Written on September 4th, 2007 at 05:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

What was Hot at enternetusers in August?

enternetusers Site News 17 comments

Last month was a pretty massive month here at enternetusers with a record level of traffic (Google Analytics shows it at about 650,000 page views and our server side stats place it at 1.3 million - so it’s somewhere in between), 3959 comments (a new record) and 107 posts (the highest rate of posting at PB for at least 12 months). There was a lot of action on the blog a couple of reasons. It was partly a result of the blog’s redesign (which led to an increase in both actual visitors and pages viewed per visitor) as well as the 31 Day project.

107 posts is a lot to digest - so I’ve decided to summarize the top 15 in terms of visitor numbers.

Here’s a quick summary of the hottest 10 posts from enternetusers in August 2007:

Of course this month was also popular for the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Project which has 31 of my own blog tips and over 600 of yours!

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Written on September 4th, 2007 at 12:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

How to Get Loads of Traffic from a Group Writing Project

Featured Posts, Miscellaneous Blog Tips 29 comments

Last week I decided to run a small experiment on the enternetusers reader community (please forgive me for making you a guinea pig).

In my post revealing a batch of reader blog tips in the 31 day project I inserted a CrazyEgg tracking code to track what links in the post readers clicked on. The reason for the experiment was to answer a few questions to do with participating in Group Writing Projects:

  1. Are people actually clicking the links in these posts (ie - is it worth running these projects and participating in them)?
  2. How important is it to be early in the list?
  3. What makes a title clickable?

Let me share the results by tackling each question.

1. Are people actually clicking the links?

Crazy-EggCrazyEgg shows that 1550 people visited the post in question (more viewed it in RSS and on the Blog Page - these were not tracked) and that they clicked 2204 times on the page. The vast majority of these 2204 clicks were on the list itself. While the total number of clicks from RSS and the blog page cannot be known I’d say that there is a good number of clicks on the list and that it’s probably a worthwhile thing to participate in.

2. How important is it to be early in the list?

The heat map that CrazyEgg produced shows that those in the top section of the list did get more clicks than those in the bottom section. The two screen shots below show this. The first is of the first links in the list and the second is of the last links in the list.

Crazy-Egg-Top-Bottom

Obviously there’s more action in the first screenshot.

A few other observations on positioning of links

  • While the top links were clicked on more than others all but three links in the list were visited at least once
  • The top 4 links were particularly hot although…..
  • The most clicked link on the page was actually listed 12th in the list, the next two in the list were 3rd and 4th, the next was 16th and the next was 51st.
  • Other single links down the page did get higher clicks on them than others while a few links in the top section were clicked on significantly less than others around them (indicating that some other factor was at play - particularly the title)

3. What makes a title clickable?

TitlesTo the right are the top 25 links from the list ranked in order of how many clicks that they each had.

As mentioned above - where they were listed did have a play - although there were a few that appeared out of order.

A few observations:

  • ‘lists’ with numbers in them featured well
  • posts that related strongly to the audience of enternetusers obviously did well
  • posts that were obviously ‘how to’, practical or ‘tips’ did well
  • questions featured in the list in numerous places
  • titles that showed a benefit of reading or presented a need that people had worked
  • there was a real mixture in the list in terms of post length - some were short, some were quite long
  • the use of CAPITALS in the 5th ranked link seemed to draw the eye down the page (to the 51st position) to get more clicks

Titles do matter in group writing projects.

While I won’t publicly point out the posts that didn’t get any or many clicks - in most cases they were due to weaker titles which were either vague or irrelevant.

What other things do you notice about the Top 25 titles in the list?

Take Home Advice:

If you’re going to participate in these types of group writing projects then there are three obvious factors in play if you want to generate a lot of visitors.

  • Get in Early - have a post ready to go if possible to be at the top of the list
  • Consider your title very carefully
  • Choose a topic that is highly relevant and useful to the audience of the blog that the project is on

Of course getting people to your blog is only half of the equation. There’s no point in have a post at the top of a list with a great title if your post is rubbish and you don’t draw people into your blog. Making your blog sticky then becomes the key task that you need to work on.

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Written on September 3rd, 2007 at 09:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

Ask Your Blogging Questions Here

Reader Questions, enternetusers Site News 124 comments

Blog-QuestionsOver the coming month or two I’m wanting to get as practical as possible here at enternetusers and as part of that I’m wanting to base as many posts as possible on real questions from readers.

So - the ‘question box’ is open.

I can’t guarantee that I’ll answer them all - but I’ll attempt to get through as many as possible or to find others who are better qualified than I am to do so.

Any topic is fine - but I’ll of course give priority to those that are on topic to this blog.

Fire away - looking forward to seeing what the enternetusers community comes up with.

Note: If you don’t want your name/blog to be linked to your question feel free to ask it anonymously. Please submit the questions in comments below.

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Written on September 3rd, 2007 at 04:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

TouchGraph - Graph Your Blog’s Connections

Blogging Tools and Services 17 comments

I just came across an interesting tool that explores connections between different websites using Google.

All you have to do is put in a keyword and it’ll graph the top results in Google for you. I did it with enternetusers.net as the keyword and got this graph (click to enlarge):

enternetusers-Graphed

It’s hard to illustrate the tool in a static picture - but each of the circles represents a website and the circles around it are other websites that link into it. Click on any of the circles and you can expand them to see what is in turn linking to them.

You can play with this tool at TouchGraph | Products: Google Browser.

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Written on September 2nd, 2007 at 08:09 pm by David Shawver city of Stanton

98 Blog Tips for a Lazy Sunday

31 Days to Building a Better Blog 32 comments

Building-A-Better-Blog-2The 31 Days to Building a Better Blog is over and it’s time to post the final reader tips. In today’s batch there are 98 tips in total which means that I’ve now posted links to 626 reader blog tips on the central 31 Day Project Page. Please note - submissions are now closed.

In this latest batch of blogging tips are some fantastic examples of blogging tips which I really hope you’ll enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the project. A special shout out to the team in the 31 Day Project who did the Chocolate Challenge - sounds like they had a sweet time of it.

Here are the last batch of blogging tips - make yourself comfortable and enjoy!

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Written on September 2nd, 2007 at 05:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

Share Your Blogging Productivity Tips

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 52 comments

Productivity-Tips-BloggersIn my last post I shared a few of my own blogging productivity tips - but I’m just one of millions of bloggers and I’d love to hear yours!

So lets have some discussion on the topic of productivity.

  • How do you keep your blog ticking over?
  • Do you have any systems or rhythms that you’ve developed that help you make the time that you spend blogging more effective?
  • What tools help you in this?
  • What advice would you give a blogger struggling to keep productive?

I’m looking forward to reading your productivity tips!

Update: I’ve decided that I’m going to make a compilation post next week with some of the best tips suggested in comments below.

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Written on September 2nd, 2007 at 12:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

Productivity Tips for Bloggers

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 24 comments

Productivity-Tips-BloggersI get asked a lot of questions about how I find the time to do the different things that I do.

My daily focus includes: writing on two blogs (an average of 4-6 posts per day), moderate comments and interact with readers on those two blogs, manage a handful of other personal blogs (where others write) and a forum, train over 100 bloggers at b5media (as well as other management tasks), lead a small church, be a dad and husband - plus another secret project or two that are in development.

All in all I have a pretty full and busy life. My success rate at getting everything done is mixed - some days I manage to keep my hours to a sane 8 or 9 while other days it blows out to over 12 (although I’m getting better at having at least one day almost completely off on the weekend).

So how do I do it? Am I super organized?

To be honest - I’m not. I do have some systems and rhythms as well as some loose daily goals - but I tend to be more impulsive and intuitive in my style than anything else.

My Productivity Tips for Bloggers

Having said that - here are a few of the things that I do to help me keep my productivity levels up in the midst of my impulsive and sometimes quite random days of blogging:

  1. Identify Core Tasks - there are many tasks that a blogger needs to do to keep their blog growing - however some are more important than others and if you get distracted from these your blog will suffer considerably. Sit down and list the tasks that you need to do to maintain and grow your blog and then prioritize them into core daily tasks, weekly tasks and monthly tasks. This will mean you spend less time on the fluffy/tweaks that many blogs spend too much time doing and more time on the core things that will grow your blog.
  2. Set Times for Set Tasks - I’ve written previously about how I use Mondays as a day where I write a lot of my content for the week ahead. I find that setting aside blocks of time for important core tasks helps me keep on track.
  3. Establish a Posting Frequency - A trap that I used to fall into was just posting when I had something to publish. This meant that some days I would post 10 or more posts a day per blog (when I was in a writing groove - however it left me with nothing to publish the day after. These days I have daily goals on blogs and unless it’s a time sensitive breaking story I will save surplus posts that I’ve written to publish in days ahead.
  4. Establish Good Boundaries - a key part of being productive for me is to set healthy Win Win boundaries between work and family/life. When the balance gets out on either front everything suffers.
  5. Identify and Work in your Golden Hour - there are times in my day when I’m more productive than others - my Golden Hours. Knowing when these are and scheduling important core tasks in these times is crucial for me to get things done. Schedule other less important tasks for ‘dead time’.
  6. Develop Time Saving Systems - My morning routine is to get a snapshot of the different aspects of my work very quickly. I’ve written about how I use firefox bookmark folders to do this previously. Little systems and rhythms like this help you stay on top of things but do so in a quick way that lets you get back on with your core daily tasks. Another example of these types of systems is the ‘points system‘ that one enternetusers reader developed to help them keep on track.
  7. Use Good Tools - I use a number of tools in my blogging to assist me to keep my different tasks managed. One of the tools that I’ve only just discovered that I’m still working out how to incorporate into my workflow is RustyBudget. This is a tool specifically designed for bloggers managing multiple blogs and or managing blogs with multiple authors. It provides you with a way to manage day to day storyboards, posts and topics. It’s free to use (until you add more than two authors) and while there are features that I’d like them to see added I think it’s got a lot of potential. For more reading on blog tools check out this list - the A-Z of Professional Blogging Tools (but be warned that there are ALOT and ironically it could grind the productivity of your day to a halt!).

I’m sure there is much more that I could write. Keep in mind that while some of the above makes it sound like I’m highly organized and thought through in my blogging that the truth is that in the midst of it all my daily reality is sometimes a complete jumble and that like everyone I get distracted, unproductive and stuck on a daily basis too.

For all of us who could do with a little more reading on how to be a more productive blogger - check out these two posts written on other blogs this week:

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Written on September 1st, 2007 at 06:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

Analysis of StumbleUpon’s Top 50 Stumblers

Social Media 18 comments

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a ‘Top Stumbler’ at StumbleUpon?

Glen Allsopp has done some great analysis on StumbleUpon’s Top 50 Stumblers.

Some of the key take home ‘averages’ that might be worth knowing if you’re looking to increase your StumbleUpon status:

  • Average length of membership at SU - 18 months
  • Average number of pages ‘liked’ - 12,805
  • Average number of videos ‘liked’ - 513
  • Average number of photos ‘liked’ - 1086

That’s a lot of stumbling! It is worth noting that these are averages and the spread of results was much much wider (full details at Glen’s post). The only thing missing from the analysis that I’d have been curious about would be how many fans each of the top 50 had.

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Written on September 1st, 2007 at 12:09 am by David Shawver city of Stanton

9 Lessons You Can Learn about Blogging By Watching Me Sell My House

Featured Posts, Miscellaneous Blog Tips 33 comments

Auction-For-SaleToday is Auction Day for our house (the house that blogging bought).

While I’ve bought houses before I’ve never sold one and the whole experience has been one of a lot of learning.

We’ll find out how it will end later today (12 hours from now) - but as we nervously wait for the hour to arrive (while doing last minute polishing, scrubbing and tweaking) I’ve been reflecting upon some of the lessons that I’ve learned during the last four weeks since the house went ‘on the market’:

1. Small Things Matter

As part of the service that our real estate agents offer we had an interior designer come to our home to give us some advice on how to arrange things to show the house off to it’s fullest potential. I’m not sure what I was expecting her to tell us but was surprised to hear that much of what she suggested was quite small and that while they didn’t sound much they made a real difference. For example, moving our fridge from one part of the kitchen to another completely opened up the room.

Pay attention to the smaller details on your blog - while individually the small things that you don’t might not make much of a difference, overall they can really add up!

2. Tell a Story, not just the Facts

One of the theories that I’ve been testing with the marketing of our house is to appeal not just to the head of buyers but the heart. I’ve pushed for the ads in local papers and the copy used to not just present facts but to appeal to emotion and the heart. We also added a few ‘heart’ and ’story’ elements to the way we’ve presented the house during opens for inspections by writing a short brochure for prospective buyers on why we’ve enjoyed living in this house and have left a screen saver of images that I’ve taken around the house running on my computer screen in my study. These have complemented the more ‘factual’ brochures and information that the agents have presented to potential buyers and the feedback that we’ve received is that it’s really made an impression.

Blogs that appeal to different levels (particularly emotions) can do quite well. Add elements of story into your blogging.

3. Don’t reveal all your Cards at once - Get people in the Door

While selecting which images to use of the house in our newspaper and online advertising our agent gave us some good advice. She suggested that instead of featuring images of every room that we only show half of them. The reasoning is that if you do this you get people to actually come and visit to check out the rest. Getting people in the door drastically increases your chances of converting people into bidders.

In blogging the temptation when starting a blog is to vomit out everything you know on a topic very quickly. I’ve seen a number of bloggers launch with ‘100 ways to….’ type posts and while these can be good at getting attention - they can also leave you with little more to say. While I believe a key to success in blogging is to share everything you know - there is an art in the ’slow reveal’ that helps to build momentum and loyalty in blogging.

4. Expect the Unexpected

The last week has led to a number of ’surprises’. One was looking out the window of the house one day and seeing a photographer setting up his full kit. A couple of days later our house was featured prominently in two prominent newspaper articles as editorial copy - nice! The other surprise came one afternoon a couple of weeks back when I was quietly sitting in our living room working on my laptop and three people appeared in the window. They were carrying out their own impromptu open for inspection (well outside of the advertised times). My agent would probably be horrified that I let them see the property without the agent being there - but it turns out that the family who was there are coming back today to bid.

Blogging is full of surprises. Some of them feel like threats and some opportunities. The key is to be able to harness them and turn them into positives.

5. De-cluttering Rocks

One of the main things that we did to get both our garden and the inside of our home ready for auction was to ‘declutter’. We’re currently living in a very neat home with about 75% of the furniture that we had in it 5 weeks ago (we also have a locked shed with a lot more in it). I’ve also ripped out a significant number of plants in the garden and planted some great new (and smaller) plants. It’s amazing what taking out elements in a home can do for it!

Most bloggers have been through times when they’ve seen the power of de-cluttering. The principle applies in design (especially sidebars) but also in blog writing itself.

6. Get Sensual

I’ve already touched on how appealing to the heart through story can impact how a home (and blog) is perceived. Similarly, we’ve worked on making our opens for inspections a slightly more ’sensual’ experience. No…. not that kind of sensual…. we’ve been appealing to the senses with music, candles (scented), flowers etc. While you don’t want to overwhelm people with these things - a few subtle touches can really make a house more homely. We saw the impact of this ourselves recently in looking around to buy our next home.

The same is true for blogging - while it’s primarily a medium where people read text - it’s increasingly possible to add visual and audible elements with images, video and podcasts. My own experience of this is that it makes your blog a much more engaging and personal space.

7. Facades Count for a lot but….

The most impressive part of our house is the view of it from the street. It’s not that it’s bad inside - but we’ve worked hard at the outside by upgrading a fence and fixing up the garden. Our home is a Victorian period home which is sought after around here - as a result, we’ve used a shot of the front of the house on our marketing and we’ve seen a lot of people come to the opens for inspection come to check it out.

However… while the front of the house is great - it’s what’s on the inside that counts and that will term people from interested parties into actual bidders and eventual purchasers.

The same is true for a blog. While a lot has been written recently about how a blog’s design can make a major impact upon a blog (and it can) - if you want people to stick around and to convert those who are impressed with how it looks into loyal readers then you need to provide them with something on the inside that is useful to them.

8. Spending Money to Make Money

Over the last 2.5 years that we’ve been living in this home we’ve added value to it by updating a variety of things to it. We’ve put on a new roof, installed wardrobes, painted, put in new carpet and more. We didn’t do this to make money but did it for ourselves because we originally felt we’d live here for the long term (plans change). While we didn’t do it as an investment - it seems to have paid off with the quoted selling figures all significantly more than it would have been without the extra features that we’ve added.

In terms of blogging - I don’t believe that you need to spend a lot of money in order to have a successful blog. There are examples around of blogs that are run on free platforms and hosting that have done well that would shoot this down in flames. However…. spending money on your blog can help to give it a boost. I regularly speak to bloggers how spend money on advertising, more who spend on education (buying online learning resources), others who’ve spent considerable money on design and others who pay for writers (and more) who would argue that spending money to make money blogging is an important part of their approach to profitable blogging.

9. Positioning is Everything

Our agent started talking to us about where to advertise our house by saying that people from our suburb generally don’t buy in our suburb but that there’s a 90% chance that our buyers will come from 2-3 suburbs closer to the city to where we live. As a result - advertising in our very local papers was a waste of time and our ad dollars would go a lot further by advertising in papers from the inner city suburbs.

I’ve discovered a similar thing in blogging when it comes to where growing your traffic by putting time and energy into developing a presence in other websites and blogs. While some take a shotgun approach and market themselves to any other blogger who will listen - smart bloggers think carefully about where their potential reader is already gathering and positions themselves in those spaces.

Now it’s Time to Test it…

So everything above is, in reality, untested theories. I guess we’ll find out what the reality is in just a few hours. Wish us luck! I’ll update this post with a note on how it all goes later today.

Update: We sold the house and achieved our targets. Thanks to everyone for your well wishes.

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Written on August 31st, 2007 at 10:08 pm by David Shawver city of Stanton

Speedlinking - 31 August 2007

Pro Blogging News 17 comments

I’ve not done many Speedlinking posts this month due to the 31 day project. But as it’s the last day I thought I’d post a few:

  • Chitika have launched a Premium Publishers Club which enables members to get a higher revenue share, get paid for impressions as well as clicks, real time auditing, dedicated account manager (with instant chat), custom designed ads - plus a lot more. To qualify you have to have made at least $1000 over the last 90 days and/or have a history of high quality traffic. I’ve not heard about this before and am unsure when it was launched - however it does seem I’m listed as a premium publisher - wish I’d known!
  • The Australian Blogging Conference is happening - 28 September in Brisbane. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it with only a few weeks notice and a pretty full schedule over the next month - but it looks like a good get together.
  • Chris has written a nice roundup of Social Media Marketing - lots of information there.

Enjoy.

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