Are you working smarter or harder? Well today I am going to show you how to blog smarter. What does this mean exactly? I have always found that being organized have having my tools close at hand has always increased my productivity.
I just started using a fantastic little FREE Firefox addon that automatically gives me related links, photos, articles and tags as I type my blog posts. I use it to enhance the quality content and tags in my blog.
No more searching for related information to add to my posts. It appears right on my wordpress admin post page. Let me show you…
How to I get this? Easy! Head on over to Zemanta.com and click on the Download Zemanta Firefox Extension button.
How I Use Zemanta
I do not use the “Links” they provide in my blog posts. Why? It creates “leakage” on my site. I prefer for my readers to stay on my blog and read me articles. I have no control over what someone else puts on their site. I do use them to find more information to write about.
Secondly, I only use photos that are either licensed as Public Domain or I create them myself. Why? Because if they are Public Domain I don’t have to post a link to the source like I would with the other images.
As far as articles go, it is great that they do research for you and give you different articles related to your blog post. I often visit them and read what others are saying about the topic. It’s a treasure trove of ideas for your own blog.
I LOVE that they give me tags for my blog posts. I just need to click on the related tags and it does the work for me. This is awesome! I’ve been using tags since the beginning; but I always felt like I was overlooking some tags…but which ones? Now I know and can include them with the clickety-click of my mouse!
The BEST Part
Let me tell you the BEST part of Zemanta. Above all, this is the main reason I use it… It leaves a little symbol at the bottom of your blog posts that looks something like this:
This little button gets me more backlinks than articles posted to an article directory! However, this only works if you have really high quality blog content.
How it works: Someone visits your blog and falls in love with your posts. He or she clicks on the REBLOG button and is presented with a choice of different quotes from your blog post that they can post on their blog in exchange for a backlink to your post. You get to contribute to someone else’s success and you receive a back link in return. That’s a win/win situation!
This does not mean they get to copy your post. They can only choose one paragraph to quote and you gain a backlink and some free publicity and advertising for your blog.
So if you don’t use Zemanta for any other purpose, use it as link bait! Get your backlinks and increase your search engine rankings.
What are Backlinks and Why are They Important?
Google and other search engines often base your rankings depending on how popular your blog is. The more backlinks you have the more important your blog looks. You want to gain as many HIGH QUALITY backlinks as you can.
