Blog Case Study Update
Posted on February 3, 2008
Filed Under Case Studies | 2 Comments
I thought I would make a quick update on the Blog Case Studies. I have been working on promoting two blogs in particular; Waldo’s World and Notes From A Country Groomer. This has been somewhat successful in building traffic and subscribers.
As you can see, the contest at Waldo’s World has driven both visitors and subscriptions. This has resulted in an increase in adsense income and the misc income which is from Cafe Press sales.
Country Groomer should see some increases over the next several days as I am hosting the dog blog carnival there. The number of visitors is already up today.
What is Lupus is still trailing behind but I have not even begun to promote it yet and the only traffic it has is from search engines.
Not Again Farm is still the best performer in adsense with a whopping $5.45. I have not done much promoting for this one but it should pick up some residual carnival traffic.
All in all, I am pleased with the increase in traffic at Waldo’s World and Country Groomer. I am concerned that since the contest spurred so much interest that it will drop once it’s over but maybe not.
The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Build Blog Traffic
Posted on January 30, 2008
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There are a lot of small bloggers out there with great and original content that no one will ever know about. I have hunted deep into Google search and found some excellent blogs with original, well written posts. Most of them have little if any signs of activity. There are no comments, no trackbacks and in most cases, those bloggers have posted less and less often.
What happened? They started off to set the world on fire and had some interesting things to say and then they fizzled out. Why? Because they built it and no one came. Folks, that might work in baseball but it doesn’t work for blogs. If you want traffic, DO SOMETHING.
The following is a list of different ways to build blog traffic, pick a few of them and do them on a regular basis.
- Submit to blog directories
- Write Comments on other blogs
- Participate in a Blog Carnival
- Submit to Social Media Websites
- Participate in Forums and put your blog address in signature or profile
- Guest Post on popular blog
- Submit articles to article directories
- Be Really Good at SEO
- Hand out Business Cards
- Have a Contest
- Raise Money for a Charity and write a Press Release about it. Submit to newspapers
- Be Generous with Link Love, What goes around, comes around
- Write great content and then write more great content
- Look at your site stats for keywords that brought traffic to your site and make a series
- Make Friends with other bloggers in your niche and exchange links
- Be nice to your readers, answer questions, thank them for comments
- Link to your own posts, on this blog and any others.
- Join Technorati, claim your blogs
- Put a Poll on Your Website
- Write a post about the election or one of the candidates
- Review other blogs for free. A friend of mine does this on her small blog and it has given her tons of traffic from other blogs.
- Run a classified ad in a paper.
- Join an email list and post regularly with your blog address in your signature
- Put your blog address in your regular signature
- Email Your Friends and ask them to check it out.
If your content is good, people will read it and they will want to come back for more. Stay focused on your main topics because that is what got your readers there in the first place and will keep them there once they have arrived. And once you have content, DO SOMETHING to get people’s to your blog. Do it every day for a month and then review the stats. If it didn’t work, do something else but if you don’t promote your blog, it will not grow.
Photo Courtesy of Tub Gurnard
Killer Post Idea - Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Posted on January 25, 2008
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I was driving home from work today and I had this killer idea for a new post. It wasn’t a brand new idea but a new way of presenting an idea. I thought about it for a minute, got more excited and decided to research and write it as soon as I got home.
I got home and didn’t make it in the door before I had to do this and that. Animals needed tending, the trash can blew over and while I was picking that up, my neighbor stopped by to chat for a minute. It was over an hour before I got inside and could turn on my computer.
I opened Word and put my fingers on the keyboard and…. my mind was a total blank. I remembered that I wanted to write the post. I remembered being excited about it. I even remember that it was a fresh idea but can I remember what that idea was? Nope.
Has this ever happened to you? Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s stress, maybe it’s way too much multi-tasking but it was here one minute big as life and gone the next. Chances are that I will remember it in the morning while I’m drinking my coffee but right now… nope, it’s gone.
So I have come up with a strategy to prevent brain blanking. I have a small notebook that I carry with me all the time. I keep it for writing down mileage, things I put on my check card, to do lists, etc. It’s like a mini inbox.
I am also going to start writing down post ideas which I always seem to get when I am driving. Driving must stimulate something creative in my brain because it is when I have my best ideas. So even if I have to pull over for a second, I am going to make a note of the idea.
Along the same train of thought, I did some research on post ideas today and came up with some interesting posts.
Chris Garrett on Performancing writes 10 Killer Post Ideas. He has some good ideas to stimulate your brain if you are stuck on what to write including a writing a somewhat controversial attack.
Philip Liu of I Help You Blog has created a massive list of 101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle If something on his list doesn’t stimulate some brain cells, you may not have a brain. I know it has mine buzzing.
Darren Rowse on ProBlogger marinates his posts. And, oh my goodness, he writes them down in a notebook although his is moleskin whilst mine is but a spiral version.
Digging a little deeper for those better hidden gems, I found
If all else fails, Mista at That IT Girl tells us How to find Blog Post Ideas from Your OWN website. This is actually a pretty good idea. Take a look at what keywords people are using to get to your blog and then think of ways to expand them.
Shamelle from Enhance Life writes about Places to Fish and Find Great Post Ideas. She has some good ideas including increasing your idle time. Your brain can’t think of new things if it’s too busy dealing with the old ones so… go fishing.
** Photo Courtesy of JohnW
To Post or Not to Post
Posted on January 20, 2008
Filed Under Beginning Blogging | 1 Comment
By now, if you have been following along with the blogging lessons, you should have a plan and have selected the blog platform and theme and you are ready to write your first post. Well, ok, almost ready. You will want to plan not only your first post but also the follow-up posts to it.
If you don’t have a plan, you will end up doing what I have done in the past and still do on occasion. I come home from work exhausted. I want to work on my blog and I end up posting something that is not well thought out and may or may not be in the plan for my blog. Create a plan and check your posts against it before you hit the publish button!
In my previous post on First Steps to Blogging, I talked about mind mapping. This is the process of taking a piece of paper or one of several software packages and graphically writing down the topics. Think of it as a brain storming session.
You can do the same thing by writing a list on a piece of paper. Sit down in a quiet area for 15 minutes and just write down everything that you can think of that relates to your topic. Some will be good, some won’t be and that’s ok. The important thing right now is just to get it all down. You will refer to this list or mind map frequently.
To make a mind map, you will take the central idea of the blog and write it in the center of the paper. Draw a circle around it or if you are feeling creative, a light bulb. Then draw a line coming off from it and write down an idea for a category. You can see in the picture below the beginnings of a mind map for Lupus. Once you have several ideas for major categories, you can and should go deeper and add additional topics off of each category.
I find that as I build my mind map, and actually look at the categories on paper, new ideas or ways to approach a topic occur to me. I usually start out with one topic and end up with several that build on the first one. This is a great tool to channel and stimulate your creativity and also a check to make sure that your posts will relate back to your original topic. If you find that your idea for a post doesn’t seem to fit with your original light bulb, you should question whether it belongs on your blog.
Once you have your mind map, you are ready to start writing. I, personally, try to write mine in a word processor first. It makes it easier to check grammar and spelling although I always end up reformatting them when I paste it into my blog. Line spacing and fonts don’t always translate well from one program to the other.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to check out:
- Ten Tips for Writing a Blog Post by Lyndon on ProBlogger. This is a quick list of tips that may help you write better posts.
- Why and How to Create Unique Valuable Content on Improve the Web. This one might make you think about what you are writing and what difference it will make to your visitors.
- Discover Hundreds of Post Ideas for Your Blog with Mind Mapping Darren Rowse has a very detailed explanation of Mind Mapping and how to use it to increase your creativity.
- Strategic Blogging: Creating the Right Content to Achieve Your Income Goals by Dosh Dosh. This is a look at creating content specifically to create income.
Free Mind Mapping Tools
- Free Mind This is the one that I use. It’s pretty simple and easy and gets the job done.
- SmartDraw. This is another free trial package. I haven’t tried it so you are on your own here.
- Head Case - 28 day free trial. Some might like the different graphics in this one.
- Mindomo - This one is web based. It’s easy to use but I am so often offline that I went with Free Mind.
Waldo’s World Contest
Posted on January 18, 2008
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I had been thinking about this for awhile. Picture contests are really popular on dog blogs. They get a lot of attention because everyone gets their friends to vote for their picture. It should drive traffic to the site for a couple of weeks with a cross promotion to the Country Groomer site who is sponsoring the contest.
I looked at my stats in feedburner this morning and was pleasantly surprised that Waldo’s blog had picked up two new subscribers. Country Groomer is up to 6. I am busy patting myself on the back and wondering why I hadn’t done this before…. and
Then I read Darren Rouse post on ProBlogger about the Feedburner issues and now I wonder if the subscriber count is right. I guess time will tell. I would expect them to do a reboot tonight and things be back to normal tomorrow. I have to tell you though that if I had done my morning check and my subscriber count said 100,000 I would have sh__ a gold brick.
Case Study 3- What is Lupus
Posted on January 17, 2008
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What is Lupus (beta) I have wanted to do for a long time but haven’t really had the knowledge or confidence to kick it off properly.
I got brave over the weekend and bought the domain name. It is URL forwarded right now to my subdirectory. URL forwarding works but not very well. It is a very temporary solution and I expect that I will be moving it to a subdomain over the next week and prior to any promotions.
There are no stats for this one as it is brand spanking new. I am still working on content before promoting it at all. It is set up for two basic things. Monetization through adsense and possible yahoo eventually. It is (I hope) highly optimized for SEO. The other purpose is to provide a landing page to distribute a free report on natural alternatives to Lupus.
I have been reading Court’s Internet Marketing articles on Keyword Sniping and they have given me a framework and enough of a plan to feel like I could get started on this one. And I found an SEO optimized theme that I felt would be perfect for it on his site. I really love this theme. I could have chosen a more professional theme but for this topic, I liked the freshness and calmness that it exudes. Since the site won’t be monetized by flashing buttons or bright colored banners, nothing will fight with the theme and the information…. or the ads.
My plan for this one is to follow Court’s plan by getting at least 10 posts up on the site. Rewriting them and submitting to article directories and promoting on some forums. I am still struggling with the site modifications that he suggests but I will get it eventually.
Majority of income will come from adsense initially but there is a secondary income potential through food supplements that have proven to be effective in helping many people with Lupus. This is why I will be building an email list with the free report.
I hope to have it complete
General Notes on my personal website and blog
Posted on January 17, 2008
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My best performing blog financially is my personal blog and website. Go figure. It’s not intended to make money but as advertising for my Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and some meanderings about life on the farm. I’m not aiming for pillar content here although I could probably drive a lot more traffic if I focused on more on the Cavaliers in the content on the blog but it’s well… personal.
It is not going to be part of the case studies but I thought I should mention it since the earnings from it will be added to the combined total every month. I don’t plan on really promoting it but I expect that traffic will continue to grow organically.
Case Study 2 - Waldo’s World
Posted on January 17, 2008
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Waldo’s World started as a Christmas gift for a friend. She writes wonderful stories from her Bulldog’s point of view and believe me, her bulldogs are characters. I wouldn’t have included it in the case studies but frankly, it’s almost the best performing blog I have. Go figure.
Waldo’s World is the world from a bulldog’s point of view. Waldo is a young and rambunctious bulldog. He really does think the world revolves around him. I don’t write most of the copy for this one. My friend writes it and I post it to the blog. She sends great pictures so I add a few here or there. I have learned not to add all that she sends as it really slows down the page loads.
So Waldo’s World 30 day stats are as follows:
14 subscribers
5 Visitor average daily
Alexa Ranking = 12,314,265
Adsense income = $1.69 (Any one think a small blog is going to make them rich?)
I think I am going to let this one be for the most part. Waldo has 2 commission junction buttons and a widget bucks widget. He gets quite a bit of growth organically from people spreading the word and has been getting quite a few search engine hits. It’s kind of fun to see people searching for “waldo bulldog cheeseburger” or “waldo and friends”.
I would not be adverse to general housekeeping tips. There are a few things that I need to do such as move the advertisers up above the fold. He has his own domain name although blogger seems to have an issue accepting it as a domain name. I have the URL forwarded there which works marginally. You get to the page but it doesn’t take advantage of the title, tags or any seo. I may eventually move it to it’s own self hosted site.
Case Study 1 - Notes from a Country Groomer
Posted on January 17, 2008
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This is the first of several case studies on blogs I have worked on over the past few months. If you stop by, check them out and give feedback if you have any. I’d love to hear some opinions other than my own.
Notes From a Country Groomer - This blog has been an overwhelming failure. I started it during the summer to support my grooming business. I had not blogged for quite some time and my focus was not there. I did everything wrong. I started it with no clear concept of what I wanted to accomplish and because I didn’t have a basic plan, I had a hard time coming up with content for it. I flopped around with it for a bit and then life happened.
I have been attempting to revive it over the last month to support my pet grooming business but I suspect that as a local niche blog, it is not going to work. The area here is so rural that not many people have broadband and time on the internet is painful. So currently it has:
- 1 Subscriber
- 2 Visitors per day average over the last 30 days.
- No Page Rank or Alexa Ranking
- Adsense earnings for last 30 days =$.20
Now I have admittedly done NO promotion of this site at all. I have made a few posts and have been working on getting the content up to par. I am going to be putting the business news on the back burner for awhile and making an effort to build traffic.
The challenge is to find a way to build traffic with a pet related site. Pet care and pet bloggers are not so much into building traffic. I have submitted some articles to a dog blog carnival that publishes on the 20th and I have been using blogging zoom to promote a few without much luck.
I have added a widget bucks widget and a couple of affiliate links from Commission Junction. Neither of these are going to do much to monetize the site until I increase traffic. If anyone has any suggestions for increasing traffic to a pet care blog, I would be happy to consider them.
So what I need to decide for this one is:
- Do I do a “blog makeover” on this one complete with domain name & self hosting?
- Do I just can it and start over with more focus and a better plan.
- Either way, I need to come up with a promotion plan that works.
At this point, I am leaning towards burying it and starting over with a plan and a better focus on Pet Care tips with the idea of both educating people and doing some pay per reviews after I build traffic but then I come back to the same issue. Building traffic….
Tips for Choosing a Theme
Posted on January 17, 2008
Filed Under Beginning Blogging | Leave a Comment
Now the fun begins, you will need to choose a blog platform and then a theme. Look back at your blog plan and remember what your audience looks like. You will want to choose a theme that is appealing to your audience as well as you. Other’s may disagree but I have found that if I don’t like my blogs theme, I don’t want to spend much time working on it so I choose themes that I like even if I have to sacrifice a few other things.
Next pull out the list of things you liked about the other blogs. Try to categorize them into larger categories such as headers I liked, colors I liked, layouts I liked, etc. Once you have them categorized in broad categories, start choosing what you liked best in each category. Review your purpose or mission statement just to keep it fresh in your mind when you are looking at themes and make a short list of the things you need your theme to do or accomodate.
By now you should have a good idea of what you want to look for in a theme. It’s time to go shopping. If you are self hosting your blog, you can just type WordPress themes into google and come up with a list that will keep you busy for awhile.
If you are new to blogging and are starting out on Blogger or WordPress.com, your choices will be somewhat limited to what is available there. I believe that WordPress has a much better selection but you might find the perfect one on Blogger.
Alvin Phang on GatherSuccess has a list of 4 Important Tips to Find a Blog Theme. His first suggestion is to choose a theme that has 3 columns. It’s one of the things that you will probably want to check on your list. Did your favorite themes have 2 columns or 3 or 4?
Other suggestions are to choose themes whose colors are not glaring or dark, however, if your audience is the younger set, they might easily like a black or purple background better. It also might do better for a “techy” blog. Color is mostly a personal choice and you can go back to your list and check which colors you liked best.
There are several WordPress themes that are SEO optimized. They are coded to maximize your search engine effectiveness and are worth taking a look at closely. Once you find a theme you like, try to find a blog that is using it and then search for that blog in Google. Take a look at how google sees the blog. The theme has a lot of control over whether Google indexes the post title, or the categories or tags. Court’s Internet Marketing has some SEO Themes that have been optimized and debugged.
If you are self hosting your own blog, the choices in themes are infinite but also riskier. I have tried out and loved a couple of themes that had some issues and the support was non existent so I ended up changing to another theme. When you have a pretty good idea what theme you want, check out the support pages for it and see if there are more cries for help than answers.
keep looking »