Linky Tools (formerly Mcklinky) developed out of a need for a reliable link list generator. There was a time when there was only one game in town and, as that tool became more and more used, the owner couldn’t quite keep up with the demand and the service suffered. Linky Tools was quickly embraced and is used throughout the blogosphere.

inlinkz is a newer linky system that allows your participants to include a photo in their link. It makes the list more interesting and eye-catching. I can see how inlinkz would be a great tool for giveaway carnivals. Participants could include a picture of their giveaway and make it so much easier for others to find what they’re looking for without wading through irrelevant links.

Finding the Features Your Carnival Linky Needs

Linky Tools and inlinkz both have excellent features; some they share, some that set them apart from each other.

Shared features

You’ll find the following features in both inlinkz and Linky Tools:

• Optional images. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to have images in your carnival or maybe you just don’t like to have the images take up so much page real estate. That’s OK. You can choose to have a text list only. Just pick that option when you’re creating your new collection.
• Save your carnival. If you have a weekly carnival or meme that you share, you can save it so you don’t have to re-make it each week. You know how love efficiency.
• Title constraints. Any titles participants add to their entry are limited so you don’t get really long titles that mess up the display of the list. Everything will be in nice, neat rows. My OCD thanks you greatly.
• Cropping. When a participant chooses her image for the list, she has the option to crop it! This could be handy for showing specific detail of an item within the list.

inlinkz features

inlinkz offers some significant features that will help you administer your carnival and make it stand out from others.

• Users can delete links. Sometimes mistakes are made and when that happened with some other linkies, the administrator had to go in and delete the link for the participant. Not with inlinkz! Nope. You can delete your own links if you make a mistake or change your mind. One less thing for the carnival administrator to worry about? Yes, please.
• Real-time stats. Want to see how your carnival is progressing and how it’s being used? inlinkz has you covered. Figure out where you’re rockin’ and where you need to improve by tracking your collections with real-time stats.
• Voting. You can see the voting in action at the Clips-n-Cuts Around the World Challenge where you can vote on your favorite submission. That’s pretty cool. This feature is currently in beta, from what I can gather, but will be available soon.

One thing to note about inlinkz.com if you’re using the image list option: participants have to either have the image already in their post or know the URL of the image they want to use. Participants do not have the option of uploading an image from their computer. This isn’t a big deal, but it’s worth noting.

Linky Tools features

Linky Tools has a few features not offered with other tools:

• Different list options. You can create different lists depending on what your carnival is about including a basic text list (with text links only), thumbnail list (with images), and even a way to invite your readers to help create a story by leaving their contribution within the list (use the “create a story” list option when creating your new list).
• Blog hops. This is an easy way to allow many blogs to host the same carnival link-up list on their blogs. Everyone uses the same code, places it in their own blog post, and they all host the same list.
• Choose images from your computer or a post. Linky Tools doesn’t care where your image comes from as long as you hold the rights to it. You can choose a file from your computer or choose from the images in your post or on your site. You cannot provide a specific URL for your image.

Installing the Linky Code for Your Carnival

Both inlinkz and Linky Tools allow you to copy and paste the necessary code directly into your post (make sure you’re in the HTML view of your post) regardless of whether you’re using WordPress, TypePad, or Blogger. This makes it very easy to include a linky in your next carnival! I was impressed with the instructions on both inlinkz and Linky Tools; you’ll be able to be up and running in just a few minutes. The inlinkz instructions for setting up an inlinkz account and creating a new linky list have many screen shots and explanations to eliminate confusion. Linky Tools offers video tutorials on setting up your account creating new Linky Tools lists.

Being the Best Carnival Guest You Can Be

A great carnival will not only be useful to the host, but to the participants. The host is shining a light on other blogs to help showcase them. Remember that, although carnivals are generally open to the public, you’re still a guest at the host’s site. Good manners go a long way to helping the carnival’s overall success. If you follow the carnival’s posted guidelines and these few tips, you’ll find your experience may go more smoothly.

• Be brief. It’s tempting to promote yourself with your name, your blogs, name and your URL in your link title. Please don’t, though. The longer your title, the more it affects the columns of the list. In fact, this became such a problem, most linky generators now have character constraints the carnival owner can implement.
• Be useful. Consider what the carnival is about and whether there are guidelines about what to include in your title. Use keywords that tell others what they’ll find if they click over to your site. For instance, when I was doing the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival, I asked participants to include what they were giving away and where they’d ship. For exmple, Jane Eyre DVD (US/Canada). The title is short and it tells you what to expect. It’s not promoting my actual blog name, but once you click over, you’ll know where you are. And your blog is still getting the link love from the carnival via the permalink you use.
• Use permalinks. A peramlink is the link to a specific blog post, not the main page of your blog. Most carnivals require you to use a permalink instead of your blog’s main URL and your entry may be deleted if you don’t.
• Don’t double post. You only need one entry for each carnival (unless the guidelines state otherwise). If you make a mistake on your link, contact the carnival owner and ask her to delete your entry (unless she’s using inlinkz, which allows you to delete your own entries).

What do you think? Have you used either Linky Tools or inlinkz before? What was your experience? Do you have any tips or advice to add to the etiquette list?

photo credit: Jimby K

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What is a blog carnival? A blog carnival is when a blog owner hosts a party online and invites other bloggers to participate by writing on the same topic and linking back to the main host site. For example, when I was running BloggyGiveaways.com I held a Quarterly Giveaway Carnival. Every three months I invited other bloggers to host giveaways at their own sites, then come to BloggyGiveaways and list their giveaway with a link to their site (I’ll get to the mechanics of how you do that in a moment). So what we ended up with was a central blog (BloggyGiveaways.com) hosting a list of links to blogs with other giveaways. We were sharing link love (I was linking to them, they were linking to me) and people could find everything in a central place and didn’t get lost surfing from one blog to another. That carnival regularly generated over 1,000 links and my traffic increased by 300% during carnival weeks.

Which sounds like magic, doesn’t it? And I wish it were. Unfortunately, while a carnival can be a terrific traffic generator, it’s really hard to come up with an original idea that spreads like wildfire. It’s much easier to simply participate in carnivals and soak up the link love that way; you’ll still probably see a spike in traffic.

How to do you run a blog carnival?

What’s that? You’re not deterred? You’re set on hosting your own carnival? I say go for it! The carnival itself is fairly easy to run, it’s coming up with the idea that works that takes the most time. Once you’ve decided on the topic, here are some things to get you started on your way to hosting a successful carnival.

Establish rules and guidelines. You have to have guidelines or everyone and their dog is going to just come and link up at your site whether what their linking to is relevant or not. Then, when you delete them for not being relevant, they may be upset. It’s easier for you down the road if you know what you expect and convey those expectations to your participants.

Promote your carnival. You need to tell people you’re hosting a carnival, what the topic is, how they can participate, and what the rules are. So make yourself a pretty button and post it in your sidebar (include the name and dates of your carnival, your URL, etc.). Write up a post about what you’re doing and ask your readers to help spread the word via their social media outlets (and offer them the code for your button in case they’d like to use it in their own promotions). Give your readers about two weeks notice and remind them a week before and again two or three days before the carnival. Once your carnival is established, you might just need to remind them the day before or not at all once you really get going.

Use the right list-generating tool. Since a carnival is all about linking up together, you need a way to generate a list of blogs that are participating and have each one link to its respective post. There are several widgets you can use to achieve this:

• Mr. Linky used to be the only game in town. Unfortunately, the widget wasn’t always stable and it’s not much to look at so people started making new options. The Bloggy Giveaways Carnival used Mr. Linky.
• Linky Tools (formerly MckLinky) also creates a basic linked list of participating blogs. You can see an example at Works-for-Me Wednesday.
• Inlinkz is a really cool option because it posts a photo related to the person who leaves the link (h/t to Linda Sellers for alerting me to this tool). You can see it in action at Sweet Shot Tuesdays.

Monitor the links. This is the most time-consuming part of any carnival. In order for the carnival to be useful, you’ll need to keep an eye on who is participating. You’ll more than likely get a few spammers who are linking to irrelevant sites (delete them). You may also get a few people who aren’t using a permalink (the link to an actual article, not the main page of a blog). You’ll want to ask these participants to change the link because if readers click the link and don’t see what they expect to see (i.e., they see the main page of a blog that doesn’t have an article relevant to the carnival), they are confused and frustrated. The down side here is that you’ll need to delete the original link and ask the participant to re-submit her site with the permalink. She’s going to lose her spot in the list of links and be further down the list when she re-submits (which is another reason to ask your readers to use permalinks when you’re explaining the guidelines; if they do, they won’t lose their place on the list). If you find a link that doesn’t fit your carnival for some reason, you can delete it. If the blogger contacts you to ask why her link is down, you can point to your guidelines and explain why you deleted her link. I want to point out, though, that most people are happy to play by the rules if they know what they are. Once participants are used to how you run your carnival, you’ll see fewer and fewer issues.

photo credit: CatDancing

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Blog Roll Basics

• What is a blog roll? A blog roll is a list of blogs you like and want to share with your readers. Usually you list the name of the blog and link to the site. If you’re really ambitious, you may give an overview of the blog or link to some of your favorite posts from that blog.
• How do I make a blog roll? Making a blog roll is fairly simple. You probably don’t want to make it into a blog post that will get buried on your site. Instead, make a static page and list the blogs and links there. Then you can link to it directly from your navigation on your blog’s front page.

Care and Feeding of Blog Rolls

The problem with most blog rolls is that they can overwhelm you quickly. You have decide what kind of blog roll you want to share (more on that in a minute), how often you’ll update the list, who you’ll include on the list, etc.

• What kind of blog roll do you want to create? Just like your blog, your blog roll can be many things. You can have a blog roll of your personal favorites or a list of blogs that are relevant to your blogging niche. Maybe you’re writing a hyper-local blog and you want to list the blogs in your city — why not sort them by area so your readers have an idea of where everyone is? The possibilities are endless.
• How often will you update your blog roll? Many bloggers think a blog roll is a “set it and forget it” affair, but it isn’t. If you’re not updating blog roll regularly, your readers aren’t checking it regularly and it’s not useful to anyone. Keep your blog roll current and changing to keep it interesting to your readers. If they know you update the list regularly or on a specific day, readers are more likely to check that page regularly.
• Who will you include in your blog roll? Regardless of the type of blog roll you create, be prepared for some hurt feelings. I’m of the mind that your blog is your domain and you choose the content and links, but any time you start making lists, someone is going to get left out and, subsequently, have their feelings hurt. Lists always have a bias to them, and your blog roll is no exception. You have two choices here: make an all-inclusive list (impossibly huge and hard to manage, let alone update) or make a carefully culled list (more manageable, but feelings may be hurt). If you make an all-inclusive list, what exactly is your point? You’re listing everyone you read? Or links to you? Blog directories already do that. And if your list is all-inclusive, how will you curate it? How can you update it or change it if everyone is already listed? If it’s a long alphabetized list, what happens to the blogs that start with M when the reader got tired of sifting through the titles at F? If you make a carefully culled list, you have more opportunities to change the list as your tastes change or to highlight specific blogs on a rotating basis. Even so, be prepared to receive an e-mail or two from bloggers who want to know when you’re going to include them in your list.

Blog Roll Etiquette

Now that you’ve created your blog roll, what’s the next step? What are the ins and outs of blog roll expectations? The reason for your blog roll shouldn’t be to list other blogs in the hopes they’ll list you in return. Create your blog roll because it’s a useful tool either for yourself or for your readers.

• Should I contact the blog owners to tell them I’m linking to them? Even if you haven’t had contact with a particular blog owner, but you’d like to include them in your blog roll, you can definitely drop them a quick e-mail letting them know you’re linking to them.
• Should I ask for a reciprocal link? No. Asking any blogger for a reciprocal link is bad blog etiquette. Invariably it’s a newer blogger or a blogger with less traffic asking a seasoned blogger with more traffic for a link. From the new blogger’s point of view, they just want some traffic and recognition. From the seasoned blogger’s point of view, though, you’re asking them to vouch for you and your content (even if they do not read you), and you’re putting them in the awkward position of telling you no.
• Do I have to link back to someone if they include me on their blog roll? Nope. And if they imply that it’s the polite thing to do, they are misinformed. You are under no obligation to include them on your blog roll (though they may remove you from theirs — and that’s OK too). You might send them a short e-mail to thank them, though.

My Personal Thoughts on Blog Rolls

In my opinion the traditional blog roll is outdated thinking. The original blog roll was a list of sites you liked and was extremely popular about five years ago. New bloggers would make them as a way to keep track of what they liked and to share those interests with their readers. After a few months, the novelty wore off and those bloggers ditched the blog roll and just linked to other bloggers within their regular posts (which was actually a more effective way of introducing your audience to a new blogger because it didn’t involve a click to another page; the link was obvious, not buried somewhere else). In fact, it turns out that most people don’t check your blog roll regularly whether you’re updating it or not. A reader may check it once or twice a year (and that’s being generous).

Now that most people use RSS feeds, e-mail feeds, Twitter, and Facebook as their link sources, blog rolls as they were five years ago just aren’t necessary. Instead, the blog roll has evolved and, if created well, is a helpful list of resources for your new readers. For instance, if you’re writing a blog about home decorating, it could be extremely useful to have a list of the other top blogs or resources for your niche so you audience can find even more information. A list like this helps your audience find relevant sites, establishes your authority (since you know where are the good blogs are in your niche), and is just plain old good will toward others.

Another evolution of the blog roll is the microblog. Instead of creating a static blog roll I need to update regularly, I use Tumblr to share links from the blogs I read. If you’re subscribed to the BB101 Tumblr RSS or my Twitter feed you’ll see my links throughout the day. That takes pressure off me to to update something and pressure off you to check a static page to see if it’s changed. Win-win.

photo credit: theparadigmshifter

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The signature is short, informative, and, best of all, easy to set up! To set up your own signature, just follow the steps below.

1. Go to http://www.wisestamp.com/
2. Click the Download Now button. This will download the software to your computer (it’s safe) so you can customize it an use it. (You may have to re-start your browser in order for it to recognize you’ve installed new software.)
3. Find the WiseStamp icon in the bottom right corner of your browser (it looks like the old-fashioned ink stamp with a handle that they in their logo).
4. Click on the WiseStamp icon and choose Edit Signature. A new dialog box will come up with information you can customize. At the top of the dialog box are two tabs: General and Settings

The General Tab
This is where you’ll be able to see what your signature looks like as you build it. You can even build different signatures to appear on business or personal e-mails.

To start building your signature, choose whether this is your personal or business signature, then start typing your information into the text box. This is the info I included (but you can use whatever is relevant to you):

You can use the dashboard to add formatting to your signature. Just highlight whatever you’d like to format and choose the related button from the dashboard. For example, if I wanted to bold my name, I’d highlight Melanie Nelson, then click the B button on the dashboard. To add a link, highlight the URL or word(s) you’d like to make into a link and click the link button (looks like the earth with a chain link). Then type in the URL or permalink you’d like to include. In my own signature, I linked all of the URLs to their respective web sites and the title of the book to Amazon.

Once your text signature is complete, look underneath the text box and start filling in the relevant social media accounts, IM, and RSS information. I like to include my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. I also included links to the BB101 Tumblr blog and the BB101 Amazon store. If you look at my signature above, you’ll see the social media icons for each item.

Settings Tab
The settings tab gives you even more options relating to how your signature will display. I won’t go into each of the options because that would take too long. However, you can try things and tweak or change them as necessary until your signature looks exactly as you’d like it to appear.

A version of this article was posted at BlogHer.com.

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The Quick & Dirty List of SEO Tips

Blog Posts

• Use a good, clear title that tells reader what the post is about.
• Use bold subheads for clarity (header tags have more authority than bold).
• Focus your post(s) instead of writing about several topics at once.
• Make sure your link text includes keywords, and not just “click here”.
• Update your blog frequently — Google comes if you’re updating regularly.
• Instead of using a weekly generic post title (e.g., Works for Me Wednesday), use a descriptive title w/a dash (e.g., SEO Training in Two Minutes – Works for Me Wednesday).
• Make sure your popular posts have a call to action (ask your readers to answer a question, link to another related article, etc.)

Pictures

• Use captions for photos w/your keywords.
• Rename your pictures to reflect your keywords or what the pictures show (Google image search can drive a lot of traffic!).
• Use dashes, not underlines, when you name your pictures.
• image captions can be the same as your Alt info.

Meta information

• Use tags as a navigational tool and to help w/SEO for posts that have SEO-unfriendly titles.
• You don’t need to use META keywords in your <head> or <body> tags because search engines ignore them completely.
• Google dislikes text link ads so make sure they are NoFollow.

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What do NoFollow and DoFollow mean?

When you create a link within your blog, whether it’s on your sidebar, within your article content, or in a comment, a regular link will be coded similar to this (obviously the URL and link text will be your own):

<a href=”http://www.bloggingbasics101.com”>Blogging Basics 101</a>

If a link is tagged as NoFollow, it will look similar to this (again with your own information):

<a href=”http://www.bloggingbasics101.com” rel=”nofollow”>Blogging Basics 101</a>

The part that defines the link as NoFollow is the rel=”nofollow”. If you take that out, your link becomes DoFollow. There is no actual DoFollow tag. The absence of the NoFollow tag makes the link DoFollow.

If a blog or web site doesn’t use the NoFollow tag, the search engines acknowledge the link; if a site does use the NoFollow tag, the search engines do not acknowledge the link. Why does this matter? In a previous article, I explained Google pagerank. Basically, if a site with a high pagerank links to you, Google increases your authority, and in turn, your pagerank. Those links can be links directly to something you wrote or links left in comments (since most commenting forms allow you to include your URL). But what if that site with the higher pagerank is using the NoFollow tag and not sharing the love? Well, Google ignores the fact that the site links to you and you don’t get the increased authority or pagerank. It is therefore desirable to interact with DoFollow blogs or web sites.

Is Your Blog DoFollow?

Most web sites have the NoFollow tag automatically enabled. Check out these article for tips on figuring out whether your blog is DoFollow or NoFollow:

• How to Tell If Your Blog Is Do Follow via Newru
• How to Tell if a Link is NoFollowed via Search Engine Guide
• How Do I Know if a Blog Is Do Follow? via DoFollow Blog Information

Should You Use the DoFollow Tag?

Your readers will appreciate it if you don’t use NoFollow tagging. After all, you’ll be building their authority. It’s a way to give back to your community. Like everything, though, there’s a downside to being a DoFollow site: spammers may inundate a DoFollow blog with comments and links. If you choose to become a DoFollow site, be aware that you may experience an increase in spam comments and it may take more time to filter out the spammy stuff.

If you decide ditching the NoFollow tags is worth it, here are some links to help you change your blog to DoFollow:

• Self-hosted WordPress
• TypePad (you’ll need to have Advanced Templates enabled)
• Blogger

When should you consider using the NoFollow tag?

Not every link is created equal. Every site has links that are less important or link to pages that don’t change (e.g., a site map or your About Me page). Use the NoFollow tag for those links. In addition to low priority links, Google suggests using the NoFollow tag for untrusted content and paid links. If you have text link ads on your site, make sure they’re tagged as NoFollow.

Further Reading

• Debate: DoFollow vs. NoFollow Links via Blogussion
• DoFollow FAQ via PageRush
• Nofollow Links – The Good Side and The Bad Side via All Blogging Tips
• NoFollow vs. DoFollow: Who Wins? via Free Blog Help
• Understanding What the “No Follow” Tag Can Do For You via eVisibility

A version of this article was also posted at BlogHer.com.

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Twitterfeed
Twitterfeed allows you set it and forget it (wow, I really hope that’s not trademarked by the Ronco guy–it’s just so snappy). By associating your blog’s RSS with your Twitterfeed account, any time you publish a new article on your blog, the URL is shortened via bit.ly and fed directly to Twitter via your Twitter account (you can also feed it to Facebook). In addition, the confirmation email I received said, “If you use Feedburner and have authorized their awareness api then you can also see those stats on your dashboard, making it easy to compare your traditional RSS distribution with Twitterfeed’s social distribution.” If you take advantage of that feature, you could find some interesting correlations.

To set up a Twitterfeed account:

1. Go to Twitterfeed.com.
2. Complete the sign-up form with an email address and password.
3. Choose whether you’d like your feed to be sent to Twitter or Facebook.
4. Connect with the appropriate account by clicking either the Authenticate Twitter (to send your feed to Twitter) or Connect with Facebook (to send your feed to Facebook) button.
5. Type in the name of the feed you want to send out.
6. Type in the URL of the feed you want to send out.
7. Click Update Feed.

If you like, you can use the advanced settings to set

• update frequency (every 30 minutes, every hour, on up to every day)
• whether to include the title and/or post description
• which service to use to shorten your links (e.g., bit.ly, SnipURL, TinyURL, etc.)
• post prefixes and suffixes

TypePad
TypePad has recently unveiled some new feature to its software. One of those features allows you to share your newest posts with Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed as they are published. To use this feature, though, you’ll need to link your TypePad account with those third-party social media tools. Just go to Settings > Sharing and choose which accounts you want to share your TypePad posts with. Right now you can only share your posts with Twitter, Facebook, or FriendFeed. Once you’ve established a connection between your TypePad account and your other social media accounts, follow these instructions for sharing your posts with Twitter (and/or Facebook and FriendFeed):

1. Write your post as usual.
2. Check the box next to Twitter (and/or Facebook and FriendFeed) under Share This Post in the right sidebar of the New Post page.
3. Save/publish your post as usual. When the post is published, TypePad will send the permalink of the article (shortend via bit.ly) to the accounts you checked.

Do it yourself
You may not want to tweet everything you post. Many people choose to tweet only posts by others or posts they’ve written themselves only if it relates to a specific, current conversation. In those cases, you can simply paste the permalink into your tweet and Twitter will automatically shorten the link via bit.ly.

You’ve probably noticed that the tools I’ve recommended all use bit.ly to shorten your URLs. It’s by far the most popular URL-shortener and I encourage you to try it out. The feature that makes bit.ly so popular, I think, is that it allows you to set up an account with them and track how many click-throughs your bit.ly links receive. If you’re tracking that information, you can really get a good idea of which social media communities are using your information consistently. You can also track which topics are more popular than others. When it comes to data tracking, the possibilities are endless. Bit.ly is just one more tool for your arsenal.

Related interesting reading:

• Twitter’s Chief Talks About Lists, Traffic and Revenue by Claire Cain Miller
• Basics: Grow Your Blog with Twitter’s List Feature by Neicole Crepeau
• Real-Time Google Reader Shares to Twitter–There’s an App for That by Louis Gray
• How to Make Your Blog and Tweets Work Together Like a Charm by Alex Cristache

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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• Why Designers Should Learn How to Code via Six Revisions (I’m a huge proponent of designers learning coding. You’ll be surprised how much more receptive the developers are to your ideas!)

• WP Click-Track WordPress Plug-In via Daily Blog Tips

• Answer to: Who Stumbled Me? via Plain Jane Mom

Photo attribution: photo credit: larskflem

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1.  Mistake: Auto-loading music.

Please. I beg you, your readers beg you: ditch the auto-loading music! Auto-loading music is not only annoying and surprising, but it’s a bandwidth hog. It makes your blog load slowly. Do you really want to lose a reader because she couldn’t wait for your site to load? And if she waits for your site to load, will she be annoyed because she didn’t know there would be music, had her speakers on high, and a sleeping husband (or child) right beside her? I can tell you this: She won’t be back.

2.  Mistake: Using a design with a dark background & light text.

This issue is less about your aesthetic and more about usability and readability. Reading online is harder on our eyes than reading traditional paper. Using a dark background with light text makes it even harder on your readers’ eyes.

3.  Mistake: Too much sidebar clutter.

A sleek, uncluttered design goes a long way with readers. The less clutter, the more space you have. You can use this white space to help lead your readers’ eye toward specific content. Are you proud of your awards, badges, and various trinkets? That’s OK, those things are a right of passage too. You don’t have to get rid of them, but why not put awards on their own page and link to it from your main page? You’ll trade 20 links for just one link and de-clutter the sidebar. De-cluttering your sidebar eases navigation for your reader as well. When there are fewer items competing for your reader’s attention, they’ll be drawn to what’s important.

4. Mistake: Accidental plagiarism (even with photos).

Very few legitimate bloggers plagiarize on purpose. Most likely a new blogger won’t realize what they’re doing. Plagiarism applies to using any content that isn’t originally yours, whether it’s content or photography or music or anything else. I’ll be honest and tell you that when I started blogging I would Google a picture, then copy it to my computer and use it in my blog post. That’s a big problem because it’s the same as plagiarism–even if I cited where I found the picture. I hadn’t asked the owner if I could use it, I just did it. If you’re new to blogging, take a minute to find out about and understand the issues of plagiarism and copyright. U.S. Copyright Office bluntly says: “Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.” These links will help you:

• I put a Creative Commons license on my blog, but is my material truly protected?
• I notice that many bloggers have something on their site telling people not to plagiarize, but how effective is it?
• A Few More Links for Copyright Information

5. Mistake: Using “click here” instead of keyword phrases for links.

I advise you to choose your links words carefully. When you are writing a post and need to insert a link, consider how you are going to write that sentence and where you will include the link. For example, which of these is more effective (potential links in bold)?

If you are interested in hosting a giveaway, please review my vendor guidelines.

My vendor guidelines are available here.

The top sentence is more effective for your audience because it tells them exactly what they need to do. It’s also effective for SEO purposes because search engine spiders are looking for unique word strings. Strings like “click here” or even just the word “here” linked to other files or pages are everywhere on the web. Make your pages stand out by being more descriptive with your links. Help the search engines catalog your site effectively.

Rubik’s Cube photo credit: photo credit: wokka

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1. Choose your link words carefully. Every time you include a link in your blog post text, make sure that link counts. In other words, instead of typing Click Here for my ad rates (where “Click Here” is the link), type Download my advertising guidelines and media kit and make “advertising guidelines and media kit” your link. This little trick takes advantage of SEO (do a search for “click here” and see what you get and whether it’s usable). In addition, your reader can quickly scan your page, find your links, and have a fairly good idea of what they’ll find if they click the link. Choosing your link words carefully is simply more efficient for everyone.
2. Use pictures to enhance your post and underscore your meaning. (This particular suggestion is one I need to work on myself.) You know the adage (1 picture=1,000 words), but have you put it to the test? I have noticed that I am more interested in reading a post that includes a clever picture than a post that does not. A picture adds interest to an otherwise text-heavy page by drawing the reader’s eye to your article. (See this tip in action at Skelliewag.org.) You can find royalty-free images at iStock Photo, Free Foto, and Stock Vault. The images you find at these sites are not free, but they can be purchased inexpensively (some are only $1.00). Of course, if you’re a shutter-bug, you probably have several photos you can use right now! If you’re using Flickr (or want to), Sue Waters at Edublogger has a three-part series called Quick Start Tips for New Flickr Users.
3. Encourage commenting by asking a specific question of your readers. Inviting your readers to participate in a conversation is always more successful than just assuming they’ll respond in comments. Many times readers may agree with your thoughts, but they just think to themselves, “Yep, me too” and move on. Encourage those readers to become a bigger part of your community by asking them specific questions about how they might use the information you presented. Then respond to those comments yourself (either in the comments section or via personal e-mail). Responding in the comments section encourages the dialogue to continue.

When I tweeted the question What every day blogging tip do you live by to make your blog useful to you and your readers? I received several answers from seasoned bloggers:

• @MomDot: Be consistent in what you do every day.
• @merchantships: Make yourself blog BEFORE checking into any social media sites like Twitter.
• @Linds54: Post in the morning.
• @dcrmom: Be true to yourself.
• @ADramaticMommy: Respond to your readers via the comments section or email as often as you can. Being personable and available is important.
• @JendisJournal: Re-read and edit before hitting publish.

What part of your blog routine has become second nature to you? How does it help you blog? How does it benefit your readers and blog community?

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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