The Article Writer

When you started blogging, did you formulate a grand scheme for your work and did you set up measurable goals to track your progress? Many bloggers have an idea where they want their blogging to go and what they want their work to accomplish. As for me, I cannot say that my plans have been all that elaborate as I simply enjoy blogging. SEO, social networking, and the usual stuff all came along much later.

Sometimes in the midst of what you are doing an opportunity to go to the next level presents itself. This could involve social networking, bringing on guest bloggers, or simply getting a little extra traffic for your site.

Once in awhile I hear of someone striking it big and in this case a friend of mine has done just that. Dr. Bobbie Sullivan, an independent research psychologist from Hawaii, is the person whom I am talking about. For over three years now, Bobbie has been faithfully moderating the Stress & Health forum on my Corporate Flight Attendant Community Message Boards. During that time I have observed Bobbie starting and expanding five aviation-related blogs while encouraging me with my own blogging pursuits.

Well, Bobbie recently received some very good news: a leading aviation publication, AviationWeek — a McGraw-Hill company, has picked up all four of her news-related blogs and is incorporating them in with their site. As Bobbie shared, “They’re now running the feeds into their “Blogs On the Web” sections on both the front page of the online Aviation Week, and the front page of the Commercial Aviation section.” Woohoo!

I know Bobbie is thrilled and I am very happy for her too as she has worked tirelessly under some very trying circumstances. For one thing, getting steady traffic to news related blogs — especially ones covering aviation — can be a hard road to travel. There is a market out there, but many aviation blogs are somewhat informal. On the other hand, Bobbie’s four news blogs are just that: she reports the news and adds comments as needed. Some good information for pilots, flight attendants, and even passengers can be found across Bobbie’s blogging network.

Best wishes and congratulations to you, Bobbie!

A few weeks back, Son #1 comes to me and says, “Dad, can you attend Career Day at my school?” Flattered, I answered “yes” and got back to finishing my work. Son #1 goes away happy and the next day he tells his teacher that I will attend.

Fast forward to just yesterday and I learn a few more things about Career Day — I am expected to give four ten-minute talks about what it is I do for a living to eight kindergarten classes (2 classes per session). Ouch!

Yes, little did I know that I was not only expected to attend the Career Day “festivities” but the expectation was for me to talk about what I do at each session. Not only was Son #1 going to hear me speak but his brother, who is also in kindergarten (Son #2) would get to hear me too.

Well, I am making the most of it all and will be bringing my laptop, a newspaper, and a magazine with me as props. I’ll try to keep the kids riveted to the screen as I explain to them what they are viewing (as we take a look at one of my web sites) while discussing how taking words and making them into a story is something that they should be able to understand (thank you wife for that tip!)

Yes, even if the computer hook-up goes awry, I’ll still be able to use my other props or classroom books to make my point. At the very least there should be two boys there who are happy that I attended, but maybe I can also get across to the children that writing, indeed, can be a way of life.

Okay, I came up with this title to simply play with you, but if you are like so many bloggers who want to take their blog to the next level, then read on and I’ll share some blog building tidbits with you.

No, I don’t have the definitive guide for increasing traffic to your blog and, therefore, possibly helping you to increase your personal wealth. However, I did stumble upon (literally) Richard Alan Tatum’s (RAT) BlogRodent blog and I like what I read.

39 Tips To Improve Weblog Traffic And Visibility is the title of Tatum’s article that caught my attention. No, you aren’t likely to hear about Tatum around the blog circuit mentioned with the usual blog gurus (whoever they are), but you’ll appreciate the tips he willingly shares in his article.

Take tip #1 for example: SEO tips. You probably know about using keywords in your titles (something I don’t practice all that much) but did you know that the
< h 1 > and < h 2 > tags for sections and subsections is good practice? Although Tatum did not explain why I have read that Google loves them as the Googlebot searches for these types of tags when indexing a page. So, if it is good enough for your favorite bot, it should be good enough for your blog.

I know some of you are very good with tip #26, which is interviewing people and posting that information on your blog. Personally, this is something on my “to do” list, but I think it needs to move up to the top of that list. A real traffic generator as you might imagine.

Most definitely tip #27 should be practiced regularly and that tip has to do with being scanable or read quickly. Blogs should contain short, pithy articles (in my opinion 250 to 300 words max is usually best) with the occasional lengthy article just that — a once-in-a-while event.

For brevity’s sake I’ll shut up and let you read Tatum’s article. Maybe you will find just as I have some good information to sift through and to apply to your own blog. Happy blog building!