Pro Interneter

A practice that I’ve taken on is to write several blog posts in one day, and use the Timestamp feature to setup when those posts will go live. I like to do this because while I may get on a role and write a few good posts all at once, it doesn’t do me much good to release 3 blog posts at the same time.

Releasing blog posts at regular intervals, be it every few hours or once a day, is a good way to keep your readers coming back on a regular basis. If your readers know that you usually update once in the morning and once in the afternoon, you are likely to get people visiting your site multiple times per day to check for updates. This of course all depends on the visibility of your blog, the content, etc - But the basic idea is that you want to space out the timing of your posts to maximize the effect.

Also I have been using the Timestamp feature to setup posts for over the weekend or to post early on Monday. Since I usually don’t get to write my posts until late-morning, I would be missing out on the early Monday readers if I didn’t go ahead an setup those posts ahead of time.

Interest has been growing and I have been slacking, so I’ve setup an action plan to help me finish up my PHP eBook. I have scheduled when I will be working on each chapter of the PHP eBook, so it will be completed and ready for download on Monday, November 5th.

This Free PHP eBook will cover the very basics of PHP Programming and will have 10 lessons, with samples and exercises. If this book finds a good amount of interest and readers, then I will work on producing a second volume for more advanced use and to possibly include an introduction to using MySQL in conjunction with PHP. The PHP MySQL eBook would be out sometime in 2008.

If you are interested in the Free PHP eBook and can’t wait any longer, feel free to email me Chris@ProInterneter.com and I will be happy to send you the latest version in PDF format.

Getting incoming links to your website is perhaps the most vital thing that you can do to gain traction and high rankings in the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Link building probably has a bigger impact than any on-page optimization that you can do. If people are linking to your site, then you move up the SERPs.

I have been trying a lot of different tactics and seeing what works. A big point is to choose a Search Phrase that you want to target. In the case of Pro Interneter, I have chosen “PHP eBook” as my target Search Phrase, and I have thus begun to climb up the SERPs for that search term.

Ideas on how to build links:

1. Comment on blogs - When you comment on a blog, leave your name and website address. However, when you enter your name in the comment form, use your Search Phrase (PHP eBook) as your name. Google won’t usually pickup comments as links, but if you start to leave comments on a lot of blogs, you could A) climb onto the ‘top commenter’ list on a specific blog or B) build relationships with some blogs, and they might provide you with some real solid links.

2. Use bookmarking sites - So far I have proof that Google picks up on Technorati, MyBlogLog and Del.icio.us. I’m sure other sites such as Stumble Upon, etc, can work also. Some of these social bookmarking pages get high Google Page Rank, so that is even better. You can also drum up interest for your sites via MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, etc - and those people have blogs that might link to you someday.

3. Link to other sites - Tis better to give than receive. If there is a website that you enjoy, then give some love and write a post about that site. The owner will (probably) notice that you are linking, and will check out your site. It’s then likely that they will either link to your site or mention your site in a post, so as to say “Thanks to ProInterneter.com for mentioning me in their latest post…”

Those are my 3 link building tips for now.

I was checking through my Google SERP rankings and Google and has hit my Weenie Roast website, but didn’t improve the ranking much. The fact is that KROQ is going to have a lot of links out there for their Weenie Roast, so without doing a lot of link building, it will be tough to gain much ground there. On Yahoo, my Weenie Roast website has jumped to #5 behind 4 KROQ related sites.

Basically I’m realizing the importance of having incoming links from other websites. I’ve directed as many links as possible to my Chicago Web Development website, and that site has been hovering between #4 and #6 for that term. My site that offers Free Team Websites had bounced around a lot but seems to have settled around #10. This website (Pro Interneter) is ranking #5 for “PHP eBook” and #3 for “Learn PHP eBook” - so maybe I should get on that and finish up my eBook.

Basically, the sites that I have spent time working on link building, those are the sites that have begun to climb and then hold their high positions. If a lot of sites are linking to your site, then your site is important. Makes enough sense.

So how do you get incoming links? I will make a post tomorrow about ways that I have found to get incoming links, along with other ideas that I have read about.

I’ve been researching topics for a new blog, looking though blog catalog and mybloglog, and I realized just how many defunct blogs there are littering the internet. It’s of no real concequence except maybe to the people paying the hosting bills or the person who wants to claim the url for a defunct blogspot blog - but it’s staggering how many blogs you can find that haven’t been updated for months (or years).

I’ve tried and learned a lot over the last several years. Maybe one of the hardest lessons to learn is that you can’t just slap up AdSense on a random webpage and then expect the money to roll in. Many of the defunct blogs that I visit have a few posts, and a lot of ads. Google, Amazon, AuctionAds… They’re all there. It’s pretty obvious that these people thought “I will slap these up and then I will be making money!” - then 3 days later when they realize that even their own mother won’t visit their blog, they throw their hands up in disgust and walk away - leaving their blog to float in the abyss of the internets.

It’s been said a million times but I figured that I could write it down here so my tens of visitors could read it: You have to build traffic. Without traffic, you will not make any money. Build quality content. Build traffic. If you accept this, the money will eventually come. If you try to do it backwards, you will get nothing.