Blogging Tips

For a new blogger, boosting search-engine ranking and getting valuable incoming links can be a nasty catch-22.

It’s a bit like applying for your first credit card. You can’t get one until you have a credit history, but you can’t get a credit history until you have a card. You can face similar issues getting incoming links as a new blogger. Until you have a decent PageRank, no one wants to link to you. But you won’t get a good PageRank until people link to you.

It can seem so unfair, but there are a few ways to attract incoming links for new bloggers:

• Post on relevant forums that allow you to include your site’s URL in your signature. Don’t post a bunch of messages with blatant and obnoxious links to your site, but just let the signature serve as the link. Be sure the messages actually add to the conversation, or you risk being banned as a spammer.
• Post relevant comments on relevant blogs. The same etiquette applies, but many blogs show a comment contributor’s name as a link to their site. Granted, some may use a nofollow tag to prevent it from being counted as an incoming link. If you post comments on a wide variety of blogs, you will increase the chances of your site link being spidered by search engines.
• Link to blogs. If you want a blogger’s attention, link to his or her blog. Link to big blogs, and link to little blogs. Even if a new blogger may not have the power to give you a lot of search engine link juice, you never know how valuable the relationship will be (or what PageRank that blogger will have in a few months).
• Use social bookmarking. This is another area where you have to watch out for sites that tell Google to ignore links (such as Wikipedia), but it’s a great way to get on the radar. Submit with limits, though, or you could get your site banned. Also encourage your readers to submit your site on their own through buttons for social bookmarking sites.