One way to gain links back to your blog is by visiting other blogs and leaving comments. This however takes time, a commodity that some people have little off to spare. It should be realized that comments do more than just create links. Commenting also exposes you and your blog to other individuals. This can lead to an increase in visitors.

• Create a list of related blogs that you enjoy reading or that add to your own knowledge in a particular field. Don’t go to blogs that are totally unrelated.

• Either subscribe to their posts via RSS or set up a daily visit list.

• Only leave comments when the post is directly related to your own sites interest. Posts that relate to one of your posts are even better.

• Leave comments that are sensible and add to the posts content. Ad some facts or similar insight. If the blog permits then leave a url to a relevant post. If they don’t permit URL’s within the comments, use the posts URL in the comments sign on URL form field.

• After leaving a comment, check back regularly, or subscribe to the comments for that post. If someone responds to your comment and their is an opportunity to respond back again, do it.

Commenting can be a conversion. I have seen comment chains running 100 deep, sometimes with two or three different discussions happening at once. Be a part of the conversation and make a name for yourself.

A blog is a great communication medium, so long as people visit and read your blog. Some people measure their popularity by the number of comments they receive, or by the number of subscribers they have. These figures can often be misleading. Any good blog metrics package will give you a much more refined look at your blog.

Comments and subscribers are not reliable indicators of popularity. When it comes to comments,  you may have some fairly good content, however some content is just for reading, not all content draws comments. Bloggers are also notorious for not stopping and leaving comments.

Subscriptions are just as unreliable. These days up to 50% of your subscibers may just be scrapers looking to make use of your content. Of the other 50%, how many actually read your feed?

A good blog metrics package will tell a real story about your visitors. You can see how long they are staying, which pages (posts) are more popular and whcih pages they are landing and leaving by.

By reading this information, you can determine which pages or stories are more popular and so concentrate on producing more along those lines. You are also able to see what search terms they are using to find you. A little more refinement and you can use those terms to increase your reader numbers.

Blog metrics packages provide a lot of valuable information if you know how to read them. That information is useless if you don’t know what to do with the information. Find what others think you do well and concentrate on that.

Many bloggers look to sell advertising on their to generate blogging income. The big problem is they have no idea what their blog is actually worth.

There are many sites that claim to put a value on your blog but the reality is that single formula is going to come up with an answer. As a blogger you want to receive as much blogging income as possible. An advertiser is going to want to pay the lowest rate possible while expecting a maximum return and there is no half way point.

As an advertiser, I want a return on my investment. Generally speaking, it can be difficult to determine how much traffic I receive from an ad placed on your blog. From there I also need to be able to determine what the conversion rate is. I can choose a static banner type ad, a per impression ad or and per click ad. As blogger, the ideal blogging income is a static banner pay per month type ad.

With pay per month ads you know in advance what your blogging income is going to be. With any of the ‘pay per …’ type ads, your income is going to fluctuate wildly. Eventually, if  your traffic is high enough, you may find that per impression or per click type ads generate significant returns.

What is your blog worth when it comes to blogging income? The value you place on it. If an advertiser is willing to pay $5 per month for an ad and you accept, then that is the value you place on your blog. If you hold for more, you may find that ad space remains empty.

Supply and demand rule even in an online world. As the number of blogs grow, the amount of ad space grows so the price per ad falls. Until you reach the point of generating thousands of visitors per day, the advertiser is going to be the one who dictates price. You either accept it or refuse it. Blogging income is getting harder to acquire so it often better to accept what is on offer if is suits the general direction of your blog.  It’s now a case of ‘beggars bloggers can’t be choosy’.

Many bloggers leave the structure of their URL’s as the default. When it comes to blog SEO this can be not only a mistake but a wasted opportunity.

Whenever possible, you want each page on your blog to stand out. Blog SEO requires a URL structure that is easily read by your users whilst adding value when crawled by a search engine spider. Default URL’s often include fancy symbols, generally the ? symbol and simply number each page (post). This leaves an untidy URL such as:

yourdomain/wp/index.php?p=77

Not easy to remember and not easy to reference. Of course it would be nice to have a URL that provided a little more information such as:

yourdomain/wp/blog-seo-and-url-structure/

That is nice, neat and easy to remember and easy to access. More importantly,  URL’s like this can have keywords included – an important part of blog SEO.

There are several ways to change the URL structure of a blog. With WordPress there are several plugins that provide you with the option of changing the URL structure.  Consider you URL as part of your blog SEO – there are many advantageous to be had.

Blogs are great tools when it comes to connecting with people. They provide a unique opportunity for not just producing product related content, they open up a one-to-many dialog where customers, or potential customers, can ask questions or leave comments.

Once a dialog  has started, other visitors are also likely to join in either offering their suggestions, sharing their experiences or asking a question of their own. This is very different to a bricks and mortar store. Here, although you are in public and asking questions of the salesperson, every one considers it a private conversation and stays away – they find their own salesperson to pester.

The one-to-many dialog can be useful for generating sales if your approach is customer focused. Answer their questions thoughtfully, no matter how dumb, and provide some recognition to everyone who has commented. This recognition makes them feel valued and they may likely to return – even if it is just to see what else has been written. One thing that is often very true in this world, when people leave a mark, they will often return to view it.

Provide content that is helpful and relevant to your products and people will read it. We are spending more time online now researching  before we spend. If you have the information that I need then I am going to keep coming back. If you can solve my problems or answer my questions – I will be back.

The one-to-many interaction helps to develop a trust relationship that is often found in bricks and mortar business. Most people have their  ‘favorite’ stores they go to time after time. They often have their favorite shop assistants as well. The online community can be the same. Foster it and watch your sales, and reputation, start to grow.