Blogs, or web logs, are one of the hottest things on the Internet right now. It seems that everyone has a new blog, is thinking about starting a blog, or at least reads a bunch of other people’s blogs. What can you do to make your blog stand out from all the other blogs? How can you make sure that people read it more than once? How can you make sure that you don’t waste your time blogging?

Be Relentless When You Blog

The most important thing to do is to be relentless. Post frequently and regularly. Make sure that you have new blog entries popping up all the time. Another part of being relentless is staying on topic. The best blogs are those that typically address just a few subjects.

Being relentless sets you apart from all those bloggers who sporadically spout off whatever they are thinking at the time. You can also hone in on a target audience and keep loyal readers if your blog consistently addresses certain topics.

Have a Lot to Talk About

Blogging itself is relentless. It’s surprising how quickly another week has gone by and you can’t put off posting any longer. Make it easier on yourself by choosing topics for your blog that you know a lot about.

Have Something Unique To Say

This is one of the most important tips for blogging, marketing, business, writing, politics, you name it - if you have something unique to say, and evidence and/or sources to back it up, people will listen to you. They will want to hear what you have to say. You will stand out from the crowd, and you will be successful.

Take-home advice: blog relentlessly about something you know a lot about. Say things that are new, exciting, and unique. Keep at it until those who are lazier or who have less to say fall away. Happy Blogging!

I recently read several forum posts arguing over the future of SEO. One person claims that it is SEO or death, another claims that there is no way to guarantee a number one ranking, and another felt that it was only a fad that would soon pass.

Don’t Obsess About SEO

The most intriguing position that was presented was this: worry about your visitors, content, layout and value proposition first. If you have time after that, work on search engine optimization.

It is my personal opinion that this is the correct position to take on SEO. Search engine algorithms are designed to create results that approximate what a human reviewer would come up with when visiting the page. People who try to spam a search spider are counting on flaws or nuances of a particular search algorithm. The programmers who write the algorithms will eventually improve their algorithm, or at least respond to spamming tactics.

Meanwhile, the search algorithm gets better and better at finding results that are relevant from normal, well-created, ethically run web sites. This means that anyone who wasted their time on “shady” SEO techniques is left behind, while those who worked on their content, conversions, and customer experience are doing better in both areas.

Don’t Ignore SEO, either.

This isn’t to say that you should ignore SEO. You should be careful about which tactics you use. Some of them are inherently flawed. Use some common sense when you choose which tactics to employ. One of the best rules is the classic, “if it sounds too good to be true… it probably is.”

The Correct Way to Think About SEO

Take-home advice: you’ll benefit far more from focusing on the meat-and-potatoes parts of your website. Make your message clear and consistent, and make sure you don’t offend the search engines. If you do this, the search engine rankings will be easier to attain, and the customers who come to your site will be happy!