Written on August 4th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:08 pm by Darren Rowse
Sponsor enternetusers’s Group Writing Project
update: I’ve now found enough sponsors for the coming week’s project (which I’ve put off for an extra week). Thanks to everyone who has offered.
Next week I’m planning another enternetusers Group Writing Project which I think will be a lot of fun and that every blogger (of virtually any topic) should be able to participate in.
To make it a little more fun I’d like to offer a little more incentive to participate and would like to give 5 participants the chance to win a prize.
I’m happy to offer a prize myself but would love to hear from others that would like to put a prize up and effectively sponsor the group writing project next week.
Last time I called for prizes I was inundated with them (to the point I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t use any of them) but this time I’m going to be a little choosey and just pick the best 5 (so make them good!).
What Will You Get?
In return for your prize you’ll get links in each Group Writing Project post during the week (there will be at least 6 including one topic announcement, 3 daily updates, 1 central page and 1 prize announcement page). You’ll be one of 5 sponsors (if I can find 5).
enternetusers is read by 4000 or so daily readers plus another 8000 via RSS. The group writing projects have been attracting 90 - 130 participants each time so far. So you’ll get some nice exposure.
Requirements for Sponsors
Due to the international nature of my readership prizes will need to be able to be used by people around the world.
You’ll also need to take responsibility to get it to the winner if it’s a physical prize (ie post).
Keep in mind that this is a blog that helps bloggers to improve their blogging so I’d love prizes to somehow tap into this. They might range from a collection of books, to blog coaching, to a new computer (now that’d get some attention), to ….. well almost anything).
Last time I asked for prizes I got a lot of people offering hosting. While I’m not anti hosting as a prize it’s probably not going to be a prize that stands out from the crowd too much. I’ll be judging the prizes on a number of factor including their value, their usefulness and will be aiming for diversity of prizes.
I’ll choose the ‘best’ five prizes on Monday morning (my time) so you’ve got a couple of days to get them into me. Submit them via my contact form with as much detail as possible about the prize and with the link destination and title that you’d want on each of the posts.
Please don’t be offended if your prize isn’t chosen - I’ll do this again in future if it works out so there will always be next time.
How Will Prizes be Awarded?
Prizes will be awarded by me randomly at the end of the week after final submissions have been received (I’ll put everyone’s name in a hat and draw them out).
Written on August 4th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:08 pm by Darren Rowse
Should Blogs Use The Extended Entry (more) Feature?
A reader this week submitted the following question:
“What is your take on blog posts that show only the first few paragraphs on the main site and then require clicking on “more” or “continue” or some similar link in order to see the entire post? I know I rarely click to read the rest of the post, and I can’t be the only lazy one out there. So what’s the advantage of this, other than allowing more posts & titles on the front page? Is it an ad thing? Is it worth it for bloggers to do it? If not, why do they? I’ve long been curious about this, and am wondering if I’m missing out on some huge and obvious benefit to such a tactic.
The use of the ‘more’ or ‘continue’ links (also often called the ‘extended entry’ feature) on blogs has been one that bloggers have utilized for years as a way of showing only an excerpt of an article on the front page of a blog.
I personally use it on most of my blogs but know that in doing so there are a small percentage of readers who find it a frustrating feature. Like the reader asking the question they don’t seem to like having to click a link to read the full article and many see it as a tactic to increase page views and ad revenue.
The reason I use the extended entry feature is not to increase my earnings but rather to keep some order to the front page of my blogs.
I like readers who come to my blog to be able to quickly be able to see titles to the last two or three entries that I’ve made. I publish a lot of longer posts on many of my blogs and to have them appear in full on the front page of my blogs would mean that there would be a lot of scrolling down needed to view the last few entries.
I actually find blogs that post full entries on their front pages frustrating to read and tend to loose interest after scrolling for 10-20 seconds.
Of course not all bloggers use this feature for the reasons that I do. Some do use it simply to increase page impressions and ad revenue. This can be quite annoying. You click the ‘more’ link thinking that you’ll get significantly more content on the topic that’s being written about and instead get nothing (or very little).
I guess my advice in determining whether to use the extended entry feature of your blog is to ask whether the content that you’re publishing warrants it’s use - is it useful to your readers or not? If you have a long post I would suggest using the feature but if your post is short and you’re just after extra impressions you run the risk of annoying your reader.
PS: I would add that I find that fewer and fewer of my readers actually see the ‘more’ links on my blogs as increasingly they are arriving at my posts via RSS feeds. This means that they are driven straight to the individual posts and see the full entry on the one page. It’s only those who land on my front page via Search Engines or bookmarks that tend to see them.
Written on August 4th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:08 am by Darren Rowse
Reinvent Your Blog
Warning - Tangent Ahead….
As I write this post I’m sitting in my favorite cafe sipping on a great coffee and getting ready to order some lunch. This cafe has been a regular part of my blogging workflow for quite a few years now. It’s just around the corner from where we used to live, it’s got a great vibe, a toasty warm open fireplace, fantastic coffee, good food and the staff have become good friends (they even know what I want when I order ‘the usual’).
Today when I came in I was pleasantly surprised that there have been a few changes since I was last in. There have been a few subtle changes to the decor but the main change was a number of new additions to the menu.
The changes have not gone unnoticed. As I’ve sat here for the last two hours (drinking coffee and people watching) I’ve overheard quite a few fellow customers make comment about the new menu. The comments have largely been positive (lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ while perusing the menu) and even included a number of people who told waiters that they’d made special trips in to the cafe because they’d been told there was a new menu.
It’s amazing to see the injection of life that a few simple item changes on a menu can bring to a place like this. Essentially it’s the same familiar place, with the same people and even same style of food - but a few tweaks and it suddenly seems fresh again.
The same thing is possible with a blog.
I love seeing blogs reinvent themselves and try new things. It has the potential to:
- give them a fresh new vibe
- stimulate new interest in old readers
- draw new readers in
- give the blogger behind the blog being reinvented fresh inspiration and energy
There are many ways to ‘reinvent’ a blog. Here’s a few:
- Redesign - perhaps one of the most drastic change that most bloggers make is a complete redesign. I still remember the impact that moving enternetusers from a default template to a professionally designed one had in terms of traffic and reputation. I could track to the day when my blog picked up.
- New Visual Tweaks - while some blogs seem to do complete redesigns every few weeks, even just a tweak or a new visual element can add interest and the feeling of change to a blog.
- New Features - adding a new feature for your reader to interact with (like a poll, a new WP plugin etc) can inject new levels of interaction, functionality or even fun into a blog.
- Starting a Series - there’s nothing like announcing that you’re starting a new series to peak the interest of readers.
- Start a new ‘project’ - starting interActive projects can give your blog a real lift. It might be a competition, a meme or some other type of way of inviting readers and other bloggers to participate in what you’re doing.
- Writing in a New Style - sometimes bloggers fall into the ‘trap’ of always writing in the same style or voice. Intentionally mix things up a little with a new type of post and you could see some interesting responses from readers (I still remember a few months back writing a more sarcastic/negatively toned post and seeing a number of regular readers being quite shocked that I had that style of post within me.
- Widen your Niche - announce that your blog is going to be exploring a new topic (preferably related to your current one). This can give you renewed motivation and inspiration to write as a blogger when you’re feeling you’ve said everything there is to be said on a topic. You might widen you niche in this way permanently or just as a temporary thing.
What other ways have you tried to inject a fresh approach into your blogging?
Written on August 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 11:08 am by Darren Rowse
Managing Blog Workflow with Wridea
Max Limpag shares part of his blogging workflow and how he uses Wridea to help him take blog posts from an idea stage to a ‘publish’ stage.
His style is to work on a post over time and so finds Wridea useful to keep track of where he’s up to.
“Wridea is a free web service that helps you organize your ideas. It’s a great system to use as a container for notes of pending blog posts you are working on. I’ve been using it since early this week and I find that it really helps me organize my thoughts on blog posts I’m working on.”
I work in a similar way to Max but keep a lot of my half baked ‘ideas’ as drafts in WordPress or just in text files on my desk top but Wridea certainly does seem like a useful service.
Written on August 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:08 am by Darren Rowse
Chitika add New Categories and Ad Sizes
Chitika have announced a number of changes to their eMinimalls over night.
Firstly they’ve added 18 new categories (giving you a total of 44 now). The new categories are:
- Photography Accessories
- Cellular Accessories
- Computer Games
- Computer Speakers
- Laptop Accessories
- Scanner Accessories
- CD and DVD Burners
- In Dash Receivers
- Small Appliances
- Pet Accessories
- Xbox Games
- Game Boy Advance Games
- PlayStation 1 Games
- PlayStation 2 Games
- PlayStation 3 Games
- Nintendo 64 Games
- Dreamcast Games
- Video Game Accessories
They’ve also announced four new sizes for multi product eMinimalls. Up until this point there’s only been one size available (something I complained about when they launched). The new sizes are:
- 468 x 60 (something I know a number of users were asking about)
- 250 x 250
- 300 x 250
- 728 x 90
I’m not convinced about the banner ads as much as I like the square ones but it’s good to see them giving more options and options that are standard ad sizes. I’m sure quite a few publishers will be pretty happy with the changes.
Written on August 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:08 am by Darren Rowse
Comments are Back
Apologies to anyone who tried to comment here at enternetusers over night. I’m not sure what the issue was but they were broken for a number of hours.
All seems to be back up and running now though so if you had something to say on one of the last few posts I’d love to hear it!
Written on August 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:08 am by Darren Rowse
Adding Video to Your Blog
I’m a big fan of Mike Rundle’s writing and his latest work at Business Logs is a good example of his common sense approach to blogging. Today he’s written about Coattail Riding Instructions For YouTube and gives 3 “Don’ts” and 3 “Do’s” for adding video to a blog. Here’s his main points:
1. Don’t pretend to be Rocketboom
2. Don’t do vidcasts just because everyone else is doing them
3. Don’t be boring.1. Use YouTube as supplemental content, not the highlight.
2. Be original, be fun.
3. Extend YouTube.
My experience with adding video to blogs is that they have an amazing ability to add life to your blog. On the few times I’ve used it I’ve had an overwhelming positive response, increased readership (it’s amazing how it gets RSS reader to actually visit your blog) and it injects a new level of personality into your blog (literally adding a face and voice to it).
On the flip side - it’s worth noting that video takes time to produce and upload. Where you might be able to add a post to your blog in 15 or so minutes adding video can be an involved process that includes recording, editing (depending upon your style) and uploading. I’m sure in time this workflow would become quicker as you get used to the tools - but each time I’ve done a video it’s taken two or three times longer than a post on the same topic (sometimes more).
Written on August 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:08 am by Darren Rowse
Grow Your Blog’s Readership By Targeting Readers
Who is your Primary Blog’s Target reader?
I was speaking with a blogger a couple of weeks ago via IM and he asked me the eternal question that we all seem to ask:
‘How do I find more readers for my blog?’
It’s a question I get asked a fair bit and one that I can easily reel off 10 to 20 strategies for. However on this occasion I decided to answer the question with another question and fired this one back to the blogger:
‘What type of readers do you want?’
The reason I asked the question is that after three and a half years of blogging I’m starting to realize that the eternal quest for ‘readers’ is not all it’s cracked up to be.
Don’t get me wrong - I love finding readers for my blogs, it’s fun to check the stats and see a blog has a growing readership - however if you’re blogging for money or blogging on a business blog of some kind, it is a much more fruitful exercise if you think about the type of readers you’re after and then work at going after them - rather than just going after ‘just any reader’.
Here’s a process that’s been forming in my mind on this topic that might be useful for bloggers looking to build a more targeted readership:
1. Define Your Target Reader
What type of reader do you want? You might want to answer this question in great detail by defining them in terms of age, gender, location etc - or you might be a little more general than that and target different interests or life situations of readers. For example on my Digital Photography School Blog I’ve defined my target reader as ‘digital camera owners who don’t go out of Auto Mode on their cameras’. I am targeting beginner to intermediate digicam users. This is a fairly wide target but is more narrow than some other digital photography sites who seem to be going after beginners through to Pros all on the one site.
2. Identify Where and How they Gather
In this stage you’re beginning to do some research on the type of reader that you’re after. There’s no easy way to do this except to surf the web (and sometime look offline) for the type of reader that you’re after. It makes sense really - if you want to meet someone you need to find out where they hang out. So once again - on my digital photography School Blog I’ve spent the last few months surfing through a wide variety of websites, forums and blogs looking for gathering points for my type of reader. I’ve found a few sites that I’d not seen before and have basically been lurking there - observing what they do. When you’re in this phase try to identify not only the places that your potential reader gathers but also do some analysis of:
- What language they speak (is it technical or informal, is there jargon or lingo used)?
- What they respond well and badly to (ie what types of content seems to whip them into a frenzy and what do they react against)?
- What is cool to these people (are they impressed by great design or are they more interested in the latest gossip or people who write with real expertise)?
- How do they interact (do they like leaving comments and discussion the topic or are they less interActive)?
- What is missing (in the established gathering points for your potential readers - is there anything that is not being covered, is there something they are asking for that they are not getting)?
3. Join their Established Gathering Points
Perhaps one of the most effective ways of learning about your potential readers is to join in in their established gathering points. Don’t just set up a blog and hope that they’ll come visit it - but genuinely become a part of the communities that already exist online for your topic. There are a number of reasons for this:
- For starters - it’s great research - You’ll not truly understand a niche until you’re participating in it. Doing so on the sites that already have the type of readers you want will give you real insight into what they respond to.
- Secondly you’ll find potential partners - Interact in a niche long enough and you’ll begin to identify others who have similar interests to you, that think like you think and who might be worth being in relationship with as you build your own blog up. They might not join you formally as a partner but they’ll be a good sounding board and will help spread the word for you.
- Thirdly you’ll get to know other site owners - Some people take a much more competitive approach than I do in starting up blogs on topics where others already are established. They tend to take a a search and destroy approach and to steal readers from other sites - building their own blog by seeing the demise in another. My own approach is different. In most niches there is more than enough room for a number of quality sites or blogs. Instead of tearing down your competitors - get to know them, help them make their sites better and find ways to work with them. Out of this you’ll find there are flow on effects that will improve your own ventures. Rather than having to steal readers or find ways to convince them to swap to your blog - the owners of your ‘competitors’ will often send them to you.
Please Note - I’m not talking about joining in others communities to steal their readers. That’s not really my style and I think there are some good reasons for not doing this.
4. Identify Peripheral Gathering Points
Another way to wider your readership with targeted readers is to find other sites that are not directly related to your topic that will have this type of person. For example some of the largest influxes of quality traffic that I’ve had recently to my Digital Photography School have not been from other digital photography sites but blogs that have related topics (for example technical blogs, gadget blogs, social bookmarking sites, news papers etc).
The readers that they’ve sent were perhaps not quite as targeted as those that another digital photography site might send - but in some ways they were better as they were less likely to be proficient digital camera users (remember I’m going for the beginner market). The other cool thing about these sites is that they will probably be more open to promoting your blog because it’s not a direct threat to them.
When finding these secondary sites it’s worth noting what type of things they link to. For example I recently wrote a post on how to use camera phones on my digital photography blog. While it wasn’t strictly on my topic (digital cameras) it was an effective piece as it was linked to widely from within the cellphone blogosphere (a related niche) as well as more general technology sites and it drew in many new inbound links and readers (the type of readers who are also likely to have a digital camera).
5. Provide Useful Content and Deliver it in Appropriate ways
Out of answering the above questions and research you’ll be in a much better space to launch your own blog.
- You’ll know the type of reader you’re after
- You’ll be writing posts that they’ll be likely to respond to
- You’ll have relationships with some potential readers who you can do some testing with and who might help spread the word for you
- You’ll know some other related sites - how they operate, where they’re falling short of reader expectations and who their owners are
- You’ll have relationships with other site owners (both those who are directly on your topic and others on the edges of it) who will hopefully promote your blog.
None of this guarantees you traffic - but it puts you in a much better position than being a blogger that is aimlessly building a blog and hoping for any type of traffic you can get.
update: Just after publishing this I spotted a good post over at Rachel’s blog on a related topic - Small is Ok.
Written on August 2nd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 09:08 am by Darren Rowse
Analyzing Successful Sites SEO
Ross Dunn has a good article on Demystifying Your Competitor’s Ranking Success which gives you some hints to analyzing other blogs and websites in your niche - particularly those who rank well in search engines. He uses a hypothetical example as he outlines the areas to analyze.
It gives you a number of suggestions on what you can look at in terms of how they are ranking highly. Of course in doing so Ross runs you through some of the basics of SEO.
found via Andy Wibbels
Written on August 2nd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 05:08 am by Darren Rowse
Matt Cutts Google SEO Videos
If you want to learn more about how to rank well in Google and you want it straight from the horse’s Google employee’s mouth you might like like to check out some videos that Matt Cutts has recorded and posted in the last few days. At the time of posting this he’s recorded 6 on a variety of SEO questions. You can see the first 3 here and the second 3 here.
NB: I’m yet to watch them but will do so tomorrow afternoon. I’ve been doing a little lecturing at a local university the last couple of days and the sessions finish up tomorrow (it’s been fun but I’m looking forward to attempting to get life back to normal).
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