WebSite Marketing Strategy

I just finished reading, “Digg is Not Social Media Marketing” and I’d have to agree that using Digg alone is not social media marketing. While this may be an important tactic in the overall scheme of things, there is much more to social media than Digg. And, It is quite apparent that many marketers spend a considerable amount of time trying to game the Digg algorithm, grow their friend’s list, and seed content in hopes of achieving front page placement.

Why? Well…usually in the form of linkbait, most savvy SEO practitioners have found that achieving front page placement on Digg equates to high visibility, traffic and links. Here is a quick and basic formula:

(Digg front page = high visibility = many links = higher rankings = even more traffic)

But as a marketer, what else can Digg do other than drive short term traffic to a site coupled with a few hundred links? Is it really worth the effort and can a positive ROI be extracted from the amount of time invested? Is there a transparency and authenticity issue when building a sense of community for the sole purpose of getting others to digg your story? This is a clear example of Digg-Enomics; where there is an over abundance of supply (content) with no real demand.

Could it be an ego thing? Bragging rights of achieving front page placement?

Marketers are aware that conversion rates from Digg are minimal. And, despite the many efforts to camouflage marketing messages in content, Digg users are sharp and notice the little details. All it takes is one person to notice it, comment on it and then bury it. I even know of one of the top SEO agencies that was banned from submitting content to Digg; and it wasn’t even their fault.

In my opinion, Digg is just another customer touch point in the long list of social/traditional media outlets. It’s a potential distribution channel for content to reach a target consumer group just like paid/natural search, display advertising, traditional media, community related marketing, etc. If you are tying to reach main stream consumers (stay-at-home moms, baby boomers, college students), Digg is obviously not the place you should be spending all your time and effort.

Here’s an analogy.

Digg is a one night stand. You submit your content, get it on the home page and reap the rewards of a ton of traffic, links and more traffic. Then you wake up, reality kicks in, the fun is over and perhaps you sneak out the back door before she wakes up.

My point is simply that the core of Social Media is embedded in the conversations between marketers and consumers, whether it happens on-domain or off-domain. It’s about cultivating long-term relationships and empowering brand ambassadors of your product. It’s a multi-directional conversation, with no room for marketing messages. It’s about acknowledging, listening and creating a sense of community.

Direct marketing is important. Don’t get me wrong. But, perhaps social media in general is not the best channel for customer acquisition. Unless, of course you are a new Web 2.0 start up with an innovative technology.

There is so much more to social media than discussed in this post. Look out for additional posts on this topic real soon! If you enjoyed this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed and recieve all future posts delivered straight to your inbox.

Tags: social media, conversational marketing, digg, banned

How often do you need to submit your blog to the search engines as part of your blogs SEO strategies? Good question but a very short answer. In reality - once - when you first establish the blog.

Search engines are pretty good at finding information for themselves - they don’t need constant reminders. If you do want to remind them, just submitting your sitemap as a part of a blog SEO strategy is enough to have them come back and visit.

You are better off ensuring that when the spiders do come a trolling, everything is ready for them. Some components are very important and using a spider simulator as part of your blog SEO routine can be a good idea. Spider simulators let you see what the spider sees. This is particularly helpful for identifying broken or super slow pages. These pages may prevent your page from being spidered successfully.

Other on page areas to look at include:

• Meta tags: page title, description and keywords
• Page headings and content
• Keyword use which matches your meta tags for keywords
• Internal links
• External links (that you have some control over)
• Alt and title tags for videos and images

Submitting your site a million times will not improve your rankings and as a part of blog SEO activities is a waste of your valuable time. Spend time optimizing the above points and leave the spidering to the search engines.

The new blog is launched! Please tell me what you think and be honest. I actually designed the look and feel myself in Photoshop; and then hired the guys over at Unique Blog Designs to program it and build in the functionality. We ran into some problems with the latest version of Wordpress not being compatible with the version of MySQL database on my host; and we were locked out of the control panel for a few days because the license expired on Plesk (I hate Plesk by the way). Customer support was horrible; well…a good friend of mine was hosting the site for free so I should be nice (even though he was so darn non-responsive for like two days). Nonetheless, we moved hosts and everything seems to be working properly.

So please take a moment and click around the blog and tell me what you think. Do you like it? Hate it? Envy it? And, please be specific; if something doesn’t work, please tell me. So far I tested it in IE.6, IE.7 and Firefox. And, if you like what I have to say, you can always subscribe to my RSS feed and receive all future posts delivered straight to your inbox.

Now that I am up and running … let the posts begin!

Being able to keep your blog fresh is often a very difficult task. It is to easy to fall into an everyday blogging habit that becomes dreary and tiresome - it then starts to show in your content. These blogging tips may just help to keep you on track, keep you alive, and keep your blog looking alive and fresh.

1. Provide variety in your content - whilst you may need to stay within your niche, that doesn’t mean you cannot provide a bit of variety through the use of graphics, video and perhaps even some humor.
2. Spend as much time writing an eye catching title as you do your content.  Titles hook the reader.
3. Work on that first paragraph. After the title, the first paragraph is what will keep your visitor reading the balance of your post.
4. Using contrasting layouts. Don’t just stick to writing paragraphs. Include bullet points, numbered points and formatting features such as bold and perhaps color. Learn to create style sheets for your posts.
5. Mix up the length of your posts. Quick short posts are less draining than long in depth posts. Use the short posts to give yourself a break and to break up the page.
6. Make the page easily scanable highlighting relevant points. Most visitors these days are looking for a quick summary read - they can then file the post away for future reference or move on.
7. Proofread your content. Don’t always try to proof read your work immediately. Come back an hour later and proof read it. You will be surprised how many more errors you will find with that one hour break.
8. Knowledgeable - if you are not totally sure of the subject matter, do a little research. If you are still unsure then either don’t write about it, or turn it on its head and admit your limited knowledge; ask your readers for input. You will often find that people just cannot help but stick their noses in and add their little bit.
9. If it is appropriate, provide relevant links to further information on within your own site or on another site. If you feel readers may jump ship to another site then either create the links to open in a new window, or place all the links as further reading links at the end of the article.
10. Use comments from previous posts as starting points for a new post. The commentator will love you for the exposure and your readers will be encouraged to comment more often.
11. Learn to write commentaries about other blogs and their articles. This is particularly useful if you have something to add to the article or have a valid counter opinion. Readers like to see debates, or alternate views.
12. Get to know to your regular readers and acknowledge them occasionally. One sure way to increase your reader base. As new readers arrive they see that regulars are being mentioned, their comments referred to and of course your posts referring (with links) to their posts. Serious bloggers will want to get in on that action.

One more blogging tip. One of the best ways to freshen yourself up is to read other blogs. Putting together a list of blogs that inspire you is not overly difficult. I bookmark half a dozen blogs that I like and place them into the one bookmark folder. When I am a little bored or lacking inspiration I just go to that folder and open them all at once (using Firefox). I can then move between them, reading, comparing and always gaining more inspiration.

These 12 blogging tips should help to keep you fresh and if you are fresh, your blog will be fresh.

test

Blog plugins are one of those ‘cannot live with - cannot live without’ things that occasionally irritate us.  Don’t get me wrong, plugins do a great job at adding that extra dimension to your blog. They are also a great aid to reducing your workload - well sometimes anyway.

The problem is, unless you check them every day they have this habit of getting out of control. You check your blog plugin option from the dashboard and it seems like every second one needs an update. So you go through all the updates. A week later, here we go again.

I have found one solution. Go through each of the blog plugins that you have activated and really think about whether or not you need it. I would also do a search on the specific plugin to see if there are any others out there that can do the same job. Better yet, there are some blog plugins available that can do multiple jobs, particularly in the SEO area.

Once you have sorted out what can stay and what can go, delete the unnecessary ones and learn to live without them. As a side benefit you will find that your blog loads a just a little faster.

As bloggers I think at times we become to ‘plugin happy’. A new blog plugin becomes available and the first thing we do is download it and give it a try. Often it is a plugin that we have done without in the past - and if that is the case, we can do without it in the future.

Before installing a blog plugin, or keeping what you have now. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Does it improve my readers viewing experience
2. Does it improve my readers ability to communicate
3. Does it have any SEO value
4. Does it have an blog protection value (spam)
5. Does it help me create a better post

If you answer no to all those questions, then deactivate the blog plugin. If you answer yes to any of those questions then ask one more - is it being duplicated with another plugin?

Blog plugins can be a great aid - they can also be a pain in the ……..

It’s been a while but the new design is finally up. Please tell me what you think!  I actually designed the look and feel myself in Photoshop; and hired Unique Blog Designs to code it and build in the functionality.  We ran into a few database issues with my old hosting company. Well … to tell the truth, one of my close friends was hosting it for free using really old software. This was all ratified once I moved hosting companies.  Then we had a problem upgrading to Wordpress to 2.5.

Please do give me your feedback and if something doesn’t work, let me know!  So far I have tested all the functionality in IE.6, IE.7 and Firefox; and everything seems to be working properly, with the exception of one thing, the comments.

When you leave a comment, it takes a while (3 – 5 seconds) before the comment is actually submitted.  Hopefully, this will get fixed soon!

Google prefer the term ‘next’ and ‘previous’ button, too me it looks like a scroll button. Whatever you wish to call it, will it make any difference to your Adsense income?

You can see the ‘next’ ‘previous’ buttons in the bottom left of this graphic from the Adsense Blog.

The theory behind the ‘next’ ‘previous’ buttons is that if the viewer cannot see an ad that suits them they will use the ’scroll’ buttons to look at some of the other ads to find what they are looking for. Fine concept in theory, however it can be difficult enough earning any blogging income from the exist ads.

If visitors are not clicking on the ads now, I cannot see them using these buttons to look at other ads. The buttons themselves are small and there is has not been any real publicity to go with the release. Are visitors even going to realize the options is there? Eventually they will. If you rely on Adsene for your blogging income, don’t expect a dramatic increase.

The ‘next’ ‘previous’ buttons have been appearing for several months now while in test mode. It seems the concept is in open mode now and all Adsense units will display the buttons. It does provide your reader with more options and perhaps over time they will become popular. Another tool in the Google war chest to help you build your blogging income - we hope so anyway.

WordPress 2.5 has finally been released. As a blog software vehicle the improvements are quite marked and will take a little getting used to. If you need to do the upgrade yourself, don’t stress, it is a breeze taking around five to ten minutes depending on your internet connection speed. My first recommendation is to get a good file transfer program (FTP) - you will need it.

The steps are detailed at WordPress.org and are fairly straightforward.  A quick outline of what you are in for:

1. Download the upgrade and extract it to a folder on your desktop
2. Deactivate all plugins in your WordPress blog
3. Delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folder
4. Upload the replacement wp-admin and wp-includes folders
5. Upload and overwrite the contents of the WP root directory (files only) to the WP root directory on your site.
6. Upload the Default WordPress theme to the Themes folder
7. Load your  site and run the database upgrade that you are presented with
8. Reactivate your plugins - I suggest one by one checking that your blog runs smoothly after each activation
9. Done

It is that easy and so far I have not come across any drama’s. If any of your plugins are out of date you can upgrade them straight from the plugins panel. That makes for a quick, easy and smooth updating of the plugins.

The Dashboard will look a little strange but I am sure you will get used to it. All in all the upgrade process is quick and easy. As for the upgrade itself - I will get back to you on that.

There are many reasons why submitting your blog to a blog directory is a good idea. In addition to increasing your blog’s exposure, there are a myriad of other benefits; here are just a few:

1. Blog Directories are crawled by search engines  such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Google on a regular basis. Directories are structured in such a way that search engines can crawl through them quickly and index the information quickly.  Directories are generally crawled more often than individual blogs so you are more likely to get your article indexed faster through a directory than through your blog.
2. Most blog directories see a ton of traffic. Individuals like to see who else is listed in their category and what they have written. This leads can lead to an increase in visitors to your site.
3. Blog Directories generate a large number of incoming links. Many directories give you the option of providing a reciprocal link or paying a small subscription fee. As a result, the number of links generated increase the directory’s popularity and search engine ranking.
4. Some directories allow for RSS feed up-dates of your latest posts.  This can make it easy for individuals to subscribe to your blog feed.
5. Blog directories are here to stay.  Blog directories make it easier for individuals to find what their looking for.
6. Submitting to directories is easy and generally costs very little, if anything.

Directories  increase the exposure of your blog resulting in extra traffic, inbound links and better page ranking. Submitting to a blog directory is time well spent and you will grow to appreciate the benefits your  blog receives over a period of time.