1. Niche topic? Check.
2.  Plenty of topic ideas for new posts? Check.
3.  A cache of posts already written and ready to go? Check.
4.  A web address with hosting and WordPress installed? Check and check.

Cover of William Shakespeare

If you have all those things, then you are have a good start on your new WordPress site. Just one problem, though: how do you get anyone to read this stuff?

The best idea in the world means nothing if you can’t capture an audience. These days, there’s so much out there on the web, spanning the furthest nether regions and the tiniest corners of the Internet, that it’s not enough to simply post some awesome content and wait for the crowds to find you. Great content helps, to be sure, but you also need a strategy for bringing the audience in. To that end, here are some next steps to take with your new blog.

Make it Pretty

Aesthetics are crucial for new websites. Take social media as a recent example. Facebook and Twitter are king, with each being different enough from the other that they both survive and thrive. But even though efforts have been made to get other sites off the ground, they have mostly failed, until one day Pinterest came along and took off. Why? The design is both different from the others and aesthetically pleasing because of its highly visual nature.

Think of your blog in the same way. You only have a few seconds to hook a reader into staying, so the first thing he sees better be a killer design. Play around with WordPress themes until you find one that really catches the eye, or design your own. You may also want to consider investing in a professional design. It probably won’t turn your site into the next Pinterest, but it will start things rolling.

Start Generating

The design piece is a great start, but a site that looks awesome means nothing if no one is sticking around. And audiences are cynical; they won’t stick around unless it’s worth their time. The design was for grabbing their attention…the content is for holding it.

So, you need content, and you need a bunch of it, but it’s not all about quantity. Monkeys with typewriters may eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare, but along the way they’ll come up with a million unreadable blog posts. Don’t be like those monkeys. Write content that is specific to your niche, relevant to the reader and posted with enough consistency that it won’t go stale. Otherwise, your WordPress site will be all sizzle and no steak.

Just the Beginning

These are two good first steps to formulating a WordPress strategy, but that’s all they are: first steps. There is plenty more to do to accumulate an audience, from keyword research to building backlinks. That all comes a little later down the road, but for right now you’ve got a good looking site with some content that people will actually want to read. That’s a good start.

Related articles

• Are You Setting Up WordPress For SEO Success? (seomoz.org)

The Art of Permalinks

WordPress does a pretty good job with making strong permalinks right out of the box, but it can still do with some tweaking. Depending on the version of WordPress you are using, it probably formulates post slugs something like this:

thisismyblog.com/year/month/this-is-the-entire-title-of-the-blog-post-made-into-a-url/

Or worse:

Thisismyblog.com/year/month/p=?3532

At over 80 characters long, that slug is something of a behemoth and it does not do much to grab the attention of search engines. Instead, try using shorter, punchier, keyword based slugs. For example, if the title of a post in your blog about personal finance is “11 Ways to Eliminate Credit Card Debt,” try shortening the permalink to something like:

thisismyblog.com/eliminate-credit-card-debt/

That slug is more pleasing to the eye, easier for people to share and easy to find when someone searches for “eliminate credit card debt.”

Link it Back

Always look for ways to link back to old posts from newer ones. This keeps people on your site longer and helps you build an ongoing audience as your blog grows. This doesn’t mean you should link to every old post from every new post, or invent connections that aren’t there. If you’re writing about the best interest rates on CDs, it might be difficult to link back to that post on eliminating credit card debt.

But, if you are putting together a post on increasing your chances of getting a home loan, you certainly might talk about raising your credit score by paying down debt, in which case you can link back to that post from above and anchor it to some keyword text. Now you’re using links strategically!

By optimizing your permalinks and taking advantage of backlinked content, you can help your site rise in search engine results to build momentum, and then use that momentum to generate more and more traffic. Strategic use of links, particularly permalinks and backlinks, goes a long way toward a strong WordPress strategy.

Mount Everest (topgold) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One secret about blogging is that driving traffic to your site starts well before you begin posting content and even before you begin writing it. Yes, quality content will help you hold on to an audience, but that doesn’t do you any good unless they find you to begin with. For that, you need to know how to work a little keyword magic, starting with research up front.

Let’s say you are starting a blog about football. It’s a popular sport, you know a lot about it, so you decide to launch your own WordPress site dedicated to the topic. You come up with ideas for posts like news, trade rumors, game recaps and even some offbeat content to keep things fresh. Good start, but let’s face it — you’ll almost certainly never be the “go to” source for football news on the Internet. Sports Illustrated and ESPN exist for a reason, and that’s where people head for their sports news. Trying to get to a high SERP for the search term “football” will be like trying to climb Mount Everest in flip flops.

What you can do, however, is find a more specific keyword with less competition that you can use to more swiftly climb the ranks. Start by using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. If you search for the keyword “football” and limit results to 5000 global monthly searches, what you get back is a list of long tailed keyword phrases where the competition is lower. If you focus on one of these keywords, you can quickly get a high SERP for a search term like “USC football news,” which gets about 2900 global searches every month with low competition. You can then use that high SERP as a vehicle to draw more and more people to your WordPress site.

While you may never be the source for football news on the Web, you can garner quite a respectable following by doing a little research and employing long tailed keywords strategically. That will grow your page rank and build your audience.

While that example demonstrates keyword strategy with a new blog, the exact same technique can work with your existing blog. If you have built a site to market and sell your new iPhone app, try targeting the keyword phrase “top rated iphone apps” in your blog. It’s easier to earn a high page rank for that long tailed keyword, which means it’s easier to drive people to your site.

It would be nice if launching a successful WordPress site were as easy as designing something that looks nice and filling it with quality content, but it’s  not. However, with a little strategy, like keyword research, it doesn’t have to be extremely difficult, either.

Related articles

• Writing Blog Posts that the Search Engines Will Love- final (dgmattichakjr.com)
• Rethinking Your Keyword Strategy, Part 3 | Conductor Blog (conductor.com)

WordPress (Photo credit: Adriano Gasparri)

A WordPress strategy is an individual thing. Different businesses have different types of sites with different strategy needs. There are a few components that are fairly universal, however, and should be part of every successful WordPress strategy. Here are seven tips to get started building yours:

1. Keep content fresh, specific, consistent

You have probably heard the phrase “content is king.” While some out there doubt the absoluteness of this wisdom, there's no doubt that content is crucial. People searching the web for information are a fickle audience. They want content that is new, easy to read, pertinent to their lives and maybe a little fun, and they have so many choices that if they don't get it in one place, then it's on to the next. Write content that fills this need on a consistent basis, and your site's audience will grow that much quicker.

2. Opt for professional design

Nearly as important as a site's content is its design. It doesn't matter how good the writing is if all the stuff surrounding it looks like garbage. If you are serious about building your WordPress site, then now is not the time to cut corners. A clean professional design can make all the difference.

3. Do keyword research

You can start generating traffic even before you generate content, simply by researching keywords. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find long tailed keywords within your niche that you can target to get a lot of search traffic right off the bat. Capture this traffic and use it to drive even more eyes to your site.

4. Search engines look at photos, too!

When you upload a photo in WordPress, you have the opportunity to enter a title and description for it. Many novices leave these fields blank or leave the title set to the default, which is the name of the file. This is a mistake, since search engines index this data as well. Put something descriptive in there to take advantage of your posted pictures.

5. Let plugins do the work for you

One of the most powerful features of WordPress is its flexibility. Plugins can make your site more powerful and easier to manage, so explore them to look for useful tools. For starters, you should at least get an SEO plugin like the All in One SEO tool or Yoast WordPress SEO, as well as one to connect to your social media. That will automate the process of posting links to your content from your Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social accounts.

6. Check for broken links

A broken link is an interruption in the process of viewing your site and Google doesn’t look kindly on them when ranking your site. Once a month or so, thoroughly check your site for broken links to either be fixed or cleared. The Broken Link Checker WordPress plug-in makes this process simpler.

7. Backlink, backlink, backlink

Whenever possible and relevant, link to older posts from your new ones. This gives visitors a reason to stay, because they see all the other great stuff you've written. Backlinks help compound traffic and improve retention.

As your site grows, you can further develop and fine tune your strategy and processes, but for the meantime, these seven tips will get you started on the right path to building a successful WordPress site.

Related articles

• Are You Setting Up WordPress For SEO Success? (seomoz.org)
• Automatic Backlink Creator ? Simple And Deadly Efficient (siliconvalleylatinoleadership.com)

1. It’s specific

In other words, find a niche and stay in it. If you want to eventually be the go-to source for a specific keyword that you are targeting, then you have got to stay true to that keyword. If you want to be at the top of the Google rankings for the search term “household tips for saving money,” don’t write about sandwiches one day and Salvador Dali the next. (That is, unless those topics both happen to intersect with your tips for saving money, in which case, more power to you.)

Personal blogs can be entertaining to read, and there are some non-niche blogs out there that have enjoyed quite a bit of success, but when you’re formulating a blog strategy, you’re better off starting in a pigeonhole.

2. It’s relevant

People are busy. They have precious little time to read content on the Internet, so when someone gets directed to your site, they better find something that doesn’t waste their time. Give them advice they can use. Help them solve the problem they are seeking an answer to. Give them information on the product they searched for.

While your personal stories may serve to make or highlight a point from time to time, they won’t hold an audience’s interest every day. Give the people what they want.

3. It’s posted frequently and consistently

This is probably the single biggest challenge that new bloggers face. They have a great idea, secure a URL, fire up WordPress and design a killer site…and then they are faced with having to conceive and generate good, fresh content. All the time. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to publish a brand new post every day, but establish some kind of regular schedule and stick to it.

The reason for this is that you want people who happen upon your blog to stick around. If you write one killer post that starts bringing in hits, those people will start sniffing around for more content. If you’re not posting it consistently, they’ll disappear right back to where they came from. A few popular posts does not a successful blogger make.

4. It has your voice
The cool thing about having a WordPress site is that it’s yours. So, use your own voice. Don’t try to sound like a CNN correspondent or an aspiring 30 Rock writer. Just be yourself. It may take some time and some trial and error before you find your blog voice, but it’s in there. Let it loose and run with it.

In short, a good WordPress blog has content that stays on message, captures people’s attention, is updated regularly and has a personable voice to it. Doesn’t that sound like something you would like to spend time reading?

Be authentic. Do not seem to be a know-it-all. Act open, honest, and transparent. Do this at all times. Your blog is a reflection of yourself. Don't waste time being a perfectionist. View this as a work in progress. If you make a mistake, don't torture yourself about it. You are an individual and no one can take your place.

Your blog needs quality content, and make sure to promote your blog. These are they key to running a successful blog. If you aren't creating excellent content on a regular basis, your readers will start reading other blogs and forget about yours. Similarly, without proper promotion, your site won't last long. When you work on both of these aspects, you are ensuring that you are getting the most from your blog.

As you have seen from the above article, blogging really isn't difficult if you are willing to stay busy, and once you learn a few simple tips and tricks. You have already done most of the hard work, so now it is time to apply what you have read today. Where you end up is totally your call.

Keep each and every blog simple, to the point and focused on one single topic. When you try to cover too many topics, you risk confusing and alienating some readers. Using this tip can make your blogs easier to read and follow.

Money should not be the obvious intent of your blog. Yes, you can make money with blogging, but if you focus only on profit, this not going to help you be successful. Building a loyal readership takes time and if you're not genuine your readers will not return. Your passion will show through in your content, so focus on your topic so your readers know you're genuine.

Enhance the appeal of the blog by including videos. Don't just use videos, however; make sure to write high-quality content regularly to go along with your videos. Include a text description for every video on your blog. In this way, you can include the key words associated with your videos.

The above tips can help you to improve your blog in a wide variety of ways. Use these tips to improve your blog for readers, as well as to deepen your own blogging experience. Use these ideas to generate or enhance your blog so you ensure it stands on its own, apart from the competition.

Recently I have been asked several times about how to choose a domain name and I thought it might be a good time to share how I go about this task. This article really only covers the first part of the job.

The first and, possibly, most important decision to make about your new domain name is this: 'What is the purpose of my new domain name?'
This might sound a little odd, after all, a domain is a domain name right?

But no, not just – remember the branding thing? For example, look at the name of this website 'LittleAutomaticMoneyMaker.com', I chose this name after a lot of thought and playing with all sorts of names to do with installing blogs. I chose it because I wanted to brand my business. I wanted to say what I was doing, but also why I was doing it.

When the site was set up, and now again these days, the site is about helping people to make money from their websites. The sites I build were, back than, and still today, designed to work automatically to a great degree. Every site I build is designed to make money. Last but not least, each site is only a small part of a larger business. It is not likely that a single site will make anyone's fortune, but a few dozen of them?

This site was designed to last for a long time so all the above thought led to where we are now.

But some sites serve a different purpose. Sometimes we are looking for a short term proposition, a site that works now but may be valueless at some point in the near future. Here's an example of such a domain name 'ContentComposerReview.com' I bought this a few years ago to support a product to help writers and content producers to make unique content and ensure that it had not been plagiarised. A forerunner to The Best Spinner and still for sale today.

This domain name featured a brand name that did not belong to me and an associated keyword that would likely be of interest to somebody about ready to buy the product (or one very similar). The use of a brand name meant that I ran a real risk of having the domain name taken off me, but as the site was seen as being short term that was not an issue for me. Because the brand name used was not mine I had no chance of increasing my own brand awareness but this site was all about earning money right now, not is a few years time. I earned many thousands of dollars from that domain.

The third type of domain name is the 'exact match keyword' type of domain. These have become pretty popular over the past few years since it became obvious that search engines gave weighting to domain names that matched searchers search terms. If one is marketing in a particular niche then these can be very handy, but be aware, you are going to need a lot of these! For example, if one is marketing 'widgets' and using this strategy then one is going to want to build a site (and thus need a domain) to match all the major search terms being competed for.

So, if you are an affiliate for Bob's Widgets and you have determined through keyword research that your top targeted keywords are going to be 'big widgets', 'little widgets' and 'purple widgets' then you'll be buying three domain names to cover those options. That can get costly if you are just starting out – and do not go thinking that you can corner the market with just one keyword domain, after all, there will be many, many other marketers with the same idea as you. Thus, if going down this road, do your research, buy several/many domain names and make sure that you build the sites and fill them with the content to match your domain name desires.

Along the way I came across this article from SEOMOZ that is a few years old but gives great advice that should be followed: 12 Rules For Choosing a Domain Name

Keep an eye on your blog stats so you can determine the effectiveness of your overall approach. Experiment to find which tactics work best with your type of site so that you can get the most from your endeavors.

Post content on your blog often. New content is essential for finding new viewers and keeping the ones you have. If there is nothing new to read, your visitors will not return. You should make an attempt to do a new blog post daily.

You should train your readers when they use your blog, so they are easy to influence. Write text posts or link to videos that reinforce your call to action. This way, you can use your readers to further promote your blog.

If you want to increase your blog's traffic, you want to ensure that you have high quality content that will keep people coming to your blog. If your blog contains high quality and useful information, chances are high that readers will come back often.

You should now know how blogging can help you and what it has to offer. If you are really interested in blogging, you should do some further research into the process. Furthermore, you should remember to use all of the information presented to you in this article when you start your own blog.

Write blog posts only when you have something of value to share. Do not just put anything up just for the sake of filling up your blog with information. Most readers know the difference between content and fluff.

Try to keep your blog posts brief and on-topic to help hold the readers interest. Provide as much detail as possible without putting your readers into a coma! Those that read blogs aren't likely to appreciate a Shakespearian ability to describe the most mundane details of a setting. They are interested in the meat and bones of a subject and not a lot of fluffy garnishment!

If you want to attract more readers to your blog, quality content is crucial. Fill your blog with entertaining and informative articles. The higher the quality of your writing, the higher your readership will be. Make sure that what you write reads as honest and personal.

Make frequent updates to your blog. New content on a regular basis is the only way that your blog will experience an increase of viewers. Without lots of new material, visitors will not be motivated to come back to your blog. Blogging daily will significantly improve your traffic.

Redistribute your blog posts all over the worldwide web. It is important to get as many people reading it as possible. Be sure you don't limit your avenues to success. This powerful maneuver will help you reach more people. Use every outlet in order to get the attention that you need.

Armed with the information provided in this article, you now have a much better idea of how to move forward on your own blogging activities. By using this advice, you can start a high quality blog on whatever topic you want. You can take advantage of the knowledge you've gained to run a blog that visitors will flock to.