State of the Index, November 2009

Last week I was in Las Vegas for PubCon , a conference for publishers, and I wanted to share the slides from my main presentation: When I get a chance, I’ll also re-create the talk on video and share the video with you, but in the mean time Lisa Barone did a nice live write-up and coverage of the Q&A . It’s always nice to see SEOs and webmasters that I’ve gotten to know from search conferences. For example, one night featured the traditional SEO Werewolf game, except with blackhats as the werewolves and whitehats as the villagers

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State of the Index, November 2009

PageRank sculpting

People think about PageRank in lots of different ways. People have compared PageRank to a “random surfer” model in which PageRank is the probability that a random surfer clicking on links lands on a page. Other people think of the web as an link matrix in which the value at position (i,j) indicates the presence of links from page i to page j.

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PageRank sculpting

What was new at Searchology?

Google launched 3-4 new features at Searchology today.

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What was new at Searchology?

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How To Become a Blogger

The key to becoming a blogger is to start blogging. Easier said than done? Not really. Luckily, there are many websites that offer tips on blogging. Do a search on any search engine and you will find thousands and thousands of information on blogging.

The blogging community in general is very large. There are approximately over 100 million blogs on the internet already and hundreds more added on a daily base. The idea to express themselves and their thoughts to the world is what intrigue people to blog.

For anyone who never blogged before, it can seem like a daunting task. Where to start? Where to go? Is it going to cost me any money? These are the questions that runs through a person’s mind who never blogged before. Well, with all the new technologies being introduced everyday, starting a blog is very simple and straightforward.

For most people, using a free blogging service offered by Wordpress.com or Blogger.com, is the best way to start. They offer everything you need to get started. They even offer templates which you can customize to your preference. The setup process is straightforward and everything is written in simple to understand language. To get more information on starting a free blog, go to wordpress.com or blogger.com.

For starter, you can start blogging about anything that interest you. This can be your thought for the day or on a particular subject. Some people like to blog about themselves, while others like to blog about other things beside themselves. For whatever reason, blogging gives you the chance to express your thoughts and share it with the whole world. The greatest thing about blogging is that it can be viewed by thousands of people and give them the ability to response to your blog.

Once you start your first blog, it will be hard to stop. This means, that you are becoming a blogger! Keep going and in no time you will become a pro at blogging.

Niche Blogging For Profit

If you are planning to blog for profit, you must first need to find a niche to write about. This is very important if you want to make money from your blogs. Niche blogging is different from blogging in general. This type of blogging gives the reader information on a specific topic. There are more general blogs out there than niche blogs, and this what makes niche blogs more valuable.

To start, a niche is defined as a specific subsection of a general and popular topic. For example, “saltwater aquarium” would be considered a niche, since the main topic is “Aquarium”. By the way, saltwater aquarium is a very popular niche right now. A lot of people are looking for information on how to build and maintenance a saltwater aquarium. With this in mind, the potential to earn top dollars is endless from this niche.

Advertisers are more willing to pay more for their advertisements on a website or blog that is targeting a niche market. Since the market they’re targeting is not saturated with too many of the same products or services, they are able to sell their products or services at a higher price. In return, this higher price translates into bigger payout for you.

Finding a niche topic to write about all depends on your knowledge of the subject. Usually, if you have a lot of knowledge on a particular subject, it will be fairly easy for you to write about. On the other hand, if you have no knowledge about the subject, it can be harder and you will need to spend more time researching first. With the popularity of blogs these days, there are people out there who can write for you. These people are known as ghostwriter or copywriter. You can find one by searching on Google search engine.

Once you start your first blog, it is recommended not to place any other content than the niche related content on the blog. This will make your blog very useful to the readers and excellent for search engine ranking. If you want to write about another niche topic, start another blog. Your visitors will more than likely move onto another blog since they came to your blog in the first place, looking for that specific information.

In the end, niche blogging will give you a better return for your time than general blogging. Keep you blog updated frequently and you will draw massive traffic and that will give your profit potential – the sky is the limit!