Written on May 2nd, 2005 at 08:05 am by Darren Rowse
Sub-Niche Posting
Stephan Spencer writes a good simple tip on keywords.
‘To rank for the most generic (yet still relevant) keyword possible, your page content needs to be focused on one (or possibly a couple, but certainly no more than three) central keyword theme. Each page of your site should “sing” its own unique “song” (keyword theme) to the search engines.’
This is one of the key pieces of advice I am constantly giving bloggers. The way I look at is that each Blog should be focused on a niche - but that each post (page) within it should focus in on a sub-niche of the larger one.
To take Stephan’s ’song’ analogy - see your blog as a compilation album (I’m thinking of some of my 80’s CDs) that is a collection of songs on a larger theme. Each song (post) has its own characteristics and focus that tie into a larger theme.
Whilst there is a place for the larger post that is a little more general in topic - its can often be more effective to break such posts up into smaller ones (a series if you like) and make each part focus upon one element (keyword).
Written on May 1st, 2005 at 09:05 pm by Darren Rowse
Reasons for being banned or penalized by Google
Search Engine Journal has a good post on reasons that your blog might be banned (or penalized) by Google. So if your blog has disappeared from their index you might want to consider one of these seven issues:
1) Duplicate Content - where multiple pages have the same content.
2) Cloaking - where pages are created purely for Search Engines - ie where readers get one version and SEs another
3) Hidden text or hidden links - links that are not seen by actual readers that are there purely for SE spiders
4) Keyword stuffing - putting too many of your keywords in your page (either in meta tags, invisible text, in image tags etc).
5) Linking to bad neighborhoods - linking to pages that use Spam techniques - or link exchange programs.
6) Buying links for Search engine ranking - hard for Google to detect but if they catch it penalties occur.
7) Machine Generated Web sites - spamy type sites created by automated systems - hundreds and thousands of pages at a time (usually only slightly different from one another).
Read more at Banned from Google and Wondering Why?
Written on May 1st, 2005 at 04:05 pm by Darren Rowse
Cost Per Influence Advertising
Jason has a good post critiquing the CPI (Cost Per Influence) advertising that some have been talking about a bit recently. The theory is that some are trying to come up with an advertising system that rates ‘influence’ of blogs and connects this to the advertising rates that they are able to charge because of it.
It’s a nice idea - in theory - but as Jason say my experience is that advertisers are generally pretty smart at working out how influential a blog is by themselves - I’m not sure a CPI program would help them too much to do this. Jason writes it better than I could so I’ll just let him say it (and I’ll get back to packing boxes for our move this week):
‘To be blunt, as I’m prone to be, the CPI concept is appealing to those folks who don’t have the traffic to back up the claim that they are influential or who don’t want to wait till their traffic reaches that level. It also appeals to those who don’t have the ability or time to demonstrate to advertisers that they are influential.
One thing I’ve learn running online media businesses for the past 10 years is that people buy what they like to read. The advertisers in WIRED, Industry Standard, and the Silicon Alley Reporter were the folks who read the magazine and felt affiliated with it in some way.
Advertising is about affiliation more then influence. High-tech advertisers want to be affiliated with Engadget, hip companies want to be affiliated BoingBoing.net. Some day very soon advertisers will catch up with the highly-influential, but lower traffic, blogs folks like Doc, Jeff, Joi, and Kottke (who knows if these fine folks even want ads, but you get my drift).
When they do catch up it will be because of a combination of those folks increasing their traffic and their sales ability, as well as the advertisers finding them. It’s a natural process, and CPI isn’t really necessary to get it done.’
Written on April 30th, 2005 at 03:04 pm by Darren Rowse
A Blogging Perspective OS X Tiger
Last night I was in town and treated myself to the new OSX - Tiger. This afternoon I’ve installed it and have been playing around with it - asking myself how it will improve my blogging.
Here are a few initial reflections:
Dashboard - one of the main things that Apple have been selling this upgrade with is the new Dashboard feature which allows users to download desktop widgets. At the click of a button these widgets appear on your screen giving you up to date information on a variety of topics - ranging from stock prices, weather, world time, dictionary, calculator, wikipedia look up, mini rss reader. I’m going to enjoy this - I’ve already got an array of world time clocks which are going to be very handy as I think about posting times and talking with my many international blogging friends. Another useful widget that I’m going to enjoy is the ‘Translator’ that converts words and phrases between English and 10 languages (including Dutch and Germany - which I always am trying to translate as this blog is read by and linked to by many bloggers of writing in these languages). If there are any widget developers out there - I challenge/beg/suggest to you to please develop a widget for Adsense statistics (like the firefox plug in). Please?!?!
Spotlight - another new feature for this Operating System is the long awaited Spotlight - a desktop search for mac that will search a hard drive for files with keywords in them. I know this is old hat for many of you PC users with Google search - but I’ve been hanging for this as I am always looking for files. The only downside for me with Spotlight is that it does not search Entourage - my email client. This upgrade is one that I’ll eagerly await - but until then it’ll speed up my searching through the masses of pictures and other files that I have on my laptop and use with my blogging.
Safari RSS - this was the feature I was most curious about. I am a big fan of Safari as a web browser and when I heard it would be integrating RSS a few months back my mind began to see some real advantages of being able to track feeds in a more integrated way. I’m still yet to explore this feature but my initial use of it leaves me with mixed feelings.
In terms of finding RSS feeds it is handy to have the blue RSS button in the URL field (pictured). I’ve already used it to identify pages that I’d not previously been aware of as having a feed. However the actual RSS feed reading functionality I’m not convinced about - yet. I like the design and layout, some of the features are also quite handy, however when I compare it with Bloglines my initial reaction is that the Safari RSS feature is probably not for a heavy RSS user like me. I track 350+ feeds at present and I’m not sure following them all via my bookmarks is feasible.
Having said this - its early days and I haven’t yet given it a fair go - so this week will do so in the attempt of proving myself wrong. I actually do hope I’m wrong because I’ve had a number of issues with Bloglines of late.
Automator - I’m yet to explore the Automator feature - but I suspect it will be useful for some of those time consuming repetitive tasks that we all face like resizing photos. I’ll be interested to see what automator workflow actions developers come up with that have a blogging application.
I’ve only been playing with it for a couple of hours but the feature list of the new Tiger OSX is promising. I’m yet to play with the new offline archiving of pages feature, bookmark search, inline PDF viewing but I’m sure all will add to the blogging experience. The only other reflection that comes to mind is that things are operating a bit faster now. Pages are definitely loading faster in Safari which will save a few seconds each post and perhaps increase productivity.
Are you a Mac user? Got Tiger yet? How’s it going to impact your blogging?
Update: I’ve found that quite a few of the RSS feeds that I follow are not working with Safari - it does not recognise them and will not accept them being added manually either. This includes some of my own feeds unfortunately. Not sure what the issue is.
Also I love the RSS Screensaver - very cool. Would like to be able to add more than one feed though.
Written on April 30th, 2005 at 09:04 am by Darren Rowse
Weblog Empire Network to Launch
Word on the Street is that Duncan (from Blog Herald) new Blog network (mentioned previously here) will be called Weblog Empire - domain name is registered but not live yet.
Written on April 30th, 2005 at 03:04 am by Darren Rowse
Evergreen versus Time Related Posts
I finally got around to listening to the last third of the Business Blog Roundtable and was struck with one of the comments that Stephan Spencer (I think it was his voice) said about evergreen versus time related posts.
I’d not actually thought of my blogs and the posts in them in these terms before but on reflection find the classification very helpful.
Evergreen posts are ones that don’t lose their relevancy over time. You write them today and they will be as helpful to readers in a few months (or even years) time - for example my Adsense for Bloggers series is one of these - the first incarnation of these posts was over 12 months ago but they remain among the most popular posts on this site.
Time related posts tend to be more news related - or are often tied to an event in time. For example a couple of days ago I posted that Weblogs Inc. are testing Google’s RSS ads in their feeds. This post was relevant the day I wrote it and generated a little traffic, however in a week it will be ‘old news’.
So which is best? The obvious answer to this question is that it depends upon the topic or strategy of your blog. Both types of posts (and a combination of them) can be very powerful (and profitable) in different contexts and there are different pros and cons of each one.
Let’s tease this out a little more and make a few observations about each type of post:
Time Related Posts
• Time related posts can attract erratic traffic - I have a number of news blogs that track current events. When they are hot they are very very hot, but when they are cold they tend to be very cold. A prime example of this has been the Pope Watch Blog. Whilst it does have a few evergreen posts - the vast majority of pieces there are news related. You can imagine the traffic levels on this blog over the past month or so (see graph to the left - click to enlarge). Traffic levels (and corresponding earnings) on this type of blog are very dependent upon current events, scandals, scoops etc.
• Time related posts tend to bring short term profits - This is partly tied to this erratic traffic but is also related to the short supply of relevant ads to your posts (if you’re using contextual ads like Adsense). Whilst some Adsense advertisers are quick to put up ads relating to current events - these tend to be rare. For example again on the Pope Blog mentioned above - today is the first day that I’ve seen any ads served to this blog that relate to the new pope (weeks after the event). Unfortunately the traffic spike and the relevant ads don’t really match up.
• Time related posts can return bursts of high profits - Of course you can make this short term profitability pay off for you if you pick an event to blog about that has both high traffic levels and lots of good ads (or if you use CPM ads instead of CPC ones). I can think of a number of our blogs over the past year which have capitalised on short sharp bursts of traffic and have netted us tens of thousands of dollars in short periods of time (and today earn next to nothing due to their time related nature). I’m certain that there are other topics that would be able to sustain this over a longer period of time.
• Time related posts can mean a lot of work - To keep a news blog relevant can be a lot of work. Keeping a blog like Pope Watch ticking over takes time every day. Miss one day of posting and your blog runs the risk of being quite irrelevant.
Evergreen Posts
• Evergreen posts have long term profitability - As I look at my blog earnings and which blogs they come from I observe that those that have consistent growing profitable are those blogs that are largely made up of evergreen posts. Their earnings don’t have the spectacular short term numbers of the time related blogs - instead they are slow burners - increasing traffic and income over time.
• Evergreen posts tend to rank well in Search Engines - its not only true for evergreen posts - but I find that the evergreen posts tend to do well in Google, partly because they are usually a little longer than news related posts (SEs do like posts that have a bit more substance). I guess they are also generally on topics that people consistently search for in SEs over time and not just for a few days after the event. As Stephan says in the podcast - this is especially true if you’re smart about how you link to these posts from your home page and sidebar (I’ll write more on this in another post).
• Evergreen posts can be quite labor intensive to write - on the down side, evergreen posts can be more more time consuming in the short term. For example this morning I wrote 10 time related posts in 30 minutes on my different blogs - but I’ve just spent an hour thinking through and writing this post (so far). Whilst evergreen posts need not always be long, or detailed, I find they tend to take more time due to them being more original thinking (good ideas take time). My best performing evergreen posts have depth to them that most time related posts never have.
I’m sure more can be said on the pros and cons of each type of posts. They both can be very effective ways of blogging and will suit different topics and styles of blogging. Each can be profitable in its own way and I would actually suggest that you consider using both. Without being strategic about this I’ve naturally started different blogs that are predominantly one or the other and other blogs that have combination of both.
I particularly like blogs that mix it up a little - that give me the latest cutting edge news, but also expand upon different themes within a niche in ways that I can keep coming back to over time. I hope that this is what enternetusers readers enjoy also - as its the way I approach my blogging here.
What type of blogging do you do? Which do you enjoy reading the most? Which is where you profits predominantly come from?
Written on April 30th, 2005 at 01:04 am by Darren Rowse
Wanted: Gadget/ tech geek blogger
Duncan over at The Blog Herald has just posted that he’s looking for a Gadget/ tech geek blogger to work with him on a new gadget oriented blog. He’s offering a 60/40 split (with the author taking 60%). He’s also going to cover hosting fees out of his 40%. This is a pretty bold move as he’s taking on the big boys who already inhabit the ‘gadget pond’. I suspect there is room for one more however as the market is pretty big.
Also exciting is that this new blog is going to be the first blog on his new network of blogs.
Written on April 30th, 2005 at 01:04 am by Darren Rowse
April - Record Blogging Earnings
April has been a rather good month for my blogging business.
This graph plots my Adsense earnings (from all my blogs) since 1 January to today (without specific figures). As you’ll see, the last two days have been record breaking days. I’m not sure how long this growth can last - but April’s daily average is 40% higher than last month - for the first time I’ve broken into the five figures for a month zone from Adsense.
The amazing thing is that when you get to these sorts of figures a rise in earnings of something like 40% can be a pretty significant thing on overall earnings.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not in some virtual blogging dream. Its quite staggering to think that 2.5 years ago I started my first blog with absolutely no idea of what was ahead. The idea of sustaining even that blog would have been laughable for me back then - let alone the thought that blogging would be my full time job.
Today someone asked me ‘how does it feel to be a full time blogger?’ - to be honest its starting to all feel a little bit surreal and a touch frightening. What is this thing I’ve created and where is it all headed?
Written on April 29th, 2005 at 05:04 pm by Darren Rowse
Pajamas Media - New Blog Advertising Network
Roger L. Simon has just posted anOpen Letter to All Bloggers announcing that he and a couple of others are going to start a corporate advertising service which will sell ads to advertisers ‘en masse’. There are not too many details but it sounds like an interesting project. He’s doing the project with Charles Johnson (of LGF) and Marc Danziger (of Winds of Change). If the email for more information is anything to go by the new projects come under the name of Pajamas Media. He writes:
‘Charles Johnson, Marc Danziger and I have been sneaking around over the last few months, trying to turn blogs into a business. We have enlisted some others with names familiar to you with the intention of working in two areas - aggregating blogs to increase corporate advertising and creating our own professional news service.
With respect to advertising, we do not wish to go into competition with Henry Copeland’s BlogAds, which we fully support. (Some of us even have them!) We are working on another model that will sell ads en masse, not blog-by-blog. We expect this model to go live within a few weeks.’
It will be interesting to see what they come up with - as these are some guys who have some serious reach within blogging (two of them were in the top 30 I reviewed a few days ago).
Written on April 29th, 2005 at 04:04 pm by Darren Rowse
Fun Money Blog Interview
Jacob, the author of Fun Money Blog and owner of numerous other online projects like cssvault has just posted an Interview with me. In it he asks all kinds of questions including about:
- how many people I think can make a living from blogging
- what my daily goals are as a blogger
- how my blogging has changed since I first started
Its a normal style Darren interview - where I ramble on for a fair bit on each of these (and other questions) - stop over there for a look if you want another glimpse at my bizarre little brain’s workings.
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