Don’t Make this Traffic Killing Mistake

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One of the big reasons we have web sites and blogs is to generate traffic. I mean why put up a site unless want people to see it, right?

Yet some people insist on adding this traffic repellent to their sites and then wonder why they never see more than a handful of visitors.

Smelling Fishy

When folks do this to their blogs or web sites it’s like the owner of a high end clothing store who chooses to intentionally have an overpowering smell in their store that’s just a little offish.

Perhaps that store has a nautical theme to its branding. Maybe the owner is even an avid boater. Perhaps he loves the smell of the sea. So he has figured out a way to bring that smell into his store. The idea is that he’ll boost sales because people will feel like they are shopping by the ocean.

Sure a small percentage of folks will like it. But the trouble is, to a whole lot of people the ocean just plain smells fishy. And those people almost never come back to the store.

Sound like a silly example? Well some people do exactly the same thing with their blogs and web sites. Read more

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Business, Sound, Tips, Websites

15 Ways to Attract Comments Like an A-Lister

Whether we are blogging to support our business or blogging simply to rant about, well, just about anything, we all crave comments on our blogs. Not only do comments show us that somebody, somewhere out there is interested enough about what we wrote to respond, but comments also can help build traffic as well.

If content is king where blogs are concerned then comments are evidence of the power behind the throne.

Mitch Argon of FreeNevadaMove.com asked a good question yesterday over on Business Blogging 101 - Comments post. He said,

I’ve been blogging for about 9 months. I’ve tried different techniques on writing posts to get more comments from readers but am still searching for the ’secret sauce’ to create more community.

Any thoughts on some good resources to accomplish this?

As I said, it’s a good question. And the answer is both less of a secret and harder to achieve than most people are willing to admit. I say “harder” only in respect to actual effort being involved. Don’t be misled into thinking attracting comments is overly complicated. But it does take some concentrated effort.

So here’s a list of things you can do to attract more comments to your blog and build blog traffic at the same time. Read more

Popularity: 100% [?]

Tags: Tech Tips, Attracting Comments, Blogging

Competition for Blogs

My good friend Liz Strauss was in the UK recently and shared a little the other day about her experience at City University while she was over there. While she was there she was asked an excellent question.

What is a blog’s competition?

Normally I come up with answers to questions about blogging fairly quickly but this one made me think. Quite a bit.

Because there isn’t one easy answer.

The reason the question isn’t easily answered is that blogs are simply tools. It would be like asking “What is a hammer’s competition?”

Um, it depends… on what you want to accomplish with your hammer.

I went looking in my toolbox out in the garage and I found a cool baker’s dozen hammers in my hammer drawer. (Yes I have a hammer drawer. Give me a Tim Allen grunt!)

Most of these I inherited from my father in law not too long ago. And I confess there are a couple there that I haven’t the slightest idea what they’re for. But I’m sure they may come in handy one day!

Depending on the job at hand the “competition” for a hammer could be a nail gun, a screwdriver, a wrecking ball, a metal stamping machine or even high explosives.

Blogs Are Tools

Like hammers, blogs are tools. Specifically blogs are web publishing platforms. And just like hammers, blogs can be used for vastly different purposes.

Depending on the needs and intention of the blog owner, the blog might be “in competition” with a whole slew of things. For example here are some things I can see a blog possibly “competing” with. Read more

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Blogs

Presentation - Blogging and Social Media in Your Business

This past week I gave a presentation on Blogging and Social Media in Your Business to a local group of 60+ entrepreneurs. The talk was sponsored by the ATDC and the Creative Coast here in Savannah.

The talk was designed as an introductory talk for business people who didn’t yet have an understanding of what blogging and social media is all about. Because most of the people in the room were not much beyond the “we’ve hear the terms” phase it meant I had to cram a ton of information into the 30 minutes I was given. (For some reason when preparing I thought I had 45 minutes plus 15 minutes question time not 30/15. Oops.)

I told the folks to buckle their seat belts and hold on ’cause I threw a bunch of information at them very fast.

My hope was that everyone would find at least one nugget to walk away with that they could take back to their own businesses and get thinking about the possibilities.

Here are the slides I presented for any who are interested.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: Business, Blogging, Chris Cree, Presentations, Social Media

A Lifetime of Odd Jobs

HighCallingBlogs has a group writing project underway. Marcus Goodyear is hosting on his page Lessons from Odd Jobs. He’s updating the list as entries are submitted and there is no hard deadline so if you want to add your take on the subject feel free.

Here is mine.

An Unusual Career Path

Even though I’ve had wide array of jobs in the 20 or so years I’ve been in the work force I’ve never been one of those fortunate people who could successfully describe what they do for a living in a word.

With job titles like Naval Flight Officer, Marine Manager, Port Captain, Vessel Planner, Stevedore, Marine Surveyor, and now Social Media Consultant I’m used to folks either guessing completely wrong about what I do or giving me that awkward look like a heifer staring at a new gate. {Blink. Blink.}

Either way it invariably takes about a 10 minute conversation to explain what it is I really do.

When I was in the Navy the conversation would go something like this. Read more

Popularity: 6% [?]

Tags: Blogging, HighCallingBlogs, Lessons, Odd Jobs

Blogging as Revolutionary as Gutenberg Press

When Johannes Gutenberg developed his movable type printing press in the early 1400’s it revolutionized the publishing industry in many of the same ways that the recent development of blogging is.

Prior to Gutenberg publishing was accomplished using two primary means. The most common way was for scribes to hand copy works. For a book the size of a Bible the process took a year or more to publish one copy. Alternately printing could be done with hand carved wood blocks which was also an incredibly labor intensive process.

When the movable type printing press came on the scene suddenly books that took a year or more to duplicate could be copied in a matter of days. It greatly reduced the cost of printing and allowed authors and publishers to reach a much wider audience. This advance in printing technology put mass communication into the hands of people who never had access to it previously.

Here are just a few of the ways that the movable type printing press was revolutionary. It was

• Faster
• Cheaper
• Wider Distribution
• Mass Communication

The internet is transforming how information is being transmitted. However publishing that information to the web still required Today’s blogging is an order of magnitude leap in publishing technology on the same level as Gutenberg’s press was over the scribes of his day.

Let’s take a closer look. Read more

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: Social Media, Blogging, Gutenberg, Movable Type Press, Publishing

Is the Air Force Out of Touch or Out of Context on Blogs?

Wired posted an article pointing out that the US Air Force has started blocking access to domain names with the word “blog” in the URL as a matter of general policy.

Out of Touch?

The thrust of the article is that the primary reason for the new policy is because blogs are seen by the Air Force as illegitimate sources of information for airmen. The article then goes on to paint the Air Force leadership as really out of touch with what blogs are all about.

The theme is developed primarily from a quote of an Air Force officer. The most troubling section of the quote is

AFNOC has imposed bans on all sites with “blog” in their URLs, thus cutting off any sites hosted by Blogspot. Other blogs, and sites in general, are blocked based on content reviews performed at the base, command and AFNOC level …

The idea isn’t to keep airmen in the dark — they can still access news sources that are “primary, official-use sources,” said Maj. Henry Schott, A5 for Air Force Network Operations. “Basically … if it’s a place like The New York Times, an established, reputable media outlet, then it’s fairly cut and dry that that’s a good source, an authorized source,” he said …

Read more

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: Social Media, Air Force, Blackfive, Blogging, Military, Wired

Comment Policy Formalized

Well, after giving it some more thought I’ve decided to implement the formal Comment Policy that we talked about last week.

Basically we’re going to use it as is for now. If we see a need to adjust down the road we’ll adapt it as required.

We’ve got a Comment Policy Page in place. And I’ve placed a link to it under the comment box so that anyone who may be unsure can refer to it prior to submitting their comment.

It stinks to have to make “formal rules” but unfortunately too many abusers were attempting to mess things up.

Does your blog have a comment policy spelled out?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Social Media, Blogging, Comment Policy, Tech Tips

And the Winner is QUALITY!

The results are in.

We started last week by asking the question Quantity vs Quality - Which is Better?

We had a lively discussion about it.

Several of you really wanted me to add a “Both” choice on the poll. But that would have been too easy.

Of course everyone wants both. Heck, we all want to be thin, rich and popular too.

As that great philosopher Don Henley said, “If dirt were dollars we’d all be in the black.”

Sometimes when you can’t have it both ways you just have to make a choice.

Unanimous

As of this morning it was unanimous. All twelve of the votes were cast in favor of Quality.

I thought quality would take it, but I didn’t expect quite the landslide.

So here’s my thought for the day:

Since quality is so important to bloggers, make sure your writing is the best you can produce in the time you have available.

That way your blogging will support your business in the best way possible.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Business Blogging, Quality, Quantity

Evidence that Business Blogging Works

Tris Hussey over at One By One Media points out today that one of their Bloggers For Hire business clients was mentioned in an interview with a couple prominent bloggers. Here’s the post, Freight and Shipping mentioned on Net Concepts.

Congratulations guys!

But the nod of some free recognition is not what jumped out at me in this post. Tris goes on to say something in, what for me, is an attention grabbing paragraph. When talking about their client, Tris says,

Has made huge gains on Google. He’s #1 on many of the terms he wanted. His Adwords budget could be cut by thousands of dollars a month and…he increased his revenue so much that he expanded to have two new offices. Two! Not, oh yeah a couple extra people. Two whole freakin’ offices! That’s jobs for people in Tennessee and Florida. That’s supplies (computers, desks, etc) that are purchased. That’s all those things. Oh, and he’s still busy. Really busy. He told me this week he’s been so busy that he’s slept in the office a few times. Eric attributes a lot of this success to his blog and Jane, our Masters degree holding, English professor pro-blogger.

Did you catch all that? If not read that paragraph again. Seriously. Read it. Read more

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs, Business, Business Blogging, Freight Shipping, One By One Media, Success