Another important (maybe very) first step...

Which maybe I should have posted first in this series, is make sure your site is ready for visitors.

An easy way to do that is to run a report on your website or blog using the Website Grader which is a free service from HubSpot.

The report grades a site using "0 - 100" scale checking things like your indexed pages, meta data, links, image tags, Twitter grade, RSS feed, and so much more. You can read a sample report here (or just run your own and find out what, if any, changes you need to make).

After you see the results you can go about fixing any deficiencies that may have been identified.

You can also run reports on your competition.

And yes, there's and app for that, you can find it here.

You wouldn't have company unless your house is ready (well, us guys would), so don't invite folks over to your site until it's ready to be seen.

It's not sexy... but it is important...

For the next few posts we are going to cover the things that anyone/everyone who has a website or blog needs to do to ensure that folks can find them. That is our intent isn't it, to attract visitors?

A presences on the web is not a "build it and they will come" scenario.

So in this post we are going to cover RSS (Real Simple Syndication).

RSS is a real time saver in that you don't need to keep checking your favorite sites to see if there is anything new since your last visit, instead what happens is when something new is posted you will get a notification email.

If you want folks to follow your website or blog for very long having RSS setup on your site is an absolute MUST.

I use FeedBurner, not only does it provide RSS for your site, it will also give you all kinds of useful statistical information about who is subscribing, where your readers are coming from, and (very important) will help you get the word out that your site exists.

If you follow this link you will see a detailed video tutorial on how to setup an RSS feed with Feedburner.

You can also feed your Facebook page using RSS Graffiti, it will read your feed and write it on your Facebook wall, a very useful tool.

One bad thing about feeds is that videos that are part of your post do not get "fed" through, so if you are one of my blog subscribers you'll need to return to the blog to watch the video below that is a great demonstration of what RSS is and how it works.

Happy Easter...

This is an Easter morning photo from MANY moons ago...

The great Maze of Lucknow

Photographer : Avinash Patra

Three reasons to check out Elena Wilken today...

There are more than three reasons, but that's all I am going to list here today.

1. If you are interested in family portraiture you need to check out her work, there are samples below. This is a link to her site, but don't go there until you have some time spend because I promise once you start looking at her images you will be there for a time... for a long time.

2. Elena gives away some very nice templates every month, here is the link for those.

3. For April Elena is giving away 11 great prizes, none of which I am going to name here because I am going to make you follow this link to see them for yourself. I will say this, I would be very happy to have ANY of the prizes on her giveaway list.

And she gives her readers soooo much more than what I have mentioned here.

Here are four of Elena's images, clicking on any image will allow you to view it larger and in a new window.

Caught jumping on the bed...

Pretty much says it all, don't you think? You can almost hear them laughing.

I love the images you folks submit to our Flickr group.

Another very cool DIY project...

I love DIY (do it yourself) projects, creating things with your own two hands is fun AND these kind of projects tend to save you a bunch of money in the process.

Mathew Monroe has put together a very cool DIY flexible flash arm that will run you less than $15 and is extremely functional.

Here's the link, go check it out... and thank you Mathew!