Take a deep breath and make yourself comfortable. Enjoy reading this interview with Timethief, a blogger from Canada who blog at Onecoolsite and Thistimethisspace.com. She is a treasure box full of information and tips especially on blogging.

1.Could you explain how you became a blogger?

Once I learned how to write I couldn’t stop and have been doing so since I was 4 years old. I have written in notebooks and in long hand on legal pads and on napkins … well, you get the idea. I feel a compulsion to write. However, I don’t feel compelled to share everything I write.

I’ve began reading blogs 6 years ago and began a private diary blog which I still keep. Then in 2006 I decided to found a public blog, an environmental blog. I began blogging at both Blogger and wordpress.com but quickly found that I preferred wordpress software.

I was content with having an online personal diary for a few years while I read blogs, and then one day a blogger asked for technical help on a support and even though I was a wordpress newbie myself I knew how to provide it.

From there I went on to create my first blogging tips blog at a time which became the forerunner of onecoolsite: blogging tips, tutorials & resources. Even though my first blog was archived in 2007 still gets about 100 views every day and retains a Page Rank of 3.

2. How much time do you spend on your blog?

I have several blogs. I write and publish in two twice weekly, in others almost as frequently and rarely in others. I don’t actually keep track of the hours I spend on blogging. I multitask so I’m almost always blogging, doing work for a small business, and doing contract work. I switch back and forth at will, and some work consists of programs that can run in the background while I research and write blog posts and answer comments.

3. What is your blog’s mission?

I provide free instructional material and resources to bloggers, who are intent on improving their writing and blogging skills, and making their blogs more reader and search engine friendly (basic SEO).

My aim is to continue to learn and share what I have learned about How to Become a Better Blogger and How to Build a Better Blog with other bloggers.

4. If, while running a new blog, you were allowed to promote your blog using just two methods, what would those two methods be and why?

I would choose social networks and forums because I believe they would offer the best opportunities to create relationships that would translate into targeted traffic to my blogs. I know there are many other ways but I believe that I would select whichever two options seemed best able to deliver targeted traffic, rather than a flood of unfocused one hit surfers who create a high bounce rate.
5. What are your top 3 tips you can give to our readers to run a successful blog?

In blogging content is king. Every blog needs at least between 4 and 6 pillar posts that identify the your expertise. Pillar posts are longer posts that require research and the contents are of timeless value to your readers. As your blog grows your collection of pillar posts will likewise grow.

A good tip from the readability value and SEO standpoints is to make sure that pillar posts include plenty of links to authoritative and popular external resources. Certain subjects normally contain certain sub sets of subjects. By covering the material comprehensively you give yourself a good article that will rank better in search engines.

Your title for any post should clearly state what the contents of the post are. Clever and catchy titles may bring an flush of traffic but they do not continue to deliver readers who are specifically using search engines to locate the content that your post has. Use a keyword or keyword phrase as close to the start of the title as possible. Also use them in sub-titles found throughout the blog post but avoid keyword stuffing.

The words contained in anchor text can determine the ranking that page will receive by search engines. When used wisely anchor text boosts your rankings in search engines, especially in Google and provides your visitors with useful information about the content of the page you’re linking to.

Search engines are designed to provide highly relevant search results and this is where properly selected anchor text comes into play. Anchor text is weighted (ranked) highly in search engine algorithms, because the linked text is usually relevant to the landing page.

Deep linking, on the World Wide Web, is making a hyperlink that points to a specific page or image on another website, instead of to that website’s main or home page. Such links are called deep links. In the context of blogs, deep links posts include plenty of internal links to content rich posts, including pillar posts that are found within the same blog. You can breath new life into older posts by simply bringing them to your readers’ attention. Once every month select an encompassing theme or category and write a deep links post that brings fresh search engine and reader attention to content rich posts you have previously published.

You can read more about timethief from her about page.

Recent Posts From Timethief

• Blogging Tips: Tag to Increase Traffic
• Index This: Google Comedy Videos
• 4 Chatboxes for wordpress.com blogs
• Hootsuite 101 for Social Media Integration
• Buzz.com for Businesses on Facebook

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