Requirements

• Tell me what this blog is lacking.
• Do so in the comments, and interact with other commentators.
• Is there anything that should be changed?
• What do you want to see from this blog?
• How can I separate this site from others?
• Do not be afraid to ask questions or harshly criticize me.

The main goal of this is not because I have a lack of post ideas, but I would like to gain some insight into what my readers truly want.

This post will be deleted/closed after a some criticism has been received.

These tips are intended for bloggers who place PPC ads on their site, like Google AdSense or other services, rather than other services, with charge based on independent figures, such as banner ads that you sell privately.

Ugly Ads

Often, advertising is placed in large groups, making it obvious that you want to generate a profit from your site rather than providing a service to your visitors.  When people visit your site, they immediately look for your content, services, or a term that was discovered through the use of a search engine.  Remember that advertising was first placed on websites to help support the owner’s time and expenses in relation to the website, so this is the main method that I promote when it comes to advetising.

One of the main methods that people tend to favor when increasing their return on their advertising space is by creating “ugly” ads - not in the sense that they actually devalue the ads.  Instead, these ads are able to leverage more clicks, as people are “tricked” into thinking they are links, integrated with the site, or actually provide a resource within the site itself.  

It may be a deceitful practice, but advertisers are doing it everyday to harness more revenue, despite having a large budget or great designers for their marketing.  These ads may even appear on your site should you select banner/large-size advertising on your site.

Main characteristics of these ads include:

• White space is used to make the ad blend into the area that it has been placed.
• Blue or black underlined text is used to make the image appear as a link.
• A rudimentary image has been designed, either generic or not relating to the linked-to site.
• The ad often asks a question, inviting the viewer to answer it, by “selecting” the answer on the ad.

Unprofessional Sites

Again, it isn’t difficult to find sites that have been created for AdSense or other forms of advertising, solely for placing affiliate and sponsored links.  You may think that they aren’t generating a lot of income, but in truth, they are.  The owners and creators of these sites are by definition spammers, but they know how to generate a small revenue each month from these sites, finding that they do particularly well for people searching for terms that have been “spun” off of terms found on other websites/blogs.

In a sense, nearly any blog can generate money, even if the design of the site is ugly.  You can have a site cluttered with ads, filled with empty space, and still generate the same income as one that is filled with original content, substance, and a few ads.

Characteristics of these sites:

• Very simple theme, typically the default.
• Ads (typically Google AdSense) integrated into header, footer, and sidebar.
• Little or no experience is required to set these sites up, just hosting and a domain, in some cases.
• The site provides little resources to the visitor - only “encouragement” to click on the ads.
• Little or no citations are provided to the original source of the work.
• No media (or advertisement media) is provided, signaling that the site is only intended to make money.

Essentially, even if you create an unprofessional, unorganized site, you will be able to generate an income, but not the readership that you need to survive in the competitive arena of blogging.

Other Styles

Multiple methods can be used to “attract” readers to view and click on the ads.  The main keys are that you maintain a balance between the amount of ads and how you present them, offset with a daily dose of new content.

The following tips are, once again, general in nature, so I am not providing a one-stop resource for placing your advertising.

1. Use tracking software to see where visitors are clicking, sometimes referred to as a heat map.
2. Place advertisements at the beginning, or implemented within the content.
3. Try to place advertisements “above the fold” so more visitors are able to see the ads without scrolling.
4. Don’t combine multiple formats within an area, unless you find a way to pull this off correctly without destroying your theme/design style.
5. Incorporate ads into your theme, as they will appear as links, but possible still providing resources to your readers, and some extra cash in your pocket.
6. Continually experiment with new formats and options.

When it come to designing your advertisement space, a lot of time and work should be spent, if this is your main source of advertising.  There are many different approaches to selling advertising space on your blog, but this post won’t go into much depth on them — instead, I’ll be looking at how you should be designing the whole process of advertising on your site.

What Advertisers Look For

The two main areas that advertisers look for when advertising on a site is: how much does the ad cost per month (or period), and the potential return, through figures given by other advertisers on the site or traffic analytics.  From these, the advertiser will decide whether the community and visitor base is strong enough to see this return.

Secondly, advertisers look to see whether everything is complete in the process to advertise on the site, or simply lacking the details necessary to base their decision off immediately.  For example, if there are no details about where the ads display, how will the advertiser know if/when his ads are placed on the site?

Your Advertisement Page

At this point in time, my advertisement page is not completely finished.  I do not have exact details or images depicting where the ad zones are, but you can base that off the blocks in the sidebar where they would be placed.

One of the best ways to distinguish your site from the next in your niche is by creating a killer advertising page.  On this page, there are a few main ways to accomplish this, outlined below.

1. Make the Link Prominent - You want to attract new advertisers, right?  Then, don’t bury the link in your other pages, and link to it in your header, where advertisers are able to place their link/banner (use empty spaces or the bottom of each area to do this), and in your contact page, if you have a direct advertising email.  By doing this, anyone that visits your site, even if they are not interested in advertising, will be able to see what your rates are and whether you have any spots open.
2. Supply and Demand - Don’t expand your advertising space simply because more people want to advertise.  Create a “reserve list” to allow advertisers to purchase ads in advance, resulting in the ability to raise prices in the long-term, rather than increasing the number of ads displayed on your site.  For example, you can sell ten banners for $1 apiece or one for $10.
3. Tell Advertisers Your Terms and Conditions - Many sites and visitors do not like placing “flashy” or long-loading advertisements on their site.  They generally detract from the value of the site in mention, resulting in a less-than-ideal situation for both parties.  If you don’t lay out these terms when someone advertises on your site, they may file a complaint/spread word about your policies, ensuring that you never see a dime from advertisers again.- How long does each advertisement run?  Can you purchase long-term advertisement spots for a reduced rate?
   - Can you request to have the advertisement taken down before the month is over, and do you receive a pro-rated refund/have a money-back guarantee if the advertisement doesn’t give a good return for the advertiser?
   - What are all the sizes and types of advertisements sold on the blog?  Can you purchase links in the feed or sidebar?
   - Have you had any advertisers that have been satisfied with the results your site gave?  Provide some testimonials.
   - What methods of payment are accepted?  PayPal, check, credit card, AlertPay, etc.
4. Advertising Areas - Create a visual image of where advertisements will be placed, including feeds, if that pertains to your blog.  This way, advertisers will be able to see where their advertisement will be placed, and how many others will be “competing” against theirs.
5. What Subjects Does Your Blog Focus On/Visitor and Readership Rates - These two areas are also crucial.  While some blogs may only have 10,000 visitors per day, they may also have 50,000 readers, bringing the daily visitor rates to ~60,000 theoretically speaking, a huge difference in the method visitors use to read the content.  If this is the case for your blog, make sure you are able to express this to your advertisers, as they may wish to advertise in the feed rather than on the site.  Secondly, be transparent about the subjects you include on your blog.  If the business or website they are hoping to advertise doesn’t appeal to this niche, then they have no reason to advertise on your blog/website.

Designing the Advertisement Areas

Blogs that are ad-heavy may appear to receive a lot of new advertisers each month, but the truth is that many of these may be placed by the site owner to think the site is popular and profitable.  The cold, hard fact is that these sites don’t have many daily visitors, and are simply “deposit” pages for the site owner to collect a few cents each day form the dozens of blocks of Google AdSense and affiliate programs placed on the site.

If you choose to go this route, this post isn’t for you, as you are targeting advertisers that don’t care about the human visitors the site receives, rather than the links they are able to build.  Instead, this post will help you create an area that is in heavy-demand, heavily sought-after area that advertisers are lined up to advertise on.

Sidebar Advertisements - Begin your site’s advertising by focusing on gaining a few, high quality sites, meaning that you shouldn’t place more than two to four 125×125 banners in this area.  As your traffic and advertiser rates go up, you should increase this amount to continue growing your income.

General Tips: Don’t overcrowd your advertisement area, use spacing (5-10 pixels) between each ad - vertically and horizontally.

Feed Advertisements - Use only a few advertisements in your feed, or you’ll distract from the value of “subscribing” to your site.  Depending on the click-thru rate from your feed to your blog, you should base your feed’s price off this, in addition to how many subscribers vs. blog visitors you receive.

General Tips: Keep the feed advertisements as small as possible, but raise the rates, as there is less “supply.”  Typically, I’d suggest one large image/banner and up to five text links.

Other Ad Formats: Keep the ad sizes all in relative sizes to the standards set forth by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.  You can create your own format around the size of your sidebars/headers, but you will find that advertisers first target the common sizes and formats.

Conclusion

The main purpose of offering advertising on your blog is to help advertisers connect with a more distinguished audience from the rest of the sites available.  From this, you want to offer an attractive set of advertising plans, all presented within your site the way you think the advertiser wants them to be displayed - to highlight both parties’ services/products.

One of the main reasons that blogs don’t get the level of advertisers they want is because there is a lack of details surrounding purchasing an ad or too many affiliate programs are promoted on the site, rather than pure advertising space.

What tips do you have to share with other visitors/readers about advertising on their site?  What methods work for you?

The reasons for doing this aren’t limited to simply personal blogs, which can be shared with friends and family, but also for corporate and organization blogs, in that you don’t want the public to view or comment on these posts, which are meant to be private.

In WordPress, it is quite easy to set the whole blog to private.  To do this, go into the main Settings area, then select “Privacy.”  Within this area, you’ll find the button to “block search engines but allow normal visitors.”  This is your first step to “removing” your blog from regular visitors who may stumble upon your blog.  

Another approach to creating a similar block on your blog is by “keeping posts private”, in which you have to manually mark posts as private, found in the WordPress sidebar, below the Publish Status drop-down menu.  In order for visitors to read your posts, they’ll either need to sign-in or use a password to access your content.

Blogger also has a few methods to deter regular visitors from visiting your site.  First, sign into Blogger, then enter the “Basic” settings area.  A few options down, you’ll find a drop-down list to disable/enable listing your blog in search engines or their listing system.  These two options will prevent people from finding your blog through these methods if set to ‘no.’

Secondly, you should also use the “Permissions” to add people who can contribute and view your blog.  Much like other free platforms, this is more limited than hosting with your own system, including WordPress, as you can only invite up to 100 members, compared to “unlimited” with others.  You are able to set this to people you choose or your blog authors only.  

Conclusion

This list was a short overview of the methods to “privatize” your blog to your visitors.  While this defeats some of the main purposes of starting a blog and the benefits you gain while blogging, it can help you separate your personal blog from one you use for other purposes, such as professional work.  Family members and friends will be able to read this blog, while not allowing outside commentators or visitors to access your blog (or leave comments).

Main Category

First, think about one of your favorite hobbies, passions, or things you love to do in life that you can write about.  It should be something that you are comfortable sharing with others, knowledgeable about, and something with a lot of content that you will be able to expand upon.  While it has been proven that topics can be extremely diverse, you should first focus on a broad subject.

For example, if you like reading about celebrity news, then you should consider writing about celebrities (a wide subject), then you should consider smaller topics, or you’ll become overwhelmed with the amount you should be writing about every day.

Things to Consider

• How often will you *or want to* publish on your blog?
• Is the niche overly crowded, or is it a newly created subset of a larger niche.  For example, some bloggers have found a lot of traffic/profit in creating a separate blog for the 2008 Election.
• Don’t be afraid to create a blog about “nothing” in particular.  This could be your personal blog, which you will be able to spin further ideas off of to become more focused.
• You should put a fair amount of thought into your first blog/site, as your future ventures could be influenced by this decision.
• As long as your remain dedicated, blogging about something you love is the only way you can continue growing your blog.

Sub-Category

Once you have chosen your main category, think about smaller, or subsets of this main category that you will be able to write about.  It should be specific, but not so specific that you will only be able to write ten posts on the subject.

Some bloggers make the mistake of creating a blog that covers so much content that they become frustrated before their website makes it big - resulting in content that is sparse and doesn’t reflect upon their original goals.

In the end, many bloggers feel it is best to write about what they feel relates to them and their readers most.

Browsing the Web

It can be difficult at first to navigate the Internet and find what interests you most, a devotion that you will be able to comment on, inviting others to share their similar interests.  Again, you want to make sure that the niche isn’t overly crowded, there is still plenty of content to create, and voids to fill in terms of the perspective you will bring to the blogosphere.

Start by doing some keyword searches for the niche that you want to get into, then work from there to develop one that suits your personal preferences.

Remember One Thing

Your space is your space - not someone else’s.  Unless you don’t attack another group of people and your country doesn’t block content you produce, you are free to blog about anything you want to.

This was a quick roundup of ways to choose a niche.  There are dozens of other methods, so this should not be viewed as the one source for discovering your perfect niche.

The main reason that advertising your blog may appear so difficult is due to the vast variety of blogs available to advertise on (especially if your blog is in an extra-crowded niche), page views/visitors per month, subscribers, and interest rate/click-thru rate of all visitors to the blog.   With all of these factors put into consideration, it is no wonder that many blogs that could bring new subscribers/sales to your website are left without advertisers.

Advertising Networks 

This post will guide you through some of the steps and includes tips to help you make the most out of your advertisement, by combining several tools to your advantage.

1. First, as in most lists of how-tos in the act of blogging, you will want to define your goals and what group of people you want to target.  It may involve looking at your competition - where they are advertising and if their traffic levels increase after running an ad on a particular high-traffic blog (potentially resulting in more conversions at your site should you advertise there).  Keep in mind that designing a good ad (textual or image-based) will be another important consideration when you try to compete for the best results.
2. Now is time that you will want to do some more “comparison shopping” on the web, making sure that you are really getting the best deal for your ad deal.  In a sense, all advertising space is the same - you are renting a 125×125/768×60/etc. sized space to place an image on another website for a particular time period.  However, when it comes to traffic/subscribers/community/etc., no sites are equal in return levels.
   At this step, it would be a good idea to examine what traffic the sites you have narrowed down get.  Some tools (do not base traffic figures off any single site/stats) include Alexa, Compete, Quantcast, and Google Trends for Websites, or figures the site provides upon request or on their advertising page.
3. Based off the statistics you have gathered, find a site that continues to be at the top of the list you have created, then go about finding prices for each site.  Typically, advertisements will run for one month, but some are for one-week time intervals.  It is important to keep this in mind when selecting your site, otherwise you may select an add that costs a monthly price for a single-week ad.
4. Once you have determined the particular site to advertise on, use popular blog ad marketplaces, such as BuySellAds, Performancing Ads, and Text Link Ads, to name just a few.  The blogger may be located on these sites, offering either a lower or higher price.  In addition, you can easily compare the prices of ads vs. other metrics on these sites, as they tailor to blog advertisers on a budget.  Text links generally are cheaper, but don’t quite deliver the same results, as they are placed beneath image-oriented ads on the site.  If your budget is higher, you could even promote your blog for a potentially lower cost/higher return with Google AdWords (site and search-targeted), with results appearing in search results and/or AdSense areas.
5. Before you go on, if the blog advertiser has a contact/advertising page, use this to gain insight into what is being offered, potentially as a package you can take advantage of - extended deals or cheaper rates for smaller ad formats.  Contact them to negotiate a potentially lower deal.  Please Note: Doing this may result in your ad being denied, as most bloggers have set their rates as low as they can go, however some will be flexible, especially if they are looking at growing their advertisers or creating extended advertising deals.  Generally, don’t negotiate more than 10-20% off the initial cost, especially at rates lower than $50.  You must take into account that bloggers have real expenses that must be paid - personal/family and website hosting/advertising fees of their own.

Negotiating an advertising deal on smaller blogs may appear easier, as the blogger may not be looking to create a whole lot of cash on their blog with rates set at between $5-20 per month, so this may be the main area to target, although there really isn’t much flexibility in the form of savings here.  Transferring views to larger blogs, the advertising networks in charge of advertising are typically set in stone, so there is little you can do to persuade them to lower prices, however it is always worth a shot.

Disclaimer: You will not always be able to get an advertising deal for cheaper, as implied above, but it can be an opportunity to cash in if you are able to.

Countless times, “bloggers” who start a competition/contest will end up being linked to on every blog imaginable - it simply isn’t true and will never happen - even the most popular sites won’t receive reciprocal links from every website in the world if they announced something groundbreaking.  While contests can help get your name out there as someone who can grow your blog “artificially,” it won’t permit the growth of readership, unless you explicitly state that in order to be a winner, you have to subscribe to your blog.

How do each of these promotion methods excel and where do they fail short of results?  First off, we’ll take a look at the definitions.

Definitions of Each Type of Promotion

Some of these terms may be familiar to you if you are a long-time blogger, but to those of you who have just begun blogging, these are rudimentary definitions for each term.

1. Blog Contest - An event that you run on your blog in hopes of gaining new subscribers, a little extra income, or new visitors.  Generally, they run for a month or two, a long time in respect to the Internet.  Rewards of these contests can either be cash or other gifts, sometimes related to the niche that your blog is in.  Readers/visitors must leave a comment, provide a link back (through a post), or subscribe to be entered into the contest.
2. Meme - As a short definition, a meme is simply an idea that is spread (generally through a request) from blog to blog.  One person typically starts it, with others following.  The main idea behind a meme is that each person evolves the main/basic idea, to their thoughts on the topic.
3. Tagging - When you tag someone, you create an informal “interview” request, asking them to follow-up with responses to questions or submissions that someone else (if you are not first) has tagged you with.  A list of tags may be questions as basic as “Why did you start blogging?” to more in-depth answers, usually the list is shorter, up to ten questions.
4. Competitions - A group of individual bloggers, sometimes sponsored by a larger blog or company will get together to “compete” in a contest, with rewards for both the winners of the contest and readers (sometimes).  The main idea is to see who comes out as the “dominant” blogger, although fun is the general premise of these.

The Negatives

Finding a great way to promote each of your contests and promotions (whether it be in the form of a meme, new project, contest, or competition) takes either time, money, or both.  In many cases, you don’t have the time required to make it successful, so you are left with only a slight increase in traffic, subscribers, etc., until your traffic returns to pre-contest status less than a month later.  

For this reason, I have and likely will never run a contest on this blog or any other website I run.  Instead of promoting a contest that will likely never receive partners, you should be focusing on building your subscribers naturally.  Create content that people want to read, based on the niche that you first got into because you loved to write about it.  

Contests and competitions also have another damaging effect on your blog - if you can’t provide the level of awards for members, visitors, and readers, they won’t feel obliged to enter the contest, as it simply isn’t worth the effort on their part.  Sure, if you build up enough rewards that it becomes a ten-second decision on their part, you’ll be either setting yourself or your sponsors up for failure if you can’t fulfill all participating parties.  Therefore, the results of the failed contest will potentially be more damaging if anything should go wrong in this respect.

Finally, competitions and contests need to be extremely well prepared, or there could be loopholes that people are able to exploit to their own advantage.  You need to research what is involved in setting up a successful contest for hours before you can even venture into contacting sponsors or purchasing/gathering rewards.

Memes and tagging are slightly different - they rely on your blog being at least somewhat popular, or it will still be regarded as a “starter/spam” blog.  These two tools do not require a whole lot of time, but are generally not as time-worthy, since a full-fledged post or interview that you conduct and write yourself would be viewed as more beneficial, rather than requesting someone, without much prior notice, to expose some aspects of their semi-personal life and/or thoughts on controversial issues.

Positives

From the negatives I posted above, it may appear as though I completely despise blog contests and other methods of promoting your blog that appear “fishy.”  However, you have to approach each type of promotion method in a distinct way that can allow you to excel on your blog in terms of your goals.  

Like previously mentioned, all of these methods can produce results, no matter how trivial to long-lasting.  The way I look at it, a single blog contest running for a month may bring in the same results as a single, well-developed and elaborate post that reaches StumbleUpon, Digg, and the likes of other social bookmarking/networking sites.  Rather than heavily promote a contest that may draw in a few dozen extra visitors each day, the single/set of posts can result in a more blogosphere-aware blog/name than the single, month-long contest.  In either case, you are bringing in traffic and subscribers, so if that is your short or long term goal, then it may be worth running a contest in that respect.

Memes and tagging others are a great way to get to know other bloggers that may share similar interests.  You can’t beat the relationships that are formed as bloggers, so tagging someone or getting their insight on a meme can build a stronger bond between two or more bloggers who want to get to know each other better.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The end goal of contests, competitions, memes, and tagging is different for each person, so I cannot make wide-sweeping generalizations for every blogger in the world who wants to venture into creating a contests.  This post doesn’t deal with the essentials of creating a successful contest or competition, but the main way to create a successful contest is to do proper planning before you begin and be sure that you will be able to provide the winners with the awards/prizes that were specifically meant for the contest.  Plus, be sure that you fulfill the requests of someone who asks their opinion on a particular meme or tags you.

It’s a sad time in your blog’s lifespan.  It took quite some time to accumulate all those advertisements, links, widgets that tell the time and temperature, and now your blog takes more than a significant amount of time to load.

The question now arises - How do I eliminate the clutter and optimize my website to create a faster loading page?

While the answer may seem rather simple, there is a process that I use that helps me save time in the long-term, which can benefit you when you need to reorganize content or add additional elements to the site.  This post isn’t necessarily meant to criticize the amount of widgets that are used on blogs, but instead serve as a guide to “upgrading” your entire theme to a new version.

The Process

1. First, you’ll want to make a backup of all the files associated with your template, including plugins, add-ons, widgets, etc.  Even if you aren’t going to use the particular widgets again when you launch your redesigned front-end, make sure that everything is backed up simply as a precaution.  I like to use either Google Notebook or a basic text editing program for temporary backups.  You don’t want to skip a file, or you could risk “breaking” your entire website.  If you self-host your blog, you can use an FTP application to download the complete file, otherwise copy/paste all the necessary code.
2. Next, choose the template that you are preparing to use on your blog.  If possible, test the template on a test server/separate blog to make sure that it is compatible without any missing code.  It would be a complete disaster if the template wouldn’t work when you were in the process of overwriting every other file (this is why it is essential to create backups).  On the other hand, if you are simply cleaning up your blog, you can skip this step.
3. Eliminate all unnecessary code that was previously in place.  Take out widgets, plugins, and related content that has piled up since you started the blog.  During the process, be sure that all tags are closed, or you’ll be scrambling to get the code fixed once you reach the next steps.  If at all possible, rearrange the elements in the code as they would appear on your blog.
   - Place related content together in the sidebar, including links, images, and script-based widgets, with longer-loading widgets appearing closer to the top of the page.
   - Eliminate “white space” in the template file, as this adds time to the page loading.
   - Don’t be afraid to eliminate widgets that serve little to no purpose.  In my opinion, you don’t need a clock, weather widget, and fifty directory/rating buttons unless you are able to present them in a manner that appeals to readers.
   - Don’t add graphics that add a whole splash of color, it distracts readers from the content.  Instead, stick with colors that are solid and basic - blacks, blues, whites, reds, greens, etc. and base your entire theme off of a combination of two to three of those colors.
   - Maintain enough content in the sidebars or visitors will wonder whether you have anything to present.  You’ll want to keep the essential links to your archives, main pages, and other relevant widgets. 
4. It is now time to re-upload all the content that had been copied.  Scan through the entire blog to further eliminate errors and widgets that have been deemed unnecessary.
5. You will immediately have a site that should load faster than before.

Conclusion

What if everyone’s language was completely different–everyone had a different language that was only relative to themselves?  Words that came out of other peoples’ mouths would be jumbled, hard to comprehend, and make communication with one another a nightmare.  In the same way, everyone would be disconnected from each other, so everyone would be their own person.  

Today, while we have thousands of different languages, words that can mean the complete opposite depending on your location in the country, and millions of variants, everyone is trying to get a similar message across, whether that is through the English language, Chinese, Spanish, or even further down to a localized group.  While no one is able to truly know every language, the connection that everyone shares can also be exhibited on blogs and through the “social networking/tagging” sphere.

The Basics on Tags and Tagging

Dissecting a blog, you are left with the most basic elements–the framework behind your blog.  Whether you run a photo, links, or resource (nearly all types) of blog, you are left with essentially the same substances.  When you take what is left, you’ll find that everything can be connected through a mini “network.”  The information can be arranged in a logical web, starting with the main page, then pages/posts, sidebar/related content, leading to paragraphs, sentences, ending with words and phrases.  At this stage, all that will be left is your basic template, with no content whatsoever.

The biggest factor of whether your blog is successful, of course is content.  All of this information needs to be categorized, through a method that doesn’t require a lot of feedback from the creator, just a simple word or two to distinguish it form the rest of the confusing heap of characters that are coming together to form what we call a blog.  This is where tags come in.  Even if you don’t think about adding tags to each post, image, or video you add to your blog, you are.  Unique writing, and the most common words create tag clouds (when using an off-site tool), although a blogger or alternative site user can add tags to their posts, much like categories.

Essentially, a tag cloud is similar to a category, except for the fact that you can associate multiple tags within each category/post.

One of the best ways to begin your blog’s navigation structure is to decide what main topics you will be writing content in.  Then, factor how many categories and tags will be required to accomplish this, making sure that you don’t overdo it with thousands in each category.  You want it to be highly organized, both for your readers and yourself when you have thousands of posts in each category.

Main Ideas for Proper Implementation

These are some basic methods for structuring your organization structure, through the use of tag clouds, categories, and posts.

1. At the conclusion of writing each post, think about the main category of the 5-20 (ideally) that have been previously created.  Place the post in one of these structured categories, then also tag it with a few tags, trying to use tags that have already been used, as to create a more organized blog.
2. Do not overuse either tags or categories, or you’ll notice that your sidebar will continue to become more and more crowded, making it harder for visitors to find what they are looking for.
3. Make sure that each tag is relevant and not some random word, simply placed there for attracting visitors.
4. Use the power of tagging to harness new visitors from search engines.  Using relevant tags (as outlined above) can help you gain visitors, since additional keywords will be directing to those posts.
5. Use both on-site and off-site tagging, as it will draw in more visitors looking for information on that content.  For example, include a tag cloud in your sidebar and/or a listing of tags beneath your post, in addition to tagging that post on other services.  If a post was submitted to a social bookmarking site, tag it so other visitors can find it based on what they may be searching for.
6. Focus on a select combination of both tags and categories, so that you can also work on gaining traffic using these tags and building search engine dominance in those particular categories/tags.
7. Stick with words that are recognized by others.  In addition, keep all tags on your blog similar.  For example, all uppercase/lowercase, singular/plural, one word/multiple words, etc., allowing for better navigation.

Why Tags Have Become (Were) So Popular

With the introduction of the “Web 2.0″ craze, people needed new ways to organize and present content, as users wanted to be able to find content more quickly, without needing to run multiple searches simply to find something that could have been better associated with other content through “tagging.”

Previously, this post could have fit into the main category of “Blogging Tips,” or “Blogging Basics,” but with the introduction of tagging, I can now place it both in the main category and use multiple tags, including “tags,” “tagging,” “networking,” and/or “organization.”  This allows readers to more quickly find information, especially if there are dozens of unrelated content within the prominent category–not a very good solution from the organization aspect.

Tags have become less important as search engines have become more sophisticated, and new content can be found closer to the top of the first page of results.  More importantly, to find content, people typically search directly on the website or directly through a search engine, rather than browsing through multiple pages on the actual website.

Although tagging may not be revered as it once was, it is still important for visitors that want to find information based on the number of times that particular keyword appears in your blog.  It can also be used to determine blog subjects that are overpopulated and those that aren’t written about nearly as often–leading to a more diversified reader base.

Another significant reason tagging is no longer as popular is due to the fact that spammers have used tags to generate traffic to their spam/non-related blogs, creating aggravation for people that landed on those pages by using tags found on tag “aggregators,” otherwise known as social bookmarking sites.  This led to the downfall of “legitimate” tagging and more bloggers began sticking solely with categories.

Examples of Tags on Popular Websites

As you think about creating your tag cloud or preferred organization method, keep these following examples in mind.  They may not be the best solution for your website, as you must determine which implementation properly suits your needs, however they can provide visual examples of what the “huge” sites are using for managing millions of photographs, pages, and media.

You can find additional tag clouds on many websites, simply by entering the website url followed by tags, as in the case of the services below.

- Technorati - Tags on individual pages of Technorati are not formatted for best practices; they display tags that are often irrelevant to the subject of the blog, however you can still see how basic tag clouds are set up.

- Delicious - Possibly the leader in tag clouds,  Delcious allows all stories and bookmarked links to be tagged according to what users think they should be organized.  In the screenshot below, the tag cloud is organized both alphabetically and by size.

- Last.fm - Top tags displayed in the popular music service, including genres and types of music.  Tags are displayed alphabetically, with popular tags being displayed more prominently than ones that are not used as frequently.

Implementing Tags on Your Website

Many people who implement tags on their website don’t have a good place to start.  They either have too many tags to properly make use of them or too few, making them appear more as categories.

The following method is my suggestion for first implementing them on your website.  You may adapt these suggestions to suit your blog, as I cannot make a wide-sweeping guideline for the millions upon millions of blogs.

• Main Ways to Place Tags on Your Website/Blog - Through an off-site service, such as those below or through social bookmarking sites, in the sidebar, in the footer of each post, or on a dedicated page.
• Overall Organization - Regular lists, much like categories, but arranged according to importance/more for aesthetics than organization or “clouds,” as tags are often organized.
• Additional Organization Methods - Tags are organized alphabetically, by color (with the most popular posts being darker/standing out more prominently), or by size, with tags that appear more often in the content being larger in size. 
• Location/Placement - Tag clouds should not be displayed in place of a category listing, instead they should accent your categories as an additional method of organization/navigation.

Services and Plugins (On-Site)

The following list describes methods for implementing tags and tag clouds directly on your website.  You may be required to use a plugin or format specific code with each of these services, so it may be necessary to read the directions provided on the website of the service.  Many of the plugins (noted) may only be used with WordPress.

Note: In WordPress, simply go to Design > Widgets > Select Tag Cloud to add a tag cloud to your sidebar.  It isn’t configurable, however like the solutions below.

• Adding a Tag Cloud to WordPress [WordPress Codex] - Instructions to add a basic tag cloud to the WordPress sidebar or an individual page/post (using code), allowing you to sort tags by number of uses (font sizes), number of tags, format, ordering method, and allows the exclusion/inclusion of tags.  Instructions also provided on creating a tag archive.
• Blogger Tag Cloud [Blogger/BlogSpot] - Setup and configuration instructions for the new Blogger system to create a tag/label cloud. 
• Blogumus [Blogger/BlogSpot] - Much like WP-Cumulus, this adds a 3D tag cloud to present a JavaScript and Flash-animated tag/category cloud on your Blogger blog.  Requires you to implement and customize.
• Building a Tag Cloud in Java - Step-by-step guide on how to create a tag cloud in JavaScript.
• Configurable Tag Cloud (CTC) [WordPress 2.3 to 2.5] - Inserts a fully configurable tag cloud into your WordPress sidebar or pages.  
• Tag Cloud Creator for the Django Framework
• Drupal Tag Cloud [Instructions] - Instructions on how to create a tag cloud using the Drupal CMS.
• HeadSpace2 [WordPress 2.0 to 2.6.1] - Allows you to configure Meta Data for posts, pages, categories, and more.  It is compatible with other tagging plugins, and increases search engine optimization potential from your website.
• How to Create a Tag Cloud Using ColdFusion (CFML) - A guide on how to create a rather simple tag cloud for placing in your website.
• Marking Up a Tag Cloud - Instructions for creating a tag cloud based on tag clouds used by Technorati, Delicious, and Flickr.
• Movable Type Tag Clouds [Instructions] - Instructions on how to create a tag cloud in Movable Type (advanced).  Additional tutorials can be found here, here, and here.  Note: These articles may be outdated.
• Creating a Tag Cloud in MySQL - A guide on how to create a tag cloud in SQL code and database tables (advanced).
• Perl Tag Cloud Creator#mce_temp_url# [Instructions] - Guide to create a tag cloud using HTML/Perl.
• Simple Tags [WordPress 2.3 to 2.5] - “The perfect tool for managing WordPress tags.”  It includes related tags, AJAX admin features, tags suggestion, local tags, auto tags, ability to mass-edit tags, tag pages, insert tag clouds, and more.
• Swicki Search - A collaborative search tool that displays search-related keywords beneath a search box.
• Tag Cloud Generator - Creates an embeddable tag cloud, and allows you to customize several options, including the color scheme.
• Technorati Top Tags Widget - This widget will display the top tags found on your blog based on the keywords Technorati finds.
• Widgetbox - Search results for “tag cloud,” with widgets that you can add to nearly every website.  Note: Some results may not be entirely relevant, but a few tag clouds/related tag widgets are displayed.
• WordPress Heat Map Plugin [WordPress 2.3 to 2.6] - Provides a method of inserting a heat map (weighted list) of your categories, tags, and monthly archives.  You can customize the colors, font sizes, and more.  Requires some knowledge of CSS/WordPress (PHP) to properly configure and add it to your pages.
• WP-Cumulus [WordPress 2.3 to 2.6] - Creates 3D clouds based on your site’s tags, categories, or both using a Flash movie.  It functions like a regular tag cloud, but is more visually “exciting.”  Plugin is fairly easy to setup and customize.
• Lijit - Although Lijit is primarily a search engine for your website, there is also a plugin that displays the most searched keywords on your post in a tag cloud format.

Best Off-Site Services

These services allow you to create a tag cloud by inputting tags/keywords, a website or feed URL and automatically create the desired tag cloud, which may or may not be able to be placed on your website.  It is suggested that you use these for sites that you do not own to see their most used tags or for sites that cannot use the code required to implement your own tag cloud through a widget.

• Cloud Control (ASP.NET) - A project that allows you to create tag clouds similar to Delicious using the source code provided.
• Many Eyes - Allows you to create different visualizations of your tags and information, based on data sets that you feed to the service.  It is primarily for data mapping instead of for blogging, but can help you visualize your tags more efficiently.
• TagACloud - Service is still in beta, but it appears that it will be a “groundbreaking” way to create a tag cloud, described as a service similar to Google and other popular services.



• Tag Cloud Builder - Presents a visual mapping of either inputted text or a webpage, along with several options to configure the way the tag cloud appears.
• Tagline Generator - This generator allows you to generate chronological tag clouds from simple text data sources without manually entering the data entries.  A demo/preview can be found here.
• TagCrowd - A web application that allows you to visualize word frequencies in any user-supplied text or website URLs, including plain text files (as well as several options).  It is recommended for using as topic summaries for speeches and written works, for visual analysis of survey data, as brand clouds for companies, data mining, helping writers and students reflect on their work, as name tags for conferences, and more.



• Text Cloud Generator - Requires you to manually input tags and keywords.
• ToCloud - Provides a service for creating a visual representation of content based on a webpage or text that you specify.
• Wordle - Allows you to create a 3D word cloud based on a website URL, words/keywords, or a Delicious username.  Allows flexible editing of the tag cloud.  Released under a Creative Commons License.
• ZoomClouds - Allows you to create “cool, informative, and appealing” representations about what is happening on your blog, or anywhere else.  You can place a tag cloud on your website using the service, although it requires a signup, but also allows you to customize and design your own cloud using their WYSIWYS editor.



• ZoomTags - The first “tag cloud” based affiliate network, so it is primarily for monetizing keywords and creating PPC campaigns, although the service is free.

Conclusion

By no means is tagging dead, it is simply being used as a different method of communication and organization of content.  There is an undeniable fact that it isn’t being used nearly as often as it used to be, but the tag cloud is being used in a more efficient method, allowing the blog writer and the reader/visitor to connect to the content and explore what a blog truly has to offer.

Through a good implementation of the tag cloud, you can produce results that far exceed your expectations.  The tag cloud is extremely powerful, in the sense that it can bridge the gap between your content and posts, drawing in visitors looking for your content.

Your Input: What are your thoughts on tag clouds?  Are they still useful or are they simply an additional eye sore that is added to blogs and websites?

Additional Resources

• Services for Creating a Tag Cloud [Technacular] - A set of tools for creating tag clouds.
• Tag Clouds Gallery: Examples and Good Practices [Smashing Magazine] - An overview of the best ways tag clouds are used and should be placed in your blog.

Generally, people feel that starting with your own domain and self-hosting your blog is the best solution for people that really want to take blogging seriously, there are some other reasons that should be taken into consideration before venturing in either direction.

What Do Each of the Terms Mean?

Well, first off, you have to know what self-hosted and hosted (service-oriented) blogging services are.  Once you get the feel for what they mean, you’ll be able to make an informed decision on which service suits your needs.

When your blog is self-hosted, you are able to control nearly every aspect of your blog - from the template to the weblog service your are using.  Generally, self-hosted blogs are more prevalent in the list of “top blogs”, as they are (generally) given more respect, as you must purchase a domain and hosting in order to take full advantage of the features and benefits.

Hosted services are generally created and tailored to help people who have a very little to no budget whatsoever, and allows them to blog, often with little restrictions when it comes to the number of posts and functionality.  However, it is “often” more difficult to make it to the big league when you blog using a free service, as it doesn’t prove that you are as committed to blogging as someone who invests money in their domain and hosting.

Self-Hosted Benefits and Disadvantages

Before you begin blogging, you will often question whether you want to got the route of self-hosting your blog.  In other words, you must purchase a domain, hosting, and then promote your blog (easier than using a hosted solution).  Roughly 95% of the world’s most popular blogs are using a hosted solution, or are blogging with a domain that they have purchased (through a free solution like Blogger).  For this reason, it may appear obvious that going in this direction is the most beneficial choice.

By far one of the most beneficial choices that you can make (or change) when starting to blog is to go with a self-hosted blog solution.  Doing so allows you to leverage your control over your blog to gain more respect from both search engines (in the sense that you can control permalinks) and from readers.  In addition, you are able to do more than simply blog when you purchase a domain and hosting - you can create subdomains and folders for placing a forum connected to your blog, run affiliate offers and monetize your site to a better extent than any free service will ever be able to offer.

Until recently, thousands of additional templates were available for this type of blog system, rather than the Blogger blogging system.  However, that is quickly changing as more theme developers are jumping on board and converting other designs to multiple platforms, eliminating the need to use multiple blog systems to get the theme that you want to use.  However, it has generally been accepted that updating, installing, and managing templates using a self-hosted solution is easier than using one through a free service, with limited flexibility in how you manage the entire experience.

Now onto the negative aspects of self-hosted blog solutions.  While there are more generally more updates provided with this type of solution (as it has to cater to all security releases and people using the system on their servers), there are often more security vulnerabilities as malicious code can be inserted more easily into the template or core files to cause conflicts with the database, leaving your blog corrupted and not displaying.  In another sense, you need to be more aware of the actions and consequences for them.  For example, if you don’t secure your admin files, then anyone will be able to see them, take data from your site, or again insert/corrupt files in these locations.

Another main disadvantage of your site, traveling in line with the aspect that you must be more aware of what you are doing, is that you must make an informed decision when choosing your hosting provider, or you will be left with a site that is either constantly down or is slow enough that visitors don’t want to return.  When you look at hosted blog platforms, most are already optimized for visiting, and you generally have a site that is up 99.9% of the time, other than when they are updating the core files and need to bring the sites down temporarily for maintenance.

In my opinion, for a majority of bloggers, going with a self-hosted option is a better option if you want to properly blog about a subject you are passionate about.  It is important to remember that once you have purchased a domain and a hosting plan, you must remember that you must be committed to it - after all, it is something that you wanted to begin doing, as you were influenced by other people.  You have so much more flexibility and customizability when it comes to self-hosted blogging than the constricted offerings of nearly every hosted/service-oriented blogging system.

Key Advantages

• More control over your entire blog.
• Contrary to the “negative” point listed below, often it is easier to install and use than a free solution, as you can customize both the backend and frontend to your liking.  Plus, Fantastico and SimpleScripts are available for automatic installation of these self-hosted blogging platforms.
• Generally more templates available than other systems, although there isn’t an easy way to customize the template unless you are using a template with a backend set of features developed by the designer of the theme.
• Easier to market and target your blog as you will be developing a community based around your domain name.
• Much easier to gain readership, income opportunities, and related benefits.
• More flexible as you are able to customize (at least with WordPress) the plugins and every aspect of your blog.
• Requires you to know some SEO skills, although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  You are able to use “friendly URLs” to “compete” against other sites and gain more dominance and higher ranking results in search engines.
• People look at your site as being an “authority” when you have taken the time to do your own hosting and buy your own domain - another aspect of branding.
• Most hosting plans come with more than enough storage and features to expand your site.
• More compatibility with plugins that are necessary and popular within the blogging community for better networking.
• A large community is following open source projects like WordPress, providing help and support if you should need it.

Key Disadvantages

• Cost factor - domain, yearly hosting costs, promotion.  Some platforms require you to purchase commercial licenses in order to monetize your site and use it for other commercial purposes.
• Default features - many of the default blog systems are limited unless you add dozens of plugins or widgets.
• More difficult to update/upgrade, and install than using a hosted provider, as you must do it yourself.
• More likely to get hacked, encounter problems, as you are in control of what happens, so extra precautions must be taken.
• If you don’t choose the right blog hosting provider, you blog will continually be down, so you’ll lose income opportunities and/or readers.
• May be harder to upgrade from a free solution to a paid/self-hosted solution, so it may be better to start with one, or completely start over if you desire to “upgrade.”
• Plugins and “bad” code can completely damage your blog if you are not aware of what the code does and if the plugin is outdated or hasn’t been properly tested.

Managed/Hosted Benefits and Disadvantages

Hosted solutions generally don’t offer the level of customization that hosting your blog system provides.  In this case, we’ll say that you spend nothing to create your blog, not even purchasing a domain, as most people don’t.  You are essentially “renting” space from another company, blogging on a subdomain of their service (ex. mywebsite.blogspot.com and mywebsite.wordpress.com).  In itself, this is a limitation, as you are unable to effectively grow your website and business.  How many times do you visit a site hosted on these subdomains compared to sites that have their own domains?

One of the main advantages of these services however, is the ability to get your blog up and posting and commenting within a few minutes.  Blogger is famous for this, as you don’t even need an account (provided you have a Google Account), and can start blogging within three easy steps.  In addition, everything that you need is built right into the system, however limited at best.  For example, you are able to use default templates provided within the service or find ones that others have developed.  The blog system that you are using may limit the types of templates that you use and the code that is included in order to limit the risk of security vulnerabilities, however.

There are some plans that do require you to purchase a monthly membership plan, but they generally include hosting space, additional features, and sometimes you own domain.  This may be a better solution for people that don’t want to have to install the blog platform on their server of have to manage updating plugins in order to keep their blog secure.

People that generally start out with a hosted service generally don’t have a clear direction on where they want to take their blog.  Not in the sense that they don’t want to blog, but that they don’t want it to be a full-time “hobby”, but simply a place to dump their thoughts for others to read.  It is often that you see these bloggers wondering why thousands of visitors haven’t arrived at their blog, as they now have five posts.  An additional reason people start using a free system is due to the fact that “everyone else” is, so it must be easy to use.

On the aspect of customizability, most of the templates used by Blogger, and often WordPress.com users are default.  By this, I am referring to the fact that users don’t know where to find templates or they are not freely available to suit the needs of their blog.  However, the system may offer a way to customize the default’s template colors and layout, which may be beneficial to people that don’t know CSS and HTML (or the language used by the particular platform).

Key Advantages

• Typically free, with some providing paid solutions, as in the case of TypePad.
• Easier to update, as the provider is performing the updates and pushing them out to their users.
• Support typically provided by the company that created the service, often free.
• Everything you need is included within the dashboard area, making it easy to add widgets, change templates, and other key features to you blog.
• Often easier to get higher results in search engines, as both the code and domains are already optimized and high in search engine dominance.
• More people are using free platforms at this time, providing more resources and community help if you need it.

Key Disadvantages

• Less features and functionality.  For example, no tag and individual page support in Blogger.
• Usually hosted (with limited control) on a .blogspot.com or .wordpress.com domain.
• Bandwidth and storage space is often limited, especially for images.
• You are given less control over how you brand and promote your blog, as these domains are harder to remember and optimize.
• Security vulnerabilities are still present.
• Customizability is often limited, with less templates freely available than with self-hosted solutions.
• Updates are often not provided as frequently as services that are hosted on individuals’ servers.
• When updates are performed, everyone on the service suffers, as their site or features are temporarily shut down.
• The content you produce technically isn’t “yours.”  If the provider decides to shut down your site, for any reason, you are not entitled to receive your content, as your were “renting” storage space.

Conclusion - Which Is Best for You?

In my opinion, there is no one solution that is best for everyone.  It comes down to a case-by-case basis for how seriously you want to take blogging.  For instance, people that start with a free service; Blogger or WordPress.com are able to get a feel for the work involved in blogging and are able to easily transfer their site to a hosting provider by exporting their data, while people that start with their own domain “give up” due to the fact that they didn’t know what was involved.

Important Factors to Consider

1. How seriously will I be blogging? - Full-time or just as a small hobby?
2. What is my budget? Am I able to fork over $10 for a domain and ~$100/year for hosting?
3. Do I need advanced features like plugins to add contact forms and other functionality to my website?
4. Is it in my best interest to go with the most compatible blog system or one that is simple to use and everyone uses?
5. Will I need to upgrade storage or be limited in any way by the blog system if I choose a particular free/hosted solution?
6. How well do I want to brand my business - should I stick with a .blogspot.com domain?

Before you begin blogging, it is important to think about the main benefits and disadvantages of each service before you finally decide on one that will allow you to be the most successful.  There are, in face, millions of different options that you have - using a free service with a domain, self-hosting every aspect of your site, whether on a shared host, dedicated server, or virtual private server (VPS), and so on.

The most important aspect of the whole decision is that you plan and figure out a long-term plan.  Without a plan, you won’t be able to grow your blog beyond the point that you only need a free service such as Blogger/BlogSpot.

Over to You - What are your experiences?  Do you prefer to use a free service or host your blog on your own servers?  Would you have taken a different path than the one you are currently taking?