Get listed in Yahoo and MSN Quickly

In case you haven’t noticed, Blogs are the talk of the web and they’re taking the internet by storm.

I’ve been studying and working with blogs for several months and setting up a blog related to your website theme can definitely boost your search engine ranking and get you indexed quickly. Although my sites have already been indexed in Yahoo! and MSN for some time, I’ve seen a rise in search popularity and clicks to my sites since the creation of my blogs.

One of the great benefits of blogs is that search engines love them. Search engine spiders like fresh content so creating a blog and spending just a few minutes a day creating new posts will help you get indexed much quicker.

It’s viral marketing at its best, not to mention - it’s easy!

Once you set up your blog you also have the added benefit of plugging your blog into an RSS ‘site feed’. RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ and is a powerful technology that can literally help you build an audience overnight.

Let’s take a look at how you can get your blog listed in Yahoo! and MSN quickly.

If you haven’t done so already, create yourself a blog. I use www.blogger.com, which is a free service. Setting up a blog is like creating a one page mini site. It is extremely easy to set up, maintain and update. To get started, create your blog with a simple introduction, provide lots of useful information and include all your favorite links such as links to your website’s homepage. Be sure to include a profile about yourself. This will help build trust with your readers and lets them get to know you as a real person.

Once you set up your blog it’s important to keep it updated by adding information as often as you can. Think of it as a place to store tidbits of information that you come across on a daily basis. Make it useful and keep it relevant. Also, be sure to allow comments to your blog entries. This is a great way to get feedback from readers and foster ‘food for thought’ Depending on where your blog is hosted you should be able to find a ‘site feed URL’. On www.blogger.com you will see it under the ‘settings’ tab. It will look something like this:

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Once you locate the ‘Site Feed URL’ simply copy and paste it to notepad or a word doc because we are going to need it later.

Next, if you haven’t already done so, create a "my Yahoo! account" and a "My MSN account".

To create your "My Yahoo! account" go to:

http:// www.yahoo.com

To create your "My MSN account" go to:

http://www.msn.com

Once you have these accounts set up let’s start with setting up your blog in Yahoo!

Go to My Yahoo! and log in. Once logged in, locate the search box located at the left. Directly under the search box is an ‘add content’ link, click on it.

On the next page locate the ‘Find Content’ box and over to the right locate the ‘Add RSS by URL’ link and click on it.

The next page has ‘Add RSS by URL’ at the top, simply copy and paste your ‘Site Feed URL’ that you saved earlier into the URL box and click ‘Add’.

The next thing you will see is your site feed with your headlines. If you click on any one of them it should take you to your blog.

Your My Yahoo! page should now have your blog’s site feed headlines listed at the bottom. It can sometimes take 24 to 48 hours to get listed, so if you don’t see it right away you can check back later.

Now every time you update your blog, your new content will automatically be updated on Yahoo! And anyone else who subscribes to your feed will receive the updates. The best part of all is that within 24 to 48 hours you will be indexed on Yahoo!

Let’s move on and do the same on MSN. Assuming you have already created your My MSN account, go to MSN and login to your account.

Once logged in locate the ‘Add Content’ link up at the top of the page and click on it. A pop-up window will display, simply copy in your ‘Site Feed URL’ that we saved earlier and click on the green arrow.

You should then see a check box with your blog’s name next to it. Check off your ‘Site Feed URL’ and then press the OK button. Again you may have to wait 24 to 48 hours.

Congratulations! That’s it ...you’re done!

The important thing to remember is to keep your blogs updated with fresh, new information. A good rule of thumb is to add information as you come across things or as you have new tidbits or ideas to offer your viewers. I would recommend updating your blog at the very least, once a week.