Search Engine Optimization for your blog

So, as you learn more about the technical aspects of blogging and the search-o-sphere (my term so dont freak if you have not heard it before) you will learn one thing consistently - that you know even less than you thought you did on your most modest-ego day.

You could get lost for days in all the very germane topics on ProBlogger - how to make money, how to increase page rank, why you want to increase page rank or traffic or ad payout or vague kharma, etc.

I have decended into recursive fits of anxiety over doing SEO or search engine optimization. Because I use Wordpress on my own server, this can be remedied in a methodical manner but just when I think I have figured it out and thought I had done the "Right" thing, I find that I have missed something.

If you are lost in SEO-land, there is a tool (actually a set of tools) that will help you run diagnostics on your blog SEO status.

Surf over to SEO Tools and start with their free tool called "SEO Analyzer". The other tools on the nav bar across the upper part of the page are good too.

SEO analyzer will tell you if your blog is optimized, by how much, and, more importantly, just how it sucks, if it does indeed suck (as my blogs usually do at some point :-).

If you do not know what SEO is, dont worry about it. Its not important until you are ready to deal with it.

Those of you running Wordpress, you can install nofollow language with a plugin that will help with your pagerank standings and SEO - here is a link to one of those plugins (I am running WP 2.1 with this plugin and it works fine, right now).


This Post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria

[ranking and search engines] Headings in Google search results

In the event that someone should come one of my posts by doing a google search, the heading of that google listing appears as the date on which I published that post.

For example, should someone google "sweet sour valentine," a post from my blog will appear in the search results under the heading "Tuesday, February 6, 2007."

Is there a way for me to make a change to my blogger template so that the title or the first sentence of my post appears as the heading?


This Post was written by sarahalisonmiller from Food and Paper.

New food blog scraper site

I have found some of my content scraped onto this site (not using the real URL so they do not get link-goodness from this post) "cooking hyphen joy dot net".

They have not yet monetized (ads on site), as far as I can tell, but they may be working up to that.

You might want to keep an eye on it for your content (looks like its a mash-up from technorati tags). I can not find any contact info. Ihave not yet done a whois.. might when I have the time but was thinking I would wait until they monetized to complain.


This Post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria

[Transparency] PR Gifts for Bloggers

Hop over to 'Almost Vegetarian' to read:
For all the food bloggers who have ever, or will ever, encounter a public relations (PR) person.

Previous discussions on this subject can be found in the archives situated in the blogroll, including some under the heading transparency and blogging etiquette.

Hope some of you will find it to be an educational read.


This Post was written by sam from Becks & Posh

Labels in New Blogger

I've finally managed to switch to the new blogger, and really want to make use of the 'labels' function for catagorising, and sorting, my posts. However I can't work out how to format the labels' appearance on each post. As a default setting, the labels appear directly under my post body without a paragraph break, which I'd like to change - ideally I'd like to have paragraph break AND have the labels only appear on fullpost pages, as I can do with technorati tags - anyone know how I can do this?


This Post was written by Fahara from Souperior

[Photography & Pictures] Payment and Attribution for Photos

Quite a few friends have asked me what to do if a publication asks for permission to use their photos. My answer is always the same, and I thought I'd just put it out here for discussion:

- Ask them what they pay for photos. You're not going to make a ton of money on the sale of a photo, so it's not really the amount as much as it is proving a point that your photos are worth something, and that publications need to have a budget for that. It helps photographers everywhere when people ask this question. And it helps publications to know that web photos are not "freebies" that can be used instead of professional photos.

- Insist on attribution. And try for a www link as well.

- Make sure you understand the scope of where the photo is going to be used (one-time use, on a single www page or on multiple properties, in print, unlimited use, etc).

- Go for it!

I still stand by these guidelines, but would say that they are loose guidelines, to be considered but not necessarily followed to the letter of the law.

A couple days ago, I was approached by a newspaper and was offered attribution but no pay*. And I went for it. Even though I know that it wasn't going very far to help "the cause" of getting photographers paid, I was getting attribution in a print edition of nationally read, top 5 newspaper. In my mind, it was a win for me as it would help to build my publication portfolio, and I didn't have to do any extra work for the credit.

It was the first time I had allowed a print publication to use a photo of mine without paying.

I also wanted to go easy on the publication, giving them a break for at least tracking me down and asking if they could use my photo - unlike Mrs. D's experience last year.

*I should say that I was offered this after directly asking the questions. I have never seen a media org answer questions about pay, attribution, or use unless they are asked about it.

What has been your experience when dealing with traditional media on photos you've taken? Have you had any success?

This Post was written by Jen Maiser from Life Begins @ 30.

[promotion] Why a newsletter?

I don't know why, but recently 1) my traffic has increased a lot and perhaps related to that 2) I've gotten requests for a newsletter. I already supply my RSS feeds via email as a subscription option using Feedburner, but I gather this is not what is being asked for.

So..my questions for those of you nice people who have a separate newsletter that is not just taking a feed or something of your blog posts -

• - what are the the advantages of having a separate newsletter? Does it bring more visitors/fame/fortune/karma?
• - What do you put there that you don't put in your posts?
• - how frequently do you send out your newsletter?
• - do you put a copy of your newsletter on your site for non-subscribers to access?

This Post was written by maki from Just Hungry.

(New Blogger) Does New Blogger Have Gremlins?

I recently had a strange experience with new Blogger and I wondered if this had happened to anyone else (or if anyone has any idea why it happened.) I posted this Weekend Herb Blogging Recap on my blog Sunday night, and as I always do, I made the location headers in the post large and green. They appeared that way on my blog on Sunday night and again on Monday when I posted something else.

On Monday at school I looked at my blog, and lo and behold, all the headers (except one) had changed to normal size and black. I thought it might be an IE viewing thing (I use Firefox at home) but when I got home it was also that way in Firefox. How could this happen?

BTW, I just threw up my hands and changed the one large green one (Vienna) to normal size black too, but I am completely puzzled.

This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen

[Aggregator] Blog Appetite Expanded for English Speaking Blogs

A French favourite translates to English

you can add your blogs here:


If you open a user's account you can bookmark, tag and manage your own favorites.


Note from the creator Laurent:
I wish all english written food blogs will appreciate it as much as french food bloggers. Blog-appetit.com exits since 2 years and more than 900 food blogs are already followed everyday by more and more person. It helped all the french written blogosphere to know each other, exchange and create a real community. It has really some good benefits for new comer in the foodblog. it provide faster to them some visibility.I made a blog-appetite's blog to maintain some explaination and news.



This Post was written by sam from becks/posh

Could NYC food bloggers help UNICEF?

Hello,

I'm wondering if there might be a way for NYC food bloggers to help UNICEF and the Tap Project? Since the FBS has supported UNICEF's work in the past, I thought you might be interested in a new way to support UNICEF's efforts to help children survive?

On 3/22, World Water Day, UNICEF will invite diners from participating NYC restaurants to donate $1 for the tap water usually served for free. The funds collected will support UNICEF water programs, which provide safe drinking water for children around the world.

Food bloggers could help the program by asking restaurant managers to sign up to participate in this program, called The Tap Project. The more restaurants that participate, the more funds will be raised to bring clean water to children. Restaurants can sign up online. (This year, the program is based in NYC, but it will run national next year.)

Over 21% of children living in the developing world do not have access to clean water. That’s more than one billion people, or one in five children. Eighty percent of all illness and infant mortality is due to waterborne disease. Lack of clean water is the second largest killer of children under five.

Thanks for considering this,
Chris
[cphillips(at)unicefusa*com]

Note: I'm the online marketing manager and blog guy for the US Fund for UNICEF, in addition to my food writing work. Sorry to bother you with a post that some may say is commercial, but I believe this is a relevant cause for our community and FBS has supported UNICEF in the past. It also might be of interest to the larger food blog world since several celebrity chefs are behind this program.

I checked in with Sam about this post and she was cool with me posting this to the S'cool. Hope you are too.

This Post was written by Chris from Apartment Therapy: Kitchen and Electric Stove

(New Blogger) Where's the pencil?

I am really liking new Blogger. However, one thing is puzzling and irking me a little. On old blogger, when you were logged in, a "quick edit" pencil would appear at the bottom of the post when it displayed on your blog. You could click the pencil to open the post for editing. I used this all the time.

Now sometimes I see the pencil, but more often it's not there. I have no idea why it's showing sometimes and not others. Anyone know anything about this?

This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen

(P.S. Ironically, when I posted this I see the pencil there, nice as can be, but most of the time on my own blog, no pencil to be found!)

Hi Everyone ,
I have a few questions please:
1. How can I reduce/make the letters smaller in my profile="about me",the English-Hebrew lines are too long? (a template change?)
2. How can I make the "NEXT" button after few posts ?
3. How can I put all my favorite (link) list (Food Blogs) in a scroll ?
4. How can I change the color/font type in my Blog Description which is in the Basic settings in my Blog?
5. How can I make the 'be continue' for every long post ?

I'll be glad and grateful to get any Idea/Tip to make my Blog look better.
Thank you .

This Post was written by chanit from My mom's recipes and more

Google Ad-Sense

Hello everyone,

I have a food blog that is < 1 week old. (and it looks like it) I'm in the process of developing it, and I realize that it's going to take a while to build up content. But in the process, I have some questions. In order to keep this fairly brief, I'll post them one at a time.

Google Ad-sense: I added this widget to my blog, but all it ever shows is a Public Service Ad for Hurricane Katrina Relief. How can I get it to show context-sensitive ads? Do I need to configure this somewhere?

Thanks


This Post was written by Charles from Bi-Coastal Cook

International Boston Seafood Show

This is a call out to any interested food blogger in the New England region who can come in to Boston for a day event. For the second year running, I will be covering the International Boston Seafood Show for my own blog and for The Well Fed Network.

Date: March 11 - 13
Time: Sun & Mon 10am-5pm :: Tue 10am-3pm
Place: Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, MA, USA

I would love to share this experience with other interested foodies who would see it as an opportunity to report on this massive food event that fills the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center full to bursting with seafood samples (yeah, you heard that right, dont eat for three days before going). I wrote up several pieces last year (here, here, here) and I covered an extremely minute aspect of the show. The possibilities are endless. There are cooking demos and seminars, etc etc.

In order to attend, you will need to apply for a press pass (see this link). I do not have a laptop to do live wireless blogging but WiFi is available for those of you with WiFi laptops.

Drop me a note at nika7k at yahoo dot com if you would like to meet up to do this event together. Its a three day event but I am only doing one day and I have not decided yet which day I will be attending.

Looking forward to seeing some of you all there!



This Post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria

low-carb recipe blogs

Hi, do any of us do low-carb recipe blogs? I've noticed several for gluten-free and vegan but googling for low-carb blogs is taking me to blogs that only sell low-carb replacements or discuss them.


This Post was written by Sra from When My Soup Came Alive

Feed your need to, well, um, feed

I just thought I would share this resource with those of you who are interested in understanding more about RSS feeds, feedreaders, FeedBurner, subscribers, how feeds are tracked at FeedBurner, and why those subscriber numbers fluctuate (is it REALLY a measure of the popularity of your blog, should it matter to you?)

Its an older article but has some good stuff in it.

"A Peek Inside TechCrunch's 100k Subscriber Milestone" at "Burning Questions" at FeedBurner.


This Post was written by Nika from Nika's Culinaria

Having trouble getting a photo on my profile - Please help

Hi Everyone,
Another Amelita Stupido question. When I go to put a photo on my profile it asks for web hosting. What is it and how do I do it?


This Post was written by Amelita from *SQUISHYNESS*

How do I keep my page up even if people click links

Hi... still fairly new to all this and I'm still learning the flaws of what I'm doing ... have discovered that, when someone clicks a link I have on my (Typepad) site to another site, they're directed away from my site ... is there any way to keep my site up on their screen no matter what link they click? Hope this question makes sense?


This Post was written by Stephanie from Elegant Sufficiency

How do I keep my page up even if people click links

Hi... still fairly new to all this and I'm still learning the flaws of what I'm doing ... have discovered that, when someone clicks a link I have on my (Typepad) site to another site, they're directed away from my site ... is there any way to keep my site up on their screen no matter what link they click? Hope this question makes sense?


This Post was written by Stephanie from Elegant Sufficiency

Labels?

Hi,
This is going to sound like a stupid question, but I have only been blogging for a little while so I really need help. What are labels and what do they do? I see them all the time on peoples blogs and I am confused as to what they achieve and how do I do it? The other issue I am having is the whole feed burner, technorati thing, it all seems very confusing and I really need help with this as well.

Again I have only been doing this for about 2 months and I am not very computer literate. I have been winging it. I don't even know whether what I am doing this the right.

So please, pretty please help me out, in lam ens terms?


This Post was written by Amelita from *Squishyness*