(February 2012 (Photo:Carol Browne)

I don’t know if you have noticed or not but some of the most successful blogs on the Internet no longer date their posts -Copyblogger for one. Why?

Blogs that have dropped the traditional dating have found that their older posts are now getting read at a greater frequency, the bounce rate has improved (readers stick around to read additional posts), and some of the older articles continue to receive comments. Most of those blogs have removed the dates from their posts and their article URLS.

I am currently experimenting with a ‘no date’ on this blog and my traffic and bounce rate has improved so I will probably keep it. I have other blogs where it definitely would not work.

Whether it is a good idea for your blog or not depends upon your content. If your content usually revolves around subjects and issues that are timely in nature like current events, new tech reviews, political news, and prayer requests than the traditional dating is important to the content and should be maintained.

On the other hand, if you are doing Bible studies, apologetics, answering Bible questions, or talking about writing and language than dating might not be necessary since the info is somewhat timeless in nature. The one great advantage is that older posts receive more attention.

There is also a middle ground strategy that some blogs are utilizing by maintaining a general ‘no date’ system then adding a reference to the date within the content itself if the article is timely in nature.

If you publish on WordPress you will need to use the following plugin in order to publish without the traditional blog dating: Date Exclusion SEO

One thing to be aware of, if you drop the dating from your URL it will break any of the backlinks you have received for your past articles. One way to solve this problem if you use WordPress is to use the following WP plugin: Advanced Permalinks

You can use that plugin to maintain the old URLS while changing to a ‘no date’ URL for future posts.              *Top

Related Posts?:

1. "Share This"
2. -The Rewards of Blogging Holidays and Special Events

Right now you can find one article after another talking about 2012 and "what really matters" when it comes to blogging or social networking. Most of the articles that I have read are on the importance of SEO and commenting in building traffic for ones site in the coming year. Not a few spend some time exploring how to get traffic and attention to some of your older posts. All good ideas since traffic and visibility is important.

However, if your purpose and goals for being on the Internet revolve around bearing your testimony about Jesus and/or doing some kind of Christian ministry, then the presence of God and His Holy Spirit in all that you do and say is of primary importance. The following short video (4:22) message by Francis Chan is a good one to remind us about “what really matters” after all is said and done: 

Catalyst Atlanta 2011 | Francis Chan from Catalyst on Vimeo.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. –John 15:5
ESV

*Hat Tip: GMO Blog               *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -Happy New Year 2012
2. Movie and Book Reviews as an Outreach

                 (Image via Wikipedia)

Most of the time holidays are a one day or a weekend at best affair but Christmas is an entire season that spans nearly a whole month. Plus it is a natural for Christian bloggers since the whole reason for the season revolves around the birth of Jesus Christ.

When it comes to blogging and bearing one’s testimony the opportunities provided by this holiday are far and beyond any other time of the year. First of all, nearly everyone is participating in the season in some form or another- believer and non-believer.So the interest is high and there are lots of things to blog about. The following are just a few suggestions.

What to Blog About

1. About your shopping experiences

2. About all of the hectic pressures of the season.

3. About how your family and extended family responds to one another.

4. About family traditions and how your family celebrates.

5. About what Christmas really means to you.

6. About how your faith matters during this time.

7. About the central message of the season and the birth of Jesus Christ.

8. About the events at your church.

9. About Christmas outreaches to those in need.

10. About your daily activities related to the season.

The Christmas season is a rich time of the year when it comes to touching others and your blog or website can touch people in ways that are not really possible any other time of the year. To see what I mean, all you have to do is view some of the traditional Christmas movies that are shown year after year during this season.

Folks are open to good stories and good news and there is nothing better for that then the coming of Jesus Christ as a baby. Now’s the time to tell them why Jesus came, why God sent his Son, and why that should mean something to everyone.            *Top

The invention of the printing press brought with it revolutionary changes in communicating the Gospel and spreading Christianity around the World. It made it possible for Bibles to be mass produced and available to regular folks. Since then the Bible has been translated into thousands of different languages.

In fact some Bibles associations are forecasting that the New testament at least may be available in every language there is around the world within 10 years or so making it possible for the Gospel to potentially go to every nation. Incredible.

Now in this generation we are also going through a comparable paradigm shift with the dawn of the Internet and the mass availability of computers but especially smart phones even in 3rd world countries. It is making the Bible accessible to folks in every country, even in places where missionaries and the Gospel are officially forbidden to go.

There are numerous sites right now on the Internet where the Bible is available in literally hundreds of different languages. Plus sound Christian teaching and Bible studies on thousands of different sites may be easily accessible with an iphone or Blackberry.

This is a major game changer, especially when it comes to evangelism.

Here’s a great article that explores the positive aspects and full potential of digital evangelism compared to the limitations of printed material:

“Are electrons better than dead trees?”               *Top

Here’s a link to ChurchRelevance’s List: Top 200 Church Blogs for Fall 2011

Top 10:

1. Between Two Worlds

2. Michael Hyatt

3. DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed

4. GetReligion

5. Tim Challies

6. Dr. Albert Mohler

7. Jesus Creed

8. The Resurgence

9. Pyromaniacs

10. Fr. Z’s Blog

<Rest of the list 11-200>

Take a look at the Top 10 and see what the best of the best most successful Christian blogs look like. Then take a look at the bottom of the list which are also great. I guarantee you’ll learn something in the process.

One can always disagree with the criteria used to come up with this list but not that these are all great blogs and great examples to take a look at and learn from. That’s why I have it linked here as a learning tool for those of us who would like to improve our sites and take them to another level.            *Top

     (Image via CrunchBase)

One of the ways that blogs can be evaluated is the ‘Bounce rate’.

Any of you who have Google Analytics installed on your blog already know what this is all about. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to your site which read only one post and bounce away without looking at another page or article. The smaller the percentage the better –at least below 50%, 30-40% better, with 20-25% more like it and less even best.

1. The easiest way to improve the bounce rate is to add a plugin that automatically produces links to ‘Related Posts’ at the end of every article you post. It gives your readers options for more articles to read on your blog.

2. Another good tool is to have a ‘Popular Posts’ Plugin that will produce a widget prominently displayed at the top of your blog like this site or in the sidebar. It introduces new readers to your best ‘blasts from the past’ and provides them again with new reasons to stick around.

3. You could also provide links in your sidebar or make your own widgets to publicize any series or to list your best posts on a particular subject.

4. One of the best ways to ensure that readers stick around for a while is to provide internal links within the post itself to past articles containing important or related info. This one takes a little more time but the rewards are worth it.

5. The single best way to encourage visitors to stick around is to improve the load time. If a post takes too long to load (15 seconds or more) than chances are your readers will not take the time to load a second page. Website caching programs or plugins are a great help in this area. Here’s several posts with help on the loading issue:

-10 Ways to make Your WordPress Blog Faster 

-The Importance of Browser Checks 

-WordPress: What’s the best Caching Plugin? 

-Re: WordPress Plugins—What I’ve discovered (Some make the blog slower)

Image by cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr

Searching the internet tonight I came across a very helpful article listing 3 basic rules all bloggers need to pay attention to:

“The 3 Things You Need to Learn About Blogging”

Here’s what BloggingPro writer James Dunaway has at the top of his list as far as blogging essentials:

1. Learn SEO

2. Respect Online Reputation

3. Write by heart

Read what he has to say about each.

‘Writing by heart’ or from the heart is the single best advice that I have ever come across in any article about blogging. If you don’t have some interest or passion about what you are writing about, you can’t expect any of your readers to find anything interesting about what you have to say.

Sometimes I get the impression that some bloggers put a post up on an event or issue merely because it happens to be going viral at the time, not necessarily because they care about it one way or another. If you don’t really care it will show and searchers will bounce out of your post before the end of the second paragraph if not before.            *Top

Ever wonder how your blog or website stacks up against all of the rest?

Here’s a tool that will evaluate your site in a minute or even less: <<Website Grader>>

It’s easy! Just go to the site and enter your URL, add an email address, and then click on the “GENERATE REPORT” button. It is amazing how much you can learn about your site in the comprehensive report that quickly follows.

I have been using this tool for a couple of years now and check up on the progress of all of my sites every 6 months or so. The grader points out all of the strengths and weaknesses of your site. I have found it to be very useful in helping me to see where I can make needed improvements.

See the nifty badge above? This blog scored a ‘92’ this time around –far better than the first time. My best blog scored a ‘99’ –hooray!

HubSpot is the sponsor of the grader and also gives you the opportunity to download a “Free Guide: Introduction to Search Engine Optimization.” The guide is business oriented but the basic principles are useful for anyone wanting to improve the effectiveness of their site.            *Top

(Image by miss miah via Flickr)

Well sometimes comments can actually ruin your whole day. One of the hardest things to do as a Christian blogger is to respond in love to those who criticize and are down right mean and ornery to you in their comments.

Sometimes when I’m responding to a reader’s comment on one of my blogs, the first thing I think of is ‘how would Jesus answer this one’. On my worst days I have a picture in my mind of Jesus clearing the temple or telling the religious folks that they are really nothing more than ‘white washed graves‘. Then the Holy Spirit kicks in and I see Jesus teaching the ‘Golden rule’ and telling his disciples to love and pray for their enemies. In those moments I pray for wisdom and strength.

Some Suggestions on Responding to Difficult Comments 

1. Believe it or not Prayer does help. (Pray for wisdom and understanding)

2. Sometimes let a day or so go by. (Respond when you’re not quite so angry or hurt)

3. Don’t respond at all. (Some comments are so out-of-line that they hang themselves)

4. If you really did blow it you do need to magnanimously admit it.

5. If they are right –same as #4.

6. Sometimes commenters are just plain wrong and need to be corrected. (With as much love and care as you can muster)

7. Sometimes the best response is the ‘delete’ button. (It might even make your day)

Some of the meanest comments that I have ever received have surprisingly come from fellow Christians who completely forgot about grace. Nevertheless, if you are identified in some way as a Christian on the Internet than you really do need to respond in a way that reflects well upon your faith and your master Jesus.  Blessings.

(Image by DavidErickson via Flickr)

I know that I have broken some of these basic rules in grammar dozens of times while writing on the Web in the last six years. It occurs to me that if I could use a quick refresher in this area then maybe some of you might benefit from it also.

Here’s an article by Robin Nobles listing 10 of the most common grammar errors made on the Web:

“Top Ten Grammar Errors that Haunt Web Pages”

1. it’s = it is
2. Web site (or page) vs. web site/page vs. Website/website (page)
3. Periods and commas: do they go inside or outside of quotation marks, or does it depend on the sentence?
4. E-mail vs. email, plus what is the plural of e-mail?
5. SEOs or SEO’s
6. Spelling spot check
7. Hyphens
8. Additional spot check
9. Singular vs. plural
10. Commas

Follow the link and take a look at the explanation for each of these common errors. Examples of ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ usage are included.            *Top