Written on March 4th, 2005 at 07:03 am by Darren Rowse
Blog Articles and Stickiness
Just spotted two worthwhile posts on a couple of my favourite blogs:
- Articles Build Blog Readership - ‘As you place a number of articles on several websites, you will accomplish more than one goal.
You will obviously receive a few more visitors to your blog, as a result of your incoming link. The extra traffic will be from people who are already interested in your blog’s subject matter.
You will establish yourself as an expert in your field, and other people will call upon your ideas and information. The recognition of others, who are interested in the same topics and site themes as yourself, could lead to some paying business in other ways.’
- Making your blog sticky and keeping Casual Viewers - ‘The moral for bloggers is simple: making your blog sticky keeps viewers longer. Look at moral ways (by this I mean without popups etc) of getting casual visitors to explore your blog further, it may well increase repeat visits, and potentially improves your stats and your advertising revenue opportunities. Including a link to recent posts at the end of individual posts is one way of doing it, but there may be others.’
Written on March 3rd, 2005 at 12:03 pm by Darren Rowse
2005 Business Underblogger Awards
Do you know of (or run) a quality ‘Entrepreneurial’ or ‘Business’ Blog that deserves a bit of extra attention? Do you read one that you wish others knew about? Nominate it now in the 2005 Business Underblogger Awards! Read on to find out how!
Now that the 2005 Business Blogging Awards are out of the way and that some of the higher profile business blogs have had their recognition, I want to propose that we hold the ‘2005 Business UNDERblogger Awards’.
Huh?!? What’s an ‘Underblogger’ you ask?
Well it all started a couple of years ago when on my personal blog I wrote a post asking people to nominate quality blogs that they knew of that didn’t have the exposure that they deserved. They are Underblogs - as in they fly under the radar despite the fact that perhaps they deserve to join the select few that tend to get nominated for mainstream blogging awards.
I was amazed by the response that I got when I opened the first ‘Celebrating the Underblog’ awards in 2003 - 100 nominations in all. In 2004 I did it again and ended up with around 500. It was a massive response and whilst in the process a lot of blogs were nominated that I personally didn’t enjoy the exercise did unearth some amazing blogs that I continue to read to this day. I had a lot of feedback from bloggers thanking me for the exposure but also for helping them to discover new quality blogs.
So I got to thinking the other day after the Business Blogging Awards that whilst the project did unearth some great blogs that I’d not heard of before - that there MUST be more out there that didn’t receive a nomination that deserve some recognition.
I can think of a few myself that I’m going to nominate - blogs that were not mentioned in the other awards but who consistently write quality content. So the 2005 Business Underblogger Awards was born in my mind and has percolated away ever since. So here is how it is going to work:
• In the comments section below I am inviting you to nominate up to 5 Business/Entrepreneurial/Professional Underblogs.
• Leave the URL (hyperlink it if you know how) of the blog and a very short reason for your nomination (1 sentence maximum).
• I will collate the nominations and add them to a page that will contain all nominations - arranged alphabetically
• There is no ultimate winner - all nominations are acknowledged as being worthy of an award (at least by those that nominated them). The point is not about identifying ‘the best’ but rather about showing the breadth and diversity of those blogging in this way.
• Nominations will be received until the end of March at which point I will not collate nominations any more.
• I will not judge who is or isn’t a Business, Entrepreneurial or Professional blogger - I’ll leave that to you. I will not judge who is worthy of the ‘underblogger’ status - again that is your call.
• You can nominate your own blog - but if you do please also nominate at least another two or three blogs that you also read.
Again - this is not a competition, its not about ‘the best’, its not overly serious or something to get worked up about - however it will hopefully be a fun project that exposes some new blogs to the ProBlogging community and helps us all make some new blogging friends.
So without further ado - I now officially declare the 2005 Business Underblogger Awards OPEN!!!! Nominate away…
Update: I’m posting all the nominations on this page.
Written on March 3rd, 2005 at 12:03 pm by Darren Rowse
Why Blogging is Like Having a Child
Jennifer Rice over at What’s Your Brand Mantra? posts a good article on her Link Policy and Building Traffic that is worth a read. The phrase that got my attention though was this - ‘Maintaining a blog is a lot like having a child’. She qualifies it by stating that she doesn’t have one (a child guess - cause she definitely has a blog - sorry, I couldn’t resist). Its an interesting analogy and one that has triggered a whole thought process for me!
A whole number of images came to my mind when letting my brain get a little creative with her statement. Here are a few (this could get ugly):
- ‘It takes a lot of time, nurturing and care.’ This was Jennifer’s one but I concur! Building a blog takes time, energy, sweat, tears and dedication. I’ve heard all that helps with children too. You don’t just suddenly have a fully developed child who can speak, walk, pay its own way and live as an adult - all of these things take time. Don’t expect your new blog to suddenly be everything you dream it to be - let it evolve and grow up in its own time. Sure you can encourage it along the way - but give it space to grow. I see it like gardening - Gardeners don’t actually make plants grow - they create an environment that is conducive to growth. No matter what you do you can’t make your blog grow - but you can create an environment that gives it every chance possible for it to happen. I guess in many ways thats what this blog is about - I’m hoping to provide bloggers with some techniques that help create futile blogging ground.
- Pregnancy - before I start a new blog I often feel like I’ve got something growing inside of me that just wants to get out. It can all happen very quickly or it can take quite a bit of time - but the ideas percolate away, developing and growing til that day when the time comes to actually do something with them.
- Childbirth - (I told you it could get ugly). Not that I’ve been through it but there seems to be a general consensus out there that it can be a pretty painful experience. Sometimes starting (birthing) a blog can hurt a bit. You write your guts out and no one links up, comments or even seems to be reading. Your stats show you 20 readers per day - but then you realize its just tracking you logging on 16 times a day to check your stats and your mother who logs in to see what you’re doing today. Ouch - pain - depression - disillusionment - is it worth it all?
- The joy of the Newborn - I’ve got friends who’ve just had a baby in the last month. I was talking to the new dad the other night and asked how it feels. He told me about his new favorite past time - watching his daughter sleep. He used to spend his evenings in front of the TV getting his nightly dose of Crime Shows and Reality TV - how he spends hours just watching his flesh and blood in dreamland. He does it partly out of concern (parents of first borns do tend to worry a bit) but mainly out of love and wonder of this bundle of joy he’s created. Reminds me (and I’m drawing the bow long now) of some first time bloggers I know (and once was) who spend every waking hour logging onto their site to just see it, tweak it a little, worrying if others are reading - but mainly just to watch it and admire their little creation.
- Toddler Tantrums - Whilst I don’t have kids of my own I have played a pretty major part in one’s life for a number of years. Something happened one day to this little cute, friendly, cuddly girl one day that I’ll never forget. She was two and seemingly over night she became a monster. Some might consider it demon possession, others might say it was too much coloring in her food, others call it the ‘terrible twos’. Part of growing up is that you push boundaries and test the limits of your parents. Unfortunately whilst child rearing can be a pretty amazing and joyful experience - there comes a time when it all seems to fall a part and you wonder if you can keep going on. The server crashes, you forget to reregister your domain, you wake up to find 4783 spam comments (all from different IP addresses), you get your first troll who attacks every single thing you say, all your images mysteriously disappear, you accidentally post your credit card details, you forget your log in password doesn’t seem to work any more or someone else guesses your password and starts posting nude pictures of Britney Spears on your blog. Of course this all happens in a 24 hour period - its the ‘terrible twos’.
- And the Bills Roll in - Kids can be a really expensive hobby. They may not look like it when they are born, how could something so small cost too much? Talk to any parent and you know that the day they had their child was the day they started cutting back on the luxuries of life. Nappies, clothes, food, school fees, broken window repairs, tooth fairy money, birthday parties, hair cuts - the list goes on and it doesn’t stop. Whilst blogging can be free - its amazing how much it can cost if you get into it seriously and want to add features, generate big traffic and make it look professional. Hosting, Domain names, Design, Servers, Blog Services - serious blogging can actually cost quite a bit. Of course it can be done for free or very little cost - but if you want to make a living from it be prepared to fork out some dollars at some point.
- And they get a life of their own - My baby sister left home a year ago and my parents were left at home alone. Kids grow up - they get a life of their own and evolve in all kinds of directions. Blogs have a habit of taking on a life of their own too. I would never have imagined when I started my first personal blog two and a half years ago that I’d end up as a full time blogger, owning and editing 17 diverse blogs today. Somewhere along the line my little blog got up and got a life. I’m just hanging on for dear life and hoping it all takes me along for the ride before one day bucking me off!
- Parents need Grown Up Time - I’m sure a lot more could be said and perhaps you’d like to add your own reasons why blogging is like having a child below in comments. However I’m going to do something that my parents always did which I think is part of good parenting - they spend time alone, away from the kids being themselves from time to time. Being a parent also means you have to lead your own life, have your own interests and maintain your own health and sanity. I think this is a good thing to keep in mind as a blogger also - especially one who makes a living from it. There comes a time when bloggers need to ‘get a life’ and look after themselves also. Your blogging (and parenting) will actually improve if you are healthy, well balanced and interacting with real people from time to time also.
Written on March 3rd, 2005 at 09:03 am by Darren Rowse
Blog Money Experiment
There is an interesting blog being developed over at the Blog Money Experiment where an anonymous blogger (referring to himself as ‘the blog experimenter’) is keeping a behind the scenes diary of his quest to earn a few dollars from their blogging.
They have started another blog which they refer to as ‘the money blog’ (which is at an undisclosed URL to guard from it being swamped by people from the behind the scenes blog) which they are doing the experiment on. Hmmm - sounds more complicated than it is but it will be an interesting experiment to follow. ‘The Blog Experimenter’ writes:
‘Can an online amateur make money with a blog? This is the online diary of one guy’s attempt to generate extra cash by blogging. Follow, advise and criticize a newbie as he tracks his “blogging for bucks” adventures, step by step. This is not “the money blog,” it’s the behind-the-scenes story…’
He’s set himself some guidelines for the experiment and has already earned enough for a coke. Good luck ‘the blog experimenter’ (I can imagine him sitting in front of his computer with a phantom of the opera type mask blogging away….can’t you?).
Written on March 3rd, 2005 at 04:03 am by Darren Rowse
Positioning your Adsense Ads II
Once again the response to my post yesterday to Positioning your Adsense Ads has been quite amazing as people have emailed and left comments asking for further details of what the ’secret position’ is to place ads on a blog that will magically double earnings overnight.
Perhaps I’ve created a monster in the past week or so here in telling people how much I earn. Since then I’ve been quite overwhelmed by the attention - emails, comments, instant messaging - all on levels I’ve not experienced before from a post. I guess people want to make money from their blogs! I can’t blame them I guess - I’m obviously interested in that too.
So what is the magical, secret position to put your Adsense ads? Someone even emailed me tonight offering to pay me to reveal the secret. Hmmmm - maybe i should hold an Ebay auction and offer the information to the highest bidder!
No - I’m a nice guy - you can send cash if you want to but I’m not into secrets and am always (well usually) happy to share what I know. The ’secret’ was simply to move my ads down from the banner position into the actual post itself. At the time Adsense only allowed one ad placement per page, these days they allow three (like I have on my blog here) - so now you can actually keep your banner ad and also put one inside your content.
So why do ‘in content’ ads work better? The answer is pretty obvious - in fact its quite literally staring you in the face as you read this…..you’re reading this….your eyes are trained upon the content of this post. What better place to put ads than the place your reader is pretty likely to look? Now keep in mind that different websites and blogs tend to have different results when it comes to where their readers eyes are drawn to (see this fascinating blog for some studies on this) but it is generally accepted that the first paragraph of content is generally reasonably well read of most pages.
Of course there are some who argue that this isn’t an ethical thing to do - putting text link ads into the content of a blog - I’m not going to get into that argument here except to say that in my opinion blog readers are usually smart enough to tell what is content and what is an ad (the Ads by Goooogle lable is enough for me). All I’m saying here is that in my opinion and experience, the positions that generally get the highest click-throughs are within the main body and content of your blog.
I’m not really telling a massive secret here - if you look at most of the top earning blogs out there you’ll find that most of us are using the same strategy with our ad placements. There are slight variation on the theme between us but check out some of these blogs use of ads within content and you should see what I mean:
- Engadget - ads placed after a post and before comments on individual pages and between posts on the main page.
- Digital Photography Blog - ads here are within content at the top of posts. Another ad can be found at the bottom of posts before comments.
- Mobile Tracker - ads at the end of posts and before comments on individual pages and between posts on the main page.
- Gizmodo - ad at the base of each quote on individual pages and between posts on the main page.
Of course they are all variations on a theme but there is a pretty common theme there i think.
I will say this however - not all blogs are the same and each one of my blogs vary in degree to which they prove this point. Sometimes the click through rates between blogs vary incredibly despite the fact that the ads are in exactly the same position. Obviously its not as simple as just sticking an ad into the content of your blog - its worth experimenting and tracking your results. What works on one blog will not always work on another.
In my next post on this topic I’ll answer the question - ‘can you have too many adsense ads on a post?’ and ‘when does more actually = less?’
Read part 3 in this series
Written on March 2nd, 2005 at 04:03 pm by Darren Rowse
Positioning your Adsense Ads
The amazing thing about the Adsense advertising system is how one simple change in positioning of your ads can have a profound impact upon the earnings you receive from it. I still remember a fateful night about 8 months ago when I learnt this lesson and doubled my income overnight (no this isn’t one of those posts where I’m selling something - relax).
It was 10.30am and I was about to head to bed when on a whim I decided to shift my Adsense ads from the position that I’d always had them at the top (banner position) of the blog I was working on at the time. I shifted the ad to a new position and then got distracted with something else and forgot about it.
A few hours later (I got very distracted) I again was thinking of bed but decided to check my Adsense stats for one last time before shutting down my powerbook - imagine my surprise when I found that my click through rate was 40% higher than normal (and so was the earnings for that time of night)!? At first I thought I was dreaming, then I considered that maybe Google had made a mistake, then I panicked that someone had been randomly clicking all my ads - and then I remembered the repositioning of ads that I’d done a few hours before.
Needless to say I didn’t sleep much that night. I lay awake excited by the potential that I’d just unlocked in my blogs, inspired by the fact that I could make the same changes to all my other blogs tomorrow, kicking myself that I hadn’t done it earlier (what a missed opportunity) and wondering if there might be an even better spot to try putting my ads.
The following morning I lept out of bed and checked my Adsense stats again to find that my click through rate was even higher than the night before and that I’d stumbled upon a way of doubling my income - literally over night.
Written on March 2nd, 2005 at 02:03 pm by Darren Rowse
Weblogs, Inc. - Focus Ads
Weblogs Inc are taking blog advertising in a new direction with their Focus Ads which invite their readers to leave a comment on advertisers (you can see one here). Its an interesting concept that they are promoting as adding to their transparency in advertising. Here’s what they say about it.
‘Weblogs, Inc. Focus Ads are meant to create transparency in advertising — helping our readers to gain insight and helping our advertisers to create a better product or service. Our advertisers participate because they believe in their brands and are willing to improve them through the feedback of enthusiasts.’
So far the concept on the Grifffin technologies feedback page seems to be pretty positive but I guess time will tell whether advertisers actually want the feedback and whether readers can be bothered giving it.
Written on March 2nd, 2005 at 01:03 pm by Darren Rowse
blo.gs for sale
I just spotted that blo.gs is for sale. They don’t really have an asking price so make them an offer. The sale includes sale of:
- the blo.gs domain name (and all subdomains)
- the weblo.gs domain name
- the database of blogs (and related databases)
- all rights to the blo.gs software
The owner writes: ‘I don’t have a price in mind, so don’t ask. cash-flow wise, the site has cost approximately $3500 to date (mostly for hosting), and has earned less than $750 (mostly from google adsense ads).’
So it doesn’t really sound like a hugely profitable venture that you’d be buying - rather its a ‘renovators delight’ type project.
Written on March 2nd, 2005 at 12:03 pm by Darren Rowse
Duplicate Posting and Free Articles = Duplicate Content
I’ve noticed a growing trend among bloggers who have multiple blogs to post the same post numerous times in different places.
I can see why such a practice might seem tempting:
- it cuts down the work you have to do (two for the energy of one)
- it increases the chance of your post being read by readers
- if you’re making money from your blogs it double’s the chance of earning a dollar from your work
For these very reasons I’ve entered into duplicate posting in the past also. It just seems to make sense to get your material out there in as many places as possible doesn’t it?
Unfortunately whilst duplicate posting might have some of the above benefits it is also worth counting the cost of such a strategy. Duplicated posting might double the chances of your work being read, but it also runs the risk of getting you in trouble with Google. You see they don’t like duplicate content - content that appears in different places in the same basic form. They warn about this in their guidelines to webmasters.
‘Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.’
The reason for this policy is that duplicate content has been a trick of spammers over the years - creating multiple versions of the one page used to be a quick way of getting loads of traffic quickly. But now they have a duplicate content filter that tracks such attempts at spamming the search engines. Sites caught using such techniques will obviously be penalized and in extreme cases have been known to be banned from Google.
Of course no one really knows what is duplicate and what is not - but these days I always walk on the side of caution. One of the theories being talked about more and more in Search Engine Optimization forums is that Google are actually getting tougher on duplicate content and that one of the reasons that some blogs have suffered in recent updates is around these issues.
So whilst I can’t give you any hard and fast definition of what does and doesn’t count as duplicate content and can’t give you specifics of what the penalties are I would suggest that a duplicate posting strategy might not be a good one.
Free Articles - A related suggestion is that you carefully consider posting ‘free articles’ written by others on your blog. ‘Free Articles’ are also a tempting strategy for building up your stocks of content on a blog, the thought is that they are good for the author (as they build their profile and give links to their sites) but also good for the blogger/webmaster who gets free content.
However if Google is getting as tough on duplicate content as the rumors are indicating then ‘free articles’ might actually be hurting your blog. Think about it - you’re not only posting something that is available in one place on the internet - but something that is being offered to hundreds, if not thousands of others with websites and blogs - all competing for the same keywords as you.
I used to use free articles but found that the benefits gained from them were no where near equal to the costs and stopped using them (and deleted most of them) asap. Use them at your own peril.
I’m sure there are people out there who know a lot more about this than I do - so feel free to set me straight and add your bit in comments - but I’d strongly suggest being careful with duplicate posting and free articles.
Written on March 2nd, 2005 at 08:03 am by Darren Rowse
Yahoo’s Contextual Ads in testing
Waxy.org things they’ve stumbled upon a new Contextual Ads program from Yahoo for small publishers. They write:
‘Ken Rudman is a product manager at Yahoo-owned Overture, and his blog features contextual Overture ads throughout. His homepage shows the vertical two-ad format, monthly archives show a three-ad horizontal format, and individual entries show another variation of the horizontal format. The ads have decent relevancy, especially considering its early state.
The Javascript that generates the ad IFrame is hosted on Overture’s server. The domain name refers to “ypn,” which might be an acronym for the ad program… Yahoo Publishing Network, maybe?’
As mentioned on the post it doesn’t seem that the ads are overly relevant now - however in time I’d suspect that more advertisers would come on board and relevancy will improve.
Interestingly the version they are testing has a hover feature - when you hover your curser over the ad you get a little pop up box that tells you more about it. I’m not a big fan of the design options being used on the example above but I’m sure a final version will be pretty customizable. I’ll be watching on with interest to see how this story develops.
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