Technorati For Beginners

Not all that long ago I had never heard of Technorati. I didn't know it existed and I had no idea what it was all about. I still have no idea what it is all about. LOL. So why am I writing a blog post about it?

Well, it does seem to matter to those who are very serious bloggers. By that I mean those who are working hard to increase their readerships, their rankings and anything else related to blogging that I also have no idea about.

When I began a separate blog for my blogroll, an anonymous commenter pointed out that in order for anyone to get any benefit from my blogroll, it was important that I claimed that blog through technorati.

So, for those of you who wish to remain "little fish" in the blogpond -I say "go for it". BUT, you might like to take the time to join technorati AND claim your blog so that when you add blogs to your blogroll or mention another blogger, it shows up there.

BUT, there's an even more FUN reason to "play" on the technorati site. It can tell you WHO is talking about your blog. If anyone else links to your blog, it will show up on your technorati page (if you click on the "Authority:whatever number you are" link under your blog it will take you to a page that lists all the places your blog has been mentioned (via a link).

Mostly you'll probably find your friends blogs and the blogs of those you read and interact with regularly. It can be an interesting way to find out who is reading your blog too. I have found the blogs of some of my readers who have perhaps mentioned me in their blogroll but I wasn't aware of that fact. In some cases, I wasn't even aware of the blog at all. I know I myself haven't gone around letting all the people on my blogroll know that I've added them there.

You may also come across some quite funny links. For instance, I discovered I had been linked to under a post titled "How Hair Transplant Surgery is Performed". LOL. I even went there and read the post and I still can't quite understand why I've been linked to. It had very little to do with hair transplant surgery and something to do with internet marketting of some description. Naturally, I'm not complaining about the link. The more links the better really. :-)

Technorati is also one of the reasons why it's nice to actually link to other bloggers when you're talking about them. I know, setting up links can be painful when you just want to run off a quick post. They're certainly not essential but they are a nice thing to do for other bloggers. Apart from helping readers of your blog to find the blog you are talking about - it does give bloggers other benefits (like helping their authority on Technorati).

Joining technorati is quite simple. Just go to www.technorati.com and then click on "join". Once you've done that you can go through the claim process for your blog. It's been a while since I joined but I'm pretty sure it guides you through the process when you first join. If you have any trouble, let me know and I'll see if I can help (be warned - my knowledge is rather limited).

I realise this is a very simplified post when it comes to explaining technorati. I guess I'm coming from the viewpoint that perhaps I'm not the only person who started blogging with barely a clue of what the blogworld really is all about. Sometimes I have found myself too overwhelmed reading the more "technical" or in-depth explanations of some of the blogging basics. So I'm hoping this is helpful to someone out there. :-)