Written on March 17th, 2007 at 02:03 am by Darren Rowse

Screencasts Add Great Content, New Revenue Streams

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 22 comments

The following post on Screencasting as a way to add great content and revenue streams to your blog was submitted by Mike Schinkel.

One way to add huge value to your blog is to incorporate screencasts for “how-to” instruction sites “tours” or software products and other blogs and websites.

Take a page from a professional’s playbook

Jon Udell on Windows Live Writer (30 min)

Jon Udell, now at Microsoft but formerly of Infoworld and a god to many in the technology field uses screencasts frequently and keeps a list of screencasts on del.icio.us. Screencasts are very helpful for illustrating anything that can be shown on a computer screen such as a tour of a website. For example, enternetusers’s recent post on iReader could have had a quick screencast showing it in action which would make your point much better than sending readers off to go figure it out on their own. And since a “picture is worth a 1000 words”, screencasts can provide a lot more value than the typical post. Combine their visual aspect with the fact that screencasts are (currently) much rarer than written posts and the result is many people providing inbound links if the screencast is good. After all, it’s all about great content, right?

Screencasting takes effort, but provides great returns

Editing Greasemonkey Scripts (45 sec)

Although creating a screencast takes time, it can be well worth the effort if you cover a topic that of high interest to your readers, especially if you are the first to screencast the topic and yours becomes the definitive presentation. When trying to illustrate something you’ve seen on another site, it can be far more effective than sending your readers off to that other site in blind hope they can recognize what you saw. And those employing guest bloggers can ask their readers to create screencasts for them eliminating the time concern and making it a total no-brainer! What’s more, bloggers with enough traffic can sell splash screen advertising at the end of each screencast, and advertisers in niche markets especially eat that kind of thing up. Something tells me there is more money to be made on a blog from screencast advertising than all the HTML click-thru advertising combined!

Shorter is Better

Google vs. Yahoo (39 sec)

Looked at from a best practices perspective I think screencasts are most effective for blogs if they are between 30 and 90 seconds in order not to loose the attention of the typical A.D.D. web surfer. Jon tends to run longer screencasts and those might be okay for deep technical subjects. However I can rarely sit through his full screencasts and often set them aside for later because they are so long yet later never comes. I think Jon would be better off if he sliced his screencasts up into bite-size pieces and let people choose which parts to watch. Of course he could also continue to offer the entire screencast for those wanting the full-meal-deal!

Some good examples:

Permalinks in WordPress (6:45)

The screenshots in this post link to screencasts hosted on other websites. Most of them are implemented using Flash, one as a downloadable .WMV file (what’s a poor Mac user to do?) Some of the screencasts are short, some long. Some include the total run time as a legend, most do not (or have it on a caption page.) Some are embedded in the text, most are not. :

1. The first one is from Jon Udell about Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer, my personal favorite desktop-based blog editor. It’s a Flash-based interview of Jack Ozzie and J.J. Allaire as they demo Windows Live Writer and is well done except for it is painfully long (30 minutes); it was all I could do to sit through it all. It could have been 1/3rd the length and been more effective.
2. Next up is from Dive Into Greasemonkey by Mark Pilgrim. It shows how to do live editing of Greasemonkey scripts. It’s also Flash-based and nice and short at around 45 seconds (there was no legend telling the exact time), but for some reason its controls did not allow me to jump to a point in the screencast and it’s not embedded within the associated text which I think that helps.
3. Third is from Jeremy Zawodny using Windows Media Video format to show a very quick bit about how searching for the 2007 Oscar Winners on Yahoo produced better results than when searching from Google. It doesn’t include any voice-over, a real weakness, but Jeremy made that point on his blog saying it was his first screencasting effort. However, it’s a shining example of how effective a very short screencast can be at 39 seconds when compared to 30 minute behemoths.
4. The second-to-last screencast is Flash-based screencast from Tubetorial. It’s hosted on a blog post as an embedded screencast entitled “How to Get More Search Engine Traffic With One Simple Tweak“. Actually, it’s really about one of my favorite subjects: Optimizing your Website’s URL Structure. It shows how to configure Permalinks for WordPress and is more than a pure screencast because it uses PowerPoint-style presentation and picture. Thought it’s a bit too long for my tastes, it is a great example of a screencast. Actually, the entire site is devoted to screencasts and is worth checking out.
5. And I’ve actually embedded the last screencast into the page below to illustrate the benefits and immediacy of that technique. This screencast is about installing WordPress on a local server that I found on YouTube by leachim6. Being from YouTube it’s obviously Flash-based, it’s a bit longer than it needs to be, and it definitely has the lowest production quality of any of the other four but that’s one of the reasons I wanted to include it. It covers a really useful topic for readers of enternetusers.net and I think is also shows that you don’t need to be afraid of screencasting because even a low production quality screencast can offer something of real value to your readers.

Camtasia Studio: the Market Leading Screencast Tool

Camtasia Studio

As for tools, the most widely known software for screencasts IMO is TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio. Unfortunately, at US$299 Camtasia Studio is priced well outside the pain threshold for most bloggers. And because I’d really like to see more bloggers producing screencasts, I’ve started a mini-campaign to get TechSmith to release a blogger-priced edition for US$69.

As a person who founded and ran a successful reseller of components and tools for software developers from 1994 to 2006, I know a little bit about software sales and product pricing, and I’m convinced this strategy would also increase TechSmith’s overall profit (revenue - related expense) significantly. As is, the current price is too expensive for the (perceived) value most bloggers would get in return. Lowering their price would change the economics for the blogger, in my opinion, and cause Camtasia sales to skyrocket. Back in 2004 I blogged about that concept in “Pricing and the Economics of Value Creation.” And since TechSmith advertises Camtasia on Technorati, we know they are interested in the blogger market, at least in some form.

Other Tools for Screencasting

After writing my post on the mini-campaign it occurred to me that there are probably many other screen capture tools on the market that simply hadn’t developed the recognition that Camtasia Studio had, at least not with me. So I did some research and sure enough there were plenty. The following is the full list of screen recording software tools in ascending order of price:

I can’t vouch for most these as the only one I’ve tried besides Camtasia was Wink. Considering Wink is a free tool it was great, however its EXE generator did produce an EXE that locks up when executed (I was using it to prepare for a conference presentation, not for display on a blog.)

One more for your Bag-o-Tricks

In summary, if it’s applicable for your audience, you really should consider adding screencasts to your collections of blogging tools and techniques. In hindsight, I think you’ll be glad you did.

-Mike Schinkel
http://www.mikeschinkel.com/blogs/
http://www.welldesignedurls.org
http://atlanta-web.org - http://t.oolicio.us

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Written on March 16th, 2007 at 01:03 am by Darren Rowse

5 Tips for Improving AdSense Referrals Earnings

Affiliate Programs, Adsense 30 comments

Yesterday I asked Do AdSense Referrals converted well for me? Today I’d like to turn our attention to some tips on how to make the referral program convert better.

How do you get more readers to click through and sign up to referrals?

Here are five tips that I’ve used:

1. Give a Recommendation

One of the differences between the AdSense referral program and their normal advertising program is that you can Actively promote and encourage readers to click your referral links. This is because you don’t get paid per click but only when the reader meets the required action. So no one is out of pocket if you encourage your readers to click or label the buttons as recommendations. In fact if you do recommend the product (genuinely) you’ll increase your chances of conversion as you’re really pre-selling the product (and all affiliate or CPA programs work best with some pre-selling).

2.Relevancy is Key

The only reason that AdWords and AdSense referrals work reasonably for me is that my blog is on the topic of making money online. If I were to put them on any of the other blogs I’m involved with the conversion would be terrible. I’d steer clear of the program altogether unless you have readers who would naturally be interested in the topic.

3. Use Your Allowance of Two Referrals a Page

Google recently changed the rules to allow publishers to use two referral links per page instead of the previously allowed single link. I have one text link positioned at the bottom of individual posts and one in my sidebar (for AdSense). I find that the ones at the bottom of posts work best.

4. Use a Pre-Sell page

One of the problems with the AdSense referrals program is that the text links are difficult to incorporate into a post. They are not html but are a script and you are hampered in changing the wording of how the link appears. Also if you’re already using your two links on the one page (like I am) you can’t put a third link into your post. The way I get around this is to have an AdSense ‘pre-sell’ page. On this page I simply explain what AdSense is, share how it works for me and include a button to sign up for it. I can’t tell you the exact CTR on this page but it’s over 400 times better than the CTR on either of the other links appearing on my blog! Whether this converts to signups I’m unsure as AdSense don’t allow us to track signups on a channel by channel basis (and I’ve only used this pre-sell page for a month now so it’s too early to tell if it leads to readers getting to the threshold at a higher rate than the other buttons).

5. Help Your Readers Meet Thresholds

Lastly, consider how you might help those who do click through to meet the conversion thresholds. This is why on my Pre-Sell page I also have a link to my AdSense Tips pages which will help those starting out with AdSense to perform better (earning both them and me more money).

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Written on March 15th, 2007 at 08:03 am by Darren Rowse

Wendy Wins

Pro Blogging News 13 comments

Congratulations to Wendy Piersall who won the snap competition to attend the Elite Retreat. She’s excited - and so am I. I get to meet another enternetusers reader (and she gets to meet an eMoms reader).

By the Way: While I’m traveling in the US Wendy will be one of enternetusers’s guest bloggers. I suspect after the retreat she’ll have plenty of fresh ideas to write about.

Other Guest Bloggers to look forward to include Neil Patel, Chris Garrett and Liz Strauss (to name just a few).

By the Way 2: Those of you who are planning on coming along to the New York enternetusers meetup - details should be available of where it will be held in the next 48 hours. If you want me to email you about it leave a comment with a valid email address in the email field on the previous post.

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Written on March 15th, 2007 at 01:03 am by Darren Rowse

Do AdSense Referrals Work?

Affiliate Programs, Adsense 35 comments

Today’s reader question is - ‘I would like to know your views on Google referral ads. Do you make money out of them, or is it something to run away from?’ - submitted by gabo_uy.

Google AdSense Referrals are the CPA ads (cost per action) from the popular AdSense service. At the time of writing this they have four products for their publishers to choose from (AdSense itself, AdWords, Google Pack and Firefox plus Google Toolbar). Putting it most simply - if a reader makes that you send to one of these services does a certain thing (they are different in each case) you then get paid a certain amount.

For example if I refer someone to the Firefox plus Google Toolbar and they actually download and use it I get paid $1. If someone someone downloads and installs the Google Pack I get $2. If someone signs up for AdWords and spends $5 within 90 days as an advertiser I get $5 etc (full details of what you can earn for different conversions here).

So onto gabo_uy’s question - do I make money from the Google referral program?

There’s a short answer and a long one.

The short answer
Yes I make money from the Google AdSense Referral Program.

The long answer
I’ve had very mixed success with AdSense Referrals.

I’ve attempted to promote all four of their products (in fact there used to be a fifth - the Picassa photosharing service) and the only two that I’ve had returns on that have amounted to anything are the AdSense and AdWords programs.

I’m not sure I can give specific details of my conversions on the referrals program - but let me make these observations on my own earnings:

• Earnings have Improved this month - I’ve been using them since they began the program in November 2005. In that time I’ve earned earned a bit over $2900 from the program (almost completely from the AdWords and AdSense products). However a around half of what I’ve earned has been earned in the 2 months since they changed their payout system to reward publishers at lower conversion levels
• The conversion rates are very low in my experience. Despite having a site that is fairly closely related to AdSense (and a lesser extent AdWords) the percentages of those clicking on the referral links/buttons is incredibly low. The percentage of those who click that actually convert to the thresholds that AdSense require is even lower (although the 1 Feb changes will help this).
• Stanton Termite Control

So my overall reflections on the Google AdSense Referral program are mixed. There has definitely been some improvement of late with it due to both the changes AdSense made but also as a result of a few changes in the way I use it.

Tomorrow I want to write a second post on Google AdSense Referrals - this time asking ‘how can you make them perform better?’ In this post I’ll share some of the changes I’ve made over the last couple of months that have helped improve my earnings from them.

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Written on March 14th, 2007 at 10:03 am by Darren Rowse

Speedlinking - 14 March 2007

Pro Blogging News 23 comments

A Guide to Freelancing

North x East has a great article up that is a Comprehensive Guide to Starting your Freelancing Career. It covers everything from branding, to where to find work, advice on quoting prices and invoicing (and more).

More and more bloggers are using their blogging as a launching pad for a freelancing career in writing - I’m sure this will be helpful for those just starting out.

Why Commenting is a Good Practice

Chris Garrett has also put together a good post today and gives 10 reasons why commenting on other people’s blogs is good for you. The benefits of being a regular contributer to other’s blogs in their comment section go beyond that they might click on your name and discover your blog.

I personally find that many of my best ideas come to me during a comment on someone else’s blog which then turns into a post on my own.

Blogging Toolkit

Ian from Ian’s Messy Desk has put together his Blogging Toolkit? having bounced off my question about the blog tools you use. While I don’t have the time to do a fully fledged group writing project this week if it’s a topic that is appropriate for your blog feel free to write up a post and leave a link in the comments of my previous post so the rest of us can check out what you use and why.

The list of tools people are submitting is turning out to be a great conversation already and I’ll be sending quite a few people to it in the coming month - thanks everyone!

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Written on March 14th, 2007 at 12:03 am by Darren Rowse

Lessons from the Heart for Would-be Bloggers

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 34 comments

Joshua Porter from Bokardo (a blog about social web design) has written a refreshing post with his 9 Lessons for Would-be Bloggers. It is refreshing to me as it’s not filled with the just the ‘normal’ tips that everyone comes up with but is written from the heart. His 9 points are (the headings are his (and he writes more on each one) - the comments are mine):

1. It’s only an initial fear - seasoned bloggers often forget the ‘weirdness’ and fear of starting up a new blog. It takes a while to get used to the idea of people reading what you have to say and knowing more about you than you know about yourself. I still get weirded out by total strangers bowling up to me and telling me what I’ve been up to (my wife gets freaked out even more!).
2. You have something valuable to say - I love this one and it’s something I’m regularly saying to bloggers. I strongly believe in the worth of people and think that in their own way each of us has something worthwhile and precious to share.
3. When in doubt, post - while I wouldn’t advise just posting every half thought through idea that comes into your head - I do subscribe to the theory that blogs are not just for finished or refined thoughts. One of the wonderful things about blogs is that when you track them over time you get to see the journey that a blogger has gone on. Good blogs will track the evolution of thought of a blogger (if there’s no real change or development I’d be worried). All I’d add to this point is that ‘when in doubt, post - and be transparent’. Don’t try to come off as the ‘expert’ if you have doubts or are still working through something - write such posts in a way that invites people to journey with you and be patient with you as you think out loud.
4. Use the comments for refining your point - great stuff on this one too from Josh. The real action and learning on the blogs that I respect most (and hope to be developing) happens in the comments sections where the knowledge of the wider community comes into play and shapes a post. Take the attitude that together we know more than individually and you’ll create a space where true learning takes place.
5. Everything is beta - the idea of Josh’s ‘thoughts being in beta’ is inspirational to me and really connects with a lot of what I’ve already written above. Blogging is a journey - evolve, be shaped by it and be open to change. One of the things I love about blogging in comparison to many other mediums is that it’s so adaptable and flexible - worth with this rather than against it and keep your blog moving and adapting to the opportunities that arise.
6. Have a schtick - what’s schtick? It’s the thing that defines what your blog is about. You might call it a tagline, a mission statement or your topical boundaries - but it’s the thing that keeps you on target and keeps you accountable to the direction you’re headed. Here at enternetusers my schtick is ‘helping bloggers earn money’ - it’s broad enough to encompass a lot, but focussed enough to keep pulling me on track when I stray.
7. Correct English be-damned - I can imagine the emails Josh will get on this one but hear what he’s saying. Good grammar and spelling shouldn’t be thrown out the window - but there are other important factors at play in the creation of a great blog. People are interested in ‘ideas’ more than how you write.
8. Show your greatest hits - creating prominent greatest hits sections of your blog that give people a place to start is a great tactic and something I’ve written about many times. It gives your blog the ability to prove itself as a credible source of information and become sticky to new readers very quickly.
9. People are listening - the lurkers of your blog far out number those that comment so don’t be disheartened if some days it feels like you’re talking to a brick wall. You are being listened to and every post is an opportunity to make an impression, build loyalty and create a spark that could grow into a flame.

Great post Josh - thanks for your inspiration!

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Written on March 13th, 2007 at 08:03 am by Darren Rowse

What are Your Top 5 Blogging Tools?

Blogging Tools and Services 132 comments

If you had to choose 5 blogging tools that were the only ones you could use for the next 12 months what would they be and why?

I’m asking this because I want to put together a short list of recommendations on blog tools for a presentation I’m doing in a couple of weeks time.

By Blog Tools I am speaking pretty broadly and include:

• Blog Platforms
• Desktop Publishers
• Metrics Packages
• Promotional Tools
• Content Sourcing Services
• Design Tools

Basically anything that might help you to blog better (but not advertising networks).

Looking forward to your suggestions.

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Written on March 13th, 2007 at 07:03 am by Darren Rowse

Free Elite Retreat Ticket For One Lucky Winner!

Pro Blogging News 4 comments

If you’re one of the many people who have emailed me to say that you’d love to come to Elite Retreat but couldn’t pull the money together for it in time - then I’m pleased to announce that the organizers are putting together a competition to give one person free entry. That’s a prize worth $4950 and the chance to hang out with Jeremy (Shoemoney) Schoemaker, Guy Kawasaki, Kris Jones, Lee Dodd, Aaron Wall, Neil Patel and myself.

How to Enter - To enter for a chance to win free registration to the Elite Retreat, you need to send in an email to ( contest(at)eliteretreat(dot)info ) with your contact information (name, email address, phone number, and mailing address) AND your answer to the following question:

“Why should a legitimate business need to worry about branding?”

If you choose to participate and send in your email, you MUST be ready and willing to book your airfare and hotel reservations right away as the conference is less than 1 week away!

Again, send the email in to: contest(at)eliteretreat(dot)info

Contest Deadline: Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 @ 12:00pm CST

So get your entry in and we might just get the opportunity to spend a couple of days together to chat over your blogging project! Go enternetusers readers - I want the winner to be one of you!

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Written on March 13th, 2007 at 12:03 am by Darren Rowse

What McDonalds Taught me about Blogging - Grow Up With Your Readers

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 24 comments

Last week I wrote a post talking about simple posts and how they can be a powerful thing to include in your blog. I followed that post up with one looking at the balancing act that longer term bloggers have when it comes to working out where to pitch their blog (trying to get the balance right between ‘beginner’ and more advanced posts). Today I’d like to continue the train of thought by taking a look at new blogs.

With new blogs it can be a little easier to cater for a particular level of reader because you’re starting afresh with no established expectations from anyone. At least in the early months the balancing act described in my previous post might not be needed.

But that doesn’t mean starting a new blog is always easy.

One tactic that I’ve found helpful when starting a new blog is to ‘grow up with my readers‘.

I’ve written about this previously somewhere (I can’t find it though) but I take this inspiration from the McDonalds fast food chain (bear with me - tangent ahead).

McDonalds Marketing Over the Years

If you do a little analysis of McDondonalds media campaigns over the last 30 years you’ll notice that it went through some significant waves in terms of their focus (at least they did in Australia).

When I was a kid McDonalds ads were very much focussed at children.

Ronald McDonald featured heavily as did the hamburglar and a variety of other characters. The pitch was fairly and squarely aimed at me and my peers.

Over the years the ads changed. When I was a teenager McDonalds ads ‘grew up’ a little. They began to feature ‘cool’ young adults - laughing, having fun and… being… well just cool.

When I became a young adult the ads (and the decor) at McDoncalds continued to grow up. The ads featured more adults (although there were some still on kids), McCafes were introduced and the trend towards a healthier and more ‘grown up’ menu began.

These days I’ve noticed the ads featuring more and more families. Dads with kids, mums with kids - food for the whole family….

McDonalds has grown up as I have. They’ve pitched themselves at me and my peers all along the road from child, to teen, to young adult to parent - I guess in a few years we’ll see the playgrounds that they have here replaced with McOxygen tents for senior citizens.

So what’s McDonalds marketing strategy got to do with starting a new blog?

In short - I think a great way to start a new blog is to pitch it at a lower level and to then ‘grow up with your readers’.

Start with the basics (after all that’s where many people are at) and then add to the level that you pitch things at over time with more intermediate posts and then advanced ones.

This is what I’ve been attempting to do with Digital Photography School over the last 10 months. The early days focussed in on how to hold a camera and basic rules of composition like the rule of thirds - and over time I’ve gradually attempted to get a little more advanced and have tried to tempt readers out of the auto modes on their cameras with posts on exposure. Adding a forum also grew the blog up a little and attracted a higher level of interaction and learning.

I’m not saying you can’t start a blog at a more advanced level - many have done this successfully - but as I look around most niches I see a lot of blogs that have already gone to the advanced level that might have forgotten about the beginner user - for me the logical response to this is to tap into this forgotten novice market and move on from there.

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Written on March 12th, 2007 at 03:03 pm by Darren Rowse

The Problem of Too Many Blogs

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 20 comments

Raj writes an interesting post over at Performacing on The Dangers Of Too Many Sites: Blogger’s Dilemma where he outlines some of the options open to bloggers who have too many blogs and not enough resources to run them all.

On a similar note, here’s the first post in a series on how to kill your blog successfully.

It’s an interesting problem and one that I suspect is quite common. I know I’ve left my fair share of dead blogs behind me and know of quite a few bloggers who have done likewise.

I also know of quite a few bloggers who overwhelmed themselves and ended up killing their blogging careers because they bit off more than they could chew with too many blogs too quickly. There’s certainly something to be said for doing a few things well rather than lots of things poorly!

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