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You will have noted, I’m sure, that I’ve been on a learning curve relating to both networking and blogging and the connection between the two. Networking is so important for small business and if you have a business that has some kind of presence online, then it is important to nurture that. Not all of your client base will come from online and so offline practices shouldn’t be ignored either, but my current posts relate to online activities.

I recently joined the LinkedIn Bloggers forum at yahoogroups and am learning even more about blogging, which is great, because it means I can share that information with you here! Currently the majority of blogging platforms do not allow links from comments to be followed and have a nofollow code inserted as a default. This is mainly due to the problems with comment spam and people who use scripts to pull together portions of posts to manage their blogs in the hope of attracting traffic and whatever else they want to happen. The comment spam is a pain and the others who use that script I view as basically too lazy to maintain their own posts, but it remains that the rest of us who leave genuine comments are penalised by our links not being followed by the search engines.

It is true that visitors can click on the link and come to your blog - that’s one way your readership can increase, but all the same it would be good to see the same reflected in searches showing where all the links are that lead back to your blog. Hence the reason for this particular plug in. I was going to try LinkLove as recommended by Andy Beard at the Ultimate List of DoFollow Plugins but the server was producing an error so I’ve elected to try Dofollow (WP Plugin) instead and will be interested to see how it might assist commenters on this blog. It was very easy to install and set up - just follow the instructions. KMT

blogging, blogger, LinkedIn, networking, virtual assistant, Australian bloggers, blogosphere, VA blogs, business blogs, nofollow, dofollow, wp plugin

Tags: Technology, Blogging by Kathie Thomas
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Ben over at Instigator Blog has instigated an activity that could prove not only catching, but also productive, pardon the puns!

He’s encouraging people to post Productivity Tips on their blogs, basically as a meme and to tag others to follow suit. He’s even got a banner image to go with the theme. I’ve included it here and am tagging the following people to join in!

Lorraine Pirihi, Sharon Williams, Darren Rowse

For me, I have a post on Google Alert which is one of my favourite tips and I’ve gone back through previous posts to tag them accordingly. KMT

productivity tip, ultimate guide to productivity, instigator blog, Kathie Thomas

Tags: Productivity Tips by Kathie Thomas
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I’ve recently joined MyBlogLog to find out what all the fuss was about. And in the process came across a blog that referenced a post from Darren Rowse of Problogger.net about how to increase your reading audience. There is some really great info there, including the following:

1. It takes time - It may not be what you want to hear, but it unless you’re a genius, extremely lucky or have an amazing new idea, it takes time to build a readership. So settle in for the long haul and muscle up some patience.

2. Content Content Content - I’ve said this over and over again so will keep it brief but unless you have ‘good’ content you’re unlike to build a readership. What is good content - start by thinking about it in terms of usefulness and uniqueness and I think you’ll be on the right track. Other words that come to mind when it comes to good content might be ‘fresh’, ‘variety’, ‘up to date’ and ‘well written’.

3. Link to others - Perhaps one of the central features of blogging is that they are linked. The intricate web of links and relationships was one of the first things that attracted me to blogging and it’s part of the reason it’s got real viral properties that allow ideas to spread so quickly. Participate in the linking to other blogs and you’ll find that many benefits come. For a start you’ll be participating in the conversation, you’ll be getting the attention of others and your readers will appreciate that you’re interested in helping them find the best content out there.

Of course you don’t want to be linking randomly to everyone and anyone - be selective and link to quality content that is relevant to your niche topic. As you engage in linking you’ll find that others will link back (assuming you have something worthwhile to say yourself) and you’ll find the traffic begins to flow - both from their sites and as a result of your increased search engine ranking.

4. Get Links from other Bloggers - I can hear the comments already - ‘Easier said than done Darren!’ This is true - but if you’re smart, genuine, helpful and polite there are ways of increasing the chances of getting links from others.

There are 15 more tips on this post, so why not head over there right now to read the rest - I’m sure Darren will appreciate your visiting! KMT

blogging, blogger, Australian bloggers, blogosphere, business blogs, blogging for business, mybloglog, kathie thomas, linking with bloggers

Tags: Blogging by Kathie Thomas
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I came across an interesting post today at dmiracle.com/how-to-blog that I thought worth sharing here. He was asking if you brand yourself in your comments on blogs and then proceeded to explain that particular comments floating around the place would always be ones he’d made on various blogs. Dawud spoke of various bloggers and names that have become familiar to many in the blogging world and how that using just a firstname or nickname probably wouldn’t identify you or separate yourself from others in the blogging community.

He says:

I knew my commenting efforts would help open the door to relationships with other bloggers. So I wanted to be known for who I am and who I am is Dawud Miracle.

Whenever I leave comments, I pay attention to other commenters as well. I look for names I either know or have seen before. On my blog it’s the same - I look for familiar names. I immediately can recognize Ben Yoskovitz, Dave Starr, Drew McLellan, Doug Karr and Liz Strauss. But I have a harder time knowing who Tony, Sara, Maddy, Karin, Chris M or Dave are.

I realised that I have done much the same as Dawud has and almost always signed off with my firstname and surname, rarely just my first name. On most occasions I’ve linked back to the same blog as well, although sometimes it’s been suitable to link to a different one. I don’t think it’s any co-incidence though that the one I link to the most is also the one that made it in the Top 100 Aussie Blogs list recently. So I think the blog linking is probably just as important as it encourages other visitors to come see who you are and what you blog about.

I encourage you to think about how you sign off on your comments and the blogs you link to. KMT

Tags: Blogging by Kathie Thomas
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Well, there’s been a bit of excitement in town this week, or should I say the country? Thanks to Craig Harper, who generated his own slant on ‘Craig’s List’ there is now a list of the Top 100 Aussie Bloggers. Meg of Blogpond took it a step further and updated the list. The rankings have been drawn both from Technorati and Alexa. And then Melbourne’s newspaper The Age got into the act and did a story about blogging in Australia.

And now some of the bloggers are looking to meet up for face-to-face meetings and chats. Sydney already has a group meeting periodically and now Melbourne is calling up all Melbourne bloggers to do the same. You’ll see a logo at the top of this blog now - just click on it and it will take you to the list of Melbourne bloggers and meeting plans. If you’re in Melbourne hope to see you there sometime! KMT

Australian, blogging, blogger, Australia, Aussie, Australian bloggers, blogosphere
business blogs, blogging for business

Tags: Blogging by Kathie Thomas
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