If you’re a blogger, I’m sure at some point some of these topics will interest you:
- Keywords for search engine optimization
- Running ads on your site to generate some income
- Analyzing your blog’s statistics
- Submitting your blog to the Google Search Engine
- Getting a snapshot of how Google is sees and crawls your blog
- If your site gets hacked and removed from Google’s Search, a place to go to tell Google you’ve fixed things
Blogs don’t maintain themselves. At times they need a screw tightened here, ad posted there, and a little investigative work done to see why that thing that’s suppose to be working is not working.
I like to think my blogging tools and bookmarks are like a construction worker’s tool belt. Have you ever met a construction worker who did not have a tape measure strapped to their side?
If you’re a blogger, your tool box is your favorite search engine (and maybe some contacts you have made) and your bookmarks are the tool belts you keep.
I’ve listed what bookmarks and tools I have here and here, but in this article, I’d like to introduce you to the swiss army knife you might like to have in your tool belt.
When you have time, it might be good to dig through the Google Keyword Tool Box and discover what all it can do for your blog. As a blogger myself, I know your time is very limited, but realize that blogging is much more than simply writing articles and visiting other blogs.
You need to invest a little time each week in your most important asset: you.
Do you have a blogging resource you’d like to share?
On a side note, I’m heading out on a business trip for a few days and may be slow to responding to emails and comments.
October 27th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I’m glad I got the problem my blog had fixed soon enough.. Someone had gotten into my site and deleted the entire WP-CONTENT folder off of my domain.
That one tool alone will be very useful to have in the future, incase the problem comes back :S
Brad Ney´s last blog ..Bouncing Higher than 80%? Heres 7 Ways To Reduce Your Blog’s Bounce Rate
October 31st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Hey Brad. That really sucks that someone would do such a thing, but they’re out there. Glad you had a working backup. Make sure to change all your passwords (for your database, too) and maybe use the WP Exploit Scanner plugin to search your WP install for remaining hack code.
If you use FTP to access your site, check to see if your hosting company allows for FTP connections through FTPS or SFTP. If they do, use one of those methods to connect via FTP as they are much more secure. I’ll be writing up a post on it real soon.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Funny enough, I tried installing WP Exploit Scanner and it gave a PHP Error when I went to view the results.
I’m now using FTPS to ensure that nobody sniffed my password out of the internet.
Oh well.. Live and learn right?
Brad Ney´s last blog ..Bouncing Higher than 80%? Heres 7 Ways To Reduce Your Blog’s Bounce Rate
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Right.
Brad, also I just posted an article about running your blog’s admin area through SSL. You might want to check that one out.
January 8th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Thanks John for helpful tip on finding “Google Keyword Tool.” It’s like a candy store.
I did not know you could use a phrase as a “keyword.” You always have good things to help me optimize our blogs. Awesome. -Debbie