OVBlogger: Blogging and SEO

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Jack Humphrey, who in my humble opinion is one of the best bloggers on the planet, wrote a post last week about the best social news sites online. And here’s the deal… At some point, I think that what people want and enjoy are going to supersede what the search engines think we should want. I could be wrong there, but consider the explosion in popularity for Web 2.0. Is it a fad? Hmm…

I don’t think so.

When I joined Twitter, there were hardly any Twitterers. It was just a few savvy marketers like Brad Fallon, who encouraged his list to join and why I was in so early, and now… I have like 80 people following my stuff. That’s pretty cool, and I’m following a bunch of other people. Plus, it’s just fun. If you’re not “tweeting,” you need to get on board.

But I digress. Twitter has become enormously popular in just a short time. And look at You Tube and then, we come to the social new or bookmarking sites. Which ones should you bother with? Hmm…

Jack has given a list in his post:

http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/social-networking/top-10-social-news-sites/

I’ll share the top 5 with you, but you’ll have to read Jack’s post for the rest of the social news sites chosen by Google.

Number one is…

Drumroll please…

Digg! Well, who didn’t know that? Just remember that if you’re in the Internet marketing, you’ll not be totally welcomed if you throw a bunch of spammy plugs into the mix. So, don’t just go to Digg and plug your own stuff. Plug anything you think is cool, and give people a reason why. That’s how it’s supposed to work, and you should totally follow that mindset. Just Digg stuff you like or “Bury” stuff you hate.  It’s a totally audience driven milieu.

Number two is…

Propeller! Now, this is a surprise. Propeller used to be Netscape, but last year, Netscape changed the name to Propeller. I’ve been using this site for what feels like ages, and it’s pretty sweet. You can include video content there as well. Why I’m surprised is that when it was Netscape, it wasn’t terribly popular. Now, you give it a snappier Web 2.0 name and bingo! Propeller rules.

Number three is…

Reddit I like this site and you can get a lot of traffic from it, if you remember to use it for content. If you’re plugging a post, it should be a post with some great content, definitely not a sales page. And don’t piss the Reddit regulars off. You really don’t want to do that and be a reddit castaway.

Number four is…

Newsvine Wow! You know, I have to admit that this is one I’ve missed. Newsvine, huh? I totally have to get an account there and check it out.

And number five?

Fark Well, hell, you have to join that site just for the name alone. But you can rate your plugs from “Interesting” to “DumbAss” OK… That totally rules.

All of these sites are free. Use them and you’ll see your traffic build, especially if you’re in a niche.  If your niche is Internet marketing, be careful to follow the rules and to never make your plugging spammy. Once you lose the respect of one of these communities, it will be very hard to regain. Just check out my post of last year about Scribd. It was a very bad year.

So, I encourage you to go over to Jack’s blog and read his post in its entirety. And if you haven’t signed up for the Authority Black Book and The Friday Traffic Report, you’re missing tons of great stuff.

I’ve said that before, but Jack’s “Link Building and Blog Marketing” emails are in the class “Open now and read immediately” for me. I really enjoy them and learn a lot.  Get on the bus!

Hey, I’ve heard that somewhere before. Har.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Reading around the blogosphere, I came on a great post at Independent Street, the Wall Street Journal’s blog, entitled “15 Entrepreneur Blogs Worth Reading.”

It states: “The best entrepreneur blogs – and often the most successful ones — do more than just promote the entrepreneurs or their projects. Star power can draw attention, but it won’t sustain it if the blog doesn’’t “give.’”

I’ve always figured that. Who wants to read constant sales pitches, hey look at how great I am posts, or reviews of products ad nauseum? For this reason, I always encourage students to use a blog for business, but to put some of your own personality  and life into it. Let people know what you’re thinking and what you’re up to.

People like to read about people, not products.

For example, I was at the DMV this morning with my daughter, who needed to take her written driver’s test for her learner’s permit. Yeah. She’s almost 19, but never wanted to learn. Now, it’s a necessity. So, we sat in line and waited…

For the third time!

The first time, she didn’t have a proper “certified” birth certificate. Grr.

The second time, she didn’t know she’d have to take the written portion of the test just to get her permit. Double Grr. OK, so it’s been decades since I went through that. She should have known that yadda, yadda.

But this was the third time we went! And the third time we had to wait in  line, and WHEW! This time, she passed.

But what frustration!

So, what if I told that story and then, told you about a product that would help new drivers before they got to the DMV? That showed them everything they needed to know and do before getting their permit and license?

Of course, this stuff varies state-to-state, but this is an example.

This kind of thing is frustrating for everyone! What if I had a magic bullet that would make it smooth as eel skin?

Well… that would be a perfect place to pitch. Now, you’ve given people a story, and you might say, “If YOU have a teenager, you might be interested in this.. before they turn 16.”

You see what I’m getting at? It’s a much more effective way of “showing.” In writing, we call it “showing” when you describe something without description. You lead readers to believe something without actually saying it.

Same thing with marketing. If I want to sell you something, I’m not going to scream, “Hey, buy this!” like a huckster. I’m going to lead you to realize that you want it first and why by illustrating the point.

And that’s what a good entrepreneurial blog does. The 15 in Independent Street’s list are all really incredible at doing that. It’s a post worth checking out.

Popularity: 28% [?]

I got a comment from a new friend, Alex , who has an awesome blog at (http://www.howtospoter.com/). He’s the guy that Mike Paetzold (of http://mikepaetzold.com) twisted his arm to tell my my theme sucked. LOL. That was 3 on the suck side, so as you see, it went. Thanks very much for your input. I sometimes forget that it’s not about me.

What I mean by that isn’t that I’m all self-absorbed or anything like that (at least I hope not), but it’s not about what I like. When you’re communicating with an audience, you owe it to them to do what THEY like. So, forgive me if I inconvenienced you with my very hot blue ball theme. I understand that it was hard to read.

And what a cardinal sin, eh? I mean, if you want people to read your blog, you should make it easy for them. People don’t really love to read, so if you’re boring or if it’s too hard to read what you write, POOF! Audience dries up.

I know these things.

And yet, I stuck to my very hot blue ball. My daughter says that when I see cobalt glass (which I collect), it’s like a dog whistle. I go right to it. So, you see, it’s NOT something I can help. I have the “blue” gene. So, I was distracted. Argh!

But I changed things around here, just for you. I appreciate you.

And talk about cool appreciation stuff. I just got a card in snail mail from Carrie Wilkerson of TheBarefootExecutive.com, who I met at jvAlert. Very cool. Wish I was that on top of it. Snail mail! How cool is that? What a gal.

Relationships. Internet Marketers need those. And I want to have one with you.

Like the new theme? Let me know. If you hate it… It’s gone.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Do you know what a very big secret is to getting traffic to your blog on a regular basis?

It’s so simple, you probably haven’t thought about it.

In fact, you may be a pretty casual blogger. You do it when the spirit moves you, right? Or when you have time.

Well…

I’m here to tell you that one HUGE factor in getting traffic to your blog is by posting every single day.

Argh! You think. Easier said than done. What do I write? How will I find the time?

There are two ways you can post to your blog every day and not feel too pinched.

When it comes to the writing of posts, that can be pretty simple. You can read something online and write a post about that. I love to do that. When I find something that’s pretty cool or interesting in my niche, I love to tell people about it. Those are easy posts to make because someone has already given me the material.

Or, you can take a PLR product and break it down into articles that you rewrite. Don’t just slap up the stuff without rewriting first, or it probably won’t do you much good with the search engines. PLR products are sold to tons of customers who may all be using the stuff verbatim. Don’t do it. You’re just tossing out duplicate content.

You can also someone to write blog posts for you. That’s the easiest way yet.

So, let’s say you have content and no time. That’s simple, too.

In WordPress, right in the “Publish Status” box, there’s a phrase that says, “Publish immediately.” And beside it, a link that says, “edit.” When you click that, you can set your post to publish at any time of the day or night on any day of the week, month, or year. It’s really sweet.

So, like you have 5 articles and you have a weekend or a block of time  you’ve scheduled in for blog posting. Post all of the articles at once, and set them to go out whenever you like.

In my mind, that would be 5 days, back to back.

Here are the facts…

In April, I had 50% more visitors to my blog because I posted every day. I decided to slow it down a bit in May to see what would happen.

People forget you. People unsub because you’re not adding new content fast enough. There are all kinds of reasons.

Just keep posting, every day, though, and you’ll see an enormous difference in the traffic to your blog, your opt-in numbers, and even your sales.

Come on… It’s really not that tough. Tomorrow, I’ll give you a few more ideas for posting content…

Stay tuned.

Popularity: 46% [?]

I was over at Blogosphere News today and see that we’re getting yet another upgrade to WordPress–version 2.6, which is due out in August. The changes are interesting, but not sure how awesome. They’re integrating with Google Gears and making it harder to lose posts if your browser crashes and such. I mean, those things are interesting, but…  it may be a developer dream. Since I’m not one of those, I’ll withhold judgment until I see the results.

You can check out the post at BlogHerald.com

I also watched a video today that was pretty interesting from Michael Gray of GrayWolf’s SEO Blog

He says that it’s best to make your blog super simple for the GoogleBot. Well, we knew that, but here’s something I never thought of. (And Duh… shame on me.) Michael says that when you’re choosing a category for your post, it’s best to keep it in ONE category, not two or three or the “very bright for a 5-year-old” GoogleBot may think that you have dupe content on your blog.

Well…

We all know that’s bad.

I’m going back and changing the posts that I just had to add categories to for my readers’ sake.

But, then, who needs readers?

I mean, I want to be a good SEO person and do all the right SEO stuff and make the Google ghods love me, but hey…

The audience is really what matters, eh?

From here on, I may try to keep my categories singular.

And then again, maybe not.

Popularity: 28% [?]

There’s a really huge giveaway happening now. Reed Floren, one of my Facebook buddies, and a featured speaker in my telseminar series (He’s speaking on May 29), is running it, and more than 1,700 marketers have added gifts.

Pretty sweet.

To get them, just go to http://easyseotricks/IMG and sign up at zero cost.

I like giveaways because they help me build my list of subscribers, and nothing is more important than list building. It’s the single most important thing you should be working on, no matter what you’re doing. If you don’t have a product to giveaway, it’s time to create one!

I have been using my 7 Secrets to Writing Killer Articles, and if you go to that site, you can see that I normally sell for $37. Good gift, huh? And that’s just one of the gifts you can get. There are over 1,700 of them.  It will take days to decide what you want.

It’s like having a key to Neiman-Marcus, and being told you can go in after hours and take home anything you want without charge. Shopping Nirvana.

For Internet Marketers, this giveaway is even better. The more you learn, the better your business will be. Take advantage of getting this stuff free or you’ll be paying for it down the road.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Don’t you agree? I mean Weblog. No wonder we call these incredible journals BLOGS. It sounds better. It’s more friendly. People want to read blogs, but weblogs?

I would be like reading the Star Trek Captain’s Log. Boring. I mean, when you see the adventures of everything going on out in space as they occur, pretty exciting, right? But if you had to sit and read what Archer, Kirk, Picard, Cisco, and Janeway had to write, would you be as excited?

I mean, think about it. They wouldn’t be able to give you the nuances. No exclamations. No backstory. It would just be LOG. Boring.

Blog is actually kind of an upchuck of words, when you think about it. You b-b-b-blooogggg. Yuck.

Why not CyberProse? Internet Musings? Or how about Interstellar Exposition? There, that one has some class.

So, remember…

Next time you want to bore people with some stupid story about what you ate for breakfast, you’re writing an Interstellar Exposition.

No, huh?

Well… Still beats the hell out of Weblog. Blech!

Popularity: 27% [?]

I’ve been living under a bushel basket for the past few months due to the ListBuilding.com launch.  And as I do when I”m busy, I’ll see a piece of mail that I have to read, but… I have no time. So, I flag that puppy in Outlook and wait until I have a down day to go through the messages. I had built up more than 100.

Gawd!

But there’s a message that I always read, and that’s the one that comes in on Fridays or Mondays from Jack Humphrey’s Friday Traffic Report. You know I’m a huge fan and that I’ve mentioned Jack before here, but whoa. He comes across with some of the coolest and most exciting information that (like I’ve said before)… If you aren’t subscribed, what the hell are you waiting for?

Today, work’s a little light for the first time in a while, so I’m going through my stuff and came across a message from Jack from waaaaayyyy back in January. Oh, sure. Tons of people have already seen it and put this great information to task already, but well, I’ve been painfully slow to get things done for myself. I’m running a membership site and a teleseminar series at Blogging4Boomers.com, too, remember. Right?

OK, no excuse.

Here’s the deal: HubPages. Do you know what they are?

HubPages is a Web 2.0 site where you can build “hubs,” which are sort of like Squidoo lenses. You add text modules, video modules, Amazon modules, etc. And just generally build a hub around a topic. It’s totally fun. I have one over there about cats. In fact, I’m a cat junkie and have several Web 2.0 sites about cats and a couple of blogs and whatever.

So, back to my story.

I find this message in my Inbox from Jack that says “Get More Traffic to Your HubPages.”  I’m all for that! And whoa. Very cool. I find not one but 7 Hubs all about getting traffic to your hub. Pretty neat. I’m certainly going to take some of that advice. Instinctively, I think I already have some of that going from my SEO background, but I don’t care what stage Hub Meister you are, you’ll find some information to turn you on.

The first Hub by Mark Knowles–”How I Got My Hub to Be on Google’s First Page“– is really great.  Mark gives you a virtual recipe of making it happen. We’ll be adding that cool advice to our own Hubs (and Tellman’s).

But all of the Hubs in that blog post are totally cool, and you should definitely check Jack’s post and every single one of those Hubs out…

Popularity: 40% [?]

Do you Twitter?

I don’t mean, do you chirp like a bird or talk inanely until your lips fall off? I mean, do you belong to Twitter?

Well…

Why not? It seems kind of silly to be “following” the activity of people, but I follow some pretty cool people, like Brad Fallon and his “Free Line Report” and Paul Colligan, podcasting journalist. So, when I go to Twitter, I can see just what’s up.

I get a Twitter from Brad daily, and if you’re interested in Web 2.0, the Free Line report is pretty cool. Takes just a minute to watch and keeps you up on the 2.0 news.

Paul Colligan posts to Twitter about a gazillion times a day. I try to stop by the stuff I’m really into, and keep the other stuff for later. There are just so many hours in the day!

I keep one open for education, usually first thing in the morning. It’s a “Tellman” thing. He says, “One hour of education; one hour of implementation.” It really works, and because of that bit of encouragement, I learn something new about our online world of glittery gems at least once per day.

But anyway, Twitter is so cool that some guy named James Buck, a graduate student in journalism from the University of California-Berkeley was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt while covering an anti-government protest. He just had enough time to Twitter “arrested” and his Twitter followers both here and in Egypt contacted the U. S. consulate to help him. How cool is that? James was freed and his one-word “Tweet” of “Free” was the next message he sent along. CNN even reported on it.

So, see? Twitter is useful.

And with folks following you and reading your blog and such, and some signing up for your list, it’s the best of all worlds.

Plus, it’s the quickest micro-blog on the planet.

Who doesn’t need more time?

Popularity: 37% [?]

Have you started to notice it? I mean, blogs… web pages… all to the far left of the screen??

It’s making me crazy. Even WordPress has moved their “write post” to the far left, and I feel unbalanced.  Those of you who know me well probably think that already, but hey…

Doesn’t it bother you that you have to turn your head to look left when trying to read something?

I mean, we’ve been indoctrinated with the idea that people like 650 pixels in the middle of the screen. My eyes expect that. Then, some of younz throw a curve ball and thwack! My neck flys west and I’m reading stuff that’s out of kilter.

I hope this isin’t a trend. What marketing firm made a study and decided that we’re better off with 19 inch uber flat-screen monitors that only have half their space taken up? There’s like all this white stuff on the right.

I know, I know… You’re thinking, but my monitor isn’t that wide.

And this could be making you happy.

If so, I heartily apologize for the rant.

But I have to say that it will be a very long time until I’m used to this looking left fad. It’s making me cranky.

Popularity: 42% [?]