Free Blogger Templates

Including Subscriptions and Feeds

Many blogs include a subscription section that says “Subscribe to my feed”
(or similar wording) with a link to a page where visitors can sign up to read
your blog’s feed in a feed reader or receive it by e-mail. Figure 3-11 shows an
example of how a subscription link might look on a blog created with Blogger.
Blog feeds are syndicated by Atom or RSS (Really Simple Syndication). A blog
feed is simply a syndicated version of your blog’s content, similar to a news
feed or stock ticker scrolling on the bottom of a television news screen.
Readers can save time by subscribing to feeds of blogs they enjoy. Rather
than visit each blog to find and read new content, a subscriber can simply
log in to her preferred feed reader, such as Google Reader, and see — in one
place — the most recent posts for all blogs she subscribes to. Alternatively,
she can receive the most recent posts by e-mail for each blog she subscribes
to. Subscriptions and feeds are covered in detail in Chapter 9.
People who subscribe to your feed are usually extremely loyal visitors.

Building Relationships with Links

Blogger refers to blogrolls as links. Many bloggers include blogrolls in their
blog sidebars, which display a list of links to other blogs that they like. See
Figure 3-10 for a blogroll example. Blogrolls are a helpful way to build relationships
with other bloggers because the blogrolls are typically reciprocal:
If you add a blog to your blogroll, that blog’s author is likely to add your blog
to his blogroll. The more blogrolls your blog is listed on, the more possible
ways visitors can find your blog, which leads to more traffic. You can find out
more about links and blogrolls in Chapter 8.
Keep your blogroll current. Check the links every few months to ensure that
they still work. A blogroll filled with outdated links isn’t useful to your readers
or to your blog promotion efforts.

Archiving Content

Archiving is an automatic feature that’s inherent to blogs. Each post you
write is automatically archived (saved) by date by the Blogger software.
Archives help to make a blog easier to navigate. The most current content
can be read on the home page or by clicking through to the first several
pages of content, whereas the archive links can appear in the blog’s sidebar
for quick access to older content. Figure 3-9 shows how archives can look on
a blog’s sidebar.
Archives are useful for search engine optimization as well. Because all content
published on your blog lives forever (or until you delete it), that equates
to many, many possible entry points for people to find your blog on search
engines. Chapter 5 discusses archiving in more detail.
Imagine how many entry points some of the most prolific bloggers have. Think
of it this way: If you publish one post per day for an entire year, that’s 365
entry points for your blog. Multiply that number by five years, and your blog
has 1,825 entry points. What if you published a post three times per day for
five years? That gives you 5,475 entry points!

Adding a Footer

A blog footer typically includes copyright information, a link to the blogger’s
e-mail address, contact information, and sometimes a link to the blog designer’s
e-mail or Web site. The footer is located at the bottom of the blog page.
Many bloggers use their blog footers as places to add extra advertising or
links to monetize their blogs or provide quick links to posts and Web sites
for their readers. You decide which elements you want to add to your blog’s
footer.

Using Labels

Blogger uses labels to categorize blog posts. Your visitors can click on a label
of interest to find more posts categorized by using that label. You can also
add a list of labels to your blog’s sidebar sorted by frequency of use or alphabetically,
shown in Figure 3-8, which is a quick and easy way for visitors to
find posts about subjects of interest to them. Labels are described in detail in

Take time to label your posts strategically to help readers find your older blog
posts. Think like you’re one of your readers. How would you search for a specific
blog post? Use intuitive labels so your readers can easily locate related
posts.

Publishing Backlinks

A backlink is a virtual tap on the shoulder from another Blogger blog, letting
you know that someone else wrote about your blog post and included a link
to drive traffic your way. A backlink can be published beneath a blog post
when another blog links to that post. Figure 3-7 demonstrates how backlinks
look when they’re published on a blog post. Blogger doesn’t automatically
allow backlinks to display on blog posts, but including them is an important
way to help you develop relationships with other bloggers and to find out
how visitors are finding your blog.

Interacting with Comments

Comments are the lifeline of a blog. Because blogging, at its core, is meant
to be a social medium, the conversation that happens on a blog shouldn’t
be one-sided. Comments bring to life the interactivity and relationships that
blogging is all about. Figure 3-6 shows how comments look on a blog post.
People like to feel involved. Allowing comments on your blog posts invites
visitors to join the conversation and makes them feel like you value their
opinions. It also makes them feel like they’re part of a larger community of
people who enjoy reading your blog and sharing ideas.
Don’t ignore your visitors. Take the time to interact with them by responding
to their comments.
As your blog grows, visitor comments will increase, as will the conversation
and community around it. With reader interaction, though, often comes problems.
Remember that it’s your blog and that you have the right to moderate
comments as you feel it’s appropriate. Check out Chapter 9 for details about
comment moderation.

Posting Content

Each entry that you write and publish on your blog is a post. Posts are
arranged in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent post
at the top of your blog’s home page. Older posts are archived (typically by
date), so they’re easily accessible by readers.
Your posts are the lifeblood of your blog. They not only take up the majority
of the space on your blog but also help visitors find your blog. They’re also
the reason people return to your blog. If you continually update your blog
with fresh posts, readers always have something new to see and read.
If your visitors like what you have to say, enjoy your writing style, and feel
welcome (for example, they feel comfortable leaving comments, which
you respond to in a timely and respectful manner), they return frequently.
They’re also likely to tell other people about your blog and link to it from
their own blog (if they have one), leading to more traffic for you.
Blog posts are made up of these six basic elements, which you can see in
action in Figure 3-5:
? Title: The titles of your blog posts serve two purposes. They entice visitors
to read the full post, and well-written post titles help people find
your blog from keyword searches on search engines such as Google.
? Post date: The date you publish your post to the Internet appears as
part of your blog post entry. The date is important to visitors who like
to see that a blog is updated frequently. It can also help when someone
stumbles on one of your old posts by showing them when the post was
originally published.

? Author byline: The author byline is particularly helpful for blogs written
by multiple people. The author byline can link to your About page or
profile to provide one-click access to your bio for readers.
? Images or videos: Images and videos provide visual appeal, as well as
interactivity, to a blog. They can further demonstrate a point you make in
a post and when named well, can help with search engine optimization.
? Backlinks: Backlinks provide a virtual shoulder tap to other blogs and
Web sites that you link to in your blog posts. They also provide a way
for readers to find more information about a topic discussed in your
blog post.
? Comments: Comments are the pulse of a blog. When readers leave comments
on your blog posts, conversations start that can be especially
powerful. Highly interactive blogs are typically quite successful.

Filling the Sidebar

Depending on your blog template’s layout, you might have two or three sidebars
flanking or to the right or left of your main blog post column. You can
easily fall into the trap of cluttering your sidebars with ads, links, and other
elements. Although your sidebar is a useful place to put ads and links to
other blogs and Web sites you like, it doesn’t add much value to your readers
if they can’t find anything between the clutter.
Consider what your goals are for the space in your sidebar. If you want to
maximize your revenue-generating potential through that space, place just
a few ads at a time and then analyze their performance to see which ones
deliver the results you require. Publish the best-performing ads and substitute
poor performers with new ones until you find the best mix. Use the
remaining space on your sidebar to provide useful links and information for
your readers. You can see a sample sidebar in Figure 3-4.
Don’t be afraid to leave much of your sidebar empty. White space provides
welcome visual relief on text-heavy blog pages.

Following are seven of the most common sidebar elements:
? A link to your About page or a short bio
? Your picture
? Your contact information
? A list of links to other blogs (also called a blogroll)
? Labels
? Links to your blog archives
? Ads

Creating a Profile

Many bloggers overlook the importance of creating an informative author
profile (also called an About page) on their blogs. When visitors discover your
blog, they most likely want to find out who is writing the content. They may
wonder what the author’s credentials are or what background or experience
the author has that leads her to write content that the reader either likes or
dislikes.
Because a critical aspect of successful blogging is creating relationships, you
should write a thorough profile that helps readers understand why you are
the person to be writing this blog. Your profile page should include information
about the purpose of your blog as well as your experience and contact
information. Figure 3-3 shows an example of a well-written profile page. You
can find out more about setting up a profile in Chapter 5.

Don’t hide your profile page. Make it a prominent part of your blog so that
visitors know who you are.