9 First Step Goals for Blogging

Words from Darren Rowse on ProBlogger.net:

Many bloggers start blogs these days with the dream of millions of readers and making large amounts of money.

While it is possible to build blogs that are widely read and profitable and there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big – the reality is that it takes time and a lot of work to build these kinds of blogs.

And he went on and suggested a list of 9 first step goals to people who want to get into the blogging venture with a big dream of making money from it.

1. Publish 10 Posts
2. Getting your first comment from someone you don’t know
3. Get your first link from another blog
4. Build your readership up to more than 20 readers a day
5. Hit a level of 20 RSS subscribers
6. Getting your blog indexed in Google
7. Get your blog earning $1 a week (update: only if making money from your blog is one of your goals – it’s not for everyone
8. First guest post on another blog
9. Having someone (not you or your mum) tweet about your blog

I seemed to have accomplished most of them, except the guest post on another blog, but Darren is very right that it’s just a beginning to get my feet on the right track. There is a very long way to go.

Yes, blogging is my new venture on making more money, and I am doing it with a dream that would make me completely off the regular job one day, or at least gets me retire earlier. With that big dream in mind that is still in “day” stage, I am totally prepared doing that in a long term. A very long journey is laid out right ahead of me.

9 First Step Goals for New Bloggers [ProBlogger.net]

What to do if your website is banned on Google?

My last post touched the first step what to do when the website is banned or penalized by Google. Now, let’s move to the next step.

It’s definitely not end of the word if your websites got banned or penalized on Google. Just face it if it does happen to you. It doesn’t matter whether or not your site is still indexed on Google. If it happens it’s the time to seriously go over the Webmaster Guidelines again, especially the guidelines that specifically tell you what NOT to do, such as:

• Avoid hidden text or hidden links
• Don’t use cloaking or sneaky links
• Don’t send automated queries to Google
• Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords
• Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content
• Don’t create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing, virus, Trojans, or other badwares.
• Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines.
• If the site participates in an affiliate program, make sure the site adds value that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

If you have one or more places that violate these guidelines make sure fix them first, and submit reconsideration request to Google telling them you have fixed the problems on your site. It’s required that you have a Google account that participates in Google Webmaster Tools. It’s also much easier because the communication will be all within the Google Webmaster Tools program. However, it takes time for them to get the issue resolved, usually can take a few weeks.

It does seem a lot easier if your site only got penalized but still is indexed on Google, because that also means you are not so bad that you only have one or two things that need to be fixed. It is a lot more serious if your site got banned because that indicates that you are doing something really bad that Google doesn’t even want you being in their game anymore.

There will be another one or two posts on the same topic, stay tuned.

How to know if your website is banned on Google

If you are wondering why your site isn’t doing so well on Google, and suspect that your site may be banned or penalized by the giant, the first thing you may want to know is if your site is completely out of their database and banned.

You can do that by either performing a search for site:domain.com, or following this site status wizard from Google. If both results come back showing positive, your site most likely is still well indexed but still has something that Google doesn’t quite like. Otherwise, you are screwed, it’s quite obvious that your site is deadly banned.

Either way, the next thing you need to do is to go over the Webmaster Guidelines to make sure your site completely follows them.