This is just a few things that come up time and time again over in the Facebook group, so I thought popping up a post on some of the ‘must know’ things when it comes to blogging would be a good idea – please not this is not a full and comprehensive list.
HMRC (Tax):
If you are earning from your blog you need to sign up with HRMC, they allow you 3 months from receipt of your first payment to let them know you are self-employed – remember to record not only your incomings but your outgoings when it comes to your blog. Please note even if you are under the tax paying threshold you need to report your earnings to them.
Dofollow / Nofollow:
According to Google you should use nofollow links where you have been paid OR when you have received a product for free. Changing a link to nofollow on blogger is easy you just need to click the box on the link addition pop up, for wordpress I would suggest installing a plugin such as ultimate nofollow.
Disclosure:
All paid for posts should be disclosed, you don’t have to disclose review posts unless you have been paid for a positive review or told what you should write / include – however many people see this as an ethical matter and believe all posts should be disclosed.
Copyright:
All your content is automatically copyrighted, this is also true of other content so don’t go just taking images from Google/pinterest etc, or copy and pasting others work. Make sure any images you use, you have a licence for OR are open to be used by you. Flickr allows you to search images with creative comms licences are are free to use, but do make sure you have set the search properly as not all Flickr photos do hold CC (creative commons) licences.
Stats:
Remember to install Google anylatic or stat counter while no stats are 100% accurate bloggers own stats are VERY wrong – do NOT rely on them to give you, your stats.
PR:
Page Rank was run by Google – it is has not been updated in over a year and there are rumours it won’t be again. PR is still sometimes asked for by PR agencies and Google still run other algorithms we don’t see, that can remove you or change your search rankings if you don’t follow their rules.
DA/ PA:
DA aka Domain Authority: this is another ranking system, it is updated monthly a score around the late 20s early 30s is normal for a blog. DA only works when you have your own domain .blogspot / .wordpress etc URLs syphon from the named domain and are artificially inflated – if you need help setting up your own domain give Sarah an email and she will be happy to help.
PA aka Page Authority – this works on any URL and gives an idea of how well an article posted on the blog will rank within a search against other pages of a similar topic. Some companies will look at this instead of DA if you are running on a sub domain.
You can check your DA/PR over on the MOZ website.
What other blogging jargon would you like to know the low down on?
Very useful, thank you.
Thanks for the definition help. A perfect little go-to guide xx