You are here: Home / Archives for Bloggers and Blogs / Blog Tips / Search Engine Optimization

Blogging: So Easy A Caveman Can Do It

March 2, 2007 By 9 Comments

Well it looks like the caveman has signed a deal with ABC making my attempt to copy and plagiarize GIECO’s advertising campaign moot.  I wanted so badly to have the caveman tapping away at his keyboard, making fun of Robert Scoble, linkbaiting, Digging, and perhaps even signing up to work for clamshells at PayPerPost!  How cool would it have been if he would have been like Loren Feldman on 1938 media talking about the latest in tech gadgets and testing blog platforms, all while rubbing elbows with the likes of Om Malik, and Dave Winer.  He would have been perfect making a behind the scenes deal with Jason Calacanis starting the Caveman Blogging Network!  His videodcast would be picked up by John Furrier and he would be interviewing 40 second spots (rather than a Scoble 40 minute taping) of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and the latest in celebrity gossip like Perez Hilton.  He could write a great book like Jeremy Wright or Shel Israel or Debbie Weil.  He would be a sought after keynote at all the cool conferences like Gnomedex, Blog Business Summit, and of course Blog World Expo.  He would be sought after for his political opinions, like Instapundit, Little Green Footballs and Daily Kos.

Then I thought I might just get a variation of it and have it be "Blogging:  So easy a lawyer can do it."  Of course then I would probably be sued by litigious Mike Arrington, or I might offend for the second time people like Brian Clark.  I was soon talked out of that as a result of not wanting to offend Cavemen everywhere.

Since it seems that I am losing out here on the real wave of  "The Caveman", I have decided to do it myself and start my own campaign. Since I kind of took a beating yesterday after taking on Adobe, and since Dave Taylor believes my Bloggers For Hire operation to be similar to second class, I’m beginning the new campaign here:

"Blogging, so easy  Jim Turner can do it." 

Of course, you have my permission to actually let everyone know just how easy blogging is since nobody would possibly believe that I could actually do it successfully.  TGIF!!

Tags: , , GIECO, , Linkbait, , , , 1938 Media, , , , , , Brian Clark, , , , , Bloggers For Hire, Jeremy Wright, , Debbie Weil, Gnomedex, Blog Business Summit, , , ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Platforms, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging Books, Blogging News, Blogonomics Conference, Blogs and Law, Blogs and Politics, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Partnerships, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services, The Site

Professional Bloggers Are Intelligence Gatherers

March 2, 2007 By 3 Comments

A couple of weeks back, during the Sundance Film Festival, I posted on my personal blog about the movie Hounddog, starring Dakota Fanning.  The movie entered controversy in the film world because Ms. Fanning appeared in a rape scene that was shown.  As a father of a 7 year old daughter, you can imagine I was appalled at the notion of a 12 year old girl being involved in a scene such as that, and then later saying it was no big deal and that parents should let their children see the movie to show them the "real world".  I don’t want to get off on that tangent again.  As a result of that post on my blog, a commenter took umbrage with my statement and called me "a jerk".  Not a problem, I have been called worse, and anytime you speak of religion, politics or other moral topics you are bound to have a heated discussion. In this particular instance, the commenter left no URL for me to visit his own blog.  Not knowing if his email address was actually a fake or a real address, I left a response on the blog, and a dialogue ensued.

As a blogger my job is to market my blogs, advertise them and grow my readership.  As a normal part of that process, even as a personal Daddy Blogger, my job is to gather intelligence about what is being said about my blog, who is coming to visit, who is reading what articles, and a laundry list of other things we do on a daily basis as we check our stats. After performing my normal blogging rituals, I ran across a link to my site and followed it to what then became my name caller.  He had a Live Journal Blog, and had mentioned my post again, as well as his comment so he could get the thoughts and reactions of his readers.  I was now a reader, so I left him my own message, without the name calling, extending the conversation once again.  Later in the process we began to exchange private emails, and we connected on more than just our blogging level.  He commented later that he was shocked to see that I had found him and his blog, and wondered about my secret.  I wish I could have told him it was some blogger voodoo magic, but it is merely a function we as bloggers, and more so we professional bloggers, do to stay in touch with the dynamic site we have created.  This is the same thing that I tell businesses.  This is the expertise we charge for as consultants and professional bloggers it separates us from the everyday copywriter or journalist.

The intelligence that can be gathered from a single visit to a blog, a single comment, and the information available can be an invaluable resource to companies, their marketing departments and their PR departments.  The tools available give you more intelligence about a single customer than any street window shopper, any strip mall customer, or anyone seeing an advertisement in a magazine on TV or on radio.  Blogging and social marketing online can be a whole new world of feedback and information.  This is only one example of what a business can do to shape its place online, and a way to gather and use valuable intelligence.  At One By One Media, this is called "Collaborative Intelligence".  Let us gather some for you.

Tags: , , Houndog, , Daddy Blogger, Blog Intelligence, Collaborative Intelligence, , , , , , Professional Bloggers, Bloggers For Hire

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services

Darren’s tips for skimable–scannable posts

February 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment

 Like Darren I pretty much live in my feed reader, post editor and the other tools of the pro-blogging trade.  I figure Darren reads at least as many feeds as I do (I’m in the high 300s) and like Darren probably has to skim feeds too.  So If I were you, listen to these tips from Darren on writing more skimable posts:

Techniques for scannable RSS feeds are not dissimilar to those for scannable websites of any type and include:

  • Use Lists – using bullet points draws the eye and makes your content more digestible
  • Headings – headings scattered throughout your posts stand out on the page and give your readers visual cues that lead them down into your post. They also quickly communicate where you’re heading (no pun intended) with your post and can intrigue readers enough to get them fully reading what you have to say.
  • Formatting – using different text formatting (bold, italics, font sizes and even colors) can also draw the eye of your readers to different parts of your posts. Be careful about going too over the top though.
  • Blockquotes – highlight quotes or other key parts of your posts with blockquotes that indent text – again this draws the eye and adds variety into your feed.
  • Short Paragraphs - News aggregators are heavily laden with text at the best of times – but add to it with large unbroken slabs of text and you’ll end up turning off many readers.
    Source: Make Your Posts Scannable – RSS Feeds that POP

Keep in mind as well that people read at least 30% slower on screen vs paper.  Couple that with about a 50% drop in reading comprehension, keep it simple stupid should become a mantra for your writing.

tags: , ,

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Bloggers and Blogs, Business Blogging, Findability, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Even if only 8% of Americans read blogs, it’s which 8% is important

January 29, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Teresa on the BBS blog points to an article in the Seattle PI citing that only 8% of Americans read blogs, therefore blogging’s popularity and power is all hype.  From the Seattle PI:

"One of the things that’s probably overstated by the press is how many people are visiting online blogs," Poltrack said in a presentation to TV critics recently. "I think you all blog each other, but I’m not sure the rest of the world is joining in the process that much."

Fair enough.  Yep we all do link a lot to each other.  Teresa chimes in with one of the good reasons to blog, SEO:

Except that it isn’t. So what if only 8% of people read blogs on any kind of a regular basis? The important thing is that search engines read blogs. What’s more, search engines like blogs. They update a lot and they are remarkably free of stupid, confusing code. Dynamic sites have a huge leg up in the world of search and everyone knows it.

If your customers are looking for products that you make, or services that you provide, you want to be the first thing to show up in the search results. And if you want search engines to consider your site to be the most relevant result to your industry, blogging is the best way to accomplish it.

Teresa only scratches the surface here.  There are a couple of other points that are equally, if not more, important to make.  First is that IMHO a lot of American Internet users don’t realize they are reading a blog when they are.  And, really that’s a good thing.  Blog as website, website as blog.  I think many, many people have a picture in their minds of what a blog is and how to recognize them.  Can’t really fault them for that.

The second more important factor isn’t that only 8% of Americans read blogs, it’s which 8% read them.  Watch CNN for a couple days and you’ll notice pretty quickly they cite blogs and other social media very often in reports.  It’s also very certain that a lot of the MSM looks to blogs as the source for fast-breaking news and for additional insight into an issue.  Think of it this way, what percent of Americans read the Wall Street Journal?  I don’t know the answer, but it isn’t the majority for sure.  Then consider the influence that the WSJ has on opinion and the news.  Blogs and social media are exactly the same.  Blogs often influence the influencers, and that’s the major reason that blogs and blogging have risen to the fore.

For a small business, the search engine benefit is probably the key one.  For now, that’s fine.  But as any business blogs, eventually the blogger there will become recognized as an expert in that industry segment.  That has untold value.  That’s why you, me, and everyone else keeps blogging.

Tags: , , blog influence

Filed Under: Bloggers and Blogs, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Findability, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization

I Have Started My Blog Where Are All The Customers?

January 18, 2007 By 5 Comments

This question is often asked a few days after my clients get their bill for our services.  It’s not a bad question.  If I have done my job correctly they are excited for the new marketing campaign and are deeply involved in the new project and are committed to making the plan a success.  I always have to break the bad news to them.  The blog is usually not an overnight success.  Like telling my children Christmas is a whole year away, my customers often become quickly discouraged.

Sticking with the child analogy, I begin by telling them that they have recently given birth to a new child and that child will not be running for President of the United States on her first day of school.  They must first learn to crawl before they run. Unless of course they are my children and they seem to be able to shed the straight jacket quicker than usual. As a father of four children 7 years old and younger it seems they are always running making me feel  like I am trying to herd cats.

There is a time period while the new blogger produces enough content to really be able to impart their company message on the public.  There is a period of waiting while the blog is finally indexed by the search engines.  There is a period of time that they get established as an expert in their field or niche.  There is a time while word gets out about their service or product and that they use  their blog to communicate their vision and message.  People will start to come to the new blog to read your message and if you are providing something of value, they will return. This also takes time.  There is a time period while building subscribers to your blog through feed readers and email subscriptions.  All of these things can take some patience.

I often ask them to remember the first time they were open for business.  Were they an overnight success? Did they meet their sales goals the first day of business?  Not usually.  They took time to build a reputation.  Blogging is no different.  It takes a little time for your reputation to precede them.  Don’t expect  blogs to be that injection of adrenaline your business needs to make it to the next level overnight.  Blogs are an investment just as any other long term goal.  I can assure you however that the investment will pay dividends.

Tags: ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Revenue, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Services, The Site

Blog Advertising To Become More Popular With Smaller Companies

January 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Business Week Online Magazine has published an article that discusses the paid search campaigns of medium to small sized firms and reveals that the larger companies are begging to nudge out those companies that thrived in this arena previous.  This is forcing medium and smaller companies to begin to look elsewhere for their advertising real estate.  The article ends with a quote from Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim:

Still, many small and midsize marketers are buying far fewer "keywords" and phrases. Merchants are also trying out ads on MySpace and YouTube, or advertising on blogs and niche shopping sites. Says consultant Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim: "The free lunch is over."

I disagree with Andy’s premise that the free lunch is over, I just think it’s time for the medium and smaller firms to look for lunch elsewhere.  These companies will be one step ahead of the big boys and continue to try new markets and new technology.  The smaller companies are more likely to be able to try certain avenues that are unavailable to the large companies just because of their size.  Being a small company that can be an early adopter and on the cutting edge is their only fight against the large budgets spent by the those with the cash.  They must adapt to new ideas and let the big boys continue to clean up after they have had their lunch. 

I see more targeted marketing efforts  beginning to take shape with advertising buying up space on specific oriented blogs.  The blogging communities are beginning to take shape and I think Yahoo has decided that groups like MyBlogLog that they recently purchased is the next phase of early adoption.  In the article by Business Week, they use the example of BabyAge.com.  This company will now leverage the parenting and baby site communities for their targeted marketing efforts.  They will be able to identify these communities through blog networks and companies like Blogads and MyBlogLog.  What do you think Andy?  Let’s have lunch, you can pick up the tab.

Tags: , Andy Beal, , , , BabyAge.com, Blogads, , , ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services

Building Your Blog Business One By One

January 9, 2007 By 1 Comment

Part of our focus here at One By One Media is to help companies build a community one person at a time.  It’s part of why we chose the name of the company.  A community is not built overnight, and unless you really know how to build that community it can be a difficult task.  We make it easier and provide you with the ability to grow your readers, and build that community.  Someone that recently posted on this is Ben Yoskovitz at Instigator Blog.

His 8 steps are a prime example of what we preach here, but most importantly I think he makes a good point in pushing the idea of networking.  For most people networking is a part of your everyday business.  Getting to know the people in your industry is important.  Having them join in your community is the ultimate goal.  Everything Ben mentions is a great networking steps to get visitors. 

  1. Write to Get More Comments
  2. Reply to Comments
  3. Visit Commenters’ Sites
  4. Email People a Thank You
  5. Email People Links of Interest
  6. Track The Most Popular Content
  7. Make Content Accessible and Readable
  8. Participate in Online Communities

I’m now a member of Ben’s community because he followed his steps and introduced himself as someone that read my blog.  I in turn wanted to read what he had to say.  Both of us built our social network by one reader.  One By One Media is all about growth for your company, even if it is one person at a time.

Tags: One By One Media, Ben Yoskovitz, Instigator Blog, , ,

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services, The Site

Techmeme: A Technology River Guide

December 21, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Robert Scoble recently revealed to me that the popular technology news site is controlled on the back end by a human river guide.  I refer to Gabe as a river guide because of the now often referred to "River of News."  The guide, in this case Gabe Rivera, picks and chooses news items to appear on the main site based on his own opinion of what is important and what is newsworthy in the technology area.  I’ll be paying more attention I suppose now to Techmeme River.  I’m not sure if Gabe’s opinions and my own are the same about what I would like to read and what I deem important to me.  I think this will turn out to be a service we should get used to in the future.  Once you find a river guide you trust and a you have like mindedness as it relates to news, make sure you tell the rest of us.  I suppose the next thing we will be seeing is "River Guides:  Help Wanted" listed in Craigslist.  Perhaps I have found a new service for us here besides Bloggers For Hire, now we can offer to our clients and customers a  River of News Guide Service.

Powered by Qumana

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Business Blogging, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Services

It’s The Holiday Season Is Visa Listening?

December 14, 2006 By 1 Comment

In my early days as a blogger, I began learning and using blogs as a father. I spoke about my children and family and was labeled as a Daddy Blogger. As a result of those ties to the community, I read a number of blogs in the parenting arena. One of my daily reads is a blogger that I first ran across three years ago and I consider her a veteran in mommy blogging. Her blog name is Busy Mom. What does any of this have to do with business blogging? I’m glad you asked.

Busy Mom today shows us the power of Collaborative Intelligenceâ„¢ and how companies can find what is being said in the blogosphere and in the wide open space of the Internet and gathering information about their customers and potential customers. BM (sorry, I always call her that) writes of a piece of direct marketing mail she received from Visa:

Speaking of Visa, I got a book of “courtesy” checks in the mail to “use with your VISA account!”
Only problem was they were for an account I had no idea I had. Apparently, the mortgage company was kind enough to open an account for us when we refinanced a while back.

I steeled myself for an AOL-style (has sound) battle and called to cancel it, and, the nice guy on the phone said: “OK, it’s done, thanks!”

Me: “Come on, you’re kidding, right?
Nice guy: “Um, no.”
Me: “You’re not going to ask why I’m canceling?”
Nice guy: “…”
Me: “You’re not going to tell me how I can move other balances to this card?”
Nice guy: “No. I’m not.”
Me: “Well, OK. Thanks!”

I likened her reaction as if she had learned of the true meaning of Christmas for the first time. Like the Grinch, her heart grew exponentially that day as she thought about Visa.

If I was sitting my office at Visa in their marketing department or in their advertising department, this would be a very invaluable blog post. This is better than any multi-million dollar project they intend to do for the Super Bowl, or a print ad in any parenting magazine. Why? This is a very influential blogger in a specific community. She has a large number of readers in a specific market that Visa would love to capture. This is an unsolicited response to a very positive experience with a customer service department. It is the opposite type of publicity she refers to in the instance of how a particular phone call was dealt with by AOL. The AOL customer service debacle had plenty of publicity, albeit bad publicity, but still you know the saw about good and bad publicity.

This is a small example of what Collaborative Intelligenceâ„¢ can do for a company. If you are seeing what is being said, you can use that intelligence to your benefit, be it good or bad. To the customer service person taking BM’s call, thank you for a job well done. If your employer were listening, they could also be told of your good representation of their product or service. Unfortunately, like many companies, this free advertising and marketing gem will be stored alongside all the other missed opportunities to show people what good stories there are in the blogosphere. Are you listening what is being said about your company? If you don’t think it’s powerful to know you should have been at my dinner table this week when my 5 year old son looked over at me and blankly asked “What’s in your wallet?”

Tags: , , Collaborative Intelligence, Blog Mining, , , Blog Marketing, , , , ,

Powered by Qumana

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Business Blogging, Companies Needing Blogs, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Search Engine Optimization, Services

Coldwater Creek: Can A Catalogue Company Blog?

December 7, 2006 By 1 Comment

Reading Kevin Hillstrom’s take on Coldwater Creek: The Little Engine That Could, made me begin thinking about catalogue companies and their online marketing campaigns.  This is the season for catalogues to begin showing up in our bathrooms of the house with circles around those things in each that are on our respective wish lists.  Somehow those electronic catalogues were thrown away, especially that Apple catalogue.  Maybe I should take the hint.

One reason I decided to click on Kevin’s article was because I was intrigued by a company that I barely known, and only since my wife orders stuff from all sorts of catalogues. Why is a blog mentioning a catalogue that only yesterday was stuck on my office chair with sticky notes flagged to it?  Apparently, this company is a forward thinking business that is making a big splash. Kevin reveals:

After reading comments from Coldwater Creek’s third quarter "conference call", it is obvious management continues to transition this business model into one dominated by the retail channel. During the third quarter, retail sales grew by 48%, and now represents 65% of the total business. Online sales grew by 29% from last year, and now represent 67% of the sales within the direct channel. Catalog now represents just over 10% of the total business. Wow.

Although only one of its marketing channels, here is a company that understands the power of online marketing.  I decided to do a little of my own research into the company.  As always with my research drill I started with Google.  The first thing I noticed is their premium spot on Google’s search in Adwords. They are performing a PPC campaign for their online marketing campaign which is almost a must in their retail business.  A look at the home page and their site map shows that they understand the needs of their customers, making it easy to navigate and BUY.  This is of course the whole point, making people get out that credit card to make a purchase.  I quelled the urge to do so, although I’m sure other family members will make up for my lack of urge.

An unknown is the amount of money Coldwater Creek is spending on the online campaign for directing traffic to their website and online retail center, but with retail sales growing at the rate stated and online sales growing from 29% last year to more than $13 million, they are hopefully sinking some investment into this area.

Now the elevator pitch.  The Coldwater Creek Blog.  This blog discusses the products, the retail centers, employees, provides catalogue information, and overall states the vision of Coldwater Creek. It send me the picture out the window of their offices in Idaho they say are inspiring.  They talk about why they are a better choice than the local L.L. Bean.  Yes, take on that competition and talk about them, they don’t have a blog either.  In the meantime, the blog represents only microscopic amount of their current online marketing plan including PPC.  The blog over time will outperform its conversion rate it is now paying in its premium slot for Google and other search engines.  The remaining pitch has everything to do with the Coldwater Creek mission as gleaned from their "About" page:

The common thread in all our endeavors is service. Service to our customers, our employees, our community. Please explore and enjoy our Web site. We’re glad you stopped by.

It’s time to extend that service to blogging, for your employees, customers and the community we call the blogosphere.  Perhaps the experience would be more enjoyable with a blog, and I will be glad if you stop by.  I know you will because of your Collaborative Intelligenceâ„¢ campaign.

Tags: , , Online Retail Catalogues, , , , , , , , The Blog Pitch, , , Collaborative Intelligence, ,

Powered by Qumana

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Companies Needing Blogs, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Services
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »