What make a good Blog ?

1. Making screenshots

I often illustrate my posts with screenshots of sites I’m linking to. I’m doing this not only so the post is easy to recognize when you scroll a longer page, but also so that my blog will make a good archive in years to come – when quite possibly, a good portion of the sites I’ve linked to ceased to exist (or changed so much that it’s interesting to see what the site looked like years ago). 2. Not hot-linking to images

I try to avoid to include images from other sites straight within my posts because the other site may move (and, of course, object to this type of inclusion). So even when I’m not changing a picture (which I do most of the time) I’m putting a copy on my own server.
3. Not hosting elsewhere

I’ve moved so often from free sites before I arrived at this, my own (non-free) server, that I can only suggest for you to put your data – images, articles, and so on – nowhere else but on a space you own. On a space that can’t suddenly change the ToS, add pop-ups or other ads, or shut down. For this reason, even when I was blogging on Blogger, I’ve let them FTP-transmit their data to my server so I have a domain (outer-court.com) that’s mine. For this reason, I’m somewhat reluctant to use services like Flickr.
4. Clean code

I’m using as little JavaScript as possible and as much standard-compliant (XHTML + CSS) web code as possible. I want to ensure that in the years to come, I have a good chance browsers will understand the HTML here, or if not, that I’m able to easily convert it.
5. Choosing a top level domain, and sticking with it

Actually, I did this one wrong: I’ve chose a sub-domain on my own server instead of going for a domain name easy to recognize. On the other hand, I don’t want to move as I want the archive permalinks to be indeed permanent. If you’ve still got the choice I suggest you name your domain like you name your blog, and then, never move – your PageRank will increase over time, and your archive will be stable.
6. Explain more than necessary

I’m sometimes explaining obvious words (like “SEO”) simply so that people, years from now, coming from a search engine that doesn’t even exist yet, and stumbling upon one of the articles here, have a chance to understand what the article is all about. (And it also helps those today who may come here from sources such as Google News – in other words, readers who potentially are new to this blog and the search engine world in general.)
7. Prominently writing the date on the page

This one is quite obvious for bloggers: you must put the full date on the page whenever you publish something. But have you noticed that in some mainstream sources, there’s no year given in a date? This creates a terrible archive because in some years, you won’t be able to tell if you stumbled on a “December 8” article from 1999, 2000, 2001, ... and so on.
8. Separating content from layout

As far as it’s possible (and it’s not completely possible), I try to separate content from layout on this blog so that when I later have a redesign, my archive won’t pose a problem. For example, I have an element with a class “more” which is at this moment displayed with a red arrow. When I decide this doesn’t fit the blog layout anymore during a redesign, I can simply think of another visual to represent “more information to be found here.” (If I would have included a “red-arrow.gif”, redesigning the site would be a headache.)

9. Putting the right amount on a page

I don’t want to create yet another page for every little link I post. That’s why I use a multi-post-per-page style for smaller posts. For longer posts, I’m using a separate page. I feel this keeps my archive from “exploding.” (The down-side is that when you arrive on a multi-post-per-page style page from a search engine, you must scroll to find the post you were looking for.)
10. Using your own blog software

As I’m using my own blog software, I have complete control over all past posts. I can create my own archive view, search and replace in older posts when technical changes need to be made. I can also export & back-up to different formats so my archive is save. My suggestion would be whenever possible, install blogging software you have complete control over – i.e., software you wrote yourself, or an open source blogging package running on your own server.
11. Referencing the surrounding

If you want your old posts to make sense you need to be careful about talking about the surroundings of the post. For example, a sentence like “click on the ’Archive’ link below to get to the archive” would be rendered meaningless if you change your template and move the “Archive” link from the bottom to the left, and rename it to “Old posts.”
12. Avoiding too many CSS classes

In the beginning, I’ve used many different CSS classes for many different purposes. After a while, I redesigned the site – and the CSS file felt cluttered and hard to work with. I’m now keeping to a minimum of complexity within the CSS. More creativity can be put into illustrations accompanying the post. But be careful; unless your images are all square, you are stuck with whatever background color you chose for your template (unless you want to redesign all images from your archive whenever you redesign the site). That’s one reason I think white makes a good background color: it’s very neutral, and you’re not that likely to find it annoying. As soon as real PNG anti-alias (smooth transparency effects) work cross-browser, images might be prepared so they work on any background.
13. Avoid too-clever headlines

Easily understood headlines are very important for a successful archive overview page, or search engine result pages, where the visitor has little more than the headline to decide if that’s the wanted content. Puns take some seconds longer to be understood, or can’t be understood at all without further context of the post, and should thus be avoided within headlines for blog posts. On a side-note, headlines without context (microcontent) is also why I repeat the word “Google” in headlines whenever I post about Google.... because reading it out of context, you may not know my blog is about Google.
14. Vary keywords

If your blog has a lot of posts, you find searching it is important to reference older posts, put new posts in context, or find out if you already blogged about something years ago. An easily searchable archive of course helps your visitors too. But how do you guarantee your blog to be easily searchable? When I write posts, I often try to vary keywords I’m using. For example, when I link to a tool called “My Google Portal” at MyGooglePortal.com, I might use both “My Google Portal” in the headline, and “MyGooglePortal.com” in the main copy. This way, when I later search for either variant, I’m able to find the post again. (Naturally, I think the variation is also good style because it doesn’t make readers feel like the introductory sentence to a post is a mere repetition of the headline they already read.)
15. Nice URLs

URLs are visible to the visitor, so having “nice” URLs is not a mere technical issue. Especially with a large archive, a clean URL structure – including the date of the post – improves a blog.

16. Discussing links

Similar to point number 1 – making screenshots of sites I link to – I want to give a nut-shell of the link as well (“the page contains a video about ...”). This is because the site linked to may stop existing, and then it would be hard to understand what it was about, and a worthwhile idea may be lost. Why not make your blog archive into a digital museum for future readers?
17. Providing context

On the web, there’s no easier way to provide context for those who need it than using links – because it’s unobtrusive for those who don’t need this context (they may simply not click on it and ignore the link).
18. Link to the archive

To show newer readers what you’ve posted about in the past, it’s valuable to provide summarized link collections (“all my humor links from the past 2 years...”), to link to the archive in one of the most prominent places on your blog, to make the archive easily searchable, to link to related items from the past from within newer posts, and possibly, to provide “items this time last year” or “best of" style link collections. I often find that for a new readers of this blog, an old link or Google tidbit can be just as interesting as a fresh one.
19. Categories

These categories may then be linked to from the archive or the navigation bar next to every post.
20. Help others do something with your archive

While for all of the above approaches it was mainly you responsible to improve the archive and render it meaningful, there are also strategies to let others help out. For example, by providing an easy download to your whole archive in a structured data format, you are giving creative developers a chance to analyze and visualize your data.

15 Best way to promote your site through Blog

Here are few tips that how can we promote our site through blogs. I got that from about. and want to share you also

How to promote your Blog

1. Write Well and Write Often
Frequently updating your blog with useful content is the first step to building your blog's audience. The content you write is what will keep readers coming back for more. Make sure you have something meaningful to say to them and say it often to maintain their interest and keep them loyal.
2. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines
Get on the radar screen for the popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo! by submitting your blog's URL to them. Most search engines provide a 'Submit' link (or something similar) to notify the search engine of your new blog, so those search engines will crawl it and include your pages in their results.
3. Use and Update Your Blogroll
By adding links to sites you like in your blogroll, the owners of those blogs will find your blog and will be likely to add a reciprocal link in their blogrolls. It's an easy way to get the link to your blog in front of many readers on other blogs.
4. Harness the Power of Comments
Commenting is a simple and essential tool to increase your blog's traffic. First, respond to comments left on your blog to show your readers that you value their opinions and draw them into a two-way conversation. This will increase reader loyalty.
5. Syndicate Your Blog's Content with an RSS Feed
Setting up an RSS feed button on your blog makes it easy for your loyal readers to not just read your blog but also know when you publish new content.
6. Use Links and Trackbacks
Links are one of the most powerful parts of your blog. Not only are links noticed by search engines, but they also act as a tap on the shoulder to other bloggers who can easily identify who is linking to their sites. Linking helps to get you noticed by other bloggers who are likely to investigate the sites that are linking to them. This may lead them to become new readers of your blog or to add links to your blog from theirs.
7. Tag Your Posts
It takes a few extra seconds to add tags to each of your blog posts, but it's worth the time in terms of the additional traffic tags can drive to your blog. Tags (like links) are easily noticed by search engines.
8. Submit Your Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites
9. Remember Search Engine Optimization
When you write your blog posts and pages, remember to optimize your pages for search engines to find them. Include relevant keywords and links but don't overload your posts with too many relevant keywords or completely irrelevant keywords. Doing so can be considered spamming and could have negative results such as your blog being removed from Google's search entirely.
10. Don't Forget Images
Images don't just make your blog look pretty, they also help people find you in search engine listings.
11. Consider Guest Blogging
Guest blogging can be done when you write a guest post on another blogger's blog or when another blogger writes a guest post on your blog.
12. Join Forums, Web Rings or Online Groups
Find online forums, web rings, groups or social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn where you can share ideas and ask questions of like-minded individuals.
13. Promote Outside Your Blog
Promoting your blog shouldn't stop when you step outside the blogosphere. Add your blog's URL to your email signature and business cards. Talk about it in offline conversations. It's important to get your name and your blog's URL noticed offline, too.
14. Nominate Yourself and Other Blogs for Blog Awards
There are a number of blog awards given out throughout the year. Nominating yourself and other blogs and bloggers can draw attention to your blog and drive traffic to it.
15. Don't Be Shy
The most important part of the blogosphere is its community and much of your success as a blogger will be tied to your willingness to network with that community. Don't be afraid to ask questions, join conversations or just say hi and introduce yourself. Don't sit back and hope the online world will find you. Speak out and get yourself noticed.

How Create SEO Friendly Blog

Blogs have become one of the most effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. The number of blog sites spawning on a day-to-day basis is a clear indication of their relevance in the present Internet communication.

A blog can play an important role in optimizing the website. Earlier, blogs were considered as a means of expressing one’s opinion or exchange ideas, most often done in a causal way. But the recent changes that happened in the online communication have redefined the blogs as an effective tool of communication among a varied group of customers, businesses, and every individual under the earth.

To create SEO-friendly blogs, one has to take care of the following aspects.

· Relevant content

· Appropriate title

· Proper links

Content
Blogs have got two functions to perform – firstly, it should Update regularly daily or wekly basis, and secondly, it should attract prospective visitors to the website. Both these functions can be achieved only if it is provided with appropriate contents. The search engine identifies the website mainly through the keywords used in it. This rule is applicable to blogs too. The blog, therefore, should contain appropriate number of keywords per total word count (keyword density).

The relevance of the content is another important factor, not only for the SEO purposes, but also for the business purpose. The information that you convey through the blogs should be effective and useful to the customers. It should not merely aim at SEO and thus focus only on the keywords.

Title
The title is the identification code of the blog. Therefore, the title of the blog has to be named on the primary keyword/phrase. It would enable the search engines to trap them easily.

Links
To reach to a blog, there should be proper links to it. The website should have outbound links to the blog; in return, the blog sites should contain links that direct them to the relevant website. This link exchange is another important method of improving the traffic of the website.

SEO-friendly blogs improve the traffic to the website, and it also attracts the viewers to it. The role of blogs in website marketing will continue to remain relevant for a very long time

SEO (search engine optimization) For Blogger

Until recently, the title tags generated for each page of your Blogger blog would display the blog title first, then the name of your post.

This wasn't so good for SEO (search engine optimization) as this made keywords from your post titles appear after your blog title.

Luckily, Blogger have come up with a simple fix for this problem for those who use Layouts templates: the tag!

This new tag is already installed for new blogs (or if you change your existing template to one of Blogger's default ones).

However, if you have customized your template or uploaded a third party template, you will need to change the original to the new tag for this change to take effect.

But don't worry: this is REALLY easy! Here's what you have to do:

1. Go to Layout>edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard.
2. Search for this tag:
3. Replace this tag with the following:
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'>
<title><data:blog.title/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/></title>
</b:if>

4. Save your template! (See, this is an easy hack!)

Once you've changed this tag, you'll see that on post pages, the default [blog name] page title format for your post titles in the browser window will be replaced solely by your post title instead.

This will increase the chances of your posts being picked up in search engine results for keywords which appear in your post titles (and can ultimately help draw more targeted traffic to your blog.

I hope this little trick will be useful to you all! And for the Blogger team
Credit Go to

Bloggerbuster