Make Money Blogging - Activity 5

Parts of a Blog

Oh... this is only my 5th post but I was surprised with the Linkworth for giving me the opportunity to become their affiliate partner in this Make Money Blogging site. I have now some source to monetize my blog to make money. But before I proceed, let me give you first some update what's going on.

I was surprised this morning that when I checked my status in Google, I was now number one in the keyword " Make Money Blogging Concepts" , " My Make Money Blogging Concepts" and appearing in the first page when I look for the keyword " My Make Money Blogging". It seems I need to work hard for some keyword like Make Money Blogging which is one of my target keyword. You may check it now in Google. Just type the keywords I mentioned above.

By the way, pardon me for my long introduction. This is second to the last basic activity on How I Started My Blog that I need to accomplish to move for some worth activities. ( How to Develop a Blog). But on my next post, I will share you some important terms to understand as we move along. So after designing my blog with appropriate templates and while continuing to make my post, it is important to understand every parts of the blog. This is the most effective way so that when the time you will monetize your blog, it will not take time for you to plan and fix everything. You can maximize every space of your blog to an equivalent money. I hope you are getting my point here.

Let's begin...

There are several parts of blog in which the readers want to see. This is also one way to drive out of some of the tips that I will give you on my succeeding posts.

• The Homepage - this is the landing page of the readers. It is important that you have to create a homepage where your readers is comfortable to stay with. As what I had mentioned before, don't be fool with stunning graphics as Google robots does not care about that. I'm not discouraging you, but just a piece of advice for you not to take too much time of making animation graphics with your homepage. A Homepage can be simply the body of your post, your background description or a page that tells the background about your website or blogs, a featured post or a featured video. This will depend upon your own preference.

• About Me Page - This page tells about you. You ca also change the title as " About the Blogger" or "About the Author". This will also depend on your own preference. Important things that must see in this page are: 1. Short background about yourself. 2. Your current work or what are you doing. 3. Tell something why are you the best writer for that subject matter . 4. You may also include immediately your contact information. But other prefer it to be separated with other page. You could also include the snapshot of your picture to recognize you better (but this optional).

• Contact Page Information - This tells about information where your readers can get in touch with you. You have options to do that. You can also just indicate on your page about your email address or your contact number. For me, I just created a page using a forms with verification code to avoid from being spam or if you want your email address to be confidential. There are many available forms there. All you have to do is to register( which is only free) then embed the code on your page. For me, I used Kontacr.
  

• Categories - This is the one that I find difficult to manage here in blogger. The only available here is the Label. See to it that you properly label every post. Otherwise, your category portion will look funny and confusing. If you can see, I indicated a Make Money Blogging Activities on my every post title, but behind that I indicated specific categories where to find a specific topic for each post. You may use your keyword here but do not overuse it for you will get in trouble if Google specify it as spam. Please observe.

• Archives - Blogger already provided a widget for archives. But if you want to have a different approach, you may create it with a different page stating each categories where to find specific topics by your readers. For me, my archives was temporarily set by monthly for I do not have enough post or contents. As I grow this blog, I will finally make a different approach.
  

• Blogrolls - this is what the bloggers like. Others may do it for exchange of links, a favorite post that you have, or a list of blogs you want to read for reference purposes which is a topic of your interest. I had mentioned about exchange of links. I just want to remind that I just allowing exchange of links with higher page rank. PR2 and above. This is to keep the quality of this blog because as what I had mentioned previously, I intend to monetize this blog.
  

• Subscription Options - In this blog I had given two options for my readers for them to subscribe in this blog. 1. Subscription by email 2. Subscription through RSS reader. I had mentioned about RSS. What does it mean? RSS mean a Really Simple Syndication which gathers all information in a single location in the form of feed and can be read through feed reader. Some templates already configure the RSS reader in default which is Google reader. There are also available widgets for Blogger. But if you want to configure it by your own. Configure it at Feedburner.

Here 's how....

• Create a google account, you can use it to log in to your feedburner account.
  
• Then its time for you to type your own URL or blog address. For example: http://makemoneyonline-donny.blogspot.com, then click next. If you are a podcaster, don't forget to check "I'm a podcaster". If not, you may not need it.
• Next, your own feed address will be created in the form as shown below. Click image to enlarge. (This is only an example). Click next.
  

• Take note of your feed address in this format: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/wordpress/Nncb. This is the one that you will put in the POST FEED REDIRECT URL on SITE FEED column under SETTINGS of blogger.com ( this will be done later after feedburner activation. Then, click next.

• Then, just check "Clickthroughs "which tracks how people click items back to your site. Then also check, "I want more! Have Feedburner Stats also track". Click next.
  

• The message show that your feedburner is now activated.
• After activation, put the feed address in the POST FEED REDIRECT URL on SITE FEED column under SETTINGS of blogger.com. Then, hit save.
  

You may also set-up your email subscription of your feedburner under PUBLICIZE column. Update will be send automatically to your subscriber once you made a new post in your blog. The code will be provided to be put on your site. If you like the RSS feed sign, just go to Chicklet Chooser of feedburner under PUBLICIZE. The code will be also provided to put on your site. Then, you may complete the settings of your feedburner. I will leave it to you. It's just easy. If you have any questions about this just leave a comment after this post.

NOTE : The above links are just for illustrative example. Do not copy or follow the links given.

• Blogpost - it should be 75% of your screen page is your blog post. I recommend 1 post display on your frontpage. Visitors would be able to track your latest 1. More powerful bloggers preferred to have multiple post display on their frontpage. This is if you are making a post more than 2 or 3 posts a day. Blogpost content is a king. Make a difference. For me, I always make an illusrative post for my readers to understand more what I mean. You should connect with your readers interest.

• Blog Comments - a powerful tool to make a two way communication with your readers. I recommend that your comment settings be set to " always moderate". This is my control in order to avoid my blog from being spam. There are many spam blog comments nowadays. Take time to read and reply with your readers comments and sharing.

• Recent Post - this is to track your latest blog for the day. This is what your returning visitors always looking for. Let your readers track your latest post in the most convenient way so that they will stay longer on your site.

• Popular Post - let the readers track what is special in your site. This is the most commented post of your site. Be sure to configure it properly.
  

• Recent Comments - This is to track the latest conversation with your readers.
  

Note : Popular Post, Recent Post, and Recent Comment can be configured as I mentioned in my previous post where widgets are available on some sites where I recommend to download your template.

• Track backs or the links in your blog contents are used to show the original source of information of your blog and the other purpose is to know where your post is linking to in the form of trackbacks.

• Blog footer- is located at the bottom of the homepage. Important elements that may see here are: copyright statement, owner or company name, blogs designer email or webmaster link. You can used this in variety of purposes. You may use this to put your About me page and whatever you think valuable to put here.

These are the important parts of your blog that you have to consider for the meantime. This is subject for update as we go along.

Have a Good Day!