If you are unfortunate enough to not have access to a tool or plugin to automatically ping your sitemaps on your site for you, you can still do this manually, and it’s pretty effective. A good example of this is a static site which doesn’t have the content update very often.  Simply prepare a simple page with these links:

• <a href=”http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://your-domain.com/sitemap-url”>Google</a>
• <a href=”http://search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/updateNotification?appid=YahooDemo&amp;url=http://your-domain.com/sitemap-url”>Yahoo</a>
• <a href=”http://webmaster.live.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?siteMap=http://your-domain.com/sitemap-url”>MSN</a>
• <a href=”http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http://your-domain.com/sitemap-url”>AsK</a>
• <a href=”http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=http://your-domain.com/sitemap-url”>Moreover</a>

Step 1: edit each link code with the url to your site’s sitemap.

Step 2: then copy the code for each line to a new page/post or html document.

Step 3: create the rest of the page.

Step 4: publish it. Each time you need to ping these sites, open this page and click on each link. It only takes a few seconds, and is ideally done as part of a checklist of things to do.

One of the great ways to generate interest in your blog is via one of the many traffic generating sites that are available. However, not all of them are very good. In fact, I’ve had little success with several so here’s my top list of traffic generators that work vs. those that don’t.

1. BlogMad
2. BlogSoldiers
3. ClickPirate
4. EntreCard
5. Traffic Swarm
6. AutoHits
7. AussieEarners
8. BlogExplosion
9. BlogAdvance
10. Google Ads

So here’s the truth. This is an non-scientific analysis of how traffic generators actually work, despite whatever statistics they provide in their system. The effective sites were counted as providing more than an average amount of time on the site, over 2 years that was approximately 02:12 minutes.

Of the ten sites that I surveyed, only one merits any real ad spending. And that’s the first one. Please note, though, I don’t use Google AdSense anywhere that it matters, so if you are using any of these sites, you may find that you are violating AdSense TOS.

Better than Average

1. ClickPirate – accounted for only 269 trips to my site but the traffic stayed much longer (11:26 minutes), viewed nearly 3 times as many pages and had a much lower bounce rate. I regularly purchase advertising through ClickPirate, and would recommend it. Grade: A++

Around Average

2. Autohits.dk – only generated 126 actual hits to my site, but the average time on site was a decent 3:38 minutes and a respectable bounce rate. I have purchased advertising on this site several times and been pleased. Grade: A+

3. AussieEarners – only recently added to the stable but in that short month generated about 195 actual hits with a decent 2:01 on the site. Its bounce rate wasn’t that hot, but at least the traffic seems reasonable quality. I haven’t purchased any advertising on this site yet. Grade: A-

Shorter than Average

4. EntreCard – accounted for over 640 visits in two years, but with an average of 43 seconds on the site, it was marginally better than BlogSoldiers. I gave up on EntreCard mostly because it failed to demonstrate any value, and the system kept changing. You might have better luck with them than I did. I stopped when they deleted two of my sites for alleged TOS violations despite the fact that they were quality sites. Pity they couldn’t remove the EC farms and the porn effectively. Worse, it wasn’t worth buying advertising on here because of the gross mismatch between EC prices and actual traffic. Grade: C+

5. BlogSoldiers – generated slightly more interest than BlogMad, but it’s average time on site was 29 seconds! I’m still using this site, as it does generate fairly decent traffic levels. I also purchased advertising for both banners and blogs through their service. I quite like the fact that you can create banners and text links and try them out over extended periods. I have purchased advertising here, and would probably do so again. Grade: B-

6. BlogMad – in two years BlogMad generated 575 visits for my blog, but with an average time on my site of just 7 seconds, it was largely ineffective. Worse, I tried to buy advertising but this company’s got a really ineffective ecommerce system that prevented me from buying any credits at all! Sorry but that is really shooting yourself in the foot, is it not? Grade: C-

Largely Useless

7. BlogAdvance – was a very dark horse in the race, and in only one respect did it manage a less worse than average result: time on site – 1:19 minutes. The site is currently non-functional, and fails to accept my sites. I couldn’t figure out why, and generally reckon that this site is now over. Grade: F

8. BlogExplosion – Really only created an average time of 4 seconds on site, and a little more than 1 page! With a high bounce rate, it’s not worth it. Worse, I had a problem on my account and it was never fixed. Grade: F

9. TrafficSwarm – generated no hits to my site at all. Complete waste of time.Oddly, though, my Google ads only attracted 51 viewers to my and they only stayed 19 seconds! 19! Wow! Grade: F

Unknown Potential

10. AdWords – But the biggest surprise was for me, AdWords. AdWords produced really poor quality traffic overall with 51 visitors and a time on site of just 19 seconds. Most likely this reflects the complexity of the AdWords system. I’m still not convinced AdWords is an appropriate tool for InvestorBlogger at this time. Grade: Unknown.

These stats are from over 57000 page views taken over 2 years. Not all sites were tested for 2 years. Nor were all sites tested continuously. But this reflects my own personal experience with these ten sites. Your own mileage may vary considerably from these statistics!

It must be the one question that many wannabe-bloggers are asking themselves. I know one friend who just didn’t know anywhere else apart from Blogger itself. But if you want to have a real blog, Blogger is just not the best place to start. Even if it is the most obvious.

If you are deciding to blog, then you need to consider what your priorities are. Having blogged on and off since 2005, I think that they can be boiled down to five points

1. Goals – These are often the most obvious, and they are often met with blank stares: I just want to have a blog. But what is your blog for? Who do you expect to read your blog? What do you expect to put there? There are a million answers available for each question. If you’re not sure, perhaps look around and make a list of things you think are important.

2. Expandability – Often when you start with a blog, you’ll find that you may want to have two or three blogs or that your blog takes off in a totally unexpected direction. With many hosting plans, you can be sure that you can have the additional resources for expanding your online presence without adding much cost.

3. Platform – Choose a broadly supported package or platform to support your blog! When you face problems, you will find it easy to get support, both free and paid-for support. Choosing one of the lesser known platforms will make things a lot harder when you have issues or bugs. Also, choosing a broader platform will mean more choice over plugins, themes, and additional services.

4. Pricing – If you are starting out blogging, affordability can often be a problem. Decide what your budget is for hosting. Don’t expect to make much or any money at the beginning. If you do, you’ll only be disappointed. Really. By choosing a host with room to grow, you’ll also avoid future extra costs should your site become popular.

5. Reliability – I was quite happy with my original host for a long time, but then we started to have lots of issues with their servers. While they were forthright, and I felt comfortable staying with them, not all hosts are able, or willing, to fix the issues as responsibly as mine was.

These concerns will surely be uppermost when you start to seek out your own web hosting however you decide to do it.