The best thing I ever did to improve my technorati rank on Facibus On Blogging was to enter a writing competition. I know that most of the links are just reciprocal “spreading the love” swaps, but I have more RSS subscribers as a result, and more traffic through to my other blogs.
Like guest blogging, entering writing competitions can get you great bang for your effort buck.
The hard way to blog is to write a heap of low-quality material - the smart way is to write memorable posts that give something to the reader, and promote the blog efficiently. Try it, and leave me a comment if I’m wrong 
Mani | May 14th, 2007 at 7:57 am #
You are correct facibus. I’d like to disagree(or rather add) to the point - “the smart way is to write memorable posts that give something to the reader” -
that it’s always good to write less cool quality posts, than write more less quality material, but it’s equally important that the quality posts should be “LESS”. It’s just the word I’m worried about.
I’d prefer to say - write quality articles daily and less quality ones once in a while.
What say?
Stephen Welton | May 14th, 2007 at 8:17 am #
Would link bait best describe what the intention is with providing good quality content as well?
I would expect that all bloggers are trying to leave good quality information out there but we all know it’s not the case.
The better our writing the odds are that readers will continue to follow and also join in the conversation.
Will be trying these techniques on for size.
richard | May 14th, 2007 at 9:19 am #
I agree, the writing contest definitely helped get my blog off the ground. I think that not every post has to be lengthy. Its good to get a mix of “pillar” posts, and others can be a bit shorter
Community Building Blog | May 14th, 2007 at 1:47 pm #
I completely agree with you on this one - although I had already hit a PageRank 4 within a couple of months, entering the ProBlogger writing competition improved my Technorati ranking by at least 50,000 places.
- Martin Reed
facibus | May 14th, 2007 at 3:23 pm #
Hi Mani,
thanks for your comment. I think that your point is valid - no-one can write high-quality posts ever time - but we should always strive for quality over quantity. My first blog, Facibus Reviews, had nearly 100 posts in the first month. That’s too much! Slowly but surely, I’m learning
Best regards, Andrew
facibus | May 14th, 2007 at 3:28 pm #
Stephen,
thank you for your comment. I believe that writing is a skill - and it’s not just about grammar (although this is important). Audience analysis is important - if a blogger is writing for AdSense revenue rather than a human reader then the approach is different.
I think that everyone tries to do a good job in whichever way they know how - and yes, sometimes the best intentions do not produce the correct result.
Best regards, Andrew
facibus | May 14th, 2007 at 3:34 pm #
Hi Richard,
I apologise, I should have qualified the word “quality” - and this is a good idea for a future post, thanks :).
Some people equate quality with length - and a good multi-thousand word post that engages the attention totally is a thing of beauty. Steve Pavlina writes some whoppers, but they are pretty good whoppers.
I like to think that “quality” == “gives the reader something of value”. I like to look for Malcolm Gladwell’s tipping point - every now and then as a consultant I get to be that tipping point, to act as a catalyst for a positive change. As a blogger I want to write things that enable that change.
Best regards, Andrew
facibus | May 14th, 2007 at 3:39 pm #
Hi Martin,
people love to hear opinions that agree with their own, and what can I say, but thanks for your comment, and good luck with your blog
PS: I’ve just looked at http://www.communityspark.com/ - I found the grey offputting for about 3 seconds then started to read it - some good stuff there, will get to looking at it properly when time allows.
Best regards, Andrew