parts, not any individual method, that will carry you up the list.

1. Target the Linkerati.
   The Linkerati are those people online that are most likely to link to you or get someone to do so. Suggestion: start by linking to all the blogs in your niche that are in the top 101-500 positions at Technorati.
2. Target the movers and shakers.
   Next, after success with Linkerati, target the blogs on the Technorati 100 list. These bloggers are much harder to get backlinks from, for several reasons:
   1. They get so many backlinks that they don’t “see” yours.
   2. They don’t know you.
   3. You are not in their niche.
   4. They know you and consider you a threat because you are following the suggestions in this article.

   At the least, linking to relevant authority blogs in a way that’s useful to your readers will build your authority, possibly amongst search engines. That will eventually pay off because other bloggers will take notice and link to you.

3. Be a profiler.
   Profile each and every blogger on the 100 list. Then email/ contact every one of them. Don’t expect 100% success in catching a backlink, but if you score even a handful of PR6-10 links, it’s worthwhile. You can also profile each blog on the 100 list. Indicate their method of monetization, posting frequency, age, etc.
4. Be an ass-kisser.
   This networking advice comes courtesy of Ryan Caldwell at Performancing. There are lots of top bloggers that will be happy to help you online. You have to find them, then give them something before expecting something back.
5. Be analytical.
   Analyze the Top 200 (authority, subscriptions, backlinks, or content-wise) and present it in an interesting fashion, with outbound links to select sites (at least 20).
6. Give credit.
   Come up with your own blog awards for various niches, and link to the Top 200. The Catch-22 is that your blog needs some authority (high subscriptions, medium PR) else the award may not be taken seriously. A quality, meaningful Awards scheme will still produce some backlinks, though it may require a year’s worth of work before that shows, so prepare in advance.

   If you can’t come up with blog awards try web award for resource sites or web applications. Be unique. Remember to contact each site about your Awards, and cross your fingers. If you’re really lucky, they’ll link back to you from their own official blog, which will count in Technorati.

7. Have a plan.
   Come up with other clever ways to get back links from blogs. Present info about a selection of sites. This could be some interesting way that you’ve clustered similar sites and made it easy for a reader to use. Or you could analyze trends [via ChrisG.com] in the Top 100 and publish that - making sure you link out to those sites. Keep in mind that you do not need to be on Digg to make the Technorati 100.

Return

The idea is that if you link to enough of these blogs regularly, and you have good content on your blog, at least some of them will link back eventually. At first, you’re more likely to succeed with bloggers in your niche in the 101-500 positions. That should increase your backlinks and thus your Technorati authority. Then, if you try again with blogs in #1-100 positions, you might just find that you get enough high authority backlinks that everything else falls into place.

Alternatives

There is another way to get on the Technorati 100 which I have not mentioned yet. That’s to be “favorited” by other Technorati members. Personally, I think that this is a lot harder to control or “calculate”, and it does not increase your Technorati authority. It also gets gamed due to “reciprocal favoriting”, which may get discounted in the future. I believe in organic link building, which means not targeting the favoriting method.

Caveats

On the other hand, now that I’ve revealed all this, it might be that much harder. Most bloggers will not want to lose their spot. Some will be climbing up the list themselves, and some might even not link to you out of spite. However, since the Top 100 bloggers are unlikely to be reading this article, you’re probably safe.

Conclusion

You’re probably asking why all this is any different than your current link building plan. In the worst-case scenario, attempting all this will garner you attention from other bloggers not in the Top 100.

The algorithm used to calculated the Top 100 is not necessarily perfect, it’s subject to change and being gamed. However, aiming to be on it gives you a mental focus. Simply by trying, you’ve put yourself in the mindset of producing a better quality blog, which in turn will result in an increase your blog’s authority and ranking. If you’re persistent with your goal, you might just get into the Top 100.

Links to articles about building trust with readers, improving or protecting your search engine rankings, and buying backinks safely. Note that a few of these articles are for more advance readers, in terms of implementing their advice.

1. Building trust.
   

   David Dairey offers some simple ways to build trust with your website readers. While these are easy tips, many blog and site owners have either forgotten to update or don’t know any better. This includes tips such as making contact info easy to find and including a photograph.

2. Annoying site design decisions.
   

   It takes more than trust to keep readers coming back. Does your site have design elements that might be annoying your readers? Check out DevLounge’s list of 15 annoying design decisions. To that list I add “low-contrast” pages. That is, colored backgrounds with gray text, and in a small font no less. I find this combo very hard on the eyes, especially at night. The shame of it is, it’s often on the sites of blogs I really like.

3. Fix your home page URLs.
   

   Do you know from how many different URLs most blogs’ home page can be accessed. If the number 8 surprises you, then you need to do something. Not doing something can mean that some search engines think you have duplicate content. It’s unfair but true.

   Here’s the basis of the variations:

   • With or without “www.” in front of your domain name.
   • With or without trailing “/” at the end of your URLs.
   • With or without “index.php” (only applicable to some blog platforms and CMSes).
   • A combination of the above.

   A combination of the above results in eight unique URLs. Chris Hooley offers an .htaccess tutorial to canonicalize your URLs. That simply means redirecting them to a single consistent URL. Note that this is a more advanced tutorial. If you don’t understand it, beg a more tech-savvy friend to help you.

4. Protect your search engine rankings.
   

   Even if you protect your search engine rankings by canonicalizing your URLs, it’s still possible that someone can steal your rankings. And with your own content on their site. Scary but true. Read SEO Fast Start’s article Google Proxy Hacking [via Sphinn]. While you’re at it, also read Hamlet Batista’s 10 Ways to Protect Your Site From Negative SEO.

5. Buying links safely.
   

   So you’ve built trust, improved your design, fixed your URLs, and protected your search engine rankings. Now what? Well, amongst other things, you need to build links.

   If you are of the opinion that it’s okay to buy links, then read Aaron Wall’s How to: Buy Links Without Being Called a Spammer and Andy Beard’s Paid Links & Reviews are Necessary for Relevant Results. One solution, by the way, is to sponsor weblog themes.

powered by performancing firefox

While surfing through the blogosphere randomly, I came across a Problogger post pointing out a reader comment by Jason, about how he (Jason) maintains both a full-time job and keeps up his blogging momentum. Many new bloggers find they run out of steam and lose focus. It happens to more experienced bloggers, too.

Jason uses a point system with different amounts for different tasks. Then he ensures that reaches a daily minimum of 50 points.

If you can maintain such a disciplined habit, it seems like an ideal way to ensure you’re doing something everyday that’s related to blogging. Darren Rowse added a few items to the list. Here are a few more tasks to add to the point system. The numbers in brackets are a suggested point
value for each task.

1. [2] Site maintenance/ fixes.
2. [3] Theme tweaking.
3. [5] Ad placement research and application.
4. [5] Topic research.
5. [15] Key content (tutorials, resource lists) and linkbait articles.

What points you actually assign to these tasks above is up to, depending on how important you feel they are. This sort of method will not work for everyone, but it could help some bloggers.

Having run a few blog carnivals for a couple of months now, one thing I’ve noticed that’s fairly common is that if a new blogger produces a relatively longer piece of “key content”, it’s often unformatted. That is, it looks like one big mass of visually intimidating text. There are no bullet points, no headings or subheadings.

Reasons

Here are a few reasons to use the latter, plus a couple of tips on how. The reason for bullets should be evident in the list below.

1. Eases scanning.
   Makes it easier to scan an article:
   1. Adds white space, reducing text density and also eye fatigue.
   2. Defines information hierarchy, cueing the mind on how to absorb blocks of information.
2. Adds authority.
   Partitioning information with headings and subheadings can improve search engine ranking authority for a page. It’s not guaranteed, but if you are producing lengthy resource articles (aka “key content”), headings can help with rankings. (This depends on other factors, including search engine algorithms.)

3. Eases production.
   Starting with your headings and subheadings when writing a long article to make it easier to produce such key content. The reason is that you have easily definable sub-tasks to work on, not one massive task that seems endless.

What to try

Here are a few options for heading use.

1. HTML headings.
   Try HTML h2-h4 tags for maximum effect. (H1 in most blogging platforms is used for the title of your article.) You can even customize h5-h9 if you prefer, by tweaking the necessary CSS.

   Keep in mind that the smaller the “n” in the hn tag used, the more important it is. That is, your primary subheadings should use, say, h2. The next level of subheadings should then use h3. Follow the hierarchy, as you would with headings in a word processor app such as Microsoft Word.

2. Bolded headings.
   Try HTML bold/strong tags on a line by themselves, followed by a “br/” (line break) tag.

3. Other options.
   Try underlines (solid, dotted, dashed, hairline, colored), colored heading text, different fonts, boxes, colored backgrounds (of the heading text), etc.

Summary

Using headings and subheadings (and bullet lists with bold short phrases) make it easier on your readers’ eyes, easier to absorb information. That makes them more likely to return, since you’ve made the effort to not only make their reading experience convenient, but informative with your key content.