Many thanks to Chapman Deering, fictional writer and blogger extraordinaire, for today’s post on adding subscription feeds to your blog.

Chapman says…
When you first set up a blog, your initial focus might be on simply creating the blog and adding content. But before long you will want to spread the word to be sure your blog is getting read and to increase readership. One of the best ways to guarantee that readers will return to your blog is to offer them a way to subscribe.

A simple and FREE service for this feature is offered by FeedBlitz.

The steps are relatively simple.
First, register with FeedBlitz and set up an account. There are several different subscription feed plans to choose from. These are described at: FeedBlitz Blog Mail Service Plans. The Standard Account is free and seems to work just fine for a simple blog.

Information on signing up can be found at the FeedBlitz Blog Publishing Services page.

Once you have registered and have your account accepted by FeedBlitz you then select the type of html subscription form code that is appropriate for your blog, copy it and paste it into your blog template.

As an example, visit my blog Thoughts on the Journey
And click on the “Subscribe” tab at the top of the page.

1. I created a separate page on my blog and named it “Subscribe”
2. I then logged into my account at FeedBlitz, and went to the syndication section
3. I selected “add a new syndication” (which means I want to add my blog to their system)
4. Then copied the html subscription form code supplied by FeedBlitz, which included my account information, and pasted it into the code of my blog template on the “Subscribe” page I had created.

Now when someone subscribes to my blog his or her email address is submitted to FeedBlitz. FeedBlitz sends a confirmation email to the subscriber asking them to verify the subscription. And it’s a done deal. From that point forward, each time you add to or change your blog, your subscribers get an email inviting them to go visit your blog.

It’s simple and it’s FREE.

Blog on! – Chapman Deering

Learn more about fictional writer Chapman Deering

I started an entry a few days ago about whether it is better to establish a blog at your own website or at a public blogging website. It was getting too long because I was trying to connect all the dots with regard to how the search engines work. So, I have decided to lay the foundation with this entry and continue on another day to complete the entry that will help you decide whether it is better to establish a blog at your own website or at a public blogging website.

So, let’s talk about How to Increase Traffic to your Website, a frequent topic in the Getting Found on the Internet and Marketing Tips categories.

How do you increase traffic to your website?
You use every marketing medium to drive traffic to it. This includes:

• Your business voice mail message
• Your letterhead and business cards
• Your brochures
• Your Fax cover sheets
• Your promotional give aways
• Your TV and radio spots
• Your newspaper feature story
• Links to your website from other content-related websites like your business associates, especially those to whom you frequently refer business
• Links to your website from the websites of all the organizations and associations to which you belong
• Link to your website from DMOZ (Open Directory Project). (View Adventures Online’s listing.)
• Links to your website from industry-related directories
• Links to your website from local city/town business directories

These are all passive traffic drivers; that is, you put them in place and that’s it. Active traffic drivers require your active participation and contribute to creating **buzz** about you. They include:

• Writing articles and publishing them at industry-related websites.
• Joining industry-specific forums and establishing yourself as an expert. (Read the Today’s Tip section of Tip for Increasing Traffic to Your Web Site for recommendations on interacting in a forum and driving traffic to your website.)
• Highlighting your website in your elevator speeches
• Starting a Blog. (Read more about the merits of starting a blog.)

When Other Websites Link to Your Website
Read the Incoming Links section in Two Simple Techniques for Increasing Your Rankings in the Search Engines for recommendations about the best way to have external websites link to your website.

Over the Labor Day weekend, this blog was upgraded from version 1.5 to 2.2 of WordPress. It took eight hours to complete; mostly due to customization of the look-n-feel, and I chose to replace the header graphic.

The blog was live and accessible within the first hour - it just wasn’t stylized to my website. Readers could still make their way through and get the information that they were looking for.

How’d I do it? Following the instructions at the WordPress site for upgrading WordPress 1.5 to 2.2:

1. I backed up the database and programs to my local system.
2. I downloaded the new WordPress programs
3. I deleted some files and folders at the live site (per instructions)
4. I uploaded the new files and folders to the live area, careful to not overwrite any of the files and folders that I had left from the previous version.
5. I ran the upgrade program, and, the blog was accessible within 1 minute. The database conversion was automatic and took only 20 seconds (for 50+ entries).
6. I went into the admin and chose the Widgets and Plugins that I wanted.
7. I added a blog entry announcing that I was upgrading the blog (in case readers were seeing things change or out of synch).

All of that took about an hour (as I checked and double checked files and folders). The widget maintenance module provided in this new version made it very easy to customize the right sidebar. For this version of my blog, I added the AWSOM Drop Down Archive Plugin (which you see at the top of the blog).

About 5 hours were spent customizing the new programs as I had customized the old. There are more programs in this version, so I had to customize more. Plus, I spent about one hour creating a new header graphic, and another hour lining up the text presentation on the background, and making the three columns play together.

A typical WordPress blog has two columns, the body and the sidebar navigation. I like to have my website’s navigation visible as well, so I added a third column on the left.

All in all it was not difficult work. More time consuming than I had wanted it to be, but, hey, now it is totally customized to my liking.

Happy blogging!

Curious to find out what people want to know about blogs these days, I used Wordtracker (Wordtracker’s Free Trial) to find out the terms that people have been using to search for information about blogs in the last 90 days.

Here’s the baker’s dozen - as of May 30th, 2007 - of “blog” search terms in order by most popular to least popular:

1. blog
2. battlestar gallatica blog
3. blogs
4. amateur blogs
5. diabetes blog
6. free blogs
7. real estate blogs
8. celebrity baby blog
9. what is a blog
10. amateur blog
11. blog search
12. levitra blog
13. radio blog

Blog programs come with pre-defined themes. Themes are the “style” of the pages - the colors, fonts, graphics, style of menu items, highlighting, etc. If you are using a robust blogging tool, you selected the theme you wanted when you set up your blog.

Here’s a tip to preserve the font that goes with the theme you chose.
When cutting and pasting from a word-processing document, first cut and paste the text from the original document into a TEXT editor like (Notepad or BBEdit). Then cut it out of the text editor and into the blog’s entry field. Then use the blog’s style controls (bold, italicize, link, etc.) to re-style the text.

Why should you care?
Cutting directly from a word-processing document can sometimes cause the original font to be embedded in the information that is cut. If you cut and paste from multiple word-processing documents, multiple blog entries display in multiple fonts.

Preserving the blog theme’s font provides a consistent presentation. Consistent presentation is not only neat and easy to read, it tells your audience that you are consistent - a good message.

Happy blogging!

Adventures Online recently set up a blog for thedrugguy.com.