value of Blogs?

[ergobob]

Hello Everyone,

I have been reading that signing up with various blogs to provide a link back to your page is big help with PR.

I tried my first one at http://www.blogdrive.com/manage/

I was wondering if you all think that doing things like this might help in SERP's?

Thanks a lot,

Bob
www.usernomics.com

[mikmik]

I do not believe that a link back from your own, newly created blog will help whatsoever. Your new blog would have a page rank of non existent, unless the blogger site is pretty big/popular, but IT would have almost no links, therefore woudln't get discovered and spidered.

You have a really nicely done page, SEO wise (I never checked keyword density, mind you) and - Nice Coding!

If you exchanged some relevent links, that would probably get you up there a lot faster.

I am no expert, but these days, wiki and blogger spamming is common, forums also, for that matter, and people go around and leave replies and messages all over the place, with their URLs in the comments they post. They may get hundreda of link backs this way, get banned LOL, but those are the numbers I am thinking for blog links to make much difference.

There are millions and millions of blog pages, a link back from one or two PR0 will not do anything.

I am hoping more knowledgeable WPWers will fill us in better, at least give confident information :O)

Good luck, good coding!

Peace

[JayDrake]

Getting links in on blogs is certainly beneficial. The more relevant the content is the better. The higher the blog page upon which you have a link the better. A blog link is pretty much exactly the same as any other link. If the page is highly ranked and the content is relevant to the keywords you are trying to rank in it will be most beneficial to you. If the content is completely irrelevant and the page is poorly ranked it will be less valuable.

Also of value are blogs on your own site which show keyword relevance as well as change. A fresh, active site is a good thing.

[ronniethedodger]

Links...which kind?

There are the links that the blogger judiciously hands out during his daily posts. Depending on the blogger, this could be a narrow field and all very relative to each other. Others are all over the place and have no focus.

Blogging is like a community of sorts also. One blogger will follow several other blogs that he/she is interested in and often cite them in their posts. They kind of form these communities much like a forum, but spread out over several sites. Often they will have what they call a blogroll on the side of the page too.

Over time, it is just like any other website and you build your popularity accordingly. Within a couple of months you can get it up to a PR5 or better with no trouble at all.

Then the comment spammers come in and start hitting your comment boxes trying to play on your PR. What was a natural exchange among like minded bloggers in a growing community of bloggers, is now being threatened by this link spammers.

Some bloggers throw their hands in the air and can't deal with the constant barrage of Viagra, Shop-at-Home, As-seen-on-TV, and Free Teen Video spammers that will eventually find them. New options are being talked about all the time in how to deal with it.

Now I am seeing the trend in a lot of blogging software where they farm comments out to Services. The Services script the links in the comment so they have no outbound effect. If you use the commenting system in Blogger -- they are run through this type of system. Some blogging software now require that you register before you can comment.

The actions of a few spammers is (what I can see) breaking down a lot of good things about blogs in general...and that was the linking of like minded individuals which is the fabric of their system. It is a shame too.

Wiki Sandboxes got some attention from a particular contest recently. Then it got highly profiled in an article that was written by a well-known News publication. Only a matter of time before they start getting attention.

If you are thinking about commenting at a blog to get inbound links to your site, better do it with a little respect -- have something to offer to the community, otherwise don't do it. One of a few things will happen, they will delete your comment, blacklist your IP or website domain, or they will use a service (which sucks).

[TrafficProducer]

Blog ?

I think these will go the same way as FFA, Free For All, sites.

Anyone will post anything just in the hope of getting someone to click on a link in the message.

[ronniethedodger]

I think these will go the same way as FFA, Free For All, sites.

Anyone will post anything just in the hope of getting someone to click on a link in the message.

C'mon, you don't honestly believe that do you? Give these guys a little more credit than that. This is not some script that you drop onto your server and let everyone have free reign over.

[pburton]

It is hard to be sure of the effect of your blog on the positions of your other pages and their popularity. I use blogger and Google certainly picks up the content of my blog very quickly, perhaps even daily. I searched Google for a jazz band recently and it returned my own recent blog reference to it.

So even if there is no other benefit, I am pleased that Google is checking my site so frequently. I would not be able to update the main pages more than once a month at best; most of them far less frequently. How often would Google visit the site if it did not see the daily blog updates ?

regards
Peter Burton

[ronniethedodger]

So even if there is no other benefit, I am pleased that Google is checking my site so frequently. I would not be able to update the main pages more than once a month at best; most of them far less frequently. How often would Google visit the site if it did not see the daily blog updates ?

Good question. I am seeing the same kind of thing myself.

I am also noticing a completely opposite effect with Slurp. They have been all over other parts of the site ... but have only picked up one archive page out of over 160. Google has them all indexed. You would think that Slurp would at least have more than just one page in their index. That thing is a sad excuse for a spider if you ask me.

[jaca]

I have a blog(s) with Blogger for months now and I have noticed a lot of different, mostly postive things from it.

I list my blog in blog directories and that brings a lot of traffic to my site. These people don't just read and leave, at least from what I see in my stats.

I also see the blog as a bi-weekly or weekly (depending on how often I update) mini-newsletter. I provide information and yes links.

For my new sites, my blogs have shown up in the search engine rankings before my sites.

I highly recommend it....you just have to have the time!

[ronniethedodger]

I list my blog in blog directories and that brings a lot of traffic to my site. These people don't just read and leave, at least from what I see in my stats.

Try FeedBurner for you blog to convert your Atom file into RSS. It is a free service of it's kind that I have come across.

They also have very good stat tracking for you too! It is broken down by impressions, and click-thrus to the archived article. They track what aggregators you are getting hits from. And the real neat feature is they have a pretty reliable system/formula that will show you how many subscribers you have.

And there is a whole lot more than the RSS conversion, they also do conversions for wireless and smart feeds that auto sense the readers.

Check em out ... http://www.feedburner.com