So you got your blog setup. You submitted your URL to all of the popular search engines, and you’re ready to write. Now it’s easy to blog away, letting people know you thoughts on any given subject, and at the same time maybe informing people. Even if your very knowledgeable in the subject that your blogging about your looking for a large audience to watch you get on your soap box, so you still need to know what is currently popular.
Google Trends:
This would be the best tool out there to get information on what people are searching for. It allows you to enter key words and gives you graphical data on how much those key words get search, and any news items that might affect how people search. This tool is best used for getting the most from Google, so it will help you gain some traffic, but it can guarantee you anything else.
Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com
So just about everyone and their brother has an affiliate program with these guys, and they are a great way of making money. The only problem is driving traffic to their site to make that money. These sites both offer a best seller list, which can help you choose a book, movie, music album, or video game to review. Most people want to at least read some reviews online before they go and spend money on a product that they can’t hold first. Though these sites don’t give you exact numbers, they often offer some kind of cheap used book deal that you can still make money on.
Billboard.com and NYtimes.com
Not only do both of these sites offer best seller list for books and music, but also make a good source of reviews and information on writers and artists that you can use when writing in your blog. Often tiems, the most popular books and albums will have a ton of articles about them, and both of the sites are used as a major buying guide for a lot of consumers, so items in the top 10 or so of their category will look much more attractive to the average reader.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Is your Blog worth reading?
A lot of people work long and hard on their blog to make it look pretty, only to find that they hardly get any visitors, and any visitors that they do get don’t seem to stick around and comment on their posts. Well the truth is that most blogs out there just aren’t worth reading. I think that over the last couple of years there has been a myth going around that made people believe that people care about what they think on every topic, no matter what the topic is and what that person’s thoughts are on that subject. While writing in their blog people need to answer three questions:
1. Does anyone care about this topic?
Guess what, just because you care about the new law that restricts the speed limit on your street to 25 mph doesn’t mean that anyone else would. It might be better to think of something that affects a few more people than the people on your street. A blog on your town’s politics might even be a little to local for your blog, unless your blog deals with you town in general. Try to keep in mind that people from around the world can access your blog, so a broad topic might work better in general.
2. What makes my opinion worth reading?
Guess what, just because you have seen all six star wars movies, doesn’t make you an expert on the benefits of space exploration. Try to stick to what you know, and even include references to people that might know more then you, and have more creditability then you. The more evidence that you add to your opinion, the more credible you will appear to people that happen to come across your blog.
3. What makes your opinion different than that of the general public?
A lot of people tend to write in their blog about why they think a bad movie sucks, or why they think that we should pull the troop out of Iraq. A better idea would be to write about why you love a bad movie, or why you think that we should raise taxes. If you’re just writing what everyone is thinking, then there will be little room for discussion.
No matter what you’re writing about, try to keep it fresh and entertaining. Nobody wants to read the same blog over and over again.
1. Does anyone care about this topic?
Guess what, just because you care about the new law that restricts the speed limit on your street to 25 mph doesn’t mean that anyone else would. It might be better to think of something that affects a few more people than the people on your street. A blog on your town’s politics might even be a little to local for your blog, unless your blog deals with you town in general. Try to keep in mind that people from around the world can access your blog, so a broad topic might work better in general.
2. What makes my opinion worth reading?
Guess what, just because you have seen all six star wars movies, doesn’t make you an expert on the benefits of space exploration. Try to stick to what you know, and even include references to people that might know more then you, and have more creditability then you. The more evidence that you add to your opinion, the more credible you will appear to people that happen to come across your blog.
3. What makes your opinion different than that of the general public?
A lot of people tend to write in their blog about why they think a bad movie sucks, or why they think that we should pull the troop out of Iraq. A better idea would be to write about why you love a bad movie, or why you think that we should raise taxes. If you’re just writing what everyone is thinking, then there will be little room for discussion.
No matter what you’re writing about, try to keep it fresh and entertaining. Nobody wants to read the same blog over and over again.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Myspace Do's and Don'ts
Many people join myspace to promote their band, website, or product, but at what point is it too far? I, myself, have found that as time goes on, that i get more and more "friend" requests, but when I check out the profile, its just a big add for a dating site, or somebody trying to get you to download "free" ring tones or get a “free” PS3. Though I’m sure that these people do make some money from this sort of myspace spamming, in the long run it just becomes a bigger pain in the ass to keep up with the measure that myspace goes through to block these people.
Another thing to keep away from is myspace adder bots. These will go around adding random "friends" most of which will never even visit your profile and only add you to increase their own traffic. If you’re looking to promote anything on myspace, then you’re better off with one quality friend than 1000 random friends. The best thing to do would be to go and search yourself for people that might be interested in what you’re trying to promote. Another thing that will help gather some friends would be to stay active in the myspace forums. Posting advice and giving good quality comments to other people will allow you to draw people to your profile over a longer period.
What do you do with the friends that you do have? Some less credible people will constantly invade the profiles of the helpless with comments that are nothing more then advertisements that lead people to their site or worse. The thing that most people need to remember is that myspace cannot be half-assed. You need to keep commenting on your friend’s profiles with actual comments that will let them know that you still care about them. Another annoyance is the constant spamming of bulletins. If you want people to care about what you put up there, then you need to post prominent information. One idea would be to post an article about something that supports your company or band, or any news that might interest the people that might read it.
The most powerful tool on myspace is the blog. As long as you make sure to adjust the settings so that anyone can read it, it is a good way to let your readers know what you’re up to and plug your project. It’s always a good idea to run, at the very least, a good spell check through your posts, and maybe even get somebody else to read it over. You also have to remember that your myspace profile is your image, so it might not be a good place to start ranting about politics or get too far into your personal problems. If you want to start a personal myspace account that is fine, just keep it separate and don’t just try to sell yourself, but your product as well.
Another thing to keep away from is myspace adder bots. These will go around adding random "friends" most of which will never even visit your profile and only add you to increase their own traffic. If you’re looking to promote anything on myspace, then you’re better off with one quality friend than 1000 random friends. The best thing to do would be to go and search yourself for people that might be interested in what you’re trying to promote. Another thing that will help gather some friends would be to stay active in the myspace forums. Posting advice and giving good quality comments to other people will allow you to draw people to your profile over a longer period.
What do you do with the friends that you do have? Some less credible people will constantly invade the profiles of the helpless with comments that are nothing more then advertisements that lead people to their site or worse. The thing that most people need to remember is that myspace cannot be half-assed. You need to keep commenting on your friend’s profiles with actual comments that will let them know that you still care about them. Another annoyance is the constant spamming of bulletins. If you want people to care about what you put up there, then you need to post prominent information. One idea would be to post an article about something that supports your company or band, or any news that might interest the people that might read it.
The most powerful tool on myspace is the blog. As long as you make sure to adjust the settings so that anyone can read it, it is a good way to let your readers know what you’re up to and plug your project. It’s always a good idea to run, at the very least, a good spell check through your posts, and maybe even get somebody else to read it over. You also have to remember that your myspace profile is your image, so it might not be a good place to start ranting about politics or get too far into your personal problems. If you want to start a personal myspace account that is fine, just keep it separate and don’t just try to sell yourself, but your product as well.
Blogging Basics: Pinging
So you created a blog. You have all these great ideas that you want to express, you have a myspace or blogger account set up, but people aren’t reading what your writing. One thing that you can do it go around posting links to what you have written on every message board on the net, but that will only annoy people into never wanting to read anything that you have to say. Another approach would be to get other sites to link to yours, but your going to have to do a log of e-mailing to get any decent traffic, and even then most people will only go once, and will have no idea when you make any updates.
Well fortunately, there is a solution, and it is called pinging. Pinging allows you to send a message to other sites every time you update your blog. This allows people to search for blogs on particular subjects, and at the same time view new blogs as they are being posted. Some sites like myspace will automatically ping your blog for you, so you don’t need to worry too much about it. With blogger you need to ping. They have one built in pinging tool, but that will not be enough, you need to visit one or more others if you ever want to get any visitors.
Before I start listing some blog pinging sites, your going to need two things: 1. The URL to your blog and 2. the url for the RSS or ATOM feed for your blog. With blogger you can find these on the bottom of your posts if you keep the setting turned on.
With these two items on to the pinging sites:
www.weblogs.com
www.feedburner.com
www.feedster.com
www.blogdigger.com
www.moreover.com
www.newsisfree.com
www.blo.gs
www.syndic8.com
www.blogrolling.com
www.weblogalot.com
www.technorati.com
www.newsgator.com
www.pubsub.com
www.blogstreet.com
www.icerocket.com
Well fortunately, there is a solution, and it is called pinging. Pinging allows you to send a message to other sites every time you update your blog. This allows people to search for blogs on particular subjects, and at the same time view new blogs as they are being posted. Some sites like myspace will automatically ping your blog for you, so you don’t need to worry too much about it. With blogger you need to ping. They have one built in pinging tool, but that will not be enough, you need to visit one or more others if you ever want to get any visitors.
Before I start listing some blog pinging sites, your going to need two things: 1. The URL to your blog and 2. the url for the RSS or ATOM feed for your blog. With blogger you can find these on the bottom of your posts if you keep the setting turned on.
With these two items on to the pinging sites:
www.weblogs.com
www.feedburner.com
www.feedster.com
www.blogdigger.com
www.moreover.com
www.newsisfree.com
www.blo.gs
www.syndic8.com
www.blogrolling.com
www.weblogalot.com
www.technorati.com
www.newsgator.com
www.pubsub.com
www.blogstreet.com
www.icerocket.com
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