failures/mistake you've made w/your blog

[Betsyanne]

Mistake #1: For me, not blogging enough at first was definitely a mistake.

Mistake #2: Trying to make fancy graphics for each posting was a mistake too, it took way too much time.

Mistake #3: Making too many blogs and websites at first before I really understood the time it took was also a mistake.

I found out reading the other answers on this thread that I wasn't alone on a couple of these! This is a good question to ask.

[FMstevenson]

Thanks for all the info everyone... I'm a bit confused about hyper links.... isn't it a good thing if people link to your page? Please explain this more in depth!

[Paul Murray]

Originally Posted by FMstevenson

Thanks for all the info everyone... I'm a bit confused about hyper links.... isn't it a good thing if people link to your page? Please explain this more in depth!

It's a very good thing for you since it can lead to more traffic and better search engine page rank.

There's a couple of rules that should be followed regarding linking:

1. Always link back if the content is relevant
   
   If the person is linking to you because your content is relevant to what they are saying, then it's polite to link back in another post and/or leave a comment on their post.
   
   If someone has linked to you just for the sake of it, then I would tend to ignore it, since it's likely to be 'black hat SEO' (which can lead to you being penalised by Google and others if you associate with the site in question.
   
   
2. Use keyword rich anchor text
   
   Gone are the days of linking to a site with a 'Click here' hyperlink, it's much better to use a keyword rich hyperlink since it helps that site to rank better for those keywords.

Take a look at these examples.

• Good: Check out the Bloggeries forum for blogging tips and advice
  
• Bad: Check out the Bloggeries forum for blogging tips and advice
  
• Great:Check out the Bloggeries forum for blogging tips and advice

They all link to this forum, but the value of the links is very different.

The great example uses targeted keywords or a phrase people are likely to search for, leading to people stumbling across the forum when searching for blogging tips and advice.

The good example, also does the job, but is very specific and is a search term likely to be used by people actively seeking the forums.

The bad example offers no SEO value for the link, aside from some traffic. Search engines would associate the Bloggeries forum with the search term 'Check out', a term which people are unlikely to use to try and find the content housed here.

I hope that makes things a little clearer.

[DirectoryMan]

Taking too long to "get around" to making the next post.