Written on September 15th, 2005 at 12:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Yahoo Publisher Network RSS Ads
Jen has spotted what we’ve all been expecting to see - Yahoo Publisher Network RSS ads. She writes:
‘The ads are delivered as images and seem to have an autogenerated script of some sort as it contains start and end tags in the RSS code.’
She has screen caps of them here.
Written on September 15th, 2005 at 01:09 am by Darren Rowse
8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog
Here’s a tip for how to get people to link to your blog.
Write lists!
I’ve been reminded by this again today by seeing just how many people are linking up to Piaras Kelly’s list of Tips on writing content for your blog. I must have seen 10 or 15 people link to it in the last few hours (including me). Even though I don’t agree with all of it there is something about a list that bloggers and blog readers love. Here’s a list of reasons why lists can be good for your blog:
- Lists are Scannable - online readers are notoriously lazy. A list helps communicate a number of points quickly and easily
- Lists keep posts succinct - there is something about a list that keeps you from rambling
- Lists look ‘neat’ - I don’t know about you but when I surf onto a site that is full of messily formatted text - I don’t tend to stick around long. Lists on the other hand can be quite visually pleasing
- Lists are easy to link to - most of the links to the link above simply summarize the list (giving the keypoints) - bloggers seem to like linking up in this manner
- Lists can be comprehensive - Piaras covered 12 points in the above list
- Lists are persuasive - if you want to mount a case for something quickly presenting numerous arguments in a list can be quite convincing
- Lists can add to the ease of writing - I like writing in lists because they break down my thoughts into bite sized pieces which is good not only for readers but me as a writer as I consider how to express myself
- Lists as Memes - I’m not quite sure how to describe this - but lists can start epidemics of ideas. For the above reasons (and others - bloggers seem to love linking to lists and as a result they have the ability to spread quickly
There is obviously a pretty good case for using lists in your blog writing. Of course you can use them too much - sometimes a topic calls for something a little more meaty and in depth than a list - but overall I’d recommend that using lists on your blog as part of your writing mix is an worthwhile strategy.
Written on September 14th, 2005 at 11:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Blog Crushes
Things have gotten a little heavy in some of the latest comment threads here at enternetusers so I thought it might be time to put a little love in the air and have some fun.
So I’m suggesting we make the next 7 days about naming our Blog Crushes.
Do you have a crush on another blogger? I don’t mean an actual crush - rather is there a blog or blogger out there that you really admire? Maybe you’re too scared to let them know or are afraid that your admiration is unrequited?
- you like the way they blog
- you find yourself logging onto their blog every day (sometimes more) and staring at their design or drooling over their way with words
- their RSS feed is at the top of your list
- you leave more comments on their blog than you write posts on your own
- you let them know about posts you’ve written in the hope that one day they’ll notice you
- you dream about that elusive spot on their blog roll that you’d love to fill
- every second post you do is about them or their blog
Ok - maybe your crush is as extreme as this - or maybe it’s a little milder - but I want to give people an opportunity to reveal their true love and admiration for the objects of their Blog Crushes.
I’ve done this exercise on other blogs of mine and it’s been a lot of fun.
Here’s how it works.
1. You write a post on your own blog that talks about your blog crush.
2. You can use the above graphic if you’d like.
3. Tell us in the post who the object of your crush is and why you have it. Is it their design, their humor, their prolific posting rate, their traffic levels, their humility….etc
4. Include a link to this post in your post to point your readers to where I’ll be compiling a full list of who has a crush on who (with a link to both you and the one you have a crush on).
5. Then come to this post and leave a comment below telling us that you’ve posted so I can link up.
It’s as simple as that.
The first time I did this exercise we ended up with a list of over 100 great blogs. Some of the ‘crushees’ and ‘crushers’ actually made friends through the process - one or two people even made some introductions between ‘crushees’ and ‘crushers’ and we all found some great new blogs that we’d never heard of before through the process. Lastly it was interesting to see what people wrote about what they liked in other blogs - reading reasons given was an illuminating thing in and of itself.
So give it a go - at the very least its a fun way to promote your own site a little by getting a link from this post.
Here are the Blog Crushes so far!
- Actionberg has a thing for True Hoop
- Bonnie loves Miss Snark the literary agent
- Chris Owen has been admiring ‘MrG’ from Genuine Blog
- Redd is going weak at the knees over Dooce
- HART loves Comic Strip Blog
- Miha is smitten over Duncan and Darren
- Dee has a serious thing for Marilynn Griffith
- Tim has unrequited love for Jenstar
- Cary is devoted to Lori
- Mike has expressed his love for Joi and Creating Passionate Users
- Kim gets into a lovey dovey frame of mind and talks up Angie, Shai and Cayolyn
- Colbert has a crush on Liewcf
- Allan has a place in his heart for EyeFlashes
- Kobayashi loves Steve and Darren
- Jerm has expressed his love for Kim the Awesome Dictator Princess and Mussolini
- Ben has the hots for Home Office Voice, Entrepreneurs Journey and Trevor Cook
- Chris is smitten with adiktd - too hot for radio
- Christian has a thing for me
- Angie is spreading her love around to 13 bloggers - Gina, Darren, Andy Wibbels, Ken Leebow, Heather/Dooce, Overhead in New York, Overhead in the Office, Mridu Khullar, Wendi Speciale, Carrie Colbert, Scrapability and Kim (I think I got them all).
- Tiago is dedicated to Pop Gadget
- Liz loves S.L. Cunningham
- Christine is dedicated to Steve
- Flyaway-Weblog has a crush on WandaLust
- Melissa is all gar gar over MOMster in Paris and Daddy Types
- Modern Guy has his eye on Mimi in New York
- Charlene loves Mr Nice Guy, Cafemama and The Sarcastic Journalist
Written on September 14th, 2005 at 06:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Google Blog Search - First Look Review
My initial reflections on Google’s Blog Search:
- the basic bones of the technology seem to be there.
- basically it seems to be using similar (or the same) technology as Google News.
- they seem to be indexing new posts very quickly which is great.
- the pool of blogs that they are indexing seems smaller than I’d have expected. Of course they’ll be adding new feeds to track over time
- they will have a big challenge of filtering spam - I’ve already seen quite a few spam posts in it both in the ‘related blogs’ and the actual posts that they are indexing
- I’m disappointed with the ‘related blogs’ results - I’ve seen spam blogs, blogs that havn’t been updated for 6 months and know it’s omitting major blogs in certain niches. It seems from testing that the blogs served here are very related to the title of the blog concerned rather than the content in my initial tests.
- The ability to subscribe via RSS to search terms is fantastic - top marks Google.
- Being able to see results both ‘by date’ and ‘by relevance’ is a good thing.
- The Advanced search functionality seems to offer more options than most other blog search tools that I’ve seen.
Overall - the technology is promising. It is in beta so we can’t expect too much I guess but I hope they make some improvements on some of the above areas.
I’ll also be fascinated to see how this impacts blog’s search result positioning in the main Google index. Will it lead to them being indexed faster and higher? Or is this a step towards downgrading their importance in the main index.
Update: Which indexes posts quicker - Google Blog Search or Technorati? The first one to index this post was Google in 50 minutes. The strange thing is that when I entered the index I entered it way down the page and not as the most recent post. Technorati is yet to index this post - however it has indexed considerably more in the mean time than Google.
Update II: Other reviews and first looks of Google Blog search can be found at:
- Anil’s first look at ProNet
- Paul’s Predictions
- Duncan’s Review
- Chris Pirillo has a massive list of posts from around the web on Google Blog Search
Intereseted to hear your reviews of Google Blog Search in comments below.
Written on September 14th, 2005 at 04:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Google To Launch Blog Search
John Battelle reports that Google are about to Launch Blog Search:
‘Tonight Google will announce (well, the embargo is tonight at 9 pm PST) that it is launching blog search, in two flavors, one for blogger.com, and another as a beta at google.com/blogsearch (not yet up, but will be soon…).
I spoke with Google about this, more soon, wanted to get this up in a timely manner…(too timely…as the service has yet to be pushed live….)’
He then updates that the link for the wider beta test is http://blogsearch.google.com/
This is pretty significant news.
Update: It’s up and live.
Update II: Duncan has a first impression review of the new Google Blogsearch. Like he says - the best bit about it is that that you can put search terms into an RSS feed.
On the down side - most of the searches I’ve done don’t list a lot of the blogs I’d have expected to see there and they include quite a few sites that are anything but blogs. I guess this is where most of the criticism will come from.
Update III: Unfortunately a lot of the blogs that I’ve seen it suggesting as ‘related blogs’ on certain topics either lead back to Google’s home page, are spam blogs on the blogger.com network or are very very out of date and have not been updated for months.
Written on September 14th, 2005 at 02:09 pm by Darren Rowse
12 Tips on Writing Content for your Blog
Piaras Kelly PR has 12 tips for writing content for your blog which has been linked to by a few people today. I’d actually agree with most of it - but would also recommend a little caution with a few of them. Let me make a comment on each one.
1. Use catchy titles - there is debate over this. I personally prefer titles that say what the post is about. While catching titles might get you some readers - if you’re looking for traffic from Search Engines a title with your keywords in it that says what the post is about might actually be better than a catchy or criptic title. This goes for RSS feed readers also.
2. Be unique - this is a good tip. Think about how many blogs are out there that look, sound and operate the same as millions of others. Standing out from the crowd is important.
3. Make sure to credit your sources - After my last few posts I think I’d better not say any more about this.
4. Think before you post - This is a definite must - however on some blog topics speed can mean the difference of being the ‘go to’ blog on a topic or being just another of many that are followers. If your blog is on a competitive news topic then speed can be important.
5. Stay on topic - I agree with this. Keep 99% of your posts on topic. An occasional diversion can be ok - but if your blog is on a specific topic - keep to it. The only exception is where you have a wider topic for your blog. The key is to not change mid stream what your blog is about. Your topic can be very wide - but its best you don’t chop and change between wide and niche topics too much.
6. Link, it’s polite - Linking to others is what blogging is all about.
7. Be conversational in tone - I’d agree with this in the majority of cases - but would argue that a consistent tone that reflects your personality is probably more of a key than a conversational one. While I’m as conversational as possible here at enternetusers - some of my more successful blogs are less conversational. Instead it can be appropriate to be more authoritative on some topics. Again - the important part is being consistent - find a tone and stick to it.
8. Respond to comments - this is a great point - many bloggers don’t do this. Of course it’s easier said than done when your blog attracts a lot of readers..
9. When to post - the argument here is to post in the morning when people are going through their subscriptions. Nice idea - but when is ‘the morning’ when you’re not in the same place as most of your readers? I do think about when I post (for me late at night is a good time for readers) but I’d not get too worked up about it. I do agree that weekdays can be better to publish key announcement or pieces though.
10. Be controversial - This can work for you - but it can also detract from you. I personally don’t get into the controversy thing too much - I prefer a more positive constructive approach to blogging. If you go the controversial route - make sure you have thick skin and are willing to disillusion and even lose some readers. Controversy can build readers in the short term but most blogs need a mixture of positive content as well as critiques, rants etc (of course there are some exceptions).
11. Blogging is not email - Good tips for newbies.
12. Assuming makes an ass out of u and me - ‘Don’t assume readers are familiar with your product/service/pastime.’ - true - it’s worth remembering that your readership is a fluid thing. Not everyone reads everything you write so when you write about things you’ve written about previously you might want to either explain yourself or link to explanatory pages. Also highlight your about page to give people some of the basic information about you.
found via Micro Persuasion
Written on September 14th, 2005 at 10:09 am by Darren Rowse
Using Other People’s Content
Here is a free tip.
If you’re going to IM me and ask me to look at your blog - don’t fill it with stolen content.
I’m going to make this as clear as possible.
If you are going to use other people’s content to your site:
- ALWAYS reveal your sources. Give a link to your source if it is an online source. If its not attribute it by giving the author and where it was published.
- NEVER quote full articles from others unless you have obtained their permission.
If you don’t do this you run the risk of being sued, having people report you to the search engines for de-listing, having people report you to your advertisers to be banned from their programs and you’ll end up being a very unpopular blogger and will be exposed and shamed publicly.
If you have grand visions of making masses of money through using other people’s content then you’re delusional. Check out all the top lists of blogs that are doing big traffic and you’ll find that almost all of them are completely original content.
Stealing others content is plain stupid. Doing it and letting me know about it is even stupider. Doing it, letting me know about it and then not changing your ways is completely idiotic.
End of Rant.
further reading - A quick guide to referencing
Written on September 13th, 2005 at 10:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Blog Job - Search Engine Herald Editor
Do you know anything about Search Engines? Do you like to blog? Would you like to combine these interests and make a little money on the side from it? You might want to apply for the editor’s position at Duncan’s Search Engine Herald. Get information here.
Written on September 13th, 2005 at 08:09 am by Darren Rowse
‘Real Life’ takes a Turn
Most regular readers know that I’ve been working on a part time research project for the past 6 months on a non blogging related topic (in my ‘real life). Today is a major deadline day where we present what we’ve done so far. It takes us to one step away from finishing it up which is really exciting for a number of reasons - one of which is that it will mean that in two weeks I’ll be free to fully devote my time to blogging again.
So I’ll be scarce today. In the mean time you might be interested in an Interview with me that Wendy from the Web Search section of About.com has posted about my blogging business.
Other than that - check out the raging discussion threads in the last few posts which are really great discussions.
Written on September 12th, 2005 at 11:09 pm by Darren Rowse
A enternetusers Dilemma - Seeking Your Opinion
I’d like to ask the opinion of you, my friends and readers about something I’ve been pondering this past few weeks.
Longer term readers will remember back in April when I asked your opinion about whether I should allow some of my posts to appear on WebProNews.
At the time I was a little torn on the idea. On one hand I could see it might help build profile, would bring some inbound links and would get some of my posts into Google News but on the downside it would lead to offsite readership and duplicate content. In the end I agreed to enter into the arrangement.
Since this time I’ve carefully watched to see what impact being a part of WebProNews has had and now am wanting to review it and would love to hear your perspective as readers of this blog and as wise bloggers yourself:
Here is some of what I can report back:
• Since April they’ve used just over 155 of my posts (you can see them listed here). In that same period I’ve posted 650 posts here at enternetusers (so they’ve used about 25%).
• The posts that they’ve linked to have been a real mixture of posts including newsy short posts through to my longer, original content tips pieces. The filter out some of the less important pieces (like this one I suspect!)
• Probably my biggest concern is that the articles that appear on WebProNews almost always outrank the articles as they appear on enternetusers. I searched for the exact titles of many of these articles on Google and in the vast majority of cases the WebProNews version (or one of their syndicated sites) came up as number 1 for the term and I came in second or third. As they usually pick up my best posts - this means my bread and butter posts are not being picked up as highly as they could on Google. The good side of this is that I’m at least getting my content ranking highly - the downside is that WebProNews are doing better from my content than I am myself - I also worry that this will make my site look like a scraper site in Google and could mean I am penalized for duplicate content.
• I’ve noticed only the occasional direct referral from the links within these articles and their signatures.
• Many of the articles that they link to appear not only on WebProNews directly - but also on a variety of other sites that they syndicate content to (for example they come up here, here and here to name just three sites).
• Articles that I write are often picked up and linked to by other bloggers but often the links point to the article at WebProNews as this is where the content is found.
• I have had one or two readers tell me that they have found my blog via articles on WPN but have little other evidence of it raising my profile. Of course I have not sought out feedback on this and it could be helping more than I know.
• My signature on all 150 articles has links back to four of my blogs. While this has brought virtually no traffic it must contribute to page ranking to some extent - although the pages they appear on are not really relevant content and have a page rank of between 0 and 3 in most cases.
So - my dilemma is whether I should continue to allow WPN to use my content as they have been or whether I should end the association.
Before I make up my decision I’d love to hear the thoughts of others both to find out if having my content on WPN has had any impact upon you as a reader (did you find my site through them? - do you read them there rather than on my feed or blog? etc) and secondly to get your wisdom on what you’d do as a blogger?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
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