Written on August 26th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:08 am by Darren Rowse

Closing the Deal - Persuasive Blogging Part V

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 5 comments

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” - Mario Andretti

The last step in the process to writing a persuasive blog post is to lead your readers to a point of commitment to the action that you’re asking them to take.

Having worked on their desire to make some changes they should be feeling motivated to do so - but depending upon the action you’re asking for they could be feeling some level of ‘fear’ about what might happen if they do step out and do something.

Many people find change to be a scary thing and so it might be time for a little reassurance to get them over the line.

Here are a few tips on seeking commitment from readers.

Ask for a Specific Response

One of the best things you can do at this point is to give a small first step for the action you are asking for. Make it as specific as possible and consider making it bite sized enough that it’s achieveable but not so small that it’s not significant.

Add Accountability

People follow through on commitments to a much higher extent if they know other people know about the action that they’ve committed themselves to. Invite your readers to let you know about the commitment that they’ve made, or to do something public about it (leave a comment, write on their own blog about it, participate in some forum you might have).

The other thing great thing about this is that people like to feel that they are part of something larger than themselves and that they’re in a movement of people like themselves taking specific action. Create an atmosphere of ‘we’re doing this together’ and you’ll get people achieving so much more.

Personal Reassurance

If you’re able to give it you might like to make a commitment to help the reader through the action you’re asking them to take. Even if it’s just asking them to email you if they have problems can be enough to get people over the line and take some action.

Once again - in this last stage it’s useful to tell your own story and to use ‘inspirational’ pictures of what can be to help people move past their fear to commitment.

Follow Up

Also know that people’s fear doesn’t always end once they’ve taken the action you’ve asked them to take.

I started this series by talking about some of the sales guys I met when searching for a new car. One of the things I liked about the one that ended up getting the sale (we bought a Honda CRV) was that his sales process didn’t stop at the moment we signed on the dotted line and handed him the cheque.

The day after we took the car home and again a week later he rang to see how we liked it and if there were any problems. What he was doing was helping us to get through our ‘buyers remorse’.

Good sales people know that when they sell a big item that the purchaser often feels some sort of remorse or concern a day or two after their purchase. They might worry that they’ve made the wrong decision or that they spent too much etc.

Good sales people know this and it is often a time that they’ll call or write to reassure that the buyer made a good decision.

In the same way - ongoing interactions with readers can go a long way too. If someone’s gone out of their way to do something you’ve asked them to do you should do as much as you can to acknowledge it and thank them. If they’ve made some significant decision as a result of something you’ve written even just a simple email congratulating them and letting them know you’ve noticed what they’ve done can have a real impact.

The Art of Persuasive Blogging

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s series on persuasive blogging.

Over the week we’ve looked at:

1. Getting Attention - taking potential readers from your a state of Rejection to Attention
2. Stimulating Interest - moving readers from Indifference to Interest in your writing
3. Conviction - taking readers on a journey from Skepticism that what you’re writing about is the right action to Conviction that it is and that they should do something about it
4. Creating Desire - helping readers to move out of a state of Procrastination to a state of Desire to do what you are asking them to do
5. Seeking Commitment - leading readers past their Fear to Commitment to take action

A lot more could be said on persuasive blogging and I invite you to share your experiences both of being persuaded as a blog reader but also of being the persuader.

I’d also be particularly interested in hearing your reaction to the process that I’ve outlined this week. Give it a go in your next post and let me know how it goes.

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Written on August 25th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 03:08 pm by Darren Rowse

Resources for Information Publishers

Blogging Tools and Services 8 comments

Martin at ePublishingDaily has put together a page of resources for information publishers that I think a lot of entrepreneurial bloggers will find very useful.

It’s got over 100 resources in 17 categories including:

• Online PDF Creators
• Keyword Tools
• Stock Photos
• Online Payment
• Autoresponders
• Online Researching

Some categories will be more helpful for some than others (depending upon their approach) but there’s sure to be something worthwhile on the list for everyone.

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Written on August 25th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 09:08 am by Darren Rowse

Six Figure Blogging Gets an Update

enternetusers Site News 1 comment

It’s been almost a year since Andy Wibbels and I ran the live version of the Six Figure Blogging Course. The response we had back then was pretty terrific - thousands registered for the free preview call (which is still available to give you a taster on our main page) and we ended up with a great group of bloggers doing the calls with us over a six week period.

The feedback they gave us was that it was well worth the expense to do the course and that if anything we gave them too much information to digest.

Since the live version we’ve made the archives of what we did available as a downloadable course (six hour long calls, with full transcripts of them all and access to class notes) and have had quite a few bloggers go through it.

Andy and I were chatting a couple of weeks ago and realized that it’d been almost 12 months since the first course and that a lot had happened in Pro Blogging circles in that time. So we decided to put together an update call.

We surveyed those who did the course previously to find out what they wanted more information on and pulled together a free bonus call for those who have signed up for the course.

The call covers an update of a number of new income streams launched since the course, plus us discussing questions like:

• Is there still hope for individuals getting into blogging for money in a time when everyone is doing it and there are some big players entering the field?
• How long should it take to get somewhere with blogging?
• Blog Networks - How do they pay people?
• Reasons why many blogs don’t make money

Plus lots more. The call is 40 minutes and as usual we stuffed as much as we could into it.

So if you’ve already enrolled in Six Figure blogging just log in and you’ll get the call for free. If you’ve not done the course but would like to - head over to Six Figure Blogging.

Also - don’t forget the affiliate program where you can earn money for recommending the course. Sign up for it over at Andy’s site.

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Written on August 25th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 02:08 am by Darren Rowse

Desire and Persuasive Blogging - Part IV

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 9 comments

“Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” - Napoleon Hill

Over the last few years I’ve put on a little weight.

Actually - a more accurate statement would be - each year over the last few years I’ve put on a little weight and over the ‘few years’ the little bits of weight that I’ve put in have started to add up.

I’m not fat - but I could definitely benefit from taking a few kilograms off.

I’m convinced that I need to lose some weight and have been for a couple of years now. I know the arguments of why I should lose weight and even know how to do it but the reality is that I’ve done nothing about it.

Why is this?

To be honest I’m not exactly sure - but I guess what it boils down to is that as much as I’m convinced that I should - I have no real desire to make the changes that I know are necessary to lose weight.

I suspect that I’m not alone - both when it comes to losing weight but also when it comes to taking action in other areas of our lives.

This week we’ve been talking about how to become a persuasive blogger - we’ve talked about getting attention, stimulating interest and convincing (or convicting) readers that they should take some form of action.

The Need for Desire In Motivating People To Take Action

People often get stuck at this point. They give us their attention, they are interested in the topic we’re exploring and they’re even convinced that what we’re saying is right and that they should so something - but they leave our blogs and do nothing about what they’ve read.

Some of them leave saying ‘it’s too hard’ and others saying ‘I’ll do it one day’. Procrastination sets in and no action is taken - the desire just isn’t there.

Taking people beyond being ‘convinced’ is a real gift and it’s something many of us need to learn about. Here’s a few strategies that might help:

How to Move Readers to a Point of Desire

1. Reemphasize Benefits

You’ve already outlined why people should take the action you’re suggesting - but some people need to hear things more than once. Without repeating yourself word for word go over the benefits of taking the action your suggesting.

2. Shock Them With a Picture of Inaction

Here in Australia there’s been a show on TV (that I’m sure people get versions of elsewhere) called ‘Honey we’re killing the kids’. The show takes parents and shows them a picture of what their kids will look like at the age of 40 if they continue to parent them like they are parenting them. The pictures of what they look like are generally of overweight, tired looking adults, often with no teeth and looking pretty bad. The hope with showing the pictures is to shock the parents into changing their parenting style (it almost always works).

Similarly in Australia we get a lot of Shock Ads - for example there are some very effective TV ads around that show people very graphically what happens if they don’t stop smoking - the latest two show amputations and mouth cancer (see them here if you’re game). I know a number of ex-smokers who put their quitting down to these ads.

Painting a shocking picture of how life will be with inaction can be a powerful tool for helping people to increase their desire to do something. I’m not saying to use shock/scare tactics where they’re not warranted just for the sake of it - you do need to keep the ’shock’ in proportion to the topic you’re talking about - but showing not only the positives of an action but the alternatives of inaction is a worthwhile strategy to employ in presenting your case.

3. Paint an End Results Picture

At the end of ‘Honey we’re killing the kids’ parents are presented with a picture of their kids ‘alternate reality’ if they continue to work on their parenting (ie change diet, discipline, sleep patterns etc). The pictures are in stark contrast to the ’shock’ pics that they’ve previously seen. You can see the hope and desire in the eyes of the parents as they see the comparison and I’m sure it is a major motivation for them to make changes.

4. Appeal to The Heart

It is interesting to track the changes in advertising and marketing over the past few generations. I recently came across an old newspaper from the 50’s and was amazed by the differences in ads in it to todays. Most of them were aiming first and foremost at the minds of their readers and were appealing to logic. They outlined features, specifications and gave logical reasons why you should buy their product.

These days ads are much different - they appeal to the heart, they aim for the senses and unashamedly go after an emotional response (even as I watch this I see an ad for a car on TV that doesn’t even mention anything about engine size, brakes or any other feature - all it really seems to be saying is that it’s a car that helps you get ‘free’ and have ‘fun’).

Now I’m not saying as bloggers that we need to emotionally manipulate our readers - however we could learn a thing or two from marketers because they’ve learned that people these days don’t just make logical decisions with their heads - they often make them from the heart also. So consider using stories, pictures and engaging people on a personal level in addition to outlining facts and arguements.

A Proverb to Bring it Home

There’s an Old Irish Proverb that I think sums it up nicely:

“Your feet will bring you to where your heart is.”

Help your reader see a picture of their lives if they do take the action you’re asking them to. Bring it home on a personal (heart) level and help them to dream a little and you might just find that they’ll put their dreams into action.

Tomorrow I’ll finish this series by looking at the last challenge of persuasive bloggers - helping people move beyond Fear to Committment to take Action.

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Written on August 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 05:08 pm by Darren Rowse

Marinating Ideas into Blog Posts - My Posting Workflow

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 21 comments

Glen has posted a nice post at LifeDev titled Let Your Blog Posts Marinate (4 Steps to Forming Great Ideas) which uses the great image of marinating your ideas for a while before posting them.

Below I’ll share 10 steps on how I let ideas marinate and become posts - but first….

I love the marinating image for two reasons:

Great Marinades Take Time

Firstly - the best marinades that I’ve ever made have been when I’ve thought ahead and begun the process of putting the meat into the marinade well ahead of the time that I cook it (even the day before). I like this image because it reminds me that often ideas need time to grow and mature.

In my opinion many bloggers post their thoughts too quickly and don’t allow their ideas to develop to a point where they are unique and useful enough to reach their potential

Great Marinades Combine Ingredients to Create New Flavors

Secondly - the image of marinating conjures up images of combining different sauces, spices, herbs and ingredients into one dish to allow them to mix and combine in a way that brings out the flavor in the meat you’re marinating. Another problem that I see some bloggers falling into is posting one dimensional (or shallow) posts that are good ideas but that could be GREAT ideas if they were worked on a little more.

It’s like putting your meat in a marinate of just one sauce - something that can improve it, but not as much as if you added some herbs and spices and perhaps a second complimentary sauce that would add an extra level of complexity and richness to the dish (I’ll explain below what I mean by this).

The process Glen outlines for marinating ideas into blog posts is:

1. Jot it Down
2. Review it
3. Let it Develop
4. Post

My Post Workflow (idea Marinating Process)

I really love the imagery of marinating ideas as I actually use a very similar process to what Glen outlines - although over the years have added a few of steps. Here’s my 10 Step Process (not that I work through it as neatly as it will look here):

note - this is not what I do for every post - just the larger ‘pillar posts‘.

1. Jot it Down

Similarly to Glen I tend to job down a lot of ideas in my ‘Dream Notes’. I use a Moleskine notebook and Text Files on my desktop (it’s a little chaotic). In my notes I have hundreds of post ideas, half finished thoughts, ideas for series of posts, possible case studies etc. A lot of it wouldn’t make sense to anyone else but it’s where many good ideas emerge from.

2. Review it

Periodically I get my musings and dream notes out to see what might emerge from them. Sometimes I directly take an idea and develop it from the notes I’ve taken (many of my list posts come almost directly from my dream notes which I’ve written down as a list of headings.

3. MashUp

What I especially like about this chaotic little collection of ideas is the points of intersection between ideas. Often an idea by itself is weak but when I combine it with someone else I’ve dreamed up it takes shape and becomes a much stronger and more useable idea (like the herbs and sauces that come together to make a great marinade).

4. First Draft

This is where I begin to write. Sometimes it flows naturally and other times this first draft can be a real grind and the ideas in my notes need some serious work and development. I like to write a first draft in a single sitting if I can as I find I lose a lot of momentum and often don’t come back to it if I leave it half finished.

5. Look at What Others have Written

I know some people like to do research and see what others have said on a topic before they begin to write - but generally I like to get all my own ideas and thoughts out first as I find I can be limited by what others have written. Often we’ll come up with similar things but quite often the looking at what others have said reveals ideas I’d not considered before which I’ll incorporate (with acknowledgment). Once again - its in this process that the flavors of the idea that is marinating away become more tasty.

6. Bounce it Around

In a similar way on some posts I go out of my way to run my post (or at least the ideas behind it) by another blogger or two (or sometimes even my wife or a non blogging friend). Over the last three years of blogging I’ve met some wonderful bloggers who I resonate with strongly and whose opinion I respect a lot. If I’m writing a major post I’ll quite often given them a look at my draft and ask for their opinion and ideas. It’s quite often out of doing this that new depth is added or that I’m given helpful suggestions that can make the post a real hit.

7. Write Final Draft

Out of the above process I then write my final post. This can be as simple as tweaking the first draft or can at times mean major changes (and even a rewrite). At times in this process I sometimes realize that what I’ve been working on is actually not a single post but a series of posts and I’ll shape it into numerous posts that flow together.

8. Post

This a moment which is often filled with a mixture of relief (if it’s a big post that I’ve been struggling with) and anticipation (if it’s a post that might get a reaction or that I’m particularly proud of). It’s also a moment when the marination ends on one level but begins on another.

9. Feedback

When I hit ‘publish’ in the past I would see it as an end point in of the process of developing my idea. However over time I’ve come to see it as the idea entering into a new phase - one of collaboration with those who read it. This to me is where the marination of my idea really kicks into gear as readers taste what I’ve come up with and then add to it by leaving comments or even taking up the topic on their own blog. This is where blogging comes into it’s own and goes beyond most other forms of communication that I’ve come across. It’s in the comments and posts that others add to the marinade that the idea grows, dies, changes and finds it’s true potential.

10. Update

Some blogging purists don’t like the idea of updating posts but I am coming to see the updating or refining process as essential in many of my posts. My reasoning for this is that as proud as I might be of my posts - they are never ‘complete’ or ‘perfect’. As a result of the feedback process and my own continued experiences the marinating continues in my mind and not updating the post with the new ideas I have would be doing a disservice to it. Updating can range from tweaks to extra paragraphs (I usually indicate any updates beyond a tweak with an ‘update’ heading) to even writing new posts that refer to the old one and take the ideas expressed in it in a new direction.

This pretty much sums up the workflow that I use on many of my posts (as I say it’s what I do on my longer non ‘newsy’ posts. I know it probably differs to what others do (and in fact over the years my own workflow has evolved as a result of circumstances). I’d love to hear about your own posting workflow.

Do you marinade your posts? How do you take ideas from the light bulb in your mind moment to the moment that you hit publish (and beyond)?

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Written on August 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:08 am by Darren Rowse

Job Boards - 11 hours In

enternetusers Site News 20 comments

Thank you to everyone who has sent in feedback, questions and ideas for the enternetusers Job Boards as well as the many bloggers who have linked up to it.

I’ve always wanted to be a match maker - and now I sort of feel like I am with lots of reports of bloggers and blog employees doing ‘mating dances’ over at the boards.

The boards have only been up and running for 11 or so hours but the response has been very positive. A few highlights already:

• We’ve had our first paying ads go up (obviously there were a few freebies to start with)
• We’re hearing that quite a few bloggers have subscribed to the RSS feed and thousands hitting the front page already
• There have been a few opportunities for interviews with podcasters, bloggers and mainstream media about the boards
• Initial reports from advertisers are that they’re getting some very quality applicants already. One looks like they’ve already filled a position and are Actively negotiating with a blogger.
• We’ve had some good bookmarks over at Delicious (thanks people)
• Some great ideas have been sent in from readers as to what they’d like to see added

FAQ - Pricing

One of the most frequently asked questions has been around the price of the ads. This is not unexpected, especially in a time where a number of other job boards and classified type services have been released in Web 2.0 circles. Some of the other services are free and others are charging considerably more - and there have been people recommending/arguing that we’re too cheap or too expensive (as I expected).

Here are a few thoughts on the decision to charge for this service:

• Pricing is always a ‘best guess’ scenario - As Eric and I tested the boards and showed them to a few fellow bloggers and network owners we had a range of feedback on what we should price the ads at. All agreed that it was a service worth paying for but some priced it high (as much as $250) while others priced it low (down to $50). The price that did come up again and again was $100 - just over $3 per day. This is where we will start (after our opening special) and we’ll then see how the market reacts to it.
• Price and Perception of Value - I’ve always believed that when you charge people for a service that it changes the perceived value of it and the way that people interact with it. While we will not attract as many jobs as a free service would, I’m hoping that in charging we’ll attract advertisers who have quality positions and that bloggers will see it as something worth subscribing to for that reason. This is a board to help bloggers find paying jobs and not necessarily a notice board for people to find freebie bloggers for their blogs. I suspect that charging will filter out some of that and keep the jobs advertised of a high standard.
• Not Changing the Rules -We are also charging because we don’t want to change the rules later on. While the price might change the fact that it’s a paid system won’t (and if it did change I’d rather go from paid to free than from free to paid).

Like I say above - pricing is a best guess thing and the market will eventually determine where things will settle in the coming months - but the indications so far are good that people are willing to pay to expose their ad to enternetusers readers.

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Written on August 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:08 am by Darren Rowse

Blogger Jobs - enternetusers Job Boards

enternetusers Site News 44 comments

Are you looking for a Blogger for your blog?

Are you a blogger for hire, looking for a blogging job?

Today I’m proud to announce the enternetusers Job Board - a place where bloggers for hire and those looking for them will meet.

Two questions are popping up in my inbox over and over each week.

1. “I’m looking for a blogger/coblogger for my blog but I’m just not sure where to find one - do you know of anyone?”
2. “I’ve been hearing about people getting blog jobs - where do I find one? Do you know of anyone looking for a blogger?“

Every time I’m asked one of these questions I look at my ‘dreams for enternetusers list’ and think to myself - I really should do some sort of enternetusers job classifieds service.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to do something about it and talked to a couple of people about the possibility of designing me a Jobs area for enternetusers. Unfortunately neither of the people I emailed had the time to do and after a few days I wondered if it would ever happen.

At around that time I had an email from Eric Allam from 52 Reviews who had been thinking along very similar lines and was looking for a partner. We got talking and over the past couple of weeks have pulled together our first version of the enternetusers Job board.

The concept is simple and will be familiar to many users of other job boards out there.

Advertisers

Looking for a Blogger? - Look no further.

enternetusers.net is read on a daily basis by around 5000 readers per day via the main site plus another 8000+ via it’s RSS feed. Most of our readers are bloggers and almost all of them are Actively searching for information on how to earn a living from blogs.

enternetusers readers range from the beginner blogger looking to start their first blog (undiscovered raw talent) through to the more experienced blogger with years of experience. No matter what you’re looking for, you’re sure to find someone that fits the bill among our readers.

Add Your Job to our Listings here and selecting which category of job you’re looking to position (we’re open to suggestions for other categories) what the job entails and how bloggers should contact you.

Your ad will appear in the top right hand corner of enternetusers’s main page (we’ll feature the last five ads there) as well as on the main page of the job board and category pages. It’ll also be featured on RSS feeds which we expect to be popular with bloggers looking for jobs.

The cost of listing a job is currently $50 as an opening special but this will go up to around the $100 mark in two weeks time.

This service would suit companies looking for bloggers, blog networks, individual bloggers looking for CoBloggers or even bloggers looking for medium to short term guest bloggers while they take a vacation.

Bloggers

Looking for Blogging Work? Let us help you find some.

The best way to use the job board is to regularly visit our front page (currently dominated slightly by b5 jobs, but there’ll be more from others soon) where all new jobs will be listed. Also be notified of new jobs as they are added to the list by subscribing to our main RSS feed.

Alternatively you might like to follow along on one of our category pages or the RSS feeds that are attached to them if you’re looking for something specific.

In talking to potential advertisers this week (there are more preparing their ads) they are looking for a range of bloggers so whether you’re new to blogging or an old hand, looking for part time or full time work - it’ll be worth subscribing to the feed.

Give Us your Feedback
Eric and I would love to hear what you think about enternetusers Job Boards. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking it through and testing but as with any new project that goes live there will be improvements that we can make, ways that we can make it even more useful for it’s users and bugs to iron out (we still have a few little integration things to work on).

We do have quite a few ideas for expanding the service and new features but wanted to keep the initial launch reasonably simple.

So go to it - subscribe to the feed if you’re a blogger and take advantage of our two week opening discount if you’re an advertiser and list your blog job today.

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Written on August 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:08 am by Darren Rowse

Conviction - Persuasive Blogging Part III

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 3 comments

“Strong convictions precede great actions.” - Louisa May Alcott

We’ve been talking this week about how to be a persuasive blogger and so far I’ve spoken about getting attention to your posts and going deeper to create interest in your post. Today I want to go a step deeper again and look at ‘conviction’.

You see you can write posts that grab the attention of readers and that even are wonderfully interesting - yet still have no lasting impact upon those who read them.

If you truly want to persuade them to some new course of action then you need to convince them that the action you’re asking them to take is a worthwhile thing for them to do.

Without it - your readers will simply walk away from your post without really being moved to do anything by it (that could be a valid goal that you have - but this series is about being persuasive so I’m assuming we want to go further than that).

Of course convicting or convincing readers is not something that happens just naturally - it takes thought, clever writing and having something worthy of convincing them of.

Elements of Convincing Blogging

Whilst the ‘attention grabbing’ and ‘developing interest’ stages generally happen at the beginning of your post (often in the title and first paragraph) the ‘convincing’ work generally takes a little longer and will make up the main part of your post.

It’s where you present your case in full and to your reader

1. Outline the facts

This is where the main thrust of your post will be. Outline your main points (don’t overwhelm people with too many). Talk them through the pros and cons of the choice you’re putting before them and show the end results of taking the action you’re suggesting (painting pictures of ‘end results’ can be a powerful thing as we’ll see in tomorrow’s post in this series).

2. Present the full Picture

I find that people are often more response when I’m open and honest both about the positives and negatives of taking the course of action that I’m presenting people. For instance if I’m recommending people buy a book I’ll always try to point out both it’s strengths and weaknesses. I find that people respect this transparency and are much more likely to follow the recommendation than if all I do is give a glowing review.

3. Share the Action you’re asking readers to take

If you want readers to DO something then you need to outline it for them. It’s pretty logical really but I’m quite amazed how many people don’t seem to get this point and expect their readers to read their post and then go and do something about it without giving them some concrete suggestions of what that might be. Even a simple task at the end of a post can empower your readers to put into action what you’re writing about.

If you’re asking readers to do something that is complicated (and even if it isn’t) outline it step by step - breaking it down into bite sized achievable actions.

A Quote for the Road

“Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.” - Thomas Carlyle

Thomas is right and tomorrow we’ll take another step forward and talk about another important stage that your readers need to go through in order to be fully persuaded to take action - Desire.

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Written on August 23rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 01:08 pm by Darren Rowse

Speedlinking - 23 August 2006

Pro Blogging News 4 comments

• Glenn Wolsey has written a good post for bloggers looking to buy a Mac where he looks at the type of Macs that bloggers are using and what software they get.
• More Minimal has a couple of good posts on making your blog more readable and minimalism in blogging
• Business 2.0 has an article this month on blogging for dollars. It’s a fairly standard ‘you can make money blogging’ piece with most of the usual players as well as featuring Michael Arrington and Federated Media very heavily.
• Search Engine Guide lists 10 factors to consider when going through a site redesign (some points are more relevant for blogs than others).

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Written on August 23rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 11:08 am by Darren Rowse

AdSense Launches Premium Video Test

Adsense 7 comments

A few weeks ago Google announced a partnership with Viacom (NYT Coverage) to allow their AdSense publishers to put video clips (MTV video) on their websites with embedded advertising in them.

In the last 24 hours they’ve begun to roll out the program and a select group of publishers have been selected as beta testers of the 4 week pilot program (you can see a screen cap of one of the ads below).

You can see the ads in action at American Idol Blog for instance where an ‘Meet the Cast of Season 3′ Clip for Laguna Beach is running.

The videos are content from a variety of stations including Comedy Central, MTV and Nikelodeon. They generally go for a few minutes. The ad sizes available to participating publishers are 336×280 and 300×250 pixels. Ads must be placed above the fold.

Publishers earn money from the clips on a CPM basis. I’m hearing from a couple of publishers that the way that ad rates are determined is a little more complicated than just a payment per basic impression though. It seems that each video has the potential for multiple payments depending upon how long the viewer watches for and how many ads they see (ie there are numerous ads interspersed through each clip.

So if a reader of one of the sites in the test plays the video (they don’t start playing by themselves) and watches for just a minute or two it might only count as one impression as they only see the first ad, but if they watch the full clip but if they watch the full clip they will see multiple ads and the publisher will earn more.

Following is a full FAQ that was sent to publishers on the beta test.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this pilot?
Google is running an experiment with syndicated video supported by ads, to help publishers and video content owners better monetize their property. Premium video owners provide Google with their content, Google matches the content with ads, and the site owner presents the combined product to their users.

The content to be displayed through these units is premium. We’re running this pilot to open the door to initiate branding concepts within the Google AdSense advertising model, and you’ve been hand-picked (say “hand picked”, it sounds friendlier) to be one of the few exclusive partners to help launch this program. Advertisers ready to move forward are of the highest caliber, and the value-add of supplying this content is tremendous. If successful, these efforts will become more robust, and the end results will greatly enhance the user experience on your site.

What is the video content?
For the initial test, we will be using channels of video content provided by MTV Networks, such as from their Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, The N, and Nickelodeon channels. The video content is mostly short-form clips of up to a few minutes in length.

What are the ads?
For the purposes of this test, the video advertisements are provided by MTV Networks; the interstitial ads will be varying lengths (most 30 seconds or less) and shown between segments of the video content. For future syndicated video, Google will be leveraging its network of advertisers to match content to advertisement for syndicated video content.

How much money will I make?
Revenue is generated on a CPM basis, by the number of views on each ad inside the content. For instance, if someone watches the first three minutes of the content, and sees two interstitial ads, you will be paid for those two views. There is no payment unless a user has seen an ad within the content.

For syndicated video, the revenues will be split three ways, between the content owner, Google, and the site owner. For the purposes of this test, Google is not disclosing the three-way revenue split.

Please also understand that CPM values and expected payouts at the end of this pilot cannot be disclosed at this time.

How do I add this to my page?
We will send you all necessary code amendments and modifications, which can simply be dropped-in to the source code of your page.

What is the unit size?
The embedded video player is the standard IAB 336×280 size.

Do I have to put this in a certain place on my page?

You can place this unit above the fold (ATF) anywhere on your site, but keep in mind that you should try and optimize its position for playbacks.

How many impressions will I get?
is is the first experiment of this type, we are not making projections of impressions or views. This video content, however, is only available to certain sites, so there is an element of exclusivity that your users may find attrActive, and may help you get new visitors.

Are we guaranteed to make at least as much as our ads would?
For the purposes of this test, we are not making revenue guarantees or predictions. This is a new concept in Google advertising history and we have worked hard with our advertisers to secure inventory for this premium channel. Our expectation is that monetization will only improve as this channel, concept, and project becomes more built out, but until then, we’re in full beta with this pilot. As such, your patience and collaboration is of extreme value to us.

Will ads be served through AdSense or will I have to implement another type of code?
Ads will be served through special code provided for the purposes of this test, though publishers will be paid through their AdSense account.

Will Google serve the highest paying ad/content or is this a fixed unit?
This is a fixed unit, serving only the channel content that you select for your site. There is no auction of content for the purposes of this test.

How much reporting and tracking will I have access to?
We expect that reporting will be minimal for this pilot. If front-end reporting isn’t available, we’ll do our best to get you metrics at the close of the pilot.

How often does the video content refresh/change?
Content will likely change every three to seven days.

Do I have to reinsert the code when it changes?

No. By adding the video unit to your page, the content will automatically update without your changing the code on your site.

Can I have more than one unit on my page?
No, you can only have one of these video units per page.

Will the video unit be click-to-play, or initiated upon pageview?
The video unit will be click-to-play, meaning initiated by the user, NOT upon pageview.

Will there be alternate ad capability with these video units?
No. Since these video units are not standard ad units (we’ll send you the code when you’re ready!), you will only have the ability to serve this content through this pilot’s unit.

Is there a separate legal agreement or will Google just serve through AdSense with the standard AdSense T&Cs?
AdSense Online Standard Terms and Conditions apply to this pilot.

How long is the pilot, and when does it start?
The pilot will span for four weeks, with a start date of August 21st.

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