It seems like everyone these days has a blog. Once upon a time, every angst filled teenager had a LiveJournal, a GreatestJournal, a DeadJournal, et cetera. Then, little by little, they moved onto MySpace and Facebook. Now, however, whether it is through Wordpress or Blogspot, everyone has moved onto blogs. In some cases, these are still just places to rant and run off at the mouth — or fingers, as it were.
However, a lot of people are realizing that you can make money with your blog. They simply aren’t sure how to do it, let along how to get started. Given the troubled economy, though, this can rake in quite a bit of extra money — if you know how to do it correctly, of course.
That is thus going to be the focus of this next series: how to make money with your blog, easily.
When you are selling a blog, trying to bring attention to it, you have to treat it like any other product – and that means PR. You want people to know about your web site. You have to tell them about it. You can submit posts to social bookmarking sites for starters, not just the popular sites like Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon, but also lesser known bookmarking pages.
You also need to address the press. This can mean writing a Press Release – or hiring someone to do so – and having it submitted to sites like Squidoo. It can also mean actually talking to the press, and finding out if they’ve seen your site, directing them to it if they haven’t. It doesn’t necessarily have to be journalists at the New York Times or anything like that, of course – though the online publications for such news outlets is a possibility.
Now we are going to talk about RSS feeds, which are increasingly popular. Providing a good one can drive a whole lot of traffic to your blog.
RSS can mean two things: Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Whatever you call it, it is basically a light XML format used to distribute news on the internet. For you, the blogger, it means that other sites will be able to distribute your news and the content on your blog easily as well. RSS feeds are also indexed by search engines, so you can ask them to link to your site.
You need to be careful about the sites with whom you share links, though. Google especially has high standards. For instance, if you link to web sites which are no longer listed, then Google could remove your site from their index as well. So, just make sure to keep up with maintenance and check on your links every once in a while.
Always make sure you are sharing links with quality places too. That can lead to a huge Page Rank for your site. Remember, if Google finds out that you’re just trading links with other sites simply because you want a better ranking, your site could get blacklisted.
Now, web directories can only do so much. Advertising your blog falls primarily on your shoulders, and you have to take responsibility for that. So, get your blog’s address out there wherever you possibly can. Any piece of communication you put out there, your blog needs to show up on it somewhere. Write up an About Us page, get a press release done, and most of all, advertise your blog yourself. Make sure the link shows up on your business cards, your letterhead, your fax cover sheets, and in all of your email signatures. In addition to getting a press release, think about having a brochure put together as well. You should also think about creating a monthly newsletter. That way, you can let people know what is new or simply noteworthy. Most of all, it will remind people that your blog is there, and you will be encouraging them to visit.
Unless you are just blogging for your own personal enjoyment, you want to get your blog out there – especially if you are doing it to get paid. That can be hard, especially if you aren’t really sure what to do. So it is definitely worth it to take a look at some strategies to get your blog out there – and to improve your page rank.
First and foremost, you need to concern yourself with the blog itself. You have to have as much useful, relevant, and high quality information as you can possibly create. Furthermore, it needs to be something that users not only want to read themselves, they should want to share it with other people as well. One of the ways you can draw people in is to start submitting your blog to as many web directories and reference sites as you can. This includes Google, naturally, because Google’s PR is as important in the scheme of things as Google itself. You can also submit your blog to places like Open Directory Project, or ODP, Yahoo!, and LookSmart, as well as sites like Wikipedia and other blogs.
There are a number of strategies you need to follow when learning and implementing blog link advertising. The most important of these involve relevancy. So many people are into black hat tactics these days. They prefer to stuff keywords and links into places where they do not fit. They will hide links, or cut corners by placing linked-in comments into forums and other blogs, which does not really advertise effectively at all.
Remember: relevance is key. Your links and your texts need to go together perfectly. Moreover, they need to have some impact on the subject, whatever it may be at the time.
Blogging for fun is one thing. Blogging for money is another. A lot of us are used to blogging as a means of personal expression. For those of us just getting into the whole idea of professional blogging and blog link advertising, the concepts can be seriously out of reach. It sounds like another language — SEO, white hat tactics, black hat tactics, keyword ratio, et cetera. This is not an industry for the faint of heart and if you don’t learn how to do things correctly, you’re not going to see a penny — or get any advertising done.
You need to promote yourself and promote your site. How? Well, stay tuned for that. There are a number of things you can do to get yourself and your site out there, and to pique the interest of your readers. Blog link advertising is without a doubt one of the best ways, but it is by no means the only way.
If you are purchasing sponsored blog posts from various services or directly from the blogger, here’s a tip to maximize those advertising dollars. Once your post has been made, navigate to the entry and Digg it, Stumble it, and post it to del.icio.us.
These simple steps will help get this particular page indexed with Google and thus increase the value of those inbound links to your website.
Some bloggers employ sketchy techniques that nullify the value of your sponsored blog entry once it rotates off their blog homepage. By using the social bookmarks mentioned above (Digg, Stumble Upon, del.icio.us), this will help you retain value from that entry for the life of the blog.
“The Customer Rules.” These three words speak volumes in business. Customer communication, service and loyalty are the goals of every marketing campaign.
And nothing delights a business owner more than a satisfied customer. In fact, they are so satisfied with the product or service they purchased that they want to tell the world about it.
Customer testimonials are extracted from letters, e-mails. They are impressive; displayed on websites as text, audio or video. But can your visitors be certain that the testimonials are true?
Now they can, when you use Authenticated Testimonials it adds more power to the message. How? Because they are evaluated by an established firm who is an unbiased third party.
The “Authenticated Testimonials” seal assures your visitors that what they are reading about your company, product or service has been verified and is truthful. Now, the Customer REALLY Rules.
Imagine this: you are looking for a product, service or a piece of information you need for your million dollar project.
You’re searching online and come across what might be the answer, but you don’t know the company. Hmmm, what to do? Aha-you think, let me ask Joe, he might know them.
You: Ring, ring: Hello? - Hey Joe, have you heard about the TQV company that sells blog widgets?
Joe: Nope, never heard of them, I use HLM Widgets Unlimited and they’re great! Fast service and reasonable price.
You: Wow–are they online? What’s the URL?
Joe: Oh yeah, very cool site too-www.HLMWidgets.com
You: Awesome! Thanks Joe, you’re the best!
That my friends, is the essence of what Bzz Agent is all about: it helps you harness the power of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing in an organized way. It brings the right brands together with the right consumers to enhance traditional media buys.
Advertising can build awareness about your brand, but when one person recommends it to another person, your brand gains credibility. The results are powerful when traditional and new media work together: trial, purchase, adoption and commitment.
Plus 40% of WOM conversations include a reference to another form of media which means a lot more exposure for everyone. If you are ready to promote your brand, better get some WOM-BA going.
If you buy the new BlackBerry Curve 2 (8530) from Verizon, the app will come pre-installed in the device. If you have a different model Curve or carrier, then you can download the app at m.bing.com/download.
Two weeks ago, I commented on Rupert Murdoch's threat that News Corp. was thinking of blocking Google from being able to search its Web sites: "Murdoch to Google: Drop Dead."
Now it appears that Microsoft and News Corp. are talking about a deal that would involve News Corp getting paid to prevent its news content from being indexed by Google, Google News, Yahoo! and Yahoo! News and only get found when you did a search on Bing.
According to Tancer, Google referred over 15 percent of WSJ.com's traffic and Google News referred 11 percent as of last week. He analyzed Google search terms driving traffic to the Journal, and found the top 100 terms accounted for almost 22 percent of all Google search traffic to WSJ.com. Of that 22 percent, over 13 percent were navigational or brand searches (e.g. "Wall Street Journal," "WSJ," and "WSJ.com"). "Even if Murdoch decides to block Google, these navigational search queries will most likely remain intact," said Tancer.
Of the remaining 8 percent, the majority of searches were for stock quotes, and general business related searches. "Most specific news related searches fill-out the long tail of search queries. While the Journal may lose traffic if it ceases to cooperate with Google the loss may be less then anticipated," he added.
However, the potential loss of Google News traffic is potentially more serious. Over the past three years, WSJ.com's traffic from Google News has grown from 2 percent to over 11 percent.
As you can see in the Hitwise table to the left, the Journal is receiving more than double the traffic from Google News than newspaper sites overall -- a custom category including national and regional papers. Bing, the potential News Corp. suitor for search exclusivity provides less than half of Google News' volume as of last week.
As newspapers continue to search for a way out of the search rip current, some are rooting for Murdoch's maverick de-index strategy. Nevertheless, the numbers bring us back to reality. Observes Tancer, "As print continues to hemorrhage readership, could blocking your most significant traffic source be a wise choice?"
That's not what Gordon McLeod seemed to say during his keynote speech at Search Engine Strategies New York 2008. McLeod is president of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, which includes WSJ.com, MarketWatch.com, Barrons.com, Dow Jones Classified Ventures, and the recently launched AllThingsD.com.
But that was then and this is now. And Bing may change the dynamic, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. I think the Microsoft-News Corp. talks are a marriage made in hell.
This reminds me of the movie "Newsies," with Joseph Pulitzer trying to out-muscle the kids "carrying the banner." As Jack Kelly says in the movie, "Well, dat's da foist thing ya gotta learn - headlines don't sell papes. Newsies sell papes." And Murdoch needs to learn that his news content doesn't send traffic to the Journal. Google sends traffic to the Journal.
News Corp. doesn't have a monopoly on high quality business news. I can use Google and Google News to find high quality business news from hundreds of "fair and balanced" sources.
Am I wrong? Let me know what you think by posting a comment below.
Instead of viewing in a vertical list, view products horizontally in rows. Click the gallery icon at the top right corner just above the results. Here's what the gallery view looks like on the results for sunglasses:
Review summaries
On product pages, Google is providing a quick glance at the overall feedback from the reviews for a given product:
Video product reviews from YouTube
Also on the product pages, look for a link - just under the product name - for "Videos," and you'll get access to reviews users have posted on YouTube:
Nearby stores
When you're in the "Compare Prices" grid, you'll see notifications of nearby brick-and-mortar locations of the listed retailer. Click on the link listing nearby stores and a window appears with a map, outlining the locations.
This is a great way to do a little virtual window shopping before you brave the crowds this weekend. Or - just avoid them altogether by buying online.
If you've used Hunch, you know that you can go through several questions in order to "teach" Hunch about you. Now, Hunch is attempting to improve the process of answering those questions with a new test. And they want your feedback.
They test involves non-yes or no questions - and you'll have to accept a cookie to participate. But you can turn the cookie off as you see fit. Visit the Hunch blog to learn more about the test.
Hunch is hoping to learn how to better refine the question process so that the can deliver better answers to searchers in a quicker manner.
Recently, Google Maps launched Navigation, a robust GPS system for Android. But it only came out for Android 2.0, meaning it could only be used on the brand spankin' new Motorola Droid from Verizon.
Simply update Google Maps from the Android Market to gain access to turn-by-turn directions, search by voice and to find coffee along that traffic-packed route you find yourself on this extended holiday weekend.
Nicholas Kristof took to the pages of the New York Times to call for a boycott of Bing. Yes, Kristoff is attempting to create the news instead of just cover it, and yes, that goes against the fundamentals covered in any Journalism 101 class.
Kristof claims that Bing is cozying up to China and serving up censored results. Kristof even admits that Google is serving up some censored results, but only calls for the Bing boycott.
Listen, it's not easy doing the search business in China. The country is constantly banning internet properties and overreacting to content it feels threatened by. The challenges are many, and there's no perfect answer. I suspect all search engines will have to constantly examine how their results will play in China, especially as the political landscape changes.
Many outside factors aren't exactly helping U.S. companies, as humorously depicted in a Saturday Night Live sketch this past weekend (NSFW).
Google has announced a new agreement to acquire Teracent, a San Mateo display advertising optimization startup. Teracent uses technology that chooses from thousands of elements and machine-learning algorithms to serve up ads in real-time.
Elements include tweaking colors, images, messaging, and products. Then the ads are targeted even more according to location, language, time of day, etc.
The acquisition is expected to be complete sometime this quarter. After that, Google plans to implement Teracent's technology to the Google Content Network and DoubleClick.
AOL will be going independent in December and they've unveiled their new branding. A new minimalist font has been selected, the "o" and the "l" have been lowercased, a hip period has been added. I love closure. Oh - and the company name will be set against an ever-changing image.
Here are six preview images sent to us by the hard workin' AOL press team (click for a larger view):
They've also released an artsy, abstract video demonstrating the change. What does it all mean?!!??!!
Personally, I love minimalism. I'm quite curious to see how it fits into the rest of the branding, which we'll have to wait a couple more weeks for.
In the meantime, leave your first impressions in the comments below.
This week, I'll share an eleventh significant reason for attending Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 -- and it isn't "11 pipers piping." You should attend SES Chicago 2009 for "11 topics breaking."
According to recent research by Tradeshow Week, the top reason for attending conventions and tradeshows this year is to "keep up-to-date on trends and issues." And a close look at the conference agenda for Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009 shows that the conference sessions will help you keep up-to-date on trends and issues -- big time.
When the conference agenda was first posted back in August, 11 out of the 65 sessions were totally new. In addition, another 11 sessions were "reserved for late-breaking topics."
Since then, Incisive Media has appointed of Mike Grehan as VP and Global Content Director for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ, and Search Engine Strategies. And Grehan has identified these late-breaking topics and speakers have been invited to keep you up-to-date on these trends and issues.
Together, these 22 totally new sessions represent the "bleeding edge" of opportunities and threats in the search engine marketing industry. And some of them aren't even about search engines -- they're about social media and social networking sites.
This is why savvy search industry veterans who have attended each and every SES Chicago since 2003 keep coming back year after year. They know this Search Engine Strategies conference gives them a sneak preview of the latest topics two to three months before their direct and indirect competition.
Below is the list of 22 sessions which are totally new to SES. You can't attend them all, but you'd be smart to attend as many as you can.
Facebook Rockstars Roundtable: Marketing For the Other Internet
How to Cut Your Corporate Budget Without Cutting Leads or Sales
The Oprah Winfrey Litigation: What Affiliate Marketers MUST Know
Eye Tracking Research Update
M2M: Cracking the Code on Marketing to Marketers
Next week, we'll look at a final reason for going to Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009. In the meantime, just keep singing "11 topics breaking, 10 authors speaking, nine trainers training, eight days a-learning, seven tracks amazing, six booths astounding, five brand new things, four keynote themes, three key trends, two early birds, and a ranking in the top three."
It seems like everyone these days has a blog. Once upon a time, every angst filled teenager had a LiveJournal, a GreatestJournal, a DeadJournal, et cetera. Then, little by little, they moved onto MySpace and Facebook. Now, however, whether it is through Wordpress or Blogspot, everyone has moved onto blogs. In some cases, these are still just places to rant and run off at the mouth — or fingers, as it were.
When you are selling a blog, trying to bring attention to it, you have to treat it like any other product – and that means PR. You want people to know about your web site. You have to tell them about it. You can submit posts to social bookmarking sites for starters, not just the popular sites like Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon, but also lesser known bookmarking pages.
Now we are going to talk about RSS feeds, which are increasingly popular. Providing a good one can drive a whole lot of traffic to your blog.
Now, web directories can only do so much. Advertising your blog falls primarily on your shoulders, and you have to take responsibility for that. So, get your blog’s address out there wherever you possibly can. Any piece of communication you put out there, your blog needs to show up on it somewhere. Write up an About Us page, get a press release done, and most of all, advertise your blog yourself. Make sure the link shows up on your business cards, your letterhead, your fax cover sheets, and in all of your email signatures. In addition to getting a press release, think about having a brochure put together as well. You should also think about creating a monthly newsletter. That way, you can let people know what is new or simply noteworthy. Most of all, it will remind people that your blog is there, and you will be encouraging them to visit.
Unless you are just blogging for your own personal enjoyment, you want to get your blog out there – especially if you are doing it to get paid. That can be hard, especially if you aren’t really sure what to do. So it is definitely worth it to take a look at some strategies to get your blog out there – and to improve your page rank.
There are a number of strategies you need to follow when learning and implementing blog link advertising. The most important of these involve relevancy. So many people are into black hat tactics these days. They prefer to stuff keywords and links into places where they do not fit. They will hide links, or cut corners by placing linked-in comments into forums and other blogs, which does not really advertise effectively at all.
Blogging for fun is one thing. Blogging for money is another. A lot of us are used to blogging as a means of personal expression. For those of us just getting into the whole idea of professional blogging and blog link advertising, the concepts can be seriously out of reach. It sounds like another language — SEO, white hat tactics, black hat tactics, keyword ratio, et cetera. This is not an industry for the faint of heart and if you don’t learn how to do things correctly, you’re not going to see a penny — or get any advertising done.
