I’m sure I’m not doing all the things on the list, but I’m sure you’re not either. Learn to Launch your blog successfully. There are some fine points in this post. If I have to point them out, you’re not looking hard enough.
21 tips in 6 parts:
The First Impression
RSS & Subscriptions
Social Bookmarking (aka Going Viral)
Getting networked
Link Building
Finishing touches
Nice list of to do’s for new bloggers or those starting new blogs.
I’ve talked to Andy, and Aaron about this project extensively, and it’s definitely one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard. Get on the list for Reviewme - this one is gonna be cool. I can’t wait for it to stir the pot a bit.
What does ReviewMe do?
(Minus the buzzwords) Advertisers, you pay to get your stuff reviewed by bloggers. Bloggers, you get paid to review their stuff.It’s not payola: bloggers are required to disclose that reviews are paid, and they are not pressured to make the reviews positive.
(Oh, and one other thing: the payouts will be fat.)
So what now?
Even after ReviewMe launches, I’ll still be occasionally contributing here, but you’ll also be able to read my writing over at the ReviewMe Blog.
One more way to make money from your blog. Check out Feedvertising for adding customized ad links to your RSS feed.
I started reading through some of the blogs I hadn’t heard of from Rand’s list of top 50 blogs (mostly from some of the comments), and realized just how important it is to showcase your top posts. For me personally, it is the difference between me subscribing to your feed in bloglines, or clicking away and having it sink into oblivion where I’ll never read it again (unless perhaps someone else mentions it again).
There are actually two things I check out generally when I first visit a blog. 1. The top posts as mentioned above, and 2. the about page. The combination of personality from the about page (if you act like Bill O’Reilly I’m probably not going to want to spend my time reading your site), and the expertise shown by what you’ve written about. You probably have some GREAT posts buried in your archives that I will never see if you don’t bring them to the top. Bring them to my attention!! Show me your crem-de-la-crem. Like 99% of your potential blog readers, I’M IN A HURRY to get to the other 500 feeds I want to read today. Bust out the goods, and don’t make me dig through your cat posts (it’s okay, I do them too - as GW says, it’s good to experiment.)
With so many different types of posts (news, humor, call-to-action, resource, etc.), it’s really important to showcase the more timeless authority posts. It can be done manually, or I’m sure there are a few plugins for user favorite posts. I like the manual route myself, as I think it offers a nice level of editorial control. In case you’re wondering (and didn’t notice it at the top of the page) - my best posts are here
Think of your best posts page as a sitemap for new users to check out your style. There are two things that will get people to subscribe when they visit - Personality (about page) and style (best posts page). Personally, it takes me less than five minutes to decide if I’ll ever visits a blog again and subscribe with bloglines. Please make a good impression to your first timers.
**Added - If there is an ambitious developer out there a category level best posts list page generator plugin would be freakin’ sweet. When I was re-reading for typos, I thought of doing best posts at a category level, which is definitely going on the to-do list. Some posts are timeless, and should not fall into the blogabyss.
Pick your niche. Know your demographic. How many times have you heard it? Ten. A hundred. A thousand? Yes. It is cliche. Yes, every SEO, SEM, marketing company, ad agency, and business consultant says it. Mainly because it’s right. No one LIKES the used car salesman approach of the “hard sell”. No one wants your BRAND forced down their throat. They want Tivo’d TV, XM/ Sirius radio, no banner ads, and only products that aren’t blurred out on MTV. They want products that were placed and reviewed positively by people they identify with. They want to buy from someone they trust, who has taken at least five minutes to TALK to them before trying to swipe their pocketbook.
Blogs work because they have a voice. There is a person behind it, and it feels like they are talking to YOU. I felt like I knew Rand, Aaron, Andy, and many others well before I met them in person. Their conversational tones and attitudes that were similar to my own inspired me to drop them a note, and made it pretty easy to talk to them once I did meet them, and realized we were pretty much on the same page (at minimum with many theories of SEO, etc.) Now imagine if I was their customer. Imagine if they had talked to me in that SAME tone, and were selling me something that I really WANTED.
Without going all cluetrain crazy on you, marketing is a conversation, and there is nothing like a good first impression (or a bad one to ruin any hopes of future success). It’s always a pleasant surprise when I get a consulting request out of the blue that says, “I like your honest attitude, and approach to SEO…do you think you can help us?” These types of leads are generally the best, because their reading of the site improved their learning curve by educating these folks not only to my SEO methodology, but my personality and approach as well before I ever spoke to them directly. I’d much rather work with someone who has read this site, then trying to do RFP’s off a site where 10 other people are vying for the opportunity.
Generalities suck. Even with blog posts. So I am going to give you specifics. The specific that worked very well for me, was being a part of Business networking international - without getting into all the pros and cons of the organization, I will just say that it is probably only as good as your individual experience. When I was back in Saginaw, I had a pretty good group, and small business owners can always teach you a lot (because it’s TOUGH to be one and get the bills paid). Being a part of BNI taught me how to talk to YOU - yes, you - the rainmaker in the ad agency that needs to learn to do SEO better, and understands the value of it.
While there were some sketchy MLM-esque qualities to the organization, there were also some very cool ideas that I got from it. The biggest one being - BE SPECIFIC when looking for leads. The principle of BNI is to get leads for and from your networking counterparts - everyone gives a 1 minute “commercial” that tells the rest of the group what types of referrals they would like. I, for example, was selling computer networking services for SAMSA at the time…now do you think I got a better response if I said:
A: SAMSA does computer networking for people in the area. If you know ANYONE who needs their computer worked on, please let me know. We can help.
–or–
B: I’m looking for the contact information of the network administrator at Acme public schools. I heard that they are planning to upgrade their systems next year, and I’m hoping someone can introduce me to someone there that may know the network admin so I can tell them why we’re the right fit for them without sounding like a cold caller.
Warm leads are nice. Specifics to the right people help you get the RIGHT leads. That’s the essence of BNI - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. What it TAUGHT me was that the more specifically that I targeted my market, the more likely I was to get a positive response.
Putting my own theory into action: I’m really looking for a Charter Captain in Montauk, NY or surrounding areas, who’s willing to swap services. I can help make sure every tourist fisherman that searches the web for charters finds your boat first, if you can help me catch a tuna, shark, (or various other tasty species I can stock my freezer with). If you’ve got a nice warm lead for me, I’ll be happy to send you some nice frozen tuna steaks if and when I bring one home, along with probably a link or two, and answers to any SEO questions you may have. If you’ve caught fish in the area, I’d love to hear your stories too:)
Search marketing is still marketing. It gives you the ability to be MORE granular and specific with your requests. It gives you the ability to be highly specific to what you’re looking for.
If you are a florist in San Jose that only works for weddings, what do you think converts better, a search for:
a - “california florists”
b - “san jose wedding florists”
There may be MUCH more volume for “florists”, but chances are if you are JUST located in San Jose, you are going to get a bunch of traffic that you don’t need, and just wastes your time with phone calls. You may get a few diamonds in the rough that turn to business, but if you think like your customer, you can become the customer and understand how they search.
I repeat: WRITE TO YOUR USERS.
Combine the title advice of Dan Kennedy and Copyblogger’s surefire techniques with Michael’s how to get your non-tech site into digg and you should start to get the point here.
Geeks are starting to own media, because they are the only ones who care enough to figure out how to “digg” or social bookmark. Everyone else may be reading, and suddenly geeks are becoming even cooler by default because their interests are rising to the top of places like digg and the new netscape. Understanding technology is geek chic. Understanding “cool geeks” is your mission should you choose to accept it.
Know your users, and figure out how to talk with them. Figure out their needs, and their wants before they ever respond to the conversation you start, and it will be natural once they do. Don’t try to fake the funk, because they’re gonna see right through you. Be genuine in identifying with people, and they’ll respect what your selling when you do finally make the pitch.
If you check 1-2, my word of advice to you is just relax
Just do what you got to do; if that don’t work, then kick the facts
If you a fighter, rider, biter, flame-ignitor, crowd-exciter
Or you wanna jus’ get high, then just say it
But then if you a liar-liar, pants on fire, wolf-crier, agent wit’ a wire
I’m gon’ know it when I play it
It’s bigger than Hip-Hop
- “Hip-Hop” by Dead Prez
1. Three letters - ROI
2. Every time I click on a blog result it takes me to the homepage, which stays in cache and becomes duplicate content.
3. If a blogger serves content selectively it is “cloaking”
4. Most people that talk like there are a lot of people listening are kind of as*holes.
5. Most blog searches aren’t efficient enough to fight spam effectively and scale.
1. Testing
2. Automation
3. Communication
4. Aggregation
5. Organization
SEO/ Internet Marketing Training
