I just read a fascinating series of blog posts from Sodaware - about advertising, and how much traffic you can get for $19.95.
He examined a whole slew of different advertising and marketing methods, both free and pay - for the pay ad services, his budget was $19.95, and for the free marketing, he set a time limit of a half hour. This was a smart way to compare services, because as they say, nothing is free - your time is worth something too. A lot of times, it's more efficient to just pay for advertising than to spend hours on fruitless "free" ads.
Read part 1, the introduction and part 2, the results.
Many of Sodaware's results were as to be expected, but some lessons are worth repeating - like good targeting is key to successful ads. You'll get better results with ads on a well-targeted, medium-traffic side, than poorly-targeted ads on a huge-traffic site.
It's interesting to see the variety of uses and traffic that each ad service can bring - Stumbleupon users are low-attention-span, high-bounce visits that can spark a viral wave of traffic, while a well-targeted ad placed on a highly relevant site can bring in newsletter subscriptions and loyal readers. Which type you choose is up to you, or it could behoove you to diversify your tactics to get both loyal readers and viral bursts.
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I've been using Entrecard for a long time now. The site has certainly gone down hill, but it has brought me a small amount of traffic and I've met people and discovered blogs that I really enjoy. So, I've stuck with it, even though I'm not as active as I once was. However, the Entrecard staff seems to have all but disappeared. Blogs everywhere are breaking the guidelines, and nothing has been done about it.
Let's take a look at the Entrecard Blog Quality Standards...
There are a few guidelines specifically, which blogs are breaking left and right. The web address must be valid, the Entrecard widget must be present, and most importantly, there must be at least 5 posts within the last 3 months.
An inactive blog is not a quality blog. The great thing about blogs is that they are dynamic. But if a blogger doesn't update, then their blog is just another static webpage. I understand that sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, but there are blogs on Entrecard that have not been updated since last year -- I use the 'report this blog' link on Entrecard, but does it fall on deaf ears? The blogs are never removed.
It is apparent that no one on Entrecard staff is actually paying attention to these reports, and they do not care to enforce the rules. Heck, even the official Entrecard blog hasn't been updated in over 5 months. There is even one account in my category which got 110 drops in the past five days, but the link leads to a 404! The webpage doesn't exist anymore, but somehow it is still getting dropped on -- why doesn't the moderation team do anything about this?
So is Entrecard all but defunct? It saddens me to think that EC has been abandoned, but they have had a long history of poor leadership and rotten choices. I enjoy the free advertising and I enjoy reading peoples' blogs, but Entrecard is obviously not everything that it could be, especially as the staff seems to have fled!
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How much traffic does $20 bring you?
December 19, 2011 advertising, blogging, marketing, website traffic, websites
You Can't Do it All: The Upsides of Outsourcing
December 11, 2011 advertising, blogging, how to, make money, websites
When someone starts their own business, they quickly learn they have to take on many hats: web designer, marketer, graphic designer, editor & proofreader, accountant, customer service... and that's besides whatever the business is actually for! Some people are blessed with the skills to do many of these well, but there's always something that you're not good at, and once the business grows past a certain point, you're going to need an extra hand.
As your business expands, you just can't do it all. That's why you need to outsource some of your work. This doesn't have to mean a team of staff or a hired assistant, though it could. But, let's start small.
Just about the smallest you can start at is hiring someone through a Fiverr gig. Fiverr is a site where people post what they are willing to do for $5 - which can range from logo & website design to copywriting to photo editing and much more. If you need a quick hand at something you're not good at, browse around Fiverr and see who you can commission. Before selecting a gig, make sure to read through the seller's feedback. If the gig is a bust, you're only out 5 bucks - but if it goes well, it's often a great deal!
I've ordered a logo design and a blog banner from Fiverr for my business - the logo was returned to me within a day, and I was pretty pleased with the results. You can't expect the moon & the stars for $5, but if you're short on cash, it's a good start and it was way better than I could have done myself.
Remember that you can't do everything yourself - other people can lighten your load, and oftentimes do it better than you could have done on your own. You don't have to spend a whole lot of money for some extra help - a little bit can go a long way. Check within your niche to see if there are people who would be willing to barter for goods or services that you can provide. That way, you get the help you need, and they get something else they want, too.
As your business expands, you just can't do it all. That's why you need to outsource some of your work. This doesn't have to mean a team of staff or a hired assistant, though it could. But, let's start small.
Just about the smallest you can start at is hiring someone through a Fiverr gig. Fiverr is a site where people post what they are willing to do for $5 - which can range from logo & website design to copywriting to photo editing and much more. If you need a quick hand at something you're not good at, browse around Fiverr and see who you can commission. Before selecting a gig, make sure to read through the seller's feedback. If the gig is a bust, you're only out 5 bucks - but if it goes well, it's often a great deal!
I've ordered a logo design and a blog banner from Fiverr for my business - the logo was returned to me within a day, and I was pretty pleased with the results. You can't expect the moon & the stars for $5, but if you're short on cash, it's a good start and it was way better than I could have done myself.
Remember that you can't do everything yourself - other people can lighten your load, and oftentimes do it better than you could have done on your own. You don't have to spend a whole lot of money for some extra help - a little bit can go a long way. Check within your niche to see if there are people who would be willing to barter for goods or services that you can provide. That way, you get the help you need, and they get something else they want, too.
Free Promotion or Theft? The Fine Line, and treating your readers well
August 19, 2011 advertising, blogging
Sometimes, when someone is working to build a brand or promote a product, they can get anxious about anyone else encroaching on their territory. By trying to keep their audience close enough so they won't slip away, they actually have them in a chokehold - thus missing out on opportunities. With a bit more freedom, your true fans can be your greatest asset for free and effortless promotion.
Let me explain with a case study. The TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has become a huge underground hit on the internet, among a completely unexpected demographic - teenage and 20-something males. The entire first season is up on Youtube, along with hundreds upon hundreds of fan videos, Pony-inspired music, remixes, fanart, and so on.
Hasbro's main interest in the show was to sell toys, so it let the Youtube copyright infringement slide. And, in allowing the videos to remain online, they have gained a huge base of fans who gobble up every bit of merch that Hasbro can produce, and evangelize the show to other people, creating even more fans. If the show were not easily, freely accessible online, this fanbase would never have created. Only airing on Hasbro's premium cable channel, The Hub, the show would have languished in preteen girl obscurity.
Treat your audience well, with generosity and enthusiasm, and they will do marketing for you. Treat them with suspicion and jealousy, and you may very well end up losing them. This philosophy can be extended to blogging and internet marketing as well. If you desperately scramble for conversions, using tactics like popover advertising or not including full posts in your RSS feeds, you might alienate your readers. But if you are generous to them, you will be repaid with loyal readers who will tell their friends about your Cool Thing, whatever it is. If you love your readers, let them go, and then they will come back to you.
Let me explain with a case study. The TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has become a huge underground hit on the internet, among a completely unexpected demographic - teenage and 20-something males. The entire first season is up on Youtube, along with hundreds upon hundreds of fan videos, Pony-inspired music, remixes, fanart, and so on.
Hasbro's main interest in the show was to sell toys, so it let the Youtube copyright infringement slide. And, in allowing the videos to remain online, they have gained a huge base of fans who gobble up every bit of merch that Hasbro can produce, and evangelize the show to other people, creating even more fans. If the show were not easily, freely accessible online, this fanbase would never have created. Only airing on Hasbro's premium cable channel, The Hub, the show would have languished in preteen girl obscurity.
Treat your audience well, with generosity and enthusiasm, and they will do marketing for you. Treat them with suspicion and jealousy, and you may very well end up losing them. This philosophy can be extended to blogging and internet marketing as well. If you desperately scramble for conversions, using tactics like popover advertising or not including full posts in your RSS feeds, you might alienate your readers. But if you are generous to them, you will be repaid with loyal readers who will tell their friends about your Cool Thing, whatever it is. If you love your readers, let them go, and then they will come back to you.
When will Entrecard get cleaned up?
June 27, 2011 blogging, entrecardI've been using Entrecard for a long time now. The site has certainly gone down hill, but it has brought me a small amount of traffic and I've met people and discovered blogs that I really enjoy. So, I've stuck with it, even though I'm not as active as I once was. However, the Entrecard staff seems to have all but disappeared. Blogs everywhere are breaking the guidelines, and nothing has been done about it.
Let's take a look at the Entrecard Blog Quality Standards...
There are a few guidelines specifically, which blogs are breaking left and right. The web address must be valid, the Entrecard widget must be present, and most importantly, there must be at least 5 posts within the last 3 months.
An inactive blog is not a quality blog. The great thing about blogs is that they are dynamic. But if a blogger doesn't update, then their blog is just another static webpage. I understand that sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, but there are blogs on Entrecard that have not been updated since last year -- I use the 'report this blog' link on Entrecard, but does it fall on deaf ears? The blogs are never removed.
It is apparent that no one on Entrecard staff is actually paying attention to these reports, and they do not care to enforce the rules. Heck, even the official Entrecard blog hasn't been updated in over 5 months. There is even one account in my category which got 110 drops in the past five days, but the link leads to a 404! The webpage doesn't exist anymore, but somehow it is still getting dropped on -- why doesn't the moderation team do anything about this?
So is Entrecard all but defunct? It saddens me to think that EC has been abandoned, but they have had a long history of poor leadership and rotten choices. I enjoy the free advertising and I enjoy reading peoples' blogs, but Entrecard is obviously not everything that it could be, especially as the staff seems to have fled!
Traffic from PostZoom
June 4, 2011 blogging, website traffic, websites
A few weeks ago I signed my main blog up to PostZoom. It's a website meant to be a directory of categorized blog posts, bringing quality posts to visitors and some extra traffic to bloggers. So, does it work? Let's see...
There are two things you need to do in order to start getting traffic from PostZoom. First, you have to have the widget on your blog. This widget can go anywhere - I put mine in the sidebar. The widget shows other blog posts from categories that you get to choose, and you can display as few or as many of these as you like. I like that you can choose the categories, so the only posts that show up in my widget are ones that are relevant to my readers.
Next, you load your blog posts into PostZoom. This takes some time, because you can only load two posts in per day to prevent spamming (which makes sense). Load some of your most interesting and informative posts into PostZoom, making sure to place them in a relevant category with a snappy image and good tags.
PostZoom will not give you a huge upsurge in traffic, but it will give you a little bit. As a not-very-active Entrecarder, I get about the same amount of traffic from PostZoom and Entrecard. The more posts you load into PostZoom, and the more popular those posts are, the more traffic you will be able to get from it. Unfortunately, you are likely never to make the main front page of PostZoom, because those posts are sorted by traffic. So the ones on the main page get clicked on more, bringing up their traffic, and leading into a vicious circle. But, you may find yourself at the top of your category, which will give you a little bit more traffic.
I don't trust PostZoom's internal statistics - if you click on the stats section of their website, they will give you some high number that will not match at all to your other analytics programs. I think those statistics are for the individual post pages on PostZoom, not your site. However, if you use an independent analytics program like Google Analytics or Sitemeter, you will be able to see PostZoom as a referrer and track how much traffic you are getting from them. It won't be a huge amount, but if your traffic is low to begin with, then it will make a difference.
There are two things you need to do in order to start getting traffic from PostZoom. First, you have to have the widget on your blog. This widget can go anywhere - I put mine in the sidebar. The widget shows other blog posts from categories that you get to choose, and you can display as few or as many of these as you like. I like that you can choose the categories, so the only posts that show up in my widget are ones that are relevant to my readers.
Next, you load your blog posts into PostZoom. This takes some time, because you can only load two posts in per day to prevent spamming (which makes sense). Load some of your most interesting and informative posts into PostZoom, making sure to place them in a relevant category with a snappy image and good tags.
PostZoom will not give you a huge upsurge in traffic, but it will give you a little bit. As a not-very-active Entrecarder, I get about the same amount of traffic from PostZoom and Entrecard. The more posts you load into PostZoom, and the more popular those posts are, the more traffic you will be able to get from it. Unfortunately, you are likely never to make the main front page of PostZoom, because those posts are sorted by traffic. So the ones on the main page get clicked on more, bringing up their traffic, and leading into a vicious circle. But, you may find yourself at the top of your category, which will give you a little bit more traffic.
I don't trust PostZoom's internal statistics - if you click on the stats section of their website, they will give you some high number that will not match at all to your other analytics programs. I think those statistics are for the individual post pages on PostZoom, not your site. However, if you use an independent analytics program like Google Analytics or Sitemeter, you will be able to see PostZoom as a referrer and track how much traffic you are getting from them. It won't be a huge amount, but if your traffic is low to begin with, then it will make a difference.
Layout Tweaks: Dos and Don'ts
May 2, 2011 blogging, organization, websites
The web is not static - it's always changing. It behooves a webmaster to change their layout every once in a while -- but maybe not too often. Keep these things in mind, while editing your layout.
1. Change is good.
There is always room for improvement in a website design. Make things easier to find, adjust your copy, make it slicker. Grab people's attention. A lot of web design these days is just plain bad. Look at your website or blog through a reader or customer's point of view: Can you find what you're looking for? Are you interested? If not, then you need a change.
2. Change is bad.
Okay, I can already see the confused looks... The thing is, a website redesign can be a blessing and a curse. Think about all the times your favorite websites have redone their layouts - there is usually a group of people who are unhappy about it, right? Not every re-design will be well-received. Your web layout is your brand, and if you change it all the time, it will not feel familiar to returning readers. If you're doing a complete re-haul of your layout, try to keep at least one or two things stable: think about Facebook's blue and white, or Google's white space with primary colors. Even though the websites change, they keep their brand consistent.
3. Beware of feature creep.
While it may seem cool to have all the latest widgets, don't try to cram too much on your main page. If you add something, consider removing something else you don't need. Having too much on a page will make it long and slow to load. If you need to have all your awards, memes, badges, Facebook Twitter Stumbleupon Digg Reddit links, virtual pets, whatever... Then consider creating an additional page to put them on. Don't let them get in the way of content and usability.
4. Content is King.
Above all things, you can make a website pretty, but if it doesn't have anything worth reading, no one will visit. If you're spending so much time on your layout that you don't have enough time to write quality articles, take a break. Some of the most useful webpages out there are black, 12-point Times New Roman on a white background.
1. Change is good.
There is always room for improvement in a website design. Make things easier to find, adjust your copy, make it slicker. Grab people's attention. A lot of web design these days is just plain bad. Look at your website or blog through a reader or customer's point of view: Can you find what you're looking for? Are you interested? If not, then you need a change.
2. Change is bad.
Okay, I can already see the confused looks... The thing is, a website redesign can be a blessing and a curse. Think about all the times your favorite websites have redone their layouts - there is usually a group of people who are unhappy about it, right? Not every re-design will be well-received. Your web layout is your brand, and if you change it all the time, it will not feel familiar to returning readers. If you're doing a complete re-haul of your layout, try to keep at least one or two things stable: think about Facebook's blue and white, or Google's white space with primary colors. Even though the websites change, they keep their brand consistent.
3. Beware of feature creep.
While it may seem cool to have all the latest widgets, don't try to cram too much on your main page. If you add something, consider removing something else you don't need. Having too much on a page will make it long and slow to load. If you need to have all your awards, memes, badges, Facebook Twitter Stumbleupon Digg Reddit links, virtual pets, whatever... Then consider creating an additional page to put them on. Don't let them get in the way of content and usability.
4. Content is King.
Above all things, you can make a website pretty, but if it doesn't have anything worth reading, no one will visit. If you're spending so much time on your layout that you don't have enough time to write quality articles, take a break. Some of the most useful webpages out there are black, 12-point Times New Roman on a white background.
Four ingredients for website traffic
April 25, 2011 blogging, search engines, website traffic, websites
Everyone who has a website wants more traffic coming into it. Unfortunately, webpages are a dime a dozen and most will languish in obscurity. There are a million articles about how to drive traffic to your web site, but here's my take.
There are four main ingredients for increased web traffic: participation, originality, time, and a good dose of luck.
1. Participate. Being active in the community will not only give you more backlinks, but it gives you a chance to show people your opinion and information is valuable. It helps if you're already a member of communities that are related to your site topic, but if you're not, there's no time to start like the present. If you can help people out with your knowledge or participate in debates with your opinion, and people get to know you or even respect you, they will want to see more of what you write.
2. Be original. They say there's nothing new under the sun. But, there is always a way to put a new twist on an old concept. If you have original content, people will find you. If you have something that people can't get anywhere else, then well, they will get it from you! When you've got something that is actually unique to say, other people will pick your story up and link to you. Try to find something that is truly yours, and run with it.
3. Be patient. The traffic might not come rushing in, but in time, it will grow. An older website not only has a better pagerank, but the author has had more time to write more articles and develop their style. The more articles you have, especially if they are original, the more people will find you by searching.
4. Get lucky. Sometimes, there isn't anything you can do; the dice just decide your fate for you. That's OK. Work hard at the other three steps, and maybe you will get a new wave of traffic, or maybe nothing will happen -- until, one day someone catches your story - you get Digg'd, or Slashdotted, or Stumbled Upon, or whatever. It happens to some people and it doesn't happen to others.
I get a fair, but not huge, amount of traffic on one of my other blogs, so here is my real-life example of putting these ingredients into action:
1. I'm very active on a forum targeted to my readers, not in order to increase my web traffic, but because I earnestly love my hobby (knitting). I read and learn things from others, and I contribute when I can.
2. I write informational articles garnered from my own experience, not cribbed from other sources, and I also design patterns, both for sale and free. Both drive traffic to my site. Patterns are original content, that people cannot get anywhere else, so I am providing them a service -- and if they like it, they will return and I've gained a new reader.
3. I've been blogging for more than three years, averaging at about 2-3 posts per week. That's a lot of posts - not all my content is gold, but sometimes the search engines pick up the things you'd least expect. I'm one of the only people to have written about a certain technique, so I get a good amount of traffic from that (which ties back in to original content).
4. Every once in a while I get a surge of traffic from a big site - which is great. I get a few new followers, my advertising prices shoot up, and while most of those new visitors don't stick around, at least a few will. So, ignoring the spikes, my traffic rises steadily, if slowly. And the more that these spikes happen, the more exposure you get, so it builds exponentially. Nowadays, whenever I release something new, I will get a big spike.
Hopefully you can put some of these things into action, and it will do you some good.
There are four main ingredients for increased web traffic: participation, originality, time, and a good dose of luck.
1. Participate. Being active in the community will not only give you more backlinks, but it gives you a chance to show people your opinion and information is valuable. It helps if you're already a member of communities that are related to your site topic, but if you're not, there's no time to start like the present. If you can help people out with your knowledge or participate in debates with your opinion, and people get to know you or even respect you, they will want to see more of what you write.
2. Be original. They say there's nothing new under the sun. But, there is always a way to put a new twist on an old concept. If you have original content, people will find you. If you have something that people can't get anywhere else, then well, they will get it from you! When you've got something that is actually unique to say, other people will pick your story up and link to you. Try to find something that is truly yours, and run with it.
3. Be patient. The traffic might not come rushing in, but in time, it will grow. An older website not only has a better pagerank, but the author has had more time to write more articles and develop their style. The more articles you have, especially if they are original, the more people will find you by searching.
4. Get lucky. Sometimes, there isn't anything you can do; the dice just decide your fate for you. That's OK. Work hard at the other three steps, and maybe you will get a new wave of traffic, or maybe nothing will happen -- until, one day someone catches your story - you get Digg'd, or Slashdotted, or Stumbled Upon, or whatever. It happens to some people and it doesn't happen to others.
I get a fair, but not huge, amount of traffic on one of my other blogs, so here is my real-life example of putting these ingredients into action:
1. I'm very active on a forum targeted to my readers, not in order to increase my web traffic, but because I earnestly love my hobby (knitting). I read and learn things from others, and I contribute when I can.
2. I write informational articles garnered from my own experience, not cribbed from other sources, and I also design patterns, both for sale and free. Both drive traffic to my site. Patterns are original content, that people cannot get anywhere else, so I am providing them a service -- and if they like it, they will return and I've gained a new reader.
3. I've been blogging for more than three years, averaging at about 2-3 posts per week. That's a lot of posts - not all my content is gold, but sometimes the search engines pick up the things you'd least expect. I'm one of the only people to have written about a certain technique, so I get a good amount of traffic from that (which ties back in to original content).
4. Every once in a while I get a surge of traffic from a big site - which is great. I get a few new followers, my advertising prices shoot up, and while most of those new visitors don't stick around, at least a few will. So, ignoring the spikes, my traffic rises steadily, if slowly. And the more that these spikes happen, the more exposure you get, so it builds exponentially. Nowadays, whenever I release something new, I will get a big spike.
Hopefully you can put some of these things into action, and it will do you some good.
Adgitize blog advertising network for traffic and money!
August 11, 2009 advertising, blogging, make money, passive income, website traffic
I love Adgitize! After mediocre results with other advertising programs, both as a publisher and an advertiser, Adgitize has restored my faith in running ads and in displaying ads. Adgitize is a program that works for me, and boy does it work great.
Adgitize for publishers is based on a points system, with a maximum of 500 points per day. You get points through clicking on ads, pageviews, ad views, being an advertiser, and writing a blog post for the day. Your points are converted into money, and at the end of the month you get paid.
To advertise for the month on the Adgitize network costs $14 - and every month that I have advertised with Adgitize, I've earned more than my $14 back. Usually I earn about $20-$25 advertising with Adgitize.
Adgitize also works especially great for people who are Entrecard members, because you can do your Adgitize ad clicks and Entrecard drops at the same time, with very little effort.
I highly recommend the Adgitize advertising network. It is growing every day and giving more and more bloggers success. Advertising on Adgitize has given me 2000 extra visitors per month, for $14 that gets paid back to me at the end of the month. If you publish blog posts regularly (write posts in advance) and do your clicks, you will probably make back the $14 Adgitize ad cost (that's 50 cents per day).
Give Adgitize a try, especially if you already use Entrecard. I find it hugely rewarding.
~Joy
Adgitize for publishers is based on a points system, with a maximum of 500 points per day. You get points through clicking on ads, pageviews, ad views, being an advertiser, and writing a blog post for the day. Your points are converted into money, and at the end of the month you get paid.
To advertise for the month on the Adgitize network costs $14 - and every month that I have advertised with Adgitize, I've earned more than my $14 back. Usually I earn about $20-$25 advertising with Adgitize.
Adgitize also works especially great for people who are Entrecard members, because you can do your Adgitize ad clicks and Entrecard drops at the same time, with very little effort.
I highly recommend the Adgitize advertising network. It is growing every day and giving more and more bloggers success. Advertising on Adgitize has given me 2000 extra visitors per month, for $14 that gets paid back to me at the end of the month. If you publish blog posts regularly (write posts in advance) and do your clicks, you will probably make back the $14 Adgitize ad cost (that's 50 cents per day).
Give Adgitize a try, especially if you already use Entrecard. I find it hugely rewarding.
~Joy
Leaving Quality Comments to Help Your Blog
August 2, 2009 blogging, search engines, writing
Blog comments are key to being visible and forming relationships in the blogosphere. As a blogger, you should not remain silent. Write posts on your own blog, and seek out others to comment on. There are a number of reasons why you should leave comments on other people's blogs.
Community. Your blog does not occur in a vacuum. There are millions of bloggers out there, many of which have blogs on the same topic as yours. Get out there and introduce yourself, to build up a sense of blogging community. Say hello to your neighbors, so they will recognize you. You may even get some requests for guest posts or link exchanges.
Introducing new people to your blog. When you leave a blog comment, you're not just introducing yourself to one new blogger. You're leaving your blog's link for anyone to see. This backlink usually shows up in the form of a link on your username. So if you leave a quality comment, all the other people reading that post will be more likely to click on your link and visit your blog. It's a small way of building up traffic.
Pagerank. If the blog you're commenting on is a dofollow blog (What are nofollow and dofollow?), your comment will create a dofollow backlink that will contribute to your site's pagerank (Why is PageRank important?).
Friendliness! Bloggers are people too, usually quite personable people. Be nice to them, and perhaps you'll find a friend. Build relationships with other bloggers, not just for the benefit of your blog, but because it's a fun thing to do.
Leaving blog comments is beneficial to both bloggers. People love to receive comments on their posts, and leaving them will help your own blog. There are even groups that support people striving to up their commenting, such as the monthly comment challenges. Many blogs also display their monthly top commenters with (dofollow!) links to their blogs.
Be visible in the blogosphere, and leave quality blog comments to get your name out there and show other bloggers some love. Just make sure that the comments you leave show some thought: no one likes spam comments, or comments that just say "hey great post".
~Joy
Community. Your blog does not occur in a vacuum. There are millions of bloggers out there, many of which have blogs on the same topic as yours. Get out there and introduce yourself, to build up a sense of blogging community. Say hello to your neighbors, so they will recognize you. You may even get some requests for guest posts or link exchanges.
Introducing new people to your blog. When you leave a blog comment, you're not just introducing yourself to one new blogger. You're leaving your blog's link for anyone to see. This backlink usually shows up in the form of a link on your username. So if you leave a quality comment, all the other people reading that post will be more likely to click on your link and visit your blog. It's a small way of building up traffic.
Pagerank. If the blog you're commenting on is a dofollow blog (What are nofollow and dofollow?), your comment will create a dofollow backlink that will contribute to your site's pagerank (Why is PageRank important?).
Friendliness! Bloggers are people too, usually quite personable people. Be nice to them, and perhaps you'll find a friend. Build relationships with other bloggers, not just for the benefit of your blog, but because it's a fun thing to do.
Leaving blog comments is beneficial to both bloggers. People love to receive comments on their posts, and leaving them will help your own blog. There are even groups that support people striving to up their commenting, such as the monthly comment challenges. Many blogs also display their monthly top commenters with (dofollow!) links to their blogs.
Be visible in the blogosphere, and leave quality blog comments to get your name out there and show other bloggers some love. Just make sure that the comments you leave show some thought: no one likes spam comments, or comments that just say "hey great post".
~Joy
Understanding DoFollow and NoFollow links
July 31, 2009 blogging, search engines, websites
Start reading some blogs about blogging, and I give you about ten minutes before you read something about dofollow and nofollow relations. Dofollow and Nofollow are important concepts for website building and search engine optimization, but they can be hard to understand.
Dofollow and Nofollow are all about backlinks, and what those backlinks will do. Traditionally, a backlink will pass PageRank to the linked site. This is what rel=dofollow does. However, if for whatever reason a website owner does not wish to pass along PageRank to their link, they can use rel=nofollow.
Setting a blog's comments to nofollow discourages comment spammers, who are out looking for PageRank-passing backlinks in the form of spam comments left on popular blog posts. However, it can also discourage comments in general. People can set their comments as dofollow as an incentive to helpful commenters.
By default, Blogspot, Wordpress, and Typepad comments are nofollow. There are plugins that can change the comments to dofollow if the owner wishes. However, since many bloggers do not understand the difference between dofollow and nofollow, few people ever choose to change the default settings, so unless you see it stated that the blog is dofollow (such as You Comment - I Follow), you can assume that the blog is nofollow.
~Joy
Dofollow and Nofollow are all about backlinks, and what those backlinks will do. Traditionally, a backlink will pass PageRank to the linked site. This is what rel=dofollow does. However, if for whatever reason a website owner does not wish to pass along PageRank to their link, they can use rel=nofollow.
Setting a blog's comments to nofollow discourages comment spammers, who are out looking for PageRank-passing backlinks in the form of spam comments left on popular blog posts. However, it can also discourage comments in general. People can set their comments as dofollow as an incentive to helpful commenters.
By default, Blogspot, Wordpress, and Typepad comments are nofollow. There are plugins that can change the comments to dofollow if the owner wishes. However, since many bloggers do not understand the difference between dofollow and nofollow, few people ever choose to change the default settings, so unless you see it stated that the blog is dofollow (such as You Comment - I Follow), you can assume that the blog is nofollow.
~Joy
Google PageRank: What is it, how is it calculated, why is it important?
July 26, 2009 blogging, search engines, SEO, website traffic, websites
The word on every blogger's lips is PageRank, or PR for short. If you're new to blogging and your blog is your first website, you might not understand what PR is, or what exactly it means, or indeed why is Google Page Rank important.
In a nutshell, your page rank will help determine how high or low you fall in Google's search results. A very big, successful website will have a high PR which means that when someone does a search on Google, chances are that big, high-pagerank website will be near the top. So why is Google pagerank important? Page Rank is important because the higher your PR, the more search engine traffic you will be getting!
A note: Google PageRank is not the same as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). They both influence where a site will turn up in search results, but they are independent of each other. A search engine optimized page may not have a high pagerank, nor will a high-pagerank website necessarily be written for SEO.
Your website's Google page rank is sort of like your reputation with Google. Google knows that some sites are better than others, and this influences their results. While the exact algorithms for determining PR are top-secret, here are some of the things that go in to calculating Google PageRank:
Links. Backlinks are the most important factor for determining Google pagerank. Google assumes that if many people are talking about a page, if the page is linked to by many other websites, then it's a quality page. Think about popular sites that get spread around by sites like Digg and Reddit. Lots of people are talking about those sites, so they have a ton of backlinks. More backlinks = more PR.
The best way to get backlinks is, of course, to have quality content that gets noticed. If your page gets Dugg, or Stumbled, or Redded...it? (;), lots of people will see it and hopefully some of them will link to you on their own site. The amount of PR boost you get from a backlink depends on the PR of the site that's linking to you. So if you get a backlink from a huge site like Digg (PR8), it counts more than a link on someone's PR1 blog.
Other ways to get backlinks include commenting on blogs, participating in forums (linking your site in a post, or in your signature), and other techniques that range from kinda sneaky to downright unethical, which I won't discuss here.
Backlinks are the major influence on the calculation of Google PageRank. However, a few other things are taken into account:
Outbound Links. Links on your own site can affect your own PageRank: Namely, they can negatively impact it. If you have too many links on your page (to the tune of over 100), this will give you a penalty. Also, if you link to websites that Google has marked as shady, you may get a penalty for that as well.
Bounce Rate. Rumor has it that Google PageRank (or at least their general search engine ranking) is affected by a site's bounce rate. Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors that leave the first page of a website without visiting any other pages. Bounce Rate is very high for blogs, and lower for other sites where more information is held on other pages. A low bounce rate (say, 40% or lower) reflects a quality site.
Age. Older sites have higher PR. Whether the age of a site is a factor in calculating PageRank, or whether it's just a reflection of more time to build pages and collect backlinks, I don't know, but if you have the choice between two domains, one which was just registered and one which is 5 years old, go with the older one for a PR boost.
Page Rank is a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Only the most esteemed sites get PR10, such as Apple's official site, Google Labs, and Nasa.gov.
There are a number of sites that will calculate or estimate your pagerank for you, as well as toolbars you can download. Google releases updated PR info every few months, but in reality a page's Google PageRank is always changing. So, the Google PageRank that you see might be 3 months out of date. Keep this in mind when comparing your site's PageRank with other sites.
~Joy
In a nutshell, your page rank will help determine how high or low you fall in Google's search results. A very big, successful website will have a high PR which means that when someone does a search on Google, chances are that big, high-pagerank website will be near the top. So why is Google pagerank important? Page Rank is important because the higher your PR, the more search engine traffic you will be getting!
A note: Google PageRank is not the same as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). They both influence where a site will turn up in search results, but they are independent of each other. A search engine optimized page may not have a high pagerank, nor will a high-pagerank website necessarily be written for SEO.
Your website's Google page rank is sort of like your reputation with Google. Google knows that some sites are better than others, and this influences their results. While the exact algorithms for determining PR are top-secret, here are some of the things that go in to calculating Google PageRank:
Links. Backlinks are the most important factor for determining Google pagerank. Google assumes that if many people are talking about a page, if the page is linked to by many other websites, then it's a quality page. Think about popular sites that get spread around by sites like Digg and Reddit. Lots of people are talking about those sites, so they have a ton of backlinks. More backlinks = more PR.
The best way to get backlinks is, of course, to have quality content that gets noticed. If your page gets Dugg, or Stumbled, or Redded...it? (;), lots of people will see it and hopefully some of them will link to you on their own site. The amount of PR boost you get from a backlink depends on the PR of the site that's linking to you. So if you get a backlink from a huge site like Digg (PR8), it counts more than a link on someone's PR1 blog.
Other ways to get backlinks include commenting on blogs, participating in forums (linking your site in a post, or in your signature), and other techniques that range from kinda sneaky to downright unethical, which I won't discuss here.
Backlinks are the major influence on the calculation of Google PageRank. However, a few other things are taken into account:
Outbound Links. Links on your own site can affect your own PageRank: Namely, they can negatively impact it. If you have too many links on your page (to the tune of over 100), this will give you a penalty. Also, if you link to websites that Google has marked as shady, you may get a penalty for that as well.
Bounce Rate. Rumor has it that Google PageRank (or at least their general search engine ranking) is affected by a site's bounce rate. Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors that leave the first page of a website without visiting any other pages. Bounce Rate is very high for blogs, and lower for other sites where more information is held on other pages. A low bounce rate (say, 40% or lower) reflects a quality site.
Age. Older sites have higher PR. Whether the age of a site is a factor in calculating PageRank, or whether it's just a reflection of more time to build pages and collect backlinks, I don't know, but if you have the choice between two domains, one which was just registered and one which is 5 years old, go with the older one for a PR boost.
Page Rank is a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Only the most esteemed sites get PR10, such as Apple's official site, Google Labs, and Nasa.gov.
There are a number of sites that will calculate or estimate your pagerank for you, as well as toolbars you can download. Google releases updated PR info every few months, but in reality a page's Google PageRank is always changing. So, the Google PageRank that you see might be 3 months out of date. Keep this in mind when comparing your site's PageRank with other sites.
~Joy
Entrecard for increasing blog traffic
July 24, 2009 blogging, entrecard, website traffic
Using Entrecard on your blog - it's a controversial topic, gaining more controversy by the day it seems. And they like it that way - the Entrecard view is, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Entrecard creator Graham Langdon has said "I’m always amazed how controversy drives record numbers of signups."
Depending on how you use it, Entrecard can be a powerful force of good or bad on your blog. It can drive you a significant amount of new traffic, forge relationships with other bloggers, and give you a load of free advertising. Or, it can be little more than a glorified traffic exchange. It all depends on how you choose to use Entrecard.
Entrecard is great to use on a new blog that doesn't have much 'Google juice' yet. It's discouraging to start up a blog and see that it only gets single- or double-digit hits a day. Feedback like visitors and comments are important to a new blogger, to give them suggestions for improvement and confidence to continue blogging. Entrecard may be just the boost you need for your new blog.
Entrecard is a blog network where you drop your 'Entrecard' - sort of a virtual business card (a 125x125 ad) - on other blogs, using the Entrecard widget. Every Entrecard blog has this widget that you can drop on or advertise on. Dropping on a blog gives you one point, as does receiving a drop.
Advertising is based on powers of two, depending on how many people want to advertise on a blog - it starts out costing 2 credits, then 4 credits, 8, 16, 32, and so on. The multiplication breaks down in the higher numbers, for no apparent reason, but that's not important. Each Entrecard ad runs for 24 hours.
You can see what blogs have dropped on you by viewing your Entrecard Drops Inbox, and it's good etiquette to drop back on the blogs that have dropped on you. If you choose to do this, and only this, then Entrecard is just a traffic exchange. They visit you, you visit them.
However, Entrecard doesn't have to be a traffic exchange. It can be more valuable than that. You can use it to find new readers in your niche, targeting your drops and advertising towards blogs with a similar audience. You can also find new related blogs to read, learn from, and comment on.
Entrecard has recently introduced a cashout system where you can cash out your Entrecard credits at a rate of 1000 credits for $1. Some people have taken advantage of this, but I prefer to put my credits right back into the system for free advertising. For me, credits don't accumulate fast enough to make cashing out worthwhile, and Entrecard is more important to me for the traffic it brings and the advertising it offers.
Despite its bumps and screwups (if you don't know what I'm talking about, Google Turnip of Power, or the Official Entrecard blog - read some comments), I find Entrecard to be a useful service for bloggers, especially new blogs starting out. Depending how active you are on Entrecard (dropping, commenting, advertising), it can bring you between 50 and 200 extra visitors per day. For a new blog, this is an important traffic boost that can give you just the confidence you need to continue blogging.
Depending on how you use it, Entrecard can be a powerful force of good or bad on your blog. It can drive you a significant amount of new traffic, forge relationships with other bloggers, and give you a load of free advertising. Or, it can be little more than a glorified traffic exchange. It all depends on how you choose to use Entrecard.
Entrecard is great to use on a new blog that doesn't have much 'Google juice' yet. It's discouraging to start up a blog and see that it only gets single- or double-digit hits a day. Feedback like visitors and comments are important to a new blogger, to give them suggestions for improvement and confidence to continue blogging. Entrecard may be just the boost you need for your new blog.
Entrecard is a blog network where you drop your 'Entrecard' - sort of a virtual business card (a 125x125 ad) - on other blogs, using the Entrecard widget. Every Entrecard blog has this widget that you can drop on or advertise on. Dropping on a blog gives you one point, as does receiving a drop.
Advertising is based on powers of two, depending on how many people want to advertise on a blog - it starts out costing 2 credits, then 4 credits, 8, 16, 32, and so on. The multiplication breaks down in the higher numbers, for no apparent reason, but that's not important. Each Entrecard ad runs for 24 hours.
You can see what blogs have dropped on you by viewing your Entrecard Drops Inbox, and it's good etiquette to drop back on the blogs that have dropped on you. If you choose to do this, and only this, then Entrecard is just a traffic exchange. They visit you, you visit them.
However, Entrecard doesn't have to be a traffic exchange. It can be more valuable than that. You can use it to find new readers in your niche, targeting your drops and advertising towards blogs with a similar audience. You can also find new related blogs to read, learn from, and comment on.
Entrecard has recently introduced a cashout system where you can cash out your Entrecard credits at a rate of 1000 credits for $1. Some people have taken advantage of this, but I prefer to put my credits right back into the system for free advertising. For me, credits don't accumulate fast enough to make cashing out worthwhile, and Entrecard is more important to me for the traffic it brings and the advertising it offers.
Despite its bumps and screwups (if you don't know what I'm talking about, Google Turnip of Power, or the Official Entrecard blog - read some comments), I find Entrecard to be a useful service for bloggers, especially new blogs starting out. Depending how active you are on Entrecard (dropping, commenting, advertising), it can bring you between 50 and 200 extra visitors per day. For a new blog, this is an important traffic boost that can give you just the confidence you need to continue blogging.
Keeping organized as a blogger - Write your posts in advance
July 12, 2009 blogging, how to, organization, writing
The best advice I ever learned about blogging was this: Write your articles in advance. It's a lot easier to blog several times a week (or every day) when you have a big pile of drafts waiting to be polished up and posted, rather than having to pull a post out of thin air when it's time to publish.
I try to keep 2 or 3 fully-written articles on deck, between my three blogs. Besides that, I keep at least 10 fragments and dozens of one-line post ideas to further develop. The trick is to get blog posts written when you have time, so you're not rushing to write something when you need to update.
There are varying opinions on how often a blog should update - some people say as many as 20 times a day! Personally, I think a blog should update at least twice a week, with more often being better, but more than once a day is generally overkill. People aren't going to be constantly refreshing your blog for new content, and do you really think you can write 10 quality blog posts a day? Unlikely. So do your writing when you have time, and reserve those quality blog posts to publish another day.
Your organizational skills don't have to be anything fancy - just type some things up in your favorite word processor, or leave articles as unpublished drafts in your blogging software. I personally use the Yahoo Notepad that comes free with my email account. I have one file for each of my blogs, along with a general to-do list.
I start my new blog posts with ideas - just a phrase or short sentence, like "generating passive income" or "best new summer reading". I don't expand all the ideas I write down, just the good ones. I expand them paragraph by paragraph, until I have a full blog post. I like to hop from article to article, filling in ideas as my "inspiration" strikes. You can do that if you like, or you can write an entire article in one go. It all depends on your preferences, and what provokes the best writing from you.
The best way to build a valuable blog is to take blogging seriously - have fun with it, of course, but treat it as a priority. By writing your blog articles in advance, you'll always be prepared with a post even if you're busy. You never have to apologize for not updating regularly.
(By the way, that is about the most horrible thing you can post in a blog: "Sorry, this blog has been kind of dead lately"... Don't ever do it! And don't ever give yourself a reason to.)
To keep people coming back to your blog (or any kind of website), update often. And the easiest way to update often is if you've already got your posts written in advance. I can't recommend it enough!
~Joy
I try to keep 2 or 3 fully-written articles on deck, between my three blogs. Besides that, I keep at least 10 fragments and dozens of one-line post ideas to further develop. The trick is to get blog posts written when you have time, so you're not rushing to write something when you need to update.
There are varying opinions on how often a blog should update - some people say as many as 20 times a day! Personally, I think a blog should update at least twice a week, with more often being better, but more than once a day is generally overkill. People aren't going to be constantly refreshing your blog for new content, and do you really think you can write 10 quality blog posts a day? Unlikely. So do your writing when you have time, and reserve those quality blog posts to publish another day.
Your organizational skills don't have to be anything fancy - just type some things up in your favorite word processor, or leave articles as unpublished drafts in your blogging software. I personally use the Yahoo Notepad that comes free with my email account. I have one file for each of my blogs, along with a general to-do list.
I start my new blog posts with ideas - just a phrase or short sentence, like "generating passive income" or "best new summer reading". I don't expand all the ideas I write down, just the good ones. I expand them paragraph by paragraph, until I have a full blog post. I like to hop from article to article, filling in ideas as my "inspiration" strikes. You can do that if you like, or you can write an entire article in one go. It all depends on your preferences, and what provokes the best writing from you.
The best way to build a valuable blog is to take blogging seriously - have fun with it, of course, but treat it as a priority. By writing your blog articles in advance, you'll always be prepared with a post even if you're busy. You never have to apologize for not updating regularly.
(By the way, that is about the most horrible thing you can post in a blog: "Sorry, this blog has been kind of dead lately"... Don't ever do it! And don't ever give yourself a reason to.)
To keep people coming back to your blog (or any kind of website), update often. And the easiest way to update often is if you've already got your posts written in advance. I can't recommend it enough!
~Joy
You need Google Analytics for your website!
July 11, 2009 blogging, search engines, SEO, website traffic, websites
--Or something like Google Analytics, anyway.
Google Analytics is a free, easy-to-use method of gathering statistics on your website. You put a small piece of code into your website, and Google will start collecting data on your visitors. You will receive information on how many people are visiting, how long they are staying, what browser they are using, what search keywords or what websites they are coming from to get to your site, and much more.
Google Analytics is an extremely powerful tool, and the best thing about it is that it's totally free. I could expect to pay a high monthly fee for such a service. I have Google Analytics code installed on all four of my websites, and I'm very happy with it.
Google Analytics has a bit of a learning curve, because it's so powerful, but there are many things you can learn from the Google Analytics data. To start out simple, let's see what search engine keywords are bringing people to your website. After you have installed the code, wait a few days for Google Analytics to gather data.
Once Google Analytics has collected some visitor data for your site, scroll down to the Traffic Sources pie chart. If you have a red wedge in your chart, that's your search engine traffic. Click 'view report' and view the full keyword report.
It's very important that you know what search keywords are driving people to your website or blog. When you find out what keywords are working, you can work on making sure those keywords are used more often.
Sometimes, you will get search engine traffic from a search term that is not addressed on your site. For instance, on my knitting blog one person searched for "how to dye roving". I don't have a how-to article about dyeing roving on my blog, but it sure would be a good idea to write one! Make sure that when your readers are searching for something, they will get what they want to find. Google Analytics will help you identify what people are searching for when they come to your page.
That's just one of the ways you can use the power of Google Analytics to improve your website or blog. There are other ways too, so poke around on Google Analytics and learn something about your visitors.
~Joy
Google Analytics is a free, easy-to-use method of gathering statistics on your website. You put a small piece of code into your website, and Google will start collecting data on your visitors. You will receive information on how many people are visiting, how long they are staying, what browser they are using, what search keywords or what websites they are coming from to get to your site, and much more.
Google Analytics is an extremely powerful tool, and the best thing about it is that it's totally free. I could expect to pay a high monthly fee for such a service. I have Google Analytics code installed on all four of my websites, and I'm very happy with it.
Google Analytics has a bit of a learning curve, because it's so powerful, but there are many things you can learn from the Google Analytics data. To start out simple, let's see what search engine keywords are bringing people to your website. After you have installed the code, wait a few days for Google Analytics to gather data.
Once Google Analytics has collected some visitor data for your site, scroll down to the Traffic Sources pie chart. If you have a red wedge in your chart, that's your search engine traffic. Click 'view report' and view the full keyword report.
It's very important that you know what search keywords are driving people to your website or blog. When you find out what keywords are working, you can work on making sure those keywords are used more often.
Sometimes, you will get search engine traffic from a search term that is not addressed on your site. For instance, on my knitting blog one person searched for "how to dye roving". I don't have a how-to article about dyeing roving on my blog, but it sure would be a good idea to write one! Make sure that when your readers are searching for something, they will get what they want to find. Google Analytics will help you identify what people are searching for when they come to your page.
That's just one of the ways you can use the power of Google Analytics to improve your website or blog. There are other ways too, so poke around on Google Analytics and learn something about your visitors.
~Joy
How soon will your blog get search engine traffic?
July 9, 2009 blogging, search engines, SEO, website traffic
Websites can get a large portion of their traffic from search engines, so it's always a waiting game wondering how soon a new site will start appearing in search results. You can submit your site to the search engines, give them site maps, and ping them, but how soon will people be able to search for you?
On July 7, my book review blog This Girl's Bookshelf got its first search engine hit. The search was for Bookmooch, which I had written an article about on July 6. The blog itself is a little less than a month old.
I'm very new at trying to write search engine optimized articles, but it's encouraging that my brand new article on my brand new blog is coming up in the Google results. This Girl's Bookshelf almost certainly has a pagerank of 0 at this point, but it is showing up in Google Search.
My websites are not very strong in search engines yet. My oldest and largest blog, Joyarna Knitblog, has a PageRank of 2 but search engine traffic only accounts for about 2% of my total traffic. Most of the terms that I get search traffic from on that blog are very specific knitting phrases. I do not try to write SEO-optimized articles on my knitting blog. Instead, I just write how I would normally write.
I discovered that I got my first search engine hit by using Google Analytics, which is a powerful and important tool for anyone running a website.
I was very happy that I didn't have to wait long for my first search engine hit on my blog. Older sites do tend to do better on Google, but new sites can indeed show up in results.
~Joy
On July 7, my book review blog This Girl's Bookshelf got its first search engine hit. The search was for Bookmooch, which I had written an article about on July 6. The blog itself is a little less than a month old.
I'm very new at trying to write search engine optimized articles, but it's encouraging that my brand new article on my brand new blog is coming up in the Google results. This Girl's Bookshelf almost certainly has a pagerank of 0 at this point, but it is showing up in Google Search.
My websites are not very strong in search engines yet. My oldest and largest blog, Joyarna Knitblog, has a PageRank of 2 but search engine traffic only accounts for about 2% of my total traffic. Most of the terms that I get search traffic from on that blog are very specific knitting phrases. I do not try to write SEO-optimized articles on my knitting blog. Instead, I just write how I would normally write.
I discovered that I got my first search engine hit by using Google Analytics, which is a powerful and important tool for anyone running a website.
I was very happy that I didn't have to wait long for my first search engine hit on my blog. Older sites do tend to do better on Google, but new sites can indeed show up in results.
~Joy
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