Written on February 1st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 09:02 am by Darren Rowse
Chitika eMiniMalls add Category Hints
The team at Chitika have added a new feature to their eMiniMalls. today but allowing publishers to select ‘category hints’ for their ads. This means that if you choose a keyword to trigger an ad and they don’t have one to serve to your blog that you’ll have a backup ad that is relevant. Here’s how they explain it:
‘Category hint is a new targeting option by which you can pick and choose from a list of categories supported in the eMiniMalls system. Your selected category will be used as a “fallback” in the event that the system does not find an appropriate product for your preferred keyword(s).’
The categories you can select from are outlined here.
The other way to use categories is to allow them to rotate a variety of popular products from your category on your blog. For example on my digicam blog I might choose select the ‘Digital Cameras’ category and not choose any keywords - this will then show a variety of relevant ads for digicams.
So in short - if you have a keyword Chitika will try to serve an ad for that first, if it doesn’t have an ad (or if you don’t select a keyword) it will fallback on the category you’ve selected.
There are two ways to activate categories - firstly for new ads you can use their code panel in the set up process for new ads and secondly for existing ads you’ve already put on your blogs you can insert this line of code:
ch_default_category = “XXXX”;
Where XXXX is the category code listed on this page.
Written on February 1st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 05:02 am by Darren Rowse
Cartoonify your IM Conversations
Here’s a bit of fun - a tool that can convert an IM conversation into a cartoon.
Here’s the start of a ‘typical’ conversation that I seem to be having a lot of lately. The name of the person asking the question has been removed to protect the stupid innocent (click to enlarge):
Written on February 1st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 01:02 am by Darren Rowse
‘Must Have’ Sidebar Features
BlogSEO has posted an interesting list titled 10 Must-Have Things That Should be on Your Blog’s Side Bar which I’m certain will cause some debate among enternetusers readers.
As I look down the list there are some I strongly agree with and others which I have a personal aversion to. Here’s their list headers with a few comments with my own opinion in brackets after each:
- Site Search - (agree with this one - I regularly search for keywords on others blogs and would include it in my own top 10)
- Archives - (I use date based archives on some blogs but not others - the main reason to have them in my mind are for SEO purposes. Search Engines like to be able to find every page on your blog quickly and to be linking back into your archives means the SE bots are only ever a few links from every page on your blog. Of course this can also be achieved with a SiteMap or even by Categories, which is the way I do it here at enternetusers).
- Blogroll - (I used to be a big fan of the blogroll in sidebars but without really ever making a definite decision on it have stopped using them. The main reason for this was that they became so unmanageable as my blogs grew and at times it became something of a political activity that I really didn’t want to buy into. I’m not anti blogrolls but would rather link to other blogs from within my content as they write quality/link worthy posts. I do have a links page that I guess functions as a blogroll but as you’ll see it’s very out of date - I haven’t updated it in many months.) I do have links to other blogs in my sidebar but they are other blogs in the network to which I belong. We’re actually working on a less dominating way of doing this which I’m really looking forward to implementing as the list is now getting way to long.
- Recent Comments - (I’d be hesitant to include this in a ‘must have’ or ‘essential’ list and don’t use it on any of my own blogs at all. I agree that it can be very useful for creating community and I have had a number of readers requesting it here at enternetusers - but I find that on a blog like this that can have up to 6 or more posts per day and that gets upwards of 50 comments on some posts that it almost becomes a little pointless. If readers want to keep track of the latest comments on threads here I encourage them to use the ’subscribe to comments’ feature instead. Having said this on newer blogs that are attempting to establish community this feature can work well - as a result we have it on quite a few b5media blogs).
- Blog Categories - (As I said above - this is something I use on all of my blogs both for reader usability to enable them to find posts quickly but also for SEO purposes. I don’t find it necessary to have both it and a date based archives on most of my blogs though).
- Most Popular Posts - (I’ve often considered this plugin but have never found room in my sidebars to use it. Instead I manually highlight some of the more popular posts, as well as those I want to be popular, in my header menus and sidebars. I do this for the same sort of reasons that people would use the plugin but like to retain the control over what links appear there).
- Contact Info - (I’ve ranted about blogs that don’t include easily accessible contact details before so will only say that I strongly agree with this one. I just don’t get why people wouldn’t include a way of being contacted - in fact to me it leaves me feeling a little suspicious when a blogger chooses not to have a way of giving feedback in a more personal way than comments).
- Short About Section - (I like blogs to have some sort of information on the blog and blogger but don’t always see it as essential, depending upon the topic and goals of the blog. I know my about pages are among the most popular of the blog here at enternetusers and think they are well worth putting some time into as they can act as a springboard further into your blog if you use them well).
- Your Other Projects/Blogs - (I generally highlight some of my other projects at some point on my blog either in the about page, sidebar or footer. Depending upon how many other projects you have you might want to be a bit picky or choosey on this one. I probably wouldn’t have this one as my 2nd highest ‘must have’ but it’s a feature on most of my blogs to some extent so I guess it is important to me).
- RSS Buttons - (I personally like to feature RSS buttons or links prominently on most of my blogs - especially those where I know my readership are RSS savvy like enternetusers readers).
As you can see, a sidebar is a pretty personal thing. Some people choose to have two (or even occasionally three) of them to fit more features in and an increasing amount of bloggers are experimenting with blogs without sidebars altogether and are instead incorporating their ‘must haves’ into their footers, horizontal menus and headers (in fact big footers seem to be very popular at the moment).
Other ‘essentials’ that some bloggers include in their sidebars include:
- Blogger/Author Photo
- Advertising (contextual, CPM, text links, Blog Ads etc)
- Affiliate programs (image links and text links)
- Polls
- Newsletter Signup
- Stats Buttons
- Copyright statement
- Disclaimers
- Links to Webrings and other services
- Acknowledgments to designer/blog platform etc
- ‘Now Listening to’ or ‘Currently Reading’ lists
- Amazon Wishlist
- Paypal/Donation/Tip Jar button
- Flickr photos
- Links to other services or products you have to sell
- Link to Your Shop
I’d love to see some discussion on your own ‘must have sidebar features’ in comments. What do you include in each blog you have and what do you leave out?
Written on January 31st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 06:01 pm by Darren Rowse
Official AdSense Blog Gives Blogger Optimization Tips
The official AdSense Blog has just posted a post which for the first time gives tips for Bloggers wanting to optimize their AdSense earnings. They’ve previously done these with general websites and forums but today is the first time I’ve seen them officially give attention to the humble blogger. They’ve even put up some ‘pretty’ pictures to help illustrate their points.
There’s nothing in the post that regular readers of enternetusers wouldn’t have already picked up here, but it is good to see them picking up the topic.
To summarize their post:
1. Choose the right ad formats - they recommend the medium rectangle which allows both text and image ads and fits nicely between posts. Banners between posts can also work.
2. Place ads where your readers will notice - they break their advice into two sections, firstly main pages (they suggest ads after each post) and secondly individual post pages (ads at end of entries and in longer entries mid post as well as above comment boxes). They also suggest replacing skyscrapers with link unit ads.
3. Improve targeting - they recommend exploring ‘section targeting‘ which specifies which parts of your blog you want the ads to be contextual to and which you want them to ignore (ie you don’t want your sidebar usually but do want to target specific posts). My own experience with section targeting is a little mixed to be honest. I had it Active on one of my bigger blogs but at the same time I added it I found ad relevancy and therefore CTR actually dropped. Whether it was tied to section targeting I’m not sure but I don’t use it much any more.
4. Customize your ad colors - They recommend their normal ‘blend ads’ policy - so having the same background and border color on them as the background of your blog and choose a bold title color. I find title colors can also work if you blend them to be a similar color to the other links on your page also on some blogs.
Their final advice is the experiment with different layouts, ad designs and formats and to ensure you track results with channels. While these are almost throw away lines at the bottom of this post I don’t think they can be emphasized enough. Without experimenting with different options you could be missing out on significant increases in performance and without tracking your results you can end up making changes but never learn from what you do which again leads to missed opportunities.
Once again - pretty basic stuff but solid advice that fits with my own strategies. Nice to see the AdSense team focusing on helping bloggers specifically with their official blog.
Written on January 31st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 10:01 am by Darren Rowse
Using a Blog Editorial Calendar to Plan Content
If you’re the type of blogger who needs (or likes) a bit of structure and planning in your blogging activities you might like to check out the Editorial Calendar that Andy has put together to help you map a rhythm for your blog.
I will say that this sort of strategy is not for everyone but I do know of a number of bloggers who swear by using this type of tool to keep their blog’s frequently updated with a variety of interesting posts.
Andy was inspired to come up with this calendar by his recent interview with Yvonne from Lipsticking. He describes her suggestion as follows:
“In that call, she suggests bloggers use an editorial calendar to keep their blogging on track throughout the week: pick a topic to cover for each day of the week and stick to it. That way, there’s no friction in figuring out what to post for a given day. You can choose certain topics for each day of the week, a certain category to post in, a certain type of post format (interivew, top 10 list, etc). The important part is that you are removing another brick of potential writer’s block.”
While I don’t find a rigid schedule helpful on any of my blogs I’ve recommended it for a number of bloggers who have suffered from bloggers block. It’s especially good for new bloggers who are not yet in the rhythm of posting regularly and who need a little motivation and inspiration each day to get things going.
The other side benefit that Yvonne spoke about in her recent interview with Andy was that she found that some of her readers loved her weekly cycle and would come to the blog each day knowing what they’d find and enjoying the regular features.
Once again - it’s not for everyone but worth playing with if you struggle with a more random approach.
Written on January 31st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 08:01 am by Darren Rowse
SnapShirts Are a Success With Bloggers
A few days ago mentioned SnapShirts a company that can put a word cloud from your blog on a T-Shirt. I’ve since made up a enternetusers one if you’re interested but the thing that interests me the most is a recent update on their blog which illustrates the power of a few key links from blogs to a new service like this:
“Huge props to lifehacker , enternetusers, 100shiki and all the blogs who posted on the news and their experiences, you’ve really filled up Google’s search results for snapshirts, which we of course appreciate immensely! We’re swamped under hundreds of orders at the moment so sorry for the delay to everyone who’s waiting to see what their shirt look like. You will get your email I promise!”
Congratulations to the SnapShirt team.
Written on January 31st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 05:01 am by Darren Rowse
Why I don’t use Free Articles on my Blogs
A common question that finds itself into my inbox from readers is with regards to the practice of using ‘Free Articles’ to put on your blog. I quite often talk about how building the quantity of content on your blog is one strategy for building traffic over time but the temptation for those unable to write large quantities of content is to look at other places for it.
Free Article sites like ezine articles (there are many many others) are places where writers submit articles to be used freely by other webmasters in return for the links usually contained in a footer at the end of the article. Such articles can be picked up by thousands of sites which can be good for the writer (see below for another take on this) as a result of the incoming links that the articles bring to their sites.
Long time readers of enternetusers (and I mean LONG time) will remember that ‘free articles’ were actually something I once used on this blog on occasion. It was only on a handful of times but without really thinking of the implications of them I had posted a number of them.
It didn’t take me long however to realize that the lure of free content might have some costs.
• Quality of Articles - while it’s dangerous to make generalizations I found that the quality of the articles I was finding on the topics I was interested in were a little light on. ‘Free Articles’ tend to be fairly general in their focus and often give a brief overview of a topic rather than a deeper analysis. This is because they often use the tactic of linking to the author’s own page at the end with the invitation to click and get more in depth information at their site.
• Reader Confusion - I quickly saw the confusion that adding an article by someone else to your blog can bring. I had readers linking to these articles saying I’d written them when clearly I had not and found myself in the awkward situation of having to either correct their mistakes, make the authorship links even more obvious or just leave it and hope no one would notice.
• Cheap and Nasty? - After a week or so of using the articles, mixed in with my own posts, I began to realize that it was cheapening the feel of my site. I was trying to build a helpful site and lift my own profile in the area of blogging but was using substandard content written by other people. It just didn’t work and left me feeling like the site was no where near as relevant as it could have been.
• Duplicate Content - Probably my biggest fear was Duplicate Content. Search Engines don’t like seeing the same content in many places and penalize sites that excessively do this practice. At the very least it seems that they filter out duplicated content from their indexes. It makes sense really as free articles can be picked up by hundreds, if not thousands, of sites and if SE’s indexed them all it would be crazy.
Even if search engines don’t penalize sites who engage in duplicate content (and I doubt they do for a few free articles) it doesn’t make good sense to me to use content that might have appeared on thousands of other sites as you’re competing with so many other sites for SE ranking. Unless you have a very highly ranked site you’re unlikely to come out of top of the SE results.
I found an interesting experiment into duplicate content this morning that illustrates how futile using free articles can be. It found that while Google indexed everyone using the free article for a few days that shortly afterwards the vast majority of those who used it were filtered from search results - including the original source of the article.
In Short - I removed the free articles from enternetusers fairly quickly after putting them up and decided that this blog would be a blog based a lot more upon original content.
I don’t believe quotes from other sites constitute duplicate content and use them from time to time here, but if you want to build the popularity of your site then original content will usually be far more successful over time. If you do feel you have to use free articles on your blog I would highly recommend that you only use them occasionally and do so knowing that they probably have a low chance of being successful in the search engines.
Written on January 31st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 12:01 am by Darren Rowse
Should enternetusers Add Forums? Poll of the Week
I’ve been considering adding a discussion forum area to enternetusers.net since I started this blog and have recently been lobbied increasingly by readers to consider doing so more and more (update: I’m not talking about replacing the blog - but adding forums as another way to discuss the topic - this blog would continue to operate as normal).
So this week I’m going to ask you for your opinion in our Poll of the Week.
You can vote ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘I don’t Know’ in the sidebar.
I’d also love to hear your reasons for voting as you have in comments below.
Before you do let me outline a few of the Pros and Cons as I see them:
Pros
- Forums would give readers a place to post their own thoughts and experiences - I know that most bloggers don’t have a blog where it’s appropriate to share what they know about blogging for money (it would be off topic) and a forum might be a place where they could share what they are experiencing and know
- Increased reader participation - I love the community here and would love to find more ways to get us all interacting
- Questions could be answered better - I get a lot of questions from readers - some of which I am able to answer but many of which I don’t have time or expertise to respond adequately to. Forums might see answers found for more questions.
- Forums would give space for ongoing discussion on topics - one of the frustrations I have with blogging is that comment threads tend to die off when the post drops off the front page. As a result useful conversations can end prematurely
Cons
- My limited experience of forums is that they can be a lot of work to moderate
- There is a risk of inActive forums - there is nothing worse than going to a site’s forums to see inactivity. I suspect with current readership levels that enternetusers forums would be reasonably Active but there is always some risk
- Distraction from the Blog - Some of the people I’ve floated this idea with have suggested that it could detract from the blog itself. My own opinion is that this could happen but that it could also add to and supplement the blog really well depending upon how the forums were managed and integrated. Interested in your thoughts on this one.
I’m certain that there are many more Pros and Cons but I’m not going to exhaust the list here and now. I’d rather hear your opinion.
Are forums a good idea for enternetusers? Why/Why Not? Would you use them? What areas would you like them to cover? Your ideas and thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
PS: I should say that I’d only go the forums route with help from key readers taking on roles as moderators. I’m envisaging a number of moderators taking on different sections which I think would be a good profile building exercise for them and obviously a massive help for me in terms of workload. I already have a copule of volunteers to take on a part of this.
Written on January 31st, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 12:01 am by Darren Rowse
Length of Blogging - Poll Results
Last week’s Poll asked readers to share how long they’ve been blogging for and the results are now in.
The spread was actually quite wide with good percentages of the total vote of 910 participants polling in each area. The largest group were in the ‘under 3 months’ segment with the second biggest group being those currently not blogging.
While I’ve noticed quite a few bloggers with limited experience lately these larger numbers at the lower spectrum of experience are actually quite surprising to me with 60% of readers having less than a year of blogging under their belts.
Of course this means that 40% of readers of enternetusers have good experience levels with 12% above 3 years.
Written on January 30th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia392 zone.at 11:01 pm by Darren Rowse
Google Toolbar
Google latest Toolbar Beta has been released. I’m sure someone out there is excited but as a Mac user I’m more excited by the fact that I got a beetroot stain out of my shorts this afternoon. HoHum.
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