Written on January 23rd, 2007 at 08:01 am by Darren Rowse
Performancing Closes Partners Advertising Network
Another big announcement over at Performancing’s blog today (seems to be one a week at the moment).
New CEO, Chris Garrett, has announced that they are closing Performancing Partners down.
This comes of server woes, the resignation of Nick Wilson as CEO, the calling off of a sale of Performancing to PayPerPost and the ending of their metrics program.
Wow - it’s been quite a month!
With Performancing Partners - any ads currently running will remain until the end of the month when the program will be discontinued.
I feel for Chris - he’s a great guy who seems to have inherited a leaking (sinking?) ship.
I’m also saddened that their Partners system didn’t work. I suspected there was trouble this past week when their server problems were causing some of their publishers sites not to load (it brought enternetusers to a standstill for a few hours) - but I had hoped they’d be able to work it out as it was an ad network with potential.
What is the future of performancing?
They still have their firefox plugin (although they’ve rebranded that) and there is still the blog and forums. To be honest - I loved Performancing the most when it was just a blog. They produced amazing content and generated wonderful conversations. Perhaps it’s time to go back to that?
Written on January 23rd, 2007 at 05:01 am by Darren Rowse
enternetusers - MyBlogLog
Just under two years ago I signed up for and reviewed a little service called MyBlogLog for the first time. Back then it was a metrics service to track outbound links from a blog - but nothing much more.
Since that time I’ve linked to them and reviewed them a few more times as they’ve added features - although in recent times I have to admit I’ve not really paid much attention to my MyBlogLog account.
That was until today when I found out that enternetusers has it’s very own vibrant community.
I’d not done anything to build my ‘community’ except happen to be a member (for their metrics package) - but now this site has 539 ‘members’! You can join it at the enternetusers MyBlogLog Page.
I’m not really sure what to ‘do’ with my community. I’ve added the MyBlogLog widget to my sidebar (scroll down a bit) - but I’m unsure what else to do.
I know I see a lot of My Blog Log widgets around - but I’m wondering if anyone has any wisdom to share on what they do with their ‘community’.
Is this just an ego thing? A bit of fun? Or is there some point to it all? Forgive me - I’m just wondering a little about what the point is.
Keen to hear from MyBlogLog junkies!
Written on January 23rd, 2007 at 01:01 am by Darren Rowse
Elite Retreat - Take Your Online Business to the Next Level
I mentioned this in passing last week after my interview with Shoemoney - but today we’re officially announcing the next Elite Retreat San Francisco which will run between 19-20 March.
I’ll be one of the leaders/speakers on this 30 seat conference and I’m really excited about it.
Other Speakers are Jeremy Schoemaker (aka Shoemoney and Mr six figure earning in a month), Lee Dodd (aka $222,718 man and forums/social networking expert), Aaron Wall (aka SEO Book author), Neil Patel (marketing consultant) and Kris Jones (aka online media expert).
The last time Jeremy and Lee put on Elite Retreat I was quite jealous of those attending and wished I had the time to get along as an attendee. The idea of spending two days with 5 or 6 experienced and successful webmasters was something I thought was worth the expense (and no - it’s not cheap).
So when Lee asked me if I’d consider being involved in the next Elite Retreat I jumped at the opportunity. The fact that I’d be in the US with my family at that time anyway was a bonus and made it possible.
Before I said yes I asked a few of last year’s attendees what they thought about the event and they gave me some very positive feedback. Some said they are coming back with friends.
What I love about the concept is that it’s not just one person talking at the front of the room but that many of the sessions are interActive and based upon the needs and experiences of attendees. There’s also plenty of one on one interaction with leaders.
So what do you get for your money?
- a 1:5 ratio with speakers (very intimate)
- 2 days of teaching, conversations and working through YOUR online business ideas
- an Apple iPod Nano (with lots of content pre-loaded)
- no sales pitches from any speakers allowed
- one on one coaching calls with each leader after the retreat
- access to a private forum for ongoing networking and collaboration
Apply to come along here - it’s a hand selection process (ie not first in best dressed) so put a little time into your answers as our aim is to put together a great team of attendees, not just leaders.
Written on January 22nd, 2007 at 11:01 am by Darren Rowse
WordPress 2.1 - What You Should Know
Aaron has put together a worthwhile post for WordPress users wanting to upgrade to WP 2.1. It’s called 10 Things You should Know About WordPress 2.1 which outlines some of the new stuff that it has including auto-saving drafts, new image upload handling, new visual editor interface and merging of links and categories.
I’ve had a play with WP 2.1 and as a WP user I enjoyed it a lot. More functional but very familiar and easy to get used to.
Written on January 22nd, 2007 at 02:01 am by Darren Rowse
How to Optimize Images for Google Image Search
Earlier in the month Chris Pearson wrote a post that I missed but which I think deserves a look if you’re interested in directing more traffic to your site via Google - well via Google Image Search.
In it Chris outlines how to optimize images that you might use on your blog to increase the chances of them being highly ranked in Google Image Search.
Speaking from personal experience - the optimization tips works and I would recommend following his advice.
In short - make sure that before you upload an image that you name it with relevant keywords for your post and that you use the ‘alt’ attribute (again with relevant keywords - I make them the same as my image name) when adding your code.
Now some people might say that traffic from Google Image Search doesn’t ‘convert’ in terms of becoming loyal or in terms of revenue.
My experience is that this is not true for a few reasons:
- CPM Ads - when you select an image using Google Image Search you not only see the image but the site it comes from. This creates an impression (or page view) which is counted in your CPM ads.
- Non CPM Ads - I was of the opinion that other types of ads wouldn’t see much of an increase from Google Image Search traffic - however a year ago I saw something that made me think twice about this. I was involved on a blog at that time that saw over 90% of it’s traffic arrive from Image searches. My assumption was that this wouldn’t make much from AdSense - but was surprised to see that it converted quite well. This one off site could have been a freak of nature - but to me it showed made me realize that it is possible to earn money from non CPM ads from Image Search Traffic.
- Loyal Readers - On the same site I saw (over a period of time) the conversion of Image Search Traffic into a loyal readership. When people arrived on the site looking for images they obviously saw content that they found compelling enough to read more of (beyond the images).
I suspect that traffic from Google Image Search doesn’t convert as well as other traffic - however at some levels traffic is traffic and getting eyeballs on your blog via any means gives you the chance of ‘conversion’ (what ever that might mean for your particular site).
But Wait There’s More
I should also add that many SEO experts that I’ve read believe that the technique that Chris outlines will also help with SEO in Google Search (and other search engines).
Having the keywords of your post appear in your image tags is just another small onsite SEO factor that tells Google what your post is about. While it might not be as powerful as other techniques it all adds up and is a good habit to get into when using images.
Found via Fitness Mantra
Written on January 21st, 2007 at 08:01 pm by Darren Rowse
Lessons from Selling Websites
Ahmed has posted some reflections on the recent sale of three blogging related sites (Blog Catalog (sold for $40k), EatonWeb (sold for 10k) and 2RSS (sold for $7k) which all sold for between 24 and 100 times monthly revenues.
His conclusions:
- Blogs are hot (’Buy it Now’ prices were all reached quickly)
- People can see quality
- Set your BIN high
- There’s no place for emotion if you want to succeed
There’s some interesting conclusions there.
Those of you who have sold websites and blogs - what lessons would you add to those that Ahmed has posted?
Written on January 20th, 2007 at 07:01 pm by Darren Rowse
How to Build Incoming Links to Your Blog
Are you looking to build the number of incoming links to your site?
Brian has post together a useful post with 5 link building strategies that work which you might like to check out. He takes a look at these five strategies (headings are his - comments are mine):
1. Social Media Sites - Some think the best thing about sites like Digg, Reddit and Delicious is the rush of traffic that they can bring your site. However the secret sauce is in the secondary link ups that can come from being featured on such sites. Read more here on how to build a digg culture on your blog.
2. Linking Out - Link unto others as you would have them link unto you. One of the best ways to get on the radar of other bloggers is to talk (and to) them on your own blog. Generous out linking has a way of having pay offs to those doing the linking. Of course don’t do it just with the hope of getting links out of it - find quality content to link to and your readers will love you too!
3. Networking Emails - Brian’s right - begging for links rarely works - but sending other bloggers an email with a link from your blog can work IF you do it smartly. Key words from Brian’s post are ‘what’s in it for them?’ Make it relevant, be generous, don’t take up too much of their time, be gracious. Read more on how to ask bloggers for links.
4. Guest Appearances - There are many great things about doing a guest post (or extended guest blogging spot) at another blog in your niche. For starters it has the potential to lift your profile - but the secondary benefits include any links that you might be able to include back to your own blog.
5. Article Directories - I’ve never used this method myself but know of a few bloggers who do submit articles to free article portals. Like Brian says, it’s probably less effective in terms of SEO these days due to the search engines discounting duplicate content - however it could bring in a few new readers if the articles get posted on the right site. I do know one blogger who does something similar by sending other bloggers unique and original articles for them to use - in a sense this is like a guest post but they send the articles unsolicited.
Personally I find that the best way to get links is to write useful, insightful, unique, stimulating, engaging content that meets the need of others. Do this for long enough and the links will start to follow. Do this in conjunction with the first two or three techniques above and you’ll find the pace accelerated.
Use above techniques without quality content and you’re wasting your time.
Written on January 20th, 2007 at 04:01 pm by Darren Rowse
AdSense Now Allow Other Contextual Ad Systems on the Same Page
Jensense has confirmed that it is now possible to run contextual ads on pages alongside AdSense ads. This was previously outlawed in both their policies and TOS which meant that numerous other ad systems were not allowed to be used on the same page as AdSense..
So what Contextual ad systems can you now run on the same page as AdSense?
AdSense and Chitika
You were previously able to use Chitika eMiniMalls and AdSense on the same page if you disabled the contextual nature of the Chitika ads. Now you don’t have to as their ads don’t mimic AdSense and can’t be confused with them.
AdSense and IntelliTXT
As Jen points out - you can now use IntelliTXT ads on your blog with AdSense IF the IntelliTXT doesn’t mimic the AdSense units on your page (do this by changing the design of the ads - ie add a border and change colors). I personally don’t like this type of advertising (I find it interrupts readers) but I’m sure we’ll see more and more publishers using it).
AdSense and Kontera
Similarly - Kontera in text contextual ads will now be possible (same conditions apply).
AdSense and Amazon Contextual Ads (in beta)
Yep - I can’t see any reason why you can’t use these now - as long as you ensure that both types of ads look different and don’t resemble each other.
AdSense and YPN?
Don’t rush out and put YPN ads on the same pages as your AdSense ones though because YPN don’t allow you to have multiple contextual ads on the same page. The irony is that last week I heard publishers saying they were moving TO YPN because AdSense were getting to stringent - but now it’s AdSense with the more relaxed rules - at least on this level.
I’m sure there are other contextual ads that this will apply to and that we’ll probably see a few new contextual ad systems spring up as a result too!
Other contextual ad networks:
feel free to suggest others that you use or know of.
A Word of Warning
I’m sure that the temptation now will be for publishers to run out and sign up for all of the above ad systems (and others) and plaster their sites with more ads. Keep in mind your users experience when on your site as well as the terms of service of other ad systems. Read their guidelines carefully and if in doubt send the ad networks concerned an email to confirm it’s ok.
Written on January 20th, 2007 at 12:01 pm by Darren Rowse
How to Turn your Blog into a Book
Gina Trapani is putting together a series of posts that needs I’m putting in the ’special’ and ‘file for future use’ categories.
It’s called Turn Your Blog Into a Book and so far she’s written part 1 and part 2 (I’m not sure if there will be more).
The first part covers some of the ‘before you start writing’ phase including talking about ‘the blog’ (what sort of blogs work best), ‘the agent’ and ‘the proposal’.
The second part is a great insight into how she actually converted ‘the blog’ into ‘the book’ by ‘getting organized’ (using DEVONthink Pro), ‘getting motivated’ and ‘getting done’.
If only she covered ‘finding the time’! :-)
Written on January 20th, 2007 at 04:01 am by Darren Rowse
Speedlinking - 20 January 2007
- Arieanna is has been pondering around the question of what her niche is. She ends up deciding that it’s about ‘community’. She decides that the description of ‘community activist’ probably describes her best. Probably a good description for many bloggers.
- WordPress 2.1 is available for download as a release candidate. Be careful if you try it on an existing blog and follow all the warnings and suggestions there. Want to know what 2.1 has in terms of features? Here’s a list.
- SE Round Table discusses whether 301 or 302 redirects are better when switching domains.
- Web Worker Daily has a post that I think I might need shortly - How to Manage Kids in the Home Office
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