The Conclusion

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.

In reality, the time has come for me to bid you adieu from this series. The New Blog Creation series primarily followed my creation of MindSpeak, and the steps I took to make it a successful blog*. It also outlined some more tips an tricks for you to consider in creating your own blog. Together with the Amateur Blogging Series, I hope this will give you a good start on your way to building your first blog.

One thing to remember: Building a blog is the easy part. Making it successful is where it gets difficult. I’m going to tell you, right now, that as an amateur blogger - even as a professional blogger - you will probably never make it to A-List status. B-List? Possibally. C-List? Fairly easily. Remember, folks, it’s not how many people link to you, it’s not how much money you earn, it’s about the love and joy of blogging, and the enjoyment you get from your blog.

Go. Build. Enjoy.

(*At the time of writing, MindSpeak is less than one month old, and cannot be considered an outright success. I state that it is a successful blog, based on the amount of steady traffic, links, and mentions it has obtained in such a short time. Whether or not it will be “successful” in the long term depends on your definition of success, and my own.)

Procuring Statistics

There are literally hundreds of ways of tracking your blog stats. They range from the free and simple, to the expensive and complex. Right now, the cream of the free crop is Google Analytics. Analytics is the most in depth free stats package out there. Unfortunately, it is a little clunky to wade through. Mostly, you’re only going to be interested in certain things:

• Number of Hits Per Day
• Number of Hits in the Previous Day
• Number of Hits Per Week
• What links are being clicked
• Where people are coming from
• What search terms people are using to find your blog
• What page people are coming in on
• What entries are getting the most attention
• How your hits change, over time (week to week, month to month)
• How many unique hits per day vs. how many total hits per day

Out of the states packages out there, I use three on both of my blogs. Sitemeter, Extreme Tracker, and BlogFlux Linklog. Each has their strong points, and their weak points. All are free (although all have premium plans availible), and Sitemeter and Extreme Tracker require you to display graphics on your blog (don’t worry, they’re small graphics).

SiteMeter: I use SiteMeter to get a good, rapid grasp of how many people are visiting my blog. Additionally, SiteMeter has a projection system that can estimate how much traffic you’ll receive, based on the amount of traffic you’ve been receiving. Essentially, I use SiteMeter so I can track traffic at a glance, and track traffic trends at a glance.

Extreme Tracker: I use Extreme Tracker to get more in depth with my stats. Extreme Tracker lists the same stats as Site Meter, but it also lists the last 20 referring web sites, the last 20 referring search engines, the last 20 search queries used to find your site, and several other things. Extreme Tracker also lists the top search terms, and referring websites of all time. This is a great service for tracking where people are coming from.

BloxFlux LinkLog: If Extreme Tracker is the bees knees at figuring at where people are coming from, the BlogFlux LinkLog is the best at showing where people are going too. With a simple addition of javascript code in your template, LinkLog detects what links people click on. With a free account, you can get a breakdown on each day, listing the top outgoing links clicked on that day, and how many each was clicked. Additionally, you can get a breakdown by each month, and - I believe - each year, and all time. Tracking where people are going, will often show you what they’re interested in, and give you fodder for future posts.

Explore some of the stats systems out there, and make up your own mind which ones you want. Just make sure they’re easy for you to use and understand.

Setting Up Stats

This will likely be the shortest section I’ve ever written for a series. Setting up your stats programs is very simple. Sign up for the service, and insert the given code into your template. End of setup. heh.

You might want to create a “Start-up” folder that contains bookmarks to all of your stats packages. Then - if your browser supports this featurs (*cough*firefox*cough*) - open all of the stats systems into tabs, and flip through each one at the beginning of each blogging day. Over time, you’ll start to notice specific trends.

Monitoring

It’s pretty important to monitor your stats, regularly. I check SiteMeter and Extreme Tracker, once per day. I check the BlogFlux LinkLog about once a week. By watching the traffic meters, I can tell when people are coming in. With that knowledge, I can look at what I’ve written in the few days preceeding a traffic spike, and tell why people are suddenly coming in. I can also tell which websites referred them, and give appropriate thanks and links back.

After a few months, you’ll want to start paying more attention to your weekly and monthly stats, over the long run. Extreme Tracker is great for this, as it lists the last 20 months, and the last 20 weeks in bar graph form. This enables you to notice traffic trends. You can then correlate these with posts, series, and other things you’ve done in your blog. As you correlate, you’ll start to figure out just what draws people in, and you’ll be able to do more of the same.

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed statistics packages, and how to monitor your stats. Next time, well, it’s the conclusion of this series. Stay tuned, Grasshopper, and you will soon be set free!

Search Engines

First and foremost, it’s important to get listed in search engines. If you signed up for Google SiteMaps, like I suggested in the Setting Up entry for this series, you’re already going to get listed in Google. Go ahead and take the time to submit your site to Yahoo, MSN, and DMOZ. Getting listed in those engines will be your best bet. Of course, if you’re getting links from other blogs, you’ll eventually get indexed into the search engines, anyway… but why wait?

Directories

Getting listed in directories is a very valid way of getting traffic to your blog. Beware, however, or generic directories. A lot of search engines look down on directory listings, and discount those links in your ranking. Your best bet is to submit your blog to topic-specific directories, and well-used blog directories. Staying with a topic-specific directory will ensure that people visiting your blog will be interested in its topic.

Additionally, you may consider signing up for things like Blogs of the Day, and other blog ranking services. Most of the time, these services require you to display a small graphic, or chicklet, on your blog. These ranking services - especially those that are well used/surfed - will help to drive traffic to your blog, as people check you out.

Google SiteMaps

I cannot stress enough how important it is to get your blog set up with Google Sitemaps. It is probably the single most important thing you can do in setting up your new blog. Getting listed with Google Sitemaps will ensure that you are index promptly and included into Google’s search results. It is believed that by setting yourself up on Google Sitemaps, you will completely bypass the Google Sandbox. In the case of MindSpeak, it appears to be true, as I was indexed and showing in search results within a week of starting the blog.

Outside Links

Getting links to your new blog is important. Try to contact other bloggers (individually, never send a mass e-mail) that are blogging on the same subject matter. Let them know you have a new blog opening, and ask if they would mind checking it out, and possibally linking to you, or reviewing you. Make sure you have a good amount of content (15-20+ entries) before you do this. Even if blogger’s aren’t willing to review you/post about you, you can still leave comments on their blogs, including your blog’s URL. Unless you’re directing to a specific entry (with specific reason), don’t put the URL in the comment, itsself. Just list it within the standard URL field. People will, believe it or not, click to check you out - especially if your comment is appropriate and interesting.

Link Exchanges, Surf for Click, E-mail Signatures, Forum Sigs

Asking for, and participating in, link exchanges is a decent way of obtaining good traffic. Just make sure that the blogs you exchange links with are in the same genre/niche as your blog. Also, do a little homework, and make sure that the blogs you’re exchanging with are of reasonable quality (post-wise).

Surf for Click websites do just what they say. The more you surf member blogs, the more often members will be directed to your blog. Currently, the biggest and best surf for click site out there is Blog Explosion. Blog Explosion is designed to not only offer a great surf-for-click experience, but to also offer a multitude of other methods to earn - and use - credits. BE contains programs like the Rent My Blog campaign, where members ‘pay’ you a specified number of credits to put a small image link on your blog for a week. Blog Explosion also has contsts, lotteries, forums, and other amusements.

When it comes to e-mail and forums, signatures are your friend. Put your blog URL in every signature you have. Whenever you post on a forum, or send an e-mail, people will see - and occasionally click - your link. Well visited forums that are topical to your blog are your best bet.

How do I do it?

So how did I bring in traffic with MindSpeak? Simple. I joined the TEXAdS Network, first off. That network is an alliance network between progressive political bloggers in Texas. We exchange links, as well as post points. In the mailing list for the group, I announced the opening of my blog. Some of the members merely linkrolled me. A few, however, wrote posts about the new blog, and linked it.

I also, of course, signed up for Google Sitemaps. This ensured I was indexed and in Google’s search results, relatively rapidly. I also added my URL for MindSpeak to my e-mail signature, and several forum signatures.

Most importantly, I kept people informed of new posts. For example, I wrote a rather lengthy post satirically deconstructing the State of the Union address. I announced this post on the TEXAdS mailing list, and several of the bloggers linked to it. The amount of traffic I received from that, alone, was astounding… 125 hits within 24 hours. Not bad for a brand new blog. That resulted in a few steady readers.

Every time I write an in-depth post that I think people would be interested in, I network it. I send an e-mail to the TEXAdS mailing list, and often people link to the post. For posts that don’t get links, I attempt to get them out in other methods. There are various mailing lists, blogs, communities, and forums on which I will mention new posts.

Right now, the vast majority of my traffic comes from website referrals. About 75% of my traffic is from website referrals, and 25% from search engines. I like those numbers, as that means the people coming to my site are coming because they are genuinely interested in the specific topics.

The important thing is to find new and inventive ways of drawing in traffic.

So What’s Next?

In this conversation, we discussed drawing in traffic to your new blog. Have some tips, or methods you use that I didn’t list? Comment and educate us.

Next time, we’ll dicuss keeping track of your blog statistics. Stay tuned!

Initial Entries

First and foremost, before you ever begin to advertise, or link to, your new blog, you need to have a good amount of initial entries. The absolute bare minimum is ten solid entries. By solid entry, I mean an entry that is fairly in depth. Normally one that is several paragraphs long. Short entries, link entries, and general “stuff” entries do not count in that initial ten. Optimally, before “opening” your blog, you should have between fifteen and twenty entries of substance. It’s perfectly fine to write these entries within a very few days. The dates of the entries aren’t important, it’s the fact that they’re there and represent an active blog. Make certain, when you’re writing your initial entries, that they’re on topic with your blog. Eventually, you can post an occasional off-topic entry, but to begin with, your entries should be on topic and current.

Importing Entries

If you’re starting a new blog as an off-shoot of another (for example, I started MindSpeak as an offshoot of the political posts from MindFyre), then you may be able to import your entries. Different blogging systems handle this differently, but here’s how I did it for MindSpeak. I had to import from one WordPress blog to another, and - unfortunately - WordPress doesn’t have an import function to do that (which is rather unusual). I had to get inventive:

First, I set/pointed my feedburner feed to a generic feed address, with a single entry stating that the feed was temporarily down while I did maintenance, and would return shortly. I hand-created this feed using a generic RSS template.

Then, I set my WordPress feed options to show up to 999 entries in the feeds. Then, I went and called up the feed for each category I wanted to export (in this case, all categories containing political posts). These category feeds contained every entry in the categories (as the feed was set to show up to 999 entries. Trust me, I hadn’t written that many).

I copied and pasted each feed from my web browser, into a text editor. I had to modify the feed slightly, as my web browser put a “-” at the beginning of several lines in the feed. After I deleted those symbols, I saved the feed as a specific filename, based on the category (such as “politics.rss” and “texas.rss”). I then uploaded these feeds to my server.

I then accessed /wp-admin/import-rss.php, and modified it appropriately (you have to specify the file location for each file you want to import, and you can only import one at a time). Then I loaded the import-rss.php file into the web browser, and the entries were imported. I did this for each category.

When the entries imported, the categories they were in were created automatically, if they didn’t already exist. In this particular case, I did not export comments, as I wasn’t sure how to do so, and didn’t really want to fool with it.

WordPress contains various import file types for different blog systems, such as Blogger, Moveable Type, Expression Engine, etc… Simply find the file type that’s right for you, and load it in your web browser. It will contain instructions for its use.

Importing entries is a valid way to get your initial entries. I opened MindSpeak with only fifteen initial entries, all imported from my other blog. I, of course, immediately started writing other entries, and settled on a schedule for updating. (Incidentally, MindSpeak updates Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. MindFyre updates Monday, Wedensday, and Friday. I try to write for the Houston MetroBlog on Sunday.)

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed writing your initial entries, and importing entries from another blog, into your new one. Next time, we’ll talk about bringing traffic into your new blog, and the steps I took for MindSpeak. Stay tuned!

When Should You Monetize?

There are several schools of thought on this subject. The general consensus seems to run like this: If you are already a successful blogger, and you’ll most likely have a decent amount of traffic coming in right off the bat, go ahead and set up at least some of your ads at the beginning. If you’re a new blogger, this is a new niche for you, or you don’t think you’ll have a decent amount of traffic almost immediately, then go ahead and sign up for and block out where you want your ad units to appear, but don’t actually insert them.

Choosing Types

What type of ad systems should you use? Good question. Take a good, long, hard look at the availible ad systems and decide which would best benefit your blog. In the case of MindSpeak, I chose AdSense, Amazon Associates, AdBrite, and BlogAds. Here’s why on each:

AdSense - AdSense has been a proven performer for me on my other blogs. The system display targetted ads, and is - essentially - a great fit for most blogs.

Amazon Associates - As a political blog, I will occasionally refer to various books and/or authors. With Amazon Associates, I am able to quickly and easy link to the items to which I refer. Each sale will earn me a small comission.

AdBrite - AdBrite is a new system for me. Doing mainly text links, I felt AdBrite would be a decent system to try on MindSpeak, as advertisers will bid specifically for my blog.

BlogAds - BlogAds is a proven performer across numerous blogs. A lot of political blogs utilize BlogAds, and - in fact - BlogAds started as an advertising network for political ads. As a member of the Texas Progressive Alliance (TEXAdS), I have to have BlogAds, as this is the system we use. Of course, I would have added it, anyway.

Did I consider other ad systems? Absolutely. Most weren’t a good fit, or else were AdSense clones, and hadn’t proven their performance as far as I am concerned. I still have other systems I can add in later on - if I feel the need - but I doubt I will ever do so, as the ad layouts are pretty much perfect, right now.

One thing you also want to consider is if your chosen systems allow a feature called “alternate URL”. Alternate URL allows you to display alternate ads in the case that your primary system does not have any ads to show. In the case of MindSpeak, I collapse the ad units (and display nothing) for AdSense, and I always have a couple of spare ads of my own for my BlogAds ad units. AdBrite will simply have the default text. (AdBrite allows you to display generic contextual ads and get paid by the click, when no ads have been purchased. Unfortunately, this conflicts with Google’s Terms of Service, so I am relegated to displaying an empty unit for AdBrite.)

Choosing Ad Units (size), and Placement

This is probably the simplest part of monetization, as there are proven performers in specific sizes. For instance, the Google Skyscraper and Wide Skyscraper are proven performers for the sidebar, the Medium Rectangle is a proven performer for ads that are inline with your content, and the 468×90 banner is a proven performer for horizontal placement. These are the ad unit sizes that I have used on MindSpeak (and my original blog, MindFyre).

The most important thing to remember when choosing ad size is to go with what looks good, without overriding the content. Once you decide where you’re going to place your ad units, you can more effectively choose the size. For this paragraph, we’re going to look at the most popular placements of Google AdSense (and other contextual ad services) and Chitika eMiniMalls. I’ll break it down in a list:

• *Across the top of the blog, between the header and the content (468×90 banner, or 768×90 leaderboard)
• Between blog entries (such as between the fifth and sixth entry on the page) (468×90 banner)
• *On the side bar (120×600 skyscraper, *160×600 wide skyscraper, 120×240 vertical banner)
• *Inline with the content (where the content wraps around the ad) (*350×250 Medium Rectangle, 250×250 Square, 120×240 vertical banner)
• Between entry text and comments (468×90 banner)
• Beside comments (120×240 vertical banner, small square, 250×250 Square)
• Above the footer/in the footer (468×90 banner, 768×90 leaderboard)

Obviously, you could not use every one of those locations. The locations with a * in front of them are ones that I have found to be proven performers. To be honest, the Medium Rectangle, inline with my content, out performs all of my other ad units, by far. Remember, though… Overloading your layout with advertisements is a sure way to make people disappear from your blog faster than you can blink. If all you care about are first time visitors, then load away. Just remember, though, that repeat visitors are your meat and gravy.

When it comes to units like BlogAds, you are limited only by the number of ads, and the size of the ad. In my case, one of my BlogAds units (the one at the top of the center column) is considered “premium” and I’ve limited it in both size and number of ads. It will run one ad, with standard image size, with five to six lines of text. This is primarily done for aesthetic reasons, although it also helps to implement a “premium” style of ad. For my other BlogAds unit, I am limited only by the number of ads I wish to accept. The goal is to never have your side bar ad units longer than three quarters (3/4) of your main page if you are using full entries. If you are using only excerpts on the main page, you can let your ads extend the full length of the main page.

Additionally, as you browse the site, you’ll notice that some entries appear and disappear, depending on the type of page you’re on. This is pretty good mojo when it comes to ad units. It keeps the pages from being overloaded with ads, and ensures the best type of ad is in the best place. Learn your blogging system’s template tags, and learn to place ads properly. It’ll take a bit of trial and error, but eventually you’ll figure out what works. Remember, though, what’s good for the goose, may not be good for the gander (what works for me, may not work for you).

Ad Unit Specifics (colorization, etc…)

There are three schools of thought when it comes to the colorization of ad units. These are:

• Ads that blend in with the layout
• Ads that stand out
• Ads that really stand out

Ads that blend in are set up to have the same color links and the same color text as the rest of your blog. This makes the ad appear to be a part of your blog, and normally results in a higher click through rate. Additionally, blended ads rarely have borders, and also have the same color background as your blog.

Ads that stand out often have different link colors, and usually have a border around them. In this case, the link colors are differing from the rest of your blog, but are using traditional link colorings. The borders are designed to mesh well with your blog’s layout. For instance, I might use a soft grey, or similar. The ads don’t look garish, but it is usually obvious that they are advertisements.

Ads that really stand out have much different (and usually the polar opposite) colorings from the link and text. Often, ads of this type will have highly visible borders, and will have a background color that is strikingly different from the rest of the blog. Occasionally, you’ll a blogger that must have painted carnivals for a living, and they’ll come up with some of the most garish color schemes for their ad units. Amazingly, these folks usually stand by their choices, swearing that they work better than blended ads. Personally, I’ve tried truly stand-out ad units before, and have found that they do not perform as well as blended ads. I guess it just depends on the blog.

Once you decide on your color scheme, you should try to duplicate it across most (if not all) of your ad units. It’s okay to have some that look a bit different than the rest… Just remember, in my experience, blended ads perform the best.

So What’s Next?

In this conversation, we discussed adding monetization to your blog, including placement, and choosing ad units. Ad usual, I’ve left you to think for yourself, quite a bit. A few people have asked me why I don’t go as in depth, or specific, as other bloggers. I’ve found that I’ve learned best when I had the basics layed out for me, and I’ve taken them and played around, myself. I could go in and give you a specific list of every ad unit, placement, and color scheme that has worked for me, as well as how I came to use them… But trust me, you’ll learn better - and have more success - if you think for yourself, and ad-play on your own blog.

Next time, we’ll discuss your initial entries, as well as populating those entries from another blog. Stay tuned!

General Layout Stuff

Don’t you love headings like that? Simply put, you need to look over your layout and see if anything sticks out like a sore thumb. When I started tweaking the template of MindSpeak, I found that the options at the end of each entry didn’t particularly agree with me, so I tried a couple of different layouts of that area, before I found the one I liked. I also changed the headers of my columns, and - for one column - changed the width. I then added in a few test entries, and looked at the way things appeared. I also checked the comments section, and decided I wanted to alternate background colors, and - using a plugin - designate which comments were from blog authors (primarily, myself). After tweaking the general layout for a bit, I finally settled on a semi-finished product. I had yet to insert all of my monetization codes, so I knew I still had a little bit left to do.

Adding Plugins

As discussed before, you’ll need to go through all of your plugins and figure out which ones will require the modification of the template. Then, go play around with code, placement, etc… until things look right. There really isn’t a lot to say about this, other than the fact that your plugins should never overshadow the content of the blog, itsself.

SEO Techniques

Ah, here’s the big one. The SEO techniques. There’s a few little tricks in this section. Here we go with a few of the ones I used:

Blog Title and Entry Titles

I editted the main template, and the post templates, do display the <title> tags a specific way. On the main blog, I modified it to simply display the title of the blog. On the post pages, I modified it to display POST_TITLE > BLOG NAME. By putting the title of the post, first, ads will be better targetted (believe it, or not).

Meta Tags

I edited the meta tags in the header file. Primarily, I made changed to the meta description tag. The content=”" portion was changed to display either the post title, or a custom excerpt. In this case, I decided to display the post title, unless I had written a custom excerpt for the post. Using the excerpt feature, I am able to list specific keywords and phrases for the meta description tag. I also set up this tag to - on the main page - display generic keywords about the blog.

Ad System Weight Control

No, I didn’t put AdSense on a diet. I knew that I would be using AdSense on this blog, so I decided to go ahead and add the section settings, now. Google has specific tags that let you define the sections of your blog that contain the primary content, as well as sections you want Google to completely ignore. I set those up to ignore the side columns, header, and footer. I also set it up to designate the content as, well, the content.

Keep in mind that there are litterally hundreds of other tricks in the SEO hat. This is just an idea of a few you can do that will make a huge difference in the way search engines perceive your blog.

So What’s Next?

In this conversation, we discussed template tweaks, including general layout, adding plugins, and SEO techniques. Next time, we’ll discuss adding in your monetization systems, as well as layout, colorization and placement. Stay tuned!

Setting Up

The first step in setting up is, of course, installing your blog software. Normally, this won’t take very long, and once it’s done, you’re pretty much ready to go. Keep in mind, however, that you need to ensure your blog is set up to work on your new domain (or subdomain, or sub-folder). Once the DNS has propogated, and you can access your blog by its web address, you’re ready to move on to specific setup options. Before doing so, however, spend a bit of time thinking about what you’ll be writing about, jotting down category ideas, and thinking about the general options you’ll need to set. Spending a few minutes thinking about these things before hand, can save you an hour of work, later.

Initial Categories

We start off with one of the more important steps, populating the initial categories. Why is this so important? Simple, it saves time. If you have your categories set up before you start in on the blog, you’ll be able to simply select categories for entries. If not, you’ll have to go in and create them before each entry.

Sit down and think about all of the things you’ll be writing about on the blog. Develop a list of categories and plug them in. Remember that it’s okay to be specific, but not too specific. Say you’ve got a digital camera blog. It’s okay to have specific categories such as SLR, Six Megapixel, Memory, etc… If you have categories like “Cannon (Model)” or “Compact Flash,” you may be getting a little too specific, unless you’ll be writing a lot specifically about that model camera, or compact flash memory - as opposed to other models/types/etc…

Once you’ve got your initial categories entered, you’re ready to move on. Remember, you’ll not cover every category you’ll ever use at the start. You’ll just have a good idea. In my case, a goood potion of my categories were created when I transfered entries in from my other blog. I created a few additional categories to cover specific types of news and topics.

System Options

Setting up your blogging system’s options is another crucial step. At this point, you go through and set your permalink scheme, your commenting options, your blog’s title and subtitle, etc… Essentially, all of the options for the system. Spend a good amount of time on each option page, thinking about the thing you’re setting. If you’ve run blogs before, you’re probably old hat at this, and can set the majority of options, quickly. If you’re new, you need to give it a little extra thought. If this is not your first blog, remember that each blog is an independant entity, and what worked for another blog, may not be the best for this one.

Plugins

Ah, plugins. The bane and joy of every blogger. I remember many times looking at my extensive list of plugins and thinking “am I using too many?” My opinion on plugins is pretty simple. If you have so many plugins that you’re dramatically slowing down the display of pages/system, then you probably have too many. Otherwise, you’re fine.

Choosing your plugins is a lot like setting options. Each plugin extends (or modifies) the functionality of the system in some way. Go through the plugin lists out there, and choose the ones that you feel would best benefit you. You’d be surprised at some of things you’ll find. Be careful on installing frivolous plugins. Examples? When I started my first blog (this one), I installed a last.fm plugin, a flickr plugin, a del.icio.us link listing plugin, etc… I haven’t used any of those. I just thought they were cool, and figured that at some point I might use them. Well, I never did, so I removed them. Take the time to think about each plugin you want, before you make the final decision. Once you’re done, however, you’ll have a well-rounded, well-extended system.

After installing the plugins, you have the joy of modifying your template to accomodate specific plugins. For instance, I had to modify my sidebar to add the subscription meta links, the main content area to add the Cosmos and del.icio.us links, and a few other little odds and ends here and there. Nothing spectaclar, most were just little things here and there, but they had to be done to harnass the functionality of the plugin.

Before I continue to the next section, I’m going to recommend four important plugins, and I’ll even tell you why. These plugins are for WordPress, but check your blogging system’s plugin repository, you may find similar plugins.

Related Posts: This plugin displays a list of (theoretically) related posts (based on keywords within the posts), wherever you place the template tag. As you can see on MindSpeak, I display the related posts at the end of each entry, just before the comments. Why use this plugin? It keeps people clicking, and moving through your blog. If someone’s reading a post on - say - the Patriot Act, and you have other posts about the Patriot Act - or even other government laws and whatnot, they will display in the related area.

FeedBurner Plugin: This plugin will set up a “hidden” feed for you to give to feedburner. Then, it will re-direct the default WordPress feeds to your feedburner feed. It’s a simple way to implement feedburner on your blog.

Google SiteMaps: First and foremost, go sign up for Google SiteMaps. This service allows you to submit an XML-based sitemap to Google. It ensures the Google bots will crawl your site at regular intervals, and your newest posts will be rapidly indexed. My new posts are often indexed by AdSense within twelve hours, and show up on the Google search engine within twelve to twenty-four hours. This plugin automates the creation of the sitemap. It allows you to set several options, including the importance of various pages, and how often portions of your blog should be crawled. (Careful, do not set these figures too high, or you may be removed from Google’s Sitemaps service.)

Spam Karma 2: SK2 is an anti-spam plugin. While no anti-spam plugin is perfect, I’ve been using SK2 for a while now, and it catches the vast majority of spams. On my original blog, MindFyre, it catches - on average - 50 to 100 spam attempts per day. I have to manually delete around three spams every week. That’s down from well over two hundred I had to delete manually, before I installed the plugin. SK2 is only for WordPress, but if you are running a WP blog, I highly suggest you install it.

I feel that these four plugins are a must for any blog. In all honesty, I have about ten plugins I install by default on any new blog I create, or help create, but those four are ones I will never give up.

Syndication

Now it’s time to decide how you’re going to syndicate your content. Every blogging platform comes with some sort of syndicated feed. Most come with RSS, some come with RSS and Atom. The main decisions on syndication are:

• Do I use full feeds, or excerpts?
• Do I use the default feed systems, or a external service (such as feedburner)
• Do I allow e-mail subscriptions?
• Do I want to include easy-subscribe links for popular aggregators?

Full feeds vs. excerpts is something for you to decide. Personally, I prefer full feeds, just because I prefer reading feeds in the reader, and not having to click through all the time. Especially on blogs that do several posts per day.

Using an external service is definately something to consider. Personally, I use Feedburner for all of my feeds, and I’m very happy with it. It gives me statistics, and several options that would be a pain to implement on the default feeds. It’s really up to you which you wish to use, although you’ll have to change some links in the templates if you use an external service.

Allowing e-mail subscriptions is definately something to consider. Some bloggers swear by them. Personally, I’ve never had more than three people subscribed to my blogs via e-mail, and one of those people is me (so I can make certain things show up, properly). In reality, it’s another system to maintain (although it requires about three minutes a month, if that (once set up)), and a couple of lines of code added to your template.

Including easy-subscribe links is - often - an easy way to give your readers a method to subscribe using their favorite aggregator. Again, some bloggers swear by this. Personally, I don’t really know whether it is for the best, or not. I leave them there, because I’m user friendly like that (and it’s a plugin. One line of code in the template generates all of those buttons).

Once you’ve figured out your feed details, well, you’re really ready to start adding content to your blog.

Speaking of adding content, you should have been writing entries for your blog all this time, as you go along. Unless you’ve been doing your blog setup all at the same time (i.e. a few hours in a row to get it set up and going), then you should have been blogging. Those entries will be there once you’re up and running, and put you that much closer to bringing in traffic.

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed the initial setup of your blog. Next time, we dive deeper into setup, as we discuss template tweaks. Grab your templates, you pen and paper, and stay tuned!

Initial Choices

There are a lot of initial choices that go with starting a blog. Needless to say, the first decicion is that of actually starting the blog. In my case, I decided it was time to start MindSpeak when I was invited to join the Texas Progressive Alliance (TEXAdS). I realize, at that point, that I would be making more politically oriented posts. I decided that it was time to seperate that topic genre (or niche) from my main blog, which was concentrating primarily on blogging, tech, and web 2.0. It was then that I decided to begin MindSpeak.

Topic

In my case, MindSpeak had a defined topic before I ever began the process of starting it. In the majority of cases, people will decide to start a blog, and then decide on the topic/genre/niche. Deciding on a topic isn’t an easy task; however, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First off, is it a topic you’re passionate about? I mean, is the topic something you enjoy? Are you at least semi-knowledgeable in the subject, or willing to learn all there is to know? Do you really think you can keep finding things to write about on this topic, for - say - the next year or so? Do you have the time to dedicate to this new blog?

For each topic you think about, ask yourself the above questions. Make a three-column grid on a piece of paper, and label the columns “Possible,” “Doubtful,” “Maybe Later.” In the “Possible” column write down the topics you’re still hyped about after going through the above questions. In the “Doubtful” column, write down the topics you’re not really sure about, but think that you might still be able to pull it off. In the “Maybe Later” column, write down the topics that get a definitive “no,” or, “not right now.” Then, for each of the topics in the “doubtful” column, go through the questions, again. Move the one’s you’re less sure about into the “maybe later” column. You’ll likely only wind up with a very few things left in the “doubtful” column. This is fine. Now, for each of the topics in the “possible” column, go through the questions again, paying more attention. Transfer certain topics to the “doubtful” column, as you give them more thought. Ideally, you’ll wind up with only one or two topics remaining in the “possible” column. If you have two or more topics, maybe you should consider opening multiple blogs.

At this point, you’ll have one or two things in the “possible” column, several things in the “doubtful” column, and a few (to several) in the “maybe later” column. Take the “doubtful” ones, and file them away for later reference. These are the top choices for new blogs in the future. The “maybe later” column will contain ideas for rocket-blogs (blogs that show up, post a lot of userful and interesting information, but of which the author tires before too long. Often these blogs are either sold, or given away, before their six month aniversary. With the speed of search engine indexing, these days, rocket blogs are often viable ways to get your opinions and information out on the ‘net). Keep your lists.

Back End

Choosing a blog back end can either be a difficult, or simple task. Difficult, if you decide you might want to try another blogging software, instead of the one you’re currently using. Simple, if you decide to keep your current blogging system.

In my case, it was a relatively simply decision. I’m well versed with WordPress, and have never had any major problems with it. I decided to keep using WordPress. My only major decision was whether to stick with the latest fully stable release (WP 1.5.2), or upgrade to the newest version (WP 2.0.1), which contained some bugs. Initially, I decided to go with WP 2.0.1, as it was supposed to have a leaner, cleaner administrative interface. After the installation, I was immediately impressed with the AJAX-ified administrative interface. Unfortunately, however, several key plugins that I use, as well as a couple of themes I was considering, did not work, and compatibility fixes had not yet been released. I immediately downgraded to WordPress 1.5.2.

To decide on the back end, I highly suggest visiting the website of each major blogging system you’re considering. Then, download the free version(s) of the software, and try it out for a post or two (even generic, “no-content,” posts). Play with the settings, plug-ins, etc… Get a feel for it. Eventually, there will be one you like more than any others.

Layout

Now this is the second most important decision you’ll make when opening a new blog (the first being your topic). The layout can make, or break, a blog. If people drop by and don’t like your layout, they’ll be on the next train to China, leaving your blog behind. If your layout won’t easily fit everything you hope to put in it, then there’s really no point. Let’s explore how I chose my layout.

Go in, I knew I wanted a three column layout (I’m a huge fan of three column layouts). I also knew that instead of having the content in the middle column, I wanted to try having the content on the left (or right) and then two smaller columns, side by side. I knew that I was expecting to run a lot of blog-specific advertisements (blogads), and was hoping to find a way to do a premium ad space, as well as a regular ad space. I also knew I wanted certain information (links to other blogs, the TEXAdS blogs, featured posts, etc…) in the other column. I wanted a defined header, as well, preferably with links to the About, Archives and Contact pages. I also knew I wanted it in either light, or bright colors, with a primarily white background.

In looking through themes, online, I found one called trisexuality-standard that seemed to fit the bill. The theme had a wide column for content on the left side, that was a white background. The header contained the name of the blog, and links to the about, archives, and contact pages. The two columns on the right was of differing colors, enabling me to draw attention to specific things within each column.

Initially, the layout had specific header graphics at the top of each of the two smaller columns. I quickly deleted those from the theme, and made a custom colored background for those areas (equalling the color of the original header graphic for each column), designed to expand based on the amount of text within the area. Doing so provided me with the premium ad space I had wanted (Top of the middle column, premium), and the secondary ad spaces (middle column) I wanted. The far right column provided the perfect place to show link rolls, and featured posts. A little modifying of the template, and I had links to Technorati, Del.icio.us and various other systems on each entry.

I spent, probably, a good three or four hours working on the template, layout, colors, etc… Once I had it “perfected” (in my mind), I set it, and started adding content. Personally, I think it looks pretty good. It does a good job of drawing the eye to key places, without being garish in the process.

Remember, a layout can make, or break, a blog. When you go to choose your layout, spend time looking at various layouts availible. If you choose a pre-made one, ask yourself “what feeling do I get from this layout?” Does it convey a professional image, a personal diary image, a unique image, a “I’m just another blog” image, etc…? Make sure your layout says what you want it to say. Don’t get hung up on colors and columns. While I prefer three-column themes, I considered several two-column themes that were well made, and conveyed a good air. Remember, good colorization can help, two or three columns can help, but what really matters is whether or not the entire thing flows together and conveys the image you want.

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed the initial choices you make when starting a new blog. Next, we talk about setting up your blog, including the initial categories, system options, plugins, and syndication. In other words, next conversation, we’ll dive into the meat and taters of the matter. Stay tuned!

The New Blog Creation Series will walk you through - step-by-step - setting up a new blog.  In this series, I use my newest blog, MindSpeak, as an example, providing "real-world" looks at how I made certain choices in setting up the blog.  This series is designed for both the first-time blogger, and the multi-blogger.  Whether you’re setting up your first blog on blogger.com, or you’re creating another MoveableType blog on your existing server, you’ll benefit from this series.

The NBCS posts will appear, starting today at 1:30pm [CST], and will continue to appear every Monday, Wedensday, and Friday, around noon.

Once the NBCS is completed, I will introduce a third series, tentatively called the Advanced Monetization Series, that discusses advanced topics and information for monetizing your blog.  I am also considering writing a fourth series about the blogging mistakes I’ve made over the years, and how you can avoid them.  I’d really like your feedback on that series idea.

So, stay tuned to MindFyre…  It’s going to be an interesting couple of series.

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