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How to get on the first page of Digg in less than 4 weeks. 
19 Dos & Don’ts before you start
- Do host your blog on your own domain
- Don’t spend hundreds of dollars hosting your blog when you are first starting out.
- Do make sure your blog can handle traffic from social media sites
- Don’t go for too cheap/free hosting plans. You do not have to spend a fortune since you can get a decent host for less than $20 a month.
- Do brainstorm 30-40 topics for your blog before you start
- Do have 10 posts written and posted before you launch the blog
- Don’t create filler posts to have 10 posts for launch
- Do invest money to get a professional blog template
- Don’t think that you have to spend a fortune creating a professional looking blog. A professionally designed template can cost as little as $400
- Do comment on other blogs in your field before starting out
- Don’t spam other blogs just to get your name out there
- Do define success metric for your blog before you start blogging
- Don’t set unreasonable success goals that are too difficult or too easy to achieve
- Do understand why you are blogging
- Don’t think that blogging will solve your business problems
- Do understand the time commitment it takes to blog
- Don’t think that blogging will take less than couple of hours a week
- Do use an SEO friendly platform. By the way: Word press is the best for blogging!
- Don’t use a CMS for a blog. We used Joomla for our blog, and it was too much headache
- Do commit to a regular posting schedule
- Don’t kill yourself if you are not able to keep up with your schedule
- Do understand that traffic and comments will take time to come
- Don’t get too frustrated if takes months before you see any comments on your blog
- Do spend a reasonable amount of time every day reading other blogs
- Don’t spend hours every day reading other blogs
- Do select the categories for your blog carefully
- Don’t have more than 10 categories for your blog
- Do optimize your blog for SEO or hire someone to help you do that
- Don’t think that anyone who claims to be an SEO expert is actually one
- Do get a feedburner account for your RSS management
- Don’t get hung up on RSS membership fluctuation
- Do Install Google analytics to track your daily visitors
- Don’t get stuck on daily fluctuation in traffic or unusual traffic hikes
- Do Analyze keywords people are searching on to get to your blog
- Don’t stuff your posts with keywords to get search engine traffic
- Do invest the time to add pictures to most of your blog posts. Use a site such as istockphoto.com to purchase images for your blog
- Don’t steal images from other websites!
- Do optimize images before you use them
- Don’t spend too much money on image optimization software. XT has a free version and you can pay $ to purchase the software
- Do keep your blog conversational
- Do create a series of blogs about topics you are an expert in
- Don’t pretend to be an expert on everything
- Do create a meaningful about us page
- Don’t make your about us page too corporate
- Do get to know other bloggers personally
- Don’t calculate every blogging relationship in dollars and cents
- Do create a robot.txt file
- Don’t copy a robot.txt file from anywhere without really understanding it
- Do allow users to subscribe to your blog via RSS or via email
- Do use a full RSS feed
- Focus your blog on specific niche
- Don’t think that 100% of your posts have to be on one topic
- Do keep a running list of topics that you can write about
- Do share case studies and client success stories on your blog
- Don’t share client success stories without their written consent
- Do be authentic
- Don’t do something you are not comfortable with
- Do be honest
- Don’t share too much information
- Do share your knowledge with your readers
- Don’t think you cannot sell your services through a blog
- Do write a post each day
- Don’t post a blog each day. Writing a blog and posting it are two different things. 3 strong posts a week can do wonders
- Do use Hittail to get suggestions for long tail keywords
- Don’t follow Hittail suggestions blindly.
- Do interview leaders in your industry
- Don’t assume that just because you are just starting out, industry leaders will turn your interview requests down.
- Write “how to” articles
- Write a “secret to” post
- Write a tutorial post
- Do create a 101 post
- Do write a post about the top 10 blogs in your niche
- Don’t use random judgment to determine the top 10 blogs in your niche instead relying on Google PR, technorati rank and Alexa
- Do write a post that reviews books in your niche
- Don’t write a review about a book you never read.
- Keep most of your posts to less than 700 words
- Do write pillar posts that explain topics in great details
- Do plan on investing time and money to market your blog
- Don’t think that marketing your blog means posting regularly!
- Do use your blog as a way to increase your brand online
- Don’t rely on your blog as the only way to increase your brand online
- Do allocate sometime in your weekly schedule for blogging activities
- Don’t stretch yourself thin to keep up with blogging activities
- Do spend at least 50% of your blogging time off your blog (commenting, emailing, reading other blogs)
- Don’t conduct networking blogging opportunities without a plan: planned comments and emails can help promote your blog if done correctly
- Do use your blog to market your business tactfully
- Don’t make your blog a sales brochure for your business
- Do create content for social media sites
- Don’t make all your content targeted for social media
- Do use social media sites such as Digg, Stumble upon, Reddit to promote your blog
- Don’t submit your content to these sites. Find a friend who can submit the content for you
- Establish relations with other bloggers in your niche
- Don’t spam other bloggers in your niche
- Do invite guest bloggers to post on your blog
- Don’t let your guest bloggers write without any guidelines
- Do write guest blogs
- Don’t write a guest blog in a topic that does not relate to your niche at all
- Do use contests to promote your blog
- Do Ask people in your company to blog
- Don’t force people to blog if they don’t like to do so
- Do review the posts of your colleagues before posting them
- Don’t fix more than grammar or spelling mistakes in a colleague’s post
- Do create and enforce a comment policy for your blog
- Don’t hide your comment policy. We are guilty of this one
- Do encourage comments on your blog
- Don’t allow abuse to the comment on your blog
- Do respond to comments on your blog
- Don’t think that you have to respond to every comment
- Do reword your commentators by linking to them
- Don’t link to commentators on your blog for the sake of linking. Remember, only link to good content
- Do visit commentators blog and leave a comment
- Do email commentators to thank them and start a relationship with them
- Do check your technorati ranking every day
- Don’t think that technorati is the authority site on blogging!
- Do monitor incoming links to your site
- Do visit blogs that link to your site and leave a meaningful comment
- Do create link worthy content and links will come in
- Do email other bloggers telling them about good content posted on your site
- Do not spam other bloggers with every topic you post
- Don’t get frustrated if it takes a while for links to start coming in
- Do select your links in your posts carefully. You are telling your readers that you vouche for the quality of each link
- Do link to other blogs in each post: we usually try to link to at least 3 other blogs in each of our posts
- Don’t link for the sake of linking
- Do keep a blog log and journal any changes (design, plugins, etc) in the blog
- Do use your picture next to each blog post
- Do include a clear RSS button on the left/right nav
- Do use a tag line next to the name of the blog to inform new users the topic/niche of your blog
- Do display your most popular posts
- Do display your pillar content in your left or right navigation
- Don’t require visitors to login to view your blog
- Don’t require visitors to login to leave a comment
- Don’t quit too fast
- Don’t vent frustrations concerning clients/co-workers/bosses in your blog
- Don’t dig deep into your personal life, try to keep the blog’s focus business related
- Don’t post anything you don’t want Google to pick up
- Don’t use adsense on your blog
- Don’t quit blogging if you cannot keep up with your schedule.
- Don’t over post. 3 posts per week are plenty.
- Don’t start another meta blog: There are too many blogs about blogging
- Don’t start another SEO blog
- Don’t offer blog coaching services if you just started blogging or if your blog hardly has any comments on it!
- Don’t think you will make a lot of money directly from blogging
- Don’t think that content is enough to get people interested
- Don’t badmouth your competition
- Don’t allow others to high jack your blog
- Do think about hiring a virtual assistant to help you with auxiliary tasks for your blogs
- Do consider hiring a ghost blogger!
- Do read and subscribe to Chris Garrett on New Media daily
- Do read and subscribe to Copy Blogger daily
- Do read and subscribe to the invesp blog daily
- Do be patient
- Do have fun
31 Dos & Don’ts After you start
27 Dos & Don’ts Topics:
21 Dos & Don’ts of marketing and promoting your blog
4 Dos & Don’ts of bloggers:
10 Dos & Don’ts comments:
11 Dos & Don’ts of links coming in and going out:
6 Dos of formatting and design
16 Don’ts of business blogging
7 Random Dos of business blogging
Over 120 pages of tips and techniques to