Yes, it appears that Google is hitting its stride with the all-important, but not that important Google PageRank update, by making changes on a quarterly basis. I say important because for some people it is the chief way that they measure their site’s worth, but I also say not important because there are many different factors and tools which tell how well a site is performing.

My PageRank Report Card

For the record, Matt’s Musings went from PR2 to PR3, WordJourney from PR3 to PR2, AutoTrends held steady at PR3 while The Article Writer is back up to PR4. FYI, The Article Writer made its debut at PR6 in June 2005 before gradually falling to PR5 before dropping to PR3.

Several tiny, niche sites (and even placeholder pages) I manage acquired their first ranking, PR1 to be exact, while my client’s two blogs at SayEducate.com and SayCampusLife.com managed to hold onto their previous PR4 position.

Other Ways To Measure Success

Granted, any drop in PageRank can be frustrating especially if you’ve been link building and using other methods to promote your site. However, there are other ways to measure the value of your website including:

Alexa Rank — Once widely panned by the SEO community, Alexa has gained some respect if only for their frequent updates which occur several times each month. The lower your Alexa number the higher your score.  However, it can easily be gamed through sites like Entrecard which encourage others to visit your site to inflate traffic numbers.

Google Analytics — If you run Google Analytics, you can gain an excellent understanding of your site’s traffic trends. While you won’t get a “rank” for how well your site performs, you will be able to gauge traffic numbers including page views, sources, and how well your AdWords campaigns perform.

Compete — Like Google Analytics, you can receive site traffic history and measure how your site compares against your chief competitors with Compete. Even in the basic (free) format, you can obtain some decent information about your site as well as your competition.

Semrush — Forget PageRank as I want to see how my sites perform with specific keywords. Recently, I discovered that the sharply increasing traffic to my The Auto Writer blog was bringing a lot of good attention my way. Turns out that I secured the #1 keyword phrase for a new vehicle about to be introduced, sending 200+ extra visitors to my site each day. Semrush has a freebie tool which can help you identify some of the results for free. Pay a monthly fee and you can get a hold of all of that information.

SERPs — You can check any search engine’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) manually to see how your site is doing. Honestly, I only check Google these days because of their dominance in the world of search. However, I also use Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Webmaster Tools to analyze all of my data.

Miscellany — Of course, I use Twitter to help build contacts online and have been particularly taken by Twitter Search which is an excellent way to find out who has been talking about your favorite topic recently.  I also like to use a good backlink checker to find out who is linking to me, I let Google notify me when certain keywords or phrases I’m following get mentioned. Additionally, I like to peak at domain tools when I want to obtain information about a client, a competitor or when I’m considering purchasing a domain or website.

So, as you can see PageRank doesn’t carry quite the weight that it some think that it should, given the many different measurements to quantify your site’s success. True, I would love to have a higher ranking from Google across my network of sites, but it is the other factors that weigh heavily and seem to bring fresh business my way.

7 Tips To Help You Become A Better Blogger

Today is February 29th, a day revered by Sadie Hawkins followers everywhere. Yep, bachelors the world over will soon be on the receiving end of marriage proposals, thanks to a tradition which allows the woman to propose to a man once but every four years (edit. – or once annually on November 15th, which is Sadie Hawkins Day).

What does this have to do with what I’m going to be talking about? Nothing, actually. Though, having a February 29th on the calendar this year allows me to blog on a date that isn’t around for the next three.

To that end, I’m offering seven tips on how to build a better blog, suggestions that have helped me to launch, expand, maintain and/or sell off well over a dozen blogs since December 2005:

Find A Blogging Platform That You Like

I used to recommend WordPress (WP) to everyone, but then I know that not everyone likes WP particularly in light of some recent and very serious security flaws (duh, why didn’t you upgrade when you were supposed to?!) To that end, whatever platform you use, become very familiar with it whether it be Typepad, Blogger, or something else. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches if you understand what you are working with.

Pick A Niche

Hopefully, you’re blogging about something that you like to talk about. If you are passionate about a particular subject, that will soon come out in your writing. Conversely, so will your lack of enthusiasm. Develop three or four pillar articles which define what your blog is all about.

Find Your Voice

Let’s face it: lots of bloggers copy other blogs, not just their content, but they try to mimic someone’s voice. Be original because your readers are likely fairly intelligent and can spot a copycat or a fake.

Establish A Rhythm

You’ll get plenty of advice — much of it unsolicited telling you how to manage your blog. Sorry, rules don’t apply — although blogging guidelines are fine. Blog when you want and how often you want, but just blog. Once a week is fine, so is three times per day. If you are passionate and consistent, your blog will get noticed.

Show Yourself Friendly

Open up your blog to encourage comments, but use a moderating function to review comments before posting. If you are controversial, expect opposing viewpoints to be aired. Show your courage and post comments “as is” but use your judgment if there is a certain line you don’t feel comfortable allowing people to cross (e.g., using vulgarities).

Visit Other Blogs

Make a point to visit other blogs, particularly those along the lines of your genre. Read their stuff, leave intelligent comments and do this consistently. Are you thinking 2 or 3 visits per day is enough? Try adding a zero behind each of those numbers and you’ll be closer to the mark.

Embrace Change

If your blogging style, subject matter, or your networking methods are always the same, then you may want to consider leaving your comfort zone and considering making some changes. Even a new blog theme, the addition of a poll or some other small changes can help out. Welcome your new members, consider running a contest, pay it forward wherever possible. Do not accept the status quo!

How you ultimately measure blogging success shouldn’t depend on the number of readers, advertising secured or your popularity online. People, advertisers and other bloggers are fickle — do you want to write from the standpoint of being popular or from being secure in what you know?

Further Reading

Death to the Meme Movement!

Guest Bloggers: Bounty or Bane?

The Writing Habits Of Effective Freelancers

Your Blog Has Died And I Really Miss It!

Before I left for Detroit, I did not know that I would have the chance to do interviews at the show. It was the first auto show I attended with press credentials, therefore I only brought along a camera and pen/pad for the event. Both worked fine, but in retrospect I would have done a few things a bit differently.

Getting A Clear Shot — My Fuji 5.1 meg digital camera is fine for simple photo shooting, but not for show shooting. I noticed too much glare feedback with some cars and blurry shots when someone moved which made it difficult to secure a clean, crisp picture. I’m not likely to invest in a traditional film camera, but finding a digital camera that shoots pictures fast and with clarity seems like a worthy investment. Fortunately, I can secure media photographs in many cases.

Recording v. Writing — I believe that I do a good job writing down the words spoken in an interview. Still, I noticed that several of my colleagues had digital voice recorders with them, a device which makes it easier to pick up everything being said verbatim. A few of my interviewers spoke very fast, making it difficult to write fast. I’m not adept at shorthand, so I was left with reading my chicken scratch later on.

Prep Those Interview Questions — Spending more time on crafting interview questions can be a timesaver and relax the person being interviewed as well as the person asking the questions (me). There were a few times after walking away from the interview that another question popped into my mind or I thought of a way to rephrase something that I had asked.

To Write It Up Or Not — All but one of the interviews have been written up and added to my The Auto Writer blog. One interview I am not planning to include simply because the information is better suited for a future article. My first two interviews I listed in Q&A format, but I believe that with pen and pad a general format would have been better and probably more accurate.

One thing that interviewing has done for me is this: it has given me a lot of fresh ideas on how to interview people in the future along with the confidence to just go ahead and do it.

Interview anyone?

In Business For 5 Years!

It has been five years since I started working for myself (November 9, 2002 to be precise) and I have learned a few things about being self employed along the way. My first website was built on the back of an awful GoDaddy template, looking every bit the amateur work that it was. I remember trying to FTP pages via dial-up too — what a time waster that was!

Microsoft FrontPage 2002 – Let’s Build A Web Page!

In 2003, I got a hold of a copy of Microsoft FrontPage and began developing several sites with that substandard HTML program. By 2004, I felt confident enough to no longer depend on FrontPage deciding to try developing freshly marked up pages myself. At the very least I learned how to take an existing theme (thank you, open source templates) and port it for my own needs.

An Aborted Attempt At Blogging, Followed By Success

My first attempt at blogging took place in 2004, but I didn’t stick with it as my interest flagged. However, in December 2005 I launched this blog and have followed up with at least one dozen more blogs over the course of two years. Blogger was my initial blogging platform, but when I started The Article Writer I decided to go with WordPress.

WordPress 1.5 to WordPress 2.3.1

I believe I started off with WordPress 1.5, a comparatively ancient version of what I consider to be the best blogging platform available. Untold numbers of updates later and I’m keeping pace with every update including v.2.3.1, which was released within the past two weeks.

Mistakes, I Made My Share

In the earlier days of blogging I made some huge mistakes, including deleting my configsys file more than once or botching an update. This morning I surprised myself by easily handling a problem taking place with this blog as it wasn’t showing the advanced tool option. Somewhere along the line of making WordPress updates, a file or two wasn’t uploaded which caused the problem.

Delete and Start Over Again

I decided this morning to back up the blog, save the configsys file, keep a copy of the plugins and themes handy, and delete the blog. I downloaded a fresh copy of WordPress, uploaded all of the files, and moved over all of the other files I had saved. Everything has worked out so smoothly.

I’m still not the wizard that some people are when it comes to managing their sites and blogs, but I hold my own. I’ve also gotten better at writing, so much so, that my work is now showing up in magazines including Sam’s Club Auto, GAL Magazine, and 435 South Magazine. I’m talking with two other editors about getting publishd with them and am casting my eyes on a very big publication for 2008.

Taking on Fresh Challenges

What’s my point? It is this: if you stick with what you’re doing and remain open to learning new things and tacking fresh challenges, the pay off will eventually come in the form of better jobs and nicer looking websites and blogs. The road traveled hasn’t been easy, but it has had its rewarding moments too.

In some ways the past five years have been a blur, but I’ve come through thick and thin to get to this point.

I thank God for His strength through the ups and downs of it all and for a patient wife and children who sometimes have a difficult time wrapping their minds around the work that I do.

I am seeing a common trend on some blogs these days — a post is added that highlights or recaps some of the articles for the past month. I like this idea because there are times when weeks will go by before I return to that blog — why not help your readers find your “best of” articles by putting them all in one place?

7 Articles You May Have Missed

Thanks to Google Analytics, I can tell which articles have received the most traffic and which ones could use a boost. Instead of highlighting the Top 7, I’ll share with you some personal favorites of mine:

Grammar Gremlins — There is nothing more scary than reading a final copy of an article posted for all of the world to see and finding grammar mistakes that should have been caught prior to publishing. A pet peeve of mine is loose v. lose.� Aaack!

PageRank Penalty — Yuck, not another article about PageRank! Actually, I wrote three of them this month, but I’m only highlighting my warning article. Unfortunately, I believe that Google already had the penalties in place so if you took action back when I posted this article on October 9th it probably did you no good for their most recent update.

About.Com — Several readers were intrigued by what I shared regarding About.Com and their writing guide positions. I still haven’t heard back from them and have since learned that this is a long, drawn out process.

Work Smarter — I like to offer words of encouragement without sounding too instructive. I hope that this article helped somebody to begin working smarter.

Thankless Blogging? — Blogging can be tremendously rewarding or absolutely thankless. I think most bloggers have experienced both sentiments over the course of time.

The Blog Police — This one was just for laughs, but I know some people took my words seriously. Then again, do you flout conventional blog rules? Hmmm?

Your Blog: R.I.P. — All right, I confess — this post was written on September 28th, but it got a lot of traffic well into October. Since it is Halloween, it could offer the inspiration you need to boost your blog or at least find a really cool outfit for trick or treating!

The Best of the Rest

There are a handful of other articles I would have mentioned, but time and space is working against me. Feel free to visit my October 2007 section to find the best of the rest!