Filed under: Blogger Theory by Stuntdubl SEO at 10:42 am, 4/16/2007
Jim tagged me - helping to spread the “why do I blog” meme. There are plenty of great reasons why I choose to blog, most of which have been covered by Jim, and several of the other great responses. There are plenty of reasons I don’t as well. Since blogging has been light lately, I figured I’d give some of the reasons I don’t blog, instead of going right along with the meme (it’s fun to be the counterpoint sometimes).
1. I’m working on something other than commentary.
2. I’m not sure who it might offend.
3. The post could negatively effect my projects.
4. The post could negatively effect someone else’s project.
5. It’s not remarkable. No one cares.
6. I don’t want to be an idiot blogger.
7. I have a bad attitude about something.
8. Lack of inspiration.
9. Off topic posts suck.
10. Competitive conflict.
Other than these, I really enjoy writing about topics that interest me. Thought aggregation is probably the number 1 reason that I do blog now, and the fact that others enjoy reading some of it certainly helps as well. Blogging has become a great form of communication on many different levels, but it is also hard work to maintain in an intelligent fashion.
Filed under: Blogger Theory by Stuntdubl SEO at 11:54 am, 3/21/2007
Michael Gray ranted a bit recently about how most SEO bloggers should step away from the keyboard. I disagree with him totally. I think there should be MANY MORE SEO bloggers because it helps keep people that may know what they’re doing away from search results that may compete with mine (and it’s hard enough already). I think the whole “How write and promote your blog that will make millions, get you laid twice a day, and help you live forever” concept is a bit tired, so I am going to attempt the alternative. This guide will absolutely not get everything that you write onto digg, nor will it get you worshipped by the world. I take no responsibility if you succeed at being an idiot blogger that no one likes.
20 Ways to be an Idiot Blogger that No one likes
1. Never spend more than twenty minutes writing a post.
2. Don’t research anything before you write - just talk out of your ass like you’re God’s gift to technorati, and link everything that needs clarification to it’s respective wikipedia page (you should be able to obtain a wordpress plugin for this).
3. Format articles to be either 50 words or 5,000 words and NEVER USE bullet points, paragraph breaks, and absolutely NO PICTURES. People hate scanning articles, and have all day to read what YOU write because you are special and write a blog.
4. Entice your readers by saying you have inside info on a topic, which your NDA procludes you from discussing.
5. Don’t edit anything. Don’t recheck your work. Say the same thing repeatedly. Repeat yourself. Make your point again, by changing the wording, and be sure you made the point you are trying to say with what you are saying in your writing.
6. Whine that no one ever links to you, and you can’t get your articles on digg.
7. Spend at least 50% of your posts explaining why the blogosphere is like an echo chamber.
8. Think people care about your life. Despite not writing for catster - everyone on the planet really should know that you have a cat that you love dearly. It’s very important to your job in computer networking. It is CRITICAL that your industry cohorts understand that you have the perspective of a feline owner. When people comment on their own cats, be sure to set them straight, and let them know that it’s really all about YOUR cat, and they shouldn’t be straying off topic.
9. Try to stay away from any semblance of an original thought process, and just regurgitate news, or write some agreeable commentary about a post you found from the Technorati top 100.
10. Spend less time writing your titles than booting your computer.
11. Don’t get any feedback from friends or family that understand the subject BEFORE writing your posts.
12. Never agree with anyone - even if it means contradicting yourself repeated times per day (you may do this with or without selling a company to AOL). Be sure to use the attack hook whenever possible.
13. Write about how to be a successful blogger with tons of traffic (and forget to mention it requires never leaving the keyboard)
14. Start a blog about politics or religion. Proceed to argue the supremecy of your God and political party.
15. Be sure to tell everyone all the private information you hear from friends or associates, because the world SHOULD KNOW.
16. Have no sense of humor unless it is at the expense of someone other than yourself.
17. Always promote your site when commenting on others, and create as many trackback links as possible in every post.
18. Vent all your frustrations about friends, family, and your boss, as well as their most personal secrets, because other people won’t be able to figure out who you’re talking about.
19. Don’t spend any time communicating with other bloggers unless it is to state reasons why they should link to you. Be sure you never link out to anyone else, unless it’s with a nofollow tag (you don’t want to leak your pagerank).
20. Always mention the news you will be breaking tomorrow, and restate it days after it is broke in case people missed it.
Yes, it is cold in New York, and I’m tired of shoveling snow, ready for spring, and there’s just a whiff of sarcasm in this post. If you are going to do a half ass job on blogging, article writing, or whatever you are doing, you will not succeed. You can’t make millions with a garbage product, and people aren’t going to listen to you if you just talk crap. Did I miss any ways to be an idiot blogger?
Filed under: Blogger Theory by Stuntdubl SEO at 8:12 pm, 1/25/2007
I thought about this over the past 24 hours, since I saw Scott’s post, and I really couldn’t pinpoint one piece of life (or even SEO) advice that stood out as the very best in that time period (I’m sure it will dawn on me shortly after posting). Lots of GOOD advice, lots of FUNNY advice, but the overall best advice I was given was probably from whoever convinced me to attend my first pubcon (I wish I could properly credit them). In retrospect, I can look back to the first conference I attended as a big catalyst as a turning point in both my career, and line of thinking. For those who have questioned whether or not they should attend one - you definitely should. Don’t let $$ be the reason you don’t because it is worth every penny. I have paid my own way to several, and they are definitely worth it for the relationships and contacts I have made that have been extremely valuable on both personal and professional levels. You can’t put a price tag on having a network of like-minded people that you can count on to help answer difficult questions, and bounce ideas off of. Without that, you are stuck on an island. I like the idea anyways, of offering the best advice you’ve been given, so figure I’d help to spread it. Feel free to comment here, or create a post of your own - just be sure to credit Scott for a good idea. Michael’s also given his best advice.
Filed under: Blogger Theory, Link Development by Stuntdubl SEO at 9:30 pm, 1/12/2007
Linkbaiting is all about the bait. In the same way that you can’t catch a giant tuna with a bag of doritos - you’re not going to get the attention of important bloggers, journalists, or other folks with some garbage content or news. Do YOU really like reading press releases anymore? Wouldn’t you rather spend that time reading something fun, entertaining, insightful, interesting, or informational? Let’s take a look at the different hooks available to linkbaiters (or viral marketer’s if you prefer that school of thought), and hope that you can find an angle to approach link acquisition for YOUR business.
In the original post that coined the term linkbaiting, Nick Wilson mentions 5 linkbaiting “hooks”:
- News hook
- Contrary Hook
- Attack Hook
- Resource Hook
- Humour Hook
I’d like to add a few new hooks to Mr. Wilson’s fine original observations - the "ego hook", and the "incentive hook", which I’ll gladly review and exemplify below. The common thread with linkbaiting is that you MUST be remarkable ala Seth Godin’s Purple Cow - if you can’t bait with stuff that people will talk about, then go back to link begging. Make that top 10 list a top 100 list. Spend a few extra hours on research. Go the extra mile on something extraordinary, instead of just something good.
Introduction - A note on titles, target audience, and school of thought.
The importance of good titles cannot be underestimated. For folks take linkbaiting seriously take titlebaiting seriously as well, and understand that a great title is half the battle of a successful linkbait campaign. I suggest several reads and references to CopyBlogger’s headline formulas from his magnetic headlines series. Studying direct marketing headlines, as well as sales letters by Dan Kennedy will probably help as well. Create your own headline swipe file. Please don’t forget to include some quality anchor text if possible, since the goal is to have it linked to often, the title will be used as the link in many cases. Understanding your audience is critical to knowing what will succeed as well, but if you can’t figure that out, I would suggest you search for a different career path.
Linkbaiting IS NOT Viral Marketing
Linkbaiting and Viral Marketing have a lot in common, but I’m gonna let you in on a little secret - they’re NOT the same. The goal of viral marketing is exposure and branding. The goal of linkbaiting is links! The process may be very similar but the measurement of success is quite different. Exposure is great, branding is grand - but without successfully obtaining a quantity and quality of backlinks from a campaign linkbait is a failure. We MEASURE with technorati and yahoo, and an understanding of link value. The indirect value of these links for search rankings and targeted traffic from search engines is what linkbaiters crave. For more on the disconnects between marketing and SEO please see the stunt train seo marketing manifesto
Linkbaiting Hooks Revisited - with NEW Additions!
THE NEWS HOOK
Fast, up to date news on breaking topics with expert commentary on the topic.
Pros of this hook: It’s generally pretty easy to aggregate news and offer commentary. Doing so frequently and with dedication will establish you as an expert.
Cons of this hook: It can be quite time consuming and redundant. You can’t reinvent CNN without getting Doc Brown to help you invent time travel first. If you go too broad you won’t succeed. If you go too niche, you will have a hard time finding a substantial audience.
Ideas for this hook: Go niche. Don’t start another SEO news blog. Jen did it with contextual, Brian Mark is becoming the Oneboxer. Pick a small piece of growing real estate, and make it big by covering every piece of relevant news and nothing else (except your value add commentary). Be the first to report anything.
Examples of the resource hook in action:
THE CONTRARY HOOK
The contrary hook is generally in the spirit of traditional debate in a public forum. Smart folks can achieve success with the contrary hook debating with friends or associates without taking it to the level of the attack hook
Pros of this hook: People who respect your opinion, but disagree with you are very likely to link to you. People who find the debate interesting or insightful are likely to link to you.
Cons of this hook: You had better be right, or you’re going to take a public thrashing. Check your facts, or you’re going to get whipped like a red-headed stepchild, and have some serious reputation management issues to deal with.
Ideas for this hook: Read throughout your blogosphere, and make sure to have an opinion on everything. Take someone’s post, and become the counterpoint. It generally turns out better if you approach it in a respectful fashion - otherwise you risk running into attack hook territory.
Examples of the contrary hook in action:
Top 10 reasons PPC is better than SEO vs.
Top 11 reasons SEO is better than PPC
11 Rising Barriers To Entry for Small Businesses on the Web vs.
Barriers…or Opportunities?
Nofollow - the leper of blogging vs.
5 Reasons I like the nofollow tag
THE ATTACK HOOK
Pros of this hook:Lots of links are given from controversy. The cliche "there’s no such thing as bad press" can certainly be applied to links as well - there’s no such thing as a bad link (okay - for this discussion anyhow wiseguys)
Cons of this hook:It’s not generally fun to make enemies - I don’t really want to sleep with one eye open for some extra links (unless it’s a helluva LOT of links:)
Ideas for this hook: Generally dishonoring some type of closely held belief system works pretty well. You’re on your own here - If you really want to piss people off - I’m sure you can find a way - just make sure you have some good anchor text in your title if you’re gonna sell your soul.
Examples of the attack hook in action:
THE RESOURCE HOOK
This is my favorite hook. There are plenty of ways you can truly be a resource. In any industry there is a lot of opportunity for conducting ground breaking research, aggregating important information, filtering important information, increasing productivity, creating widgets, creating tools, and a variety of other things that can establish you as an expert and attract a whole bunch of links at the same time.
Pros of this hook- You can build something useful that you will be referenced for often.
Cons of this hook-
- It can be very time consuming and monotonous aggregating information into a single source.
Someone may figure out a better way to do it
whil you are in the process. Gaining critical mass and acceptance as the expert may be difficult. It can take a lot of work to do something truly resourceful.
Ideas for this hook: Eric Enge agreed to conduct research based on Rand’s idea for creating a web analytics comparison - and is currently working on it. You can bet it will be one of the most well linked marketing documents of 2007. Eric also did a nice job creating a SEO search, based on Google custom search, which is a great way to approach the resource hook.
Write an extensive guide to anything, and spend some time on the research, and delivery format of your research. There’s opportunity for this everywhere.
Examples of the resource hook in action:
THE HUMOR HOOK
Write something funny about your industry or the people in it.
Pros of this hook: It’s fun to be the class clown. Everybody needs a good laugh now and then. A little self deprecation is great to show people you don’t really take yourself too seriously.
Cons of this hook: Sometimes a hard sell with higher ups. The likelihood to have a sense of humor is inversely proportional to the size of a company. Everyone may not share your sense of humor.
Ideas for this hook:
- Poke fun at yourself or your company
- Poke fun at the industry
- Jokes about industry slang
- Jokes about common problems in the industry
Examples of the humor hook in action:
NEW! THE EGO HOOK
Everyone loves to talk about themself or read about themself. I think the old saying goes “the sweetest word in any language is the sound of your own name”. I certainly like hearing when people say nice things about me. Offering people significant exposure to express their ideas (IE - giving them a soapbox where people might listen) is a common component of the ego hook. Letting people talk about themselves, their ideas, or their company with your assistance.
Pros of this hook: You can sometimes get links and exposure from big bloggers. Everyone likes to talk about themselves.
Cons of this hook: Some folks have been baited one too many times, and may just ignore you. Nobody really likes a brown noser.
Ideas for this hook: Awards, interviews, sucking up.
Examples of this hook:
NEW! THE INCENTIVE HOOK
Pros of this hook: If you give people a motive to talk about you they likely will. Contests have worked for ages.
Cons of this hook: Getting the idea past the legal team. Bloggers sometimes don’t like to be bought (or so they say). Folks on the web are pretty good at sniffing out ulterior motives, and then it turns into trouble.
Ideas for this hook: Scholarships, contests, awards
Examples of this hook:
Closing Notes
- EDIT. EDIT. EDIT.
- Categorize your content into readable well chunked content that folks that skim can read and decide to re-read.
- I can assure you that not very much great bait is written in just a few hours.
- Descriptive pictures certainly help to emphasize the points made in your content.
- TIME your launch effectively with social media submissions
More baity goodness:
Shameless self promotion: linkbaiting service
Filed under: Blogger Theory, Link Development by Stuntdubl SEO at 1:18 pm, 1/8/2007
Widgets will be one of the handiest link development tools of 2007. They have always been handy, but with the proliferation of bloggers, and common blog platforms, it makes the development of them that much more easy. Why beg for links when you can build something cool, and garner some support from a community that will help improve your inbound links, rankings, AND even branding as a bonus! There is a LOT of opportunity to build buzz and backlinks with widgets.
The recent success story so far has been Mybloglog. After seeing it pop up on more and more blogs (with my own mug smiling back at me after signing up as a member), I was fascinated enough to finally get it on my own site. Seeing “all my friends doing it” was what it took to get me to. It’s a cool app that makes a site a little less faceless, and let’s me know when folks have stopped by.
In addition to being kinda cool - it’s a real nice case study of how well a widget can work - they’ve picked up over half a million links. Very not bad for a site registered only a couple years ago. Jeremy claims they’re harvesting a bunch of data (would be interesting to hear just what), and have been shopping themselves around to yahoo and others.
For more information on widgets - check out SexyWidget
Filed under: Blogger Theory, Buzz Marketing by Stuntdubl SEO at 3:59 am, 11/10/2006
I’ve really liked the idea of “Review Me” since I first heard about it. It’s kind of like “hot or not” for smarter people. It will allow immediate feedback on a variety of new ideas by paying for the valuable asset of people’s time to think. The success of the idea will depend on the willingness of intelligent people to accept a new ad model, and keep the network quality high. If everybody writes positive reviews of CRAP - it’s a surefire way for the whole idea to suck. It’s not a surprise that people will accept money to write reviews or analysis - the big question will be HOW MUCH it costs for a review. Pay to blog is a great topic that will always be worthwhile - in the same way that questioning how a journalist is paid is. I didn’t follow much of the pay per post debate prior to this, but I’m sure it will get nice and interesting with a bigger fish in the pond. I hope it will make Doc Searls smile - when he realizes the people who got on the cluetrain can finally make good money while they review products and services like actual human beings without a “professional voice”. It’s cool to see the dialogue can still be PAID for - but not forced to be ROBOTIC.
Disclosure:
I was paid $125 for this article by ReviewMe.com - I probably would have written it for free since I consider the folks behind it friends - You can see that this nice little blog transaction definitely had a positive ROI for me personally. Honestly - I doubt that I’d review people I didn’t know personally for that price, since I value my credibility quite high most the time - though if I truly thought something was a good service, I’d gladly take a few hundred bucks to tell about how I thought it was worth while. Want to pay me $100 to tell people about something I think is cool? If I think others would like it - I would certainly consider it.
Since I know the people behind this project, and think they are a good group, I was willing to review their site for that amount. It reminds me a bit of the “ebay of online advertising”. I am able to sell “ad space” with very little friction - and I still maintain my editorial control. In the case of Reviewme - I’m looking forward to testing other GOOD ideas and/ or products for the right price. If the product SUCKS and I accepted it - I would probably write the bare minimum 200 words and not lambaste it too badly (no swears about it anyhow) - or I can choose not to do it altogether. I could also choose to just offer an analysis and feedback while giving my honest opinion.
My review of reviewme:
I felt kinda like I had mission impossible thing going on with having to blog within 48 hours (I was really hoping my site wouldn’t “self destruct”). I am kind of lazy and scatterbrained so writing an entry under a time constraint can sometimes be a challenge. Seems like good motivation from the advertisers side though. For this particular review - I was given 48 hours to write. It lit a fire under my butt - and I got it done at about 2:30 a.m. (I wonder if they’ll dock dollars for poor spelling?).
In the reviewme control panel - you can choose your sites and tags. This is a pretty handy feature for deciding the types of projects you will want to review. I initially added myself under the “business” tag - and I still might go that route - but the point is - that the choice for what to publish still remains my own. This should be very empowering to micro-publishers.
Will it scale?
Will traditional media be willing to have the transparency to disclose exactly WHO the hand that feeds them is? If anyone can reach the critical mass this idea needs, it’s the guys reviewme.
There are certainly going to be some discrepancies that arise when people start writing negative reviews that don’t get accepted. Fortunately, I think the dimwits that start these inevitable skirmishes will be ignored from the “conversations” ultimately.
Editorial integrity vs. disclosure
I myself am usually paid the form of consulting work from my clients - I will gladly write about clients for money if I believe in their product. I will gladly tell people who read my site about things I would like that are related to what I normally discuss. I’m nearly certain that ReviewMe will succeed because of the thinking that went into the issues of editorial integrity vs. disclosure. I would not sacrifice credibility to potential consulting clients just to make a quick buck on a blog post - blogging is far too much work.
There are times when I discuss products on my site from people that I have confidence in. Normally, I politely decline to post about things from people I don’t know - the same will probably hold true even if they offer to pay me - perhaps RM will just reveal what a person’s (or site’s) true price is.
David vs. Goliath
The really interesting thing here is that smaller bloggers will be behind this 110% because it’s a decent way to make some money - and you can still choose what you write about something. It will be even more interesting to see the defense that the increasing supporters will mount for such a fascinating and controversial new concept of revenue model monetization. I think this monetization strategy will only help to multiply the creation of useful micro content. I’ll be excited to see the first few big advertisers that are willing to put their brand up to the scrutiny of micropublishers and PAY for it - those that come out with good strong reviews (that they PAID for) will certainly achieve some greater levels of success.
Conclusion:A review can be a very valuable asset. Good reviews and feedback from people who use your product is a good thing if you have the determination to build a GREAT product or service. It will take BALLS for an advertiser to use this new model - and put good products and services out on the block for reviews from anyone willing to try it. For those companies with the BALLS to try it, it’s going to pay off well I’m sure.
There will definitely be haters to the paid review model - but I think this is going to be a pretty amazing opportunity for many advertisers and publishers. It will be interesting to watch the inventory gain traction - and see how willing publishers will be to accept this level of honesty to disclose in their advertising. It is definitely going to blend the “church and state” that we normally assign to advertising and content in a more creative way than normal contextual advertising (even with the “blend” technique).
I really can’t wait when bigger bloggers start to admit that we all, in fact, have a price for our time and opinions. Because I think this is a very cool product based on who uses it - I’ll post links to my favorite reviews of Reviewme.com
I enoyed werty’s fine Reviewme analysis:
Screenshot from the simple interface of Reviewme:
Filed under: Blogger Theory by Stuntdubl SEO at 3:13 pm, 11/8/2006
Neil wrote a very nice piece called The 5 deadly sins of blogging - I thought I’d add a few more of my own to the list. Here’s 5 of the deadlist sins I’ve made and witnessed.
5. Stealing other people’s ideas (without links)
Yes - I appreciate the irony here - but the blogosphere is about conversation. Neil had a great post, and I had a little inspiration to respond. The moral of the story is add some value, and DEFINITELY add a link (hopefully with some prime anchor text - did I mention that Neil offers web strategy consulting?)
4. Not having an about page
I wanna see what you are about. If you vehemently support Bill O’Reilly - it’s going to be pretty hard for me to take you serious. Posts can show intelligence, but the about page will show your personality (that I can identify with). The first thing you should do on any blog is change a default design (add some images, change the header, or at minimum snag a template ) - then add your about page. If you’re not afraid of stalkers - pictures are nice.
3. Not having a subscribe button
Grrr…if you haven’t figured this one out, and I can’t subscribe in under 5 seconds with bloglines - please go back to your geocities site - or set it up in just a few minutes with feedburner.
2. Not having a best posts page
The bests post page theory is very similar in the not having an about page. A best posts page tells what the blog is ABOUT when you’re not writing about your cat and your travels.
1. Being a Wanker
Don’t become an egomaniac blogger just because 200 people in the world read your site. You’re still very lucky that they do, and if you act like a douchebag to people, always assume to be correct, or just plain talk out of your butt about topics you know nothing about - you can bet that your blog will become a worthless drain of time. Write what you know, and do extensive research on what you don’t (and publish it). It’s okay to make mistakes as long as you can own up to them when you do.
*Bonus sin -
Having broken comments or a slow loading site - and again, I appreciate the irony here. I’m hoping to have a redesign complete in the very near future after some database cleanup.
