London Blogger’s Meetup SEO expert Jo Turnbull of seojoblogs fame writes the basics of how to setup your blog. A nice intro and I would certainly agree on some of the points like getting your domain name right, the All in One SEO pack and of course loving y our blog..!
Anyway, over to Jo.
Setting up a Blog
Once you have decided to set up a blog you might ask yourself “where do I start?” Here are a few tips to help you on your way:
1. Decide on a domain name
I recommend going to godaddy.com and seeing if your domain name is free. If it is free, I would register the domain name for at least two years. Choose the domain name with keywords you want to rank for. For example if you want to be known for seo and blogs, make sure that is in the domain name.
2. Choose your content management system (CMS)
There are a lot of CMS’ out there such as Drupal, WordPress, Magento and it is important you choose the right one. I strongly suggest WordPress as it is really easy to use. There are a number of themes you can choose from.
3. Host your site
Once you have a domain name and CMS, you should host your site with a company you trust. Normally, people host their sites at the same company where they purchased the domain name from. Godaddy.com offer some great rates, from as little as five pounds a month and there is 24/7 support charged at a local rate.
4. Plugins
Once you have chosen the CMS, you can then download plugins to help your site rank better in the search engines. I have used the All in One SEO Pack for WordPress which allows you to add different page titles, meta descriptions and keywords to each post. This means you can optimise individual posts.
Ultimate Google Analytics allows you to track the visits to your site. This is the first plugin I would download as you can track the number of visits to your site from when it is live.
The akismet plugin identifies and blocks comment and trackback spam on blogs. It has saved my blog from hundreds of spammy comments. I can’t believe people have so much time to send such rubbish.
You can also make a mobile version of your site through the WordPress Mobile Pack. Everything is going mobile and you certainly want your blog to be too.
5. Finally – love your blog
Update your blog regularly. There is no point setting up a blog if you leave it and only write posts once a month. It needs to be updated regularly with interesting content about your site. If you have a site about cakes, you could write about simple recipies for domestically challenged people. I would certainly find that post interesting as I am not the best in the kitchen.
So there you have it, a few steps to help you set up your first blog. If you have any other tips, let me know.
mflow has given us two pairs of tickets to their “Calm before the storm” party, featuring acoustic sets from two hotly-tipped musicians, Lauren Pritchard and Pete Lawrie at Ronnie Scott’s on 15 April (from 5.30pm).
To win a pair of these tickets, download mflow from www.mflow.com, using the invite code LBM2277 and answer the following question:
What is the name of Lauren Pritchard’s debut EP on mflow?
The first two people to email the correct answer to chris.reed@brewdigital.com will win tickets and + ones.
What’s mflow?
You might already be aware of mflow, it’s a new legal music discovery and sharing app which is a cross between Twitter and iTunes, currently in private Beta.
The way it works is that you are recommended music by people that you follow and in turn you can recommend music to your followers. And then, if you buy the music which is recommended to you, the person who recommends it gets 20% of what you paid credited to their account to say “thank you”. (The NextWeb described it as “the social iTunes which pays its users”)
Well the nice people at mflow have given members of the London Bloggers Meetup early access to mflow to try it out before it goes public later this month.
So, if you’d like to rub shoulders with the likes of Zane Lowe, PopJustice, and NME on this social network with music at its heart then go to www.mflow.com, download the app and use the code LBM2277
Things like integration with Twitter and Facebook and blog-ready widgets are all in the pipeline before the public launch, but even without them it’s frighteningly addictive…
If you’d like to know a bit more about mflow before-hand, or to write it up, then do check out their blog, SMNR, or follow @mflow.
And if you’d like to know what others are saying about it first of all, try the Guardian (who describe mflow’s as “Twitter’s hipper little brother”), Stuff, or LBM’s very own Laurence Borel’s blog.
I don’t know if any of you have been following lastminute.com recently, but they’ve been taking giant strides to work with and talk to bloggers about what they’re up to. One of their initiatives has been the monthly ‘oh you lucky bloggers’ top 50 chart, which I should point out I’ve been involved with. That said, I do not create the rankings!
I just wanted to highlight that 13 of the top 50 blogs are part of the London Bloggers Meetup Community, that’s just over a quarter. It just goes to show what I’ve always said, that LBM is full of phenomenally interesting and talented people. Nice to get some recognition!
For more on lastminute.com and oh you lucky bloggers, check out the blog. To see who’s on the list from LBM, see below…
Posted in Meetup on 08. Mar, 2010
The last edition of the London Bloggers Meetup was in actual fact a little while ago now, sorry it’s taken so long to blog about it folks. However, that does not mean it was anything other than another fantastic evening. I have to say we had more than the usual number of new faces, perhaps all of the beer bloggers who turned up to hear from Greene King IPA tipped the balance, who knows. What I can tell you was this made for an interesting evening with a nice mix of bloggers, beer aficionados, regular LBM’ers and good old fashioned regular bloggers.
I thought John Bexon, the Head Brewer from Greene King IPA was a fantastic speaker. In fact, had we been at a beer convention and not a bloggers meetup, I could probably have sat and listened to him for another couple of hours. Check out his blog and also a fantastic looking iPhone app too – the iBrew.
John talked about the difference in the tastes between the North and South versions of Greene King IPA and I have to say from memory the Northern version was more to my liking. But being a proud midlander I’d be keen to see a version just for us – although you might say that given so much beer is brewed in the midlands around Burton-on-Trent and so on that all beer is made for us anyway… It was certainly a pleasure to draw some prize winners out of the ice bucket so congrats to those who won rugby tickets, weekends away or just good old beer. Do come back and let us know how you enjoyed your prizes.
Following on from John we had Lorena Sparenberg talking about the fantastic work in Madagascar from charity Azafady. As a quick reminder about Azafady:
Azafady works with local people to conserve threatened forests situated along 70 km of coastline, home to countless endemic and endangered species. Our aim is to help the poorest communities in Madagascar to empower themselves and develop in sustainable ways, increasing local access to health care and education. A core priority is to conserve the delicate ecosystems of Madagascar through facilitating viable alternatives to deforestation. Our projects and volunteer programs are at the frontline of global conservation and development work, with integrative and innovative projects which emphasise training, capacity building and education geared towards helping local people to help themselves.
If you want to help out, drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch with Lorena. I think largely Lorena is looking for help on how to make the most of their blog and other social media to raise the profile of the charity and I’m sure there are more than a few social media experts in the crowd who could add some value!
All that’s left is to thank Greene King IPA Revolution and Consolidated PR again for hosting us. It truly was an thoroughly enjoyable evening and I’m grateful for the samples we took home too. I tucked into the Rutland first, given that’s just down the road from where I call home and so far so good. Of course great to meet so many bloggers again as usual, too many to name check, but I’m pleased you were all able to attend. You can see ome photos of the evening below and also here and here.
Did anyone else spot Lawrence Dallaglio when he popped in for a pint…?
Photos couresty of Consolidated PR
Recent Comments