Comments on: Beginning Blogger Checklist: 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Blog

By: Melanie Nelson

Melanie Nelson — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:34:02 +0000

Katie, that’s a great question! I have an article that lists several web sites that provide royalty-free images: http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/2007/01/i-see-so-many-b/

I hope that helps!
Melanie

By: Nancy

Nancy — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:12:39 +0000

Thanks for the advice. I better go and scratch my blog now! Just kidding.

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:37:40 +0000

So, this may be a dumb question, but how DO you get photos for your blog? Do you only use pictures you’ve taken yourself?

By: The Blog Checklist – Part 1 «

The Blog Checklist – Part 1 « — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:37:03 +0000

[...] › 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Blog [...]

By: Trish Mullen

Trish Mullen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:34:52 +0000

Lots of experience and great tips I was able to pick up on there Melanie, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:57:54 +0000

I agree with all 5 of these tips, Melanie. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:57:48 +0000

I disagree with #1. I have added music & had positive comments & I enjoy going to blogs with music. If you don’t like it, simply click stop.

By: Antique Mommy

Antique Mommy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:45:40 +0000

Excellent excellent advice. I also hate blogs where the header is so big you have to scroll down half a page to get to content. And posts that make you click “more” to finish reading. Apparently I’m lazy.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:34:48 +0000

Andrea,

It doesn’t do you any good to be cataloged with the “click here” crowd because a) no one is going to search for that and b) there is no context to put with that keyword string. No one will find YOU when they are trying to by searching “click here”. Using keyword strings that mean something to your audience serves two purposes: 1) it tells the user what they can expect when they click on a link and 2) search engines have a usable context for your search terms.

When I attended Blog World Expo last year, I listened to Dave Taylor discuss how search engines find you. Essentially, SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) finds you via semantic and contextual analysis to figure out the themes and topics of your blog and its posts.
* Semantic Data is concerned with what are you writing. The search bots look at which words you are using, how frequently certain words occur, etc.
* Contextual Data is concerned with who links to you. The bots want to know what other blogs or web sites link to you and how they link (what words they’re using, etc.).

It’s that semantic data and keyword density that you are going for when you use keyword strings with relevant words.

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:39:22 +0000

Thanks for the heads up It is always nice to know these things!