So you are all set now, right?
- Invited into the network - Check
- Blog added into the system - Check
- Blog ready for discovery - Not quite!
BlogBurst is first and foremost about discovery and blogger promotion. The good news is that the blogger can have a big impact on their blog’s ability to be found and picked up on publisher sites. In particular, we strongly encourage you to set up a search profile for you and your blog.
You can set up a search profile for your blog by logging into the workbench and going to the My Blogs tab. Click on your blog name and then look for the Edit link on the subsequent Blog Profile page. The Blog Profile Editing page has some really important fields you should fill out for your blog to be more meaningful and easily discovered by publishers in the network.
Key profile elements:
- Blog Summary - We index descriptions, so include a fairly rich and interesting write up of your blog.
- ByLine - This will be the text that shows up on any blog post viewings you get on publisher sites. Make sure this is snappy to help increase click-thrus to your blog site.
- Blog Image - This is more important than you think. When someone searches for blogs in the network, or if your blog is shown on a publisher’s site, the avatar image you select for your blog will be displayed. The image must be 75 x 75 pixels square, so if you cram a wide image into this space, it will be automatically resized to only 75 pixels wide, leaving you with a squished, unappealing image. Even worse, if you forget to upload an image, your blog’s search results and profile page will have the always appealing “IMAGE NOT SELECTED” default avatar and will show up this way on publisher web sites.
- Metro - If you blog specifically about city or metro areas, choose it here as publishers, particularly newspapers, want to find bloggers who cover their metro area. If you do not blog about a particular region or your metro is not on the list, just leave this blank.
- Categories - These are pre-set topic areas we ask that bloggers choose from to help better categorize their blog. You may choose more than one if it is appropriate, but don’t overdo it. A more focused blog is a more appealing blog to “features” sections of a publisher’s site.
- Tags - These are catch all in terms of optimizing your blog for search. Use these fields to drop in up to six words or short phrases that describe your blog. For instance, the blog Vagabonding might use keyword tags like: Air Travel, Asia, Hostel and Hotel for some key words that they believe will make their blog show up at the top of search results as publishers are looking for topical blogs on travel in Asia.
- Other Comments - This box is a great place to talk about your blog more informally than in the Blog Summary. The content you enter into this field can be reviewed by publishers, but will not be made public. For example, you can talk about your “I write for the urban hipster crowd in the Austin area” awards your blog may have won, or other useful bits of information that will help a publisher decide to pick up your blog for a spot on their site.
Thanks for the interesting insight and guidance. It is clear that the BlogBurst Team understands GIGO - a factor that will obviously lead both to customer satisfaction and commercial success.
We’re confident that our participation at BlogBurst will further our mission of enhancing and protecting lives. Thank you for providing one of the tools to make that happen.
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
What do you suggest for By lines?
Bylines should be straightforward. We think the most effective byline would be the title of your blog. Remember there is a 50 character limit so choose your byline words carefully.
The Content Agreement says that whan an article is published, you get attribution (a by-line) and a link to your site.
So the Byline field should be for that attribution, right?
That’s correct. The ByLine text should be representative of your blog or you as it will be the attribution for your blog. Pls note that we automatically embed the link to your blog in that byline when we display it on a publisher’s site. Byline can be the name of your blog, your name, or something inviting to spur a reader to click on the byline link and visit your blog. REMEMBER: 50 character limit on bylines.
Is there a directory of member bloggers (hoprefully by category) that we can browse through?
If you are a member of the network, you can browse or search through the other members of the network, build relationships (we’ve had some folks who are discovering new blogs for their blogrolls) and see how they are tackling content creation for their blog. We hope that bloggers will learn from other successful bloggers in this network raising the bar for everyone.
I am honored to be invited to be a part of BlogBurst.
Sam