1. No Niche - everybody poops, we don’t need to read about it. As much as the idea of making money from an online journal sounds great, it doesn’t work. You’ve got to have a niche, and you need to stick to that niche with a laser-focused determination. Venturing off on how fluffy coughed up another furball might be great to stave off your own emotional trauma, but nobody cares.
2. No SEO Experience - Search Engine Optimization is important in any online business. It’s not the most important thing, but if you don’t have a rudimentary understanding of how search engines function (especially Google) then you’re doomed to failure. 99% of your traffic is going to come from search engines, pay attention to them.
3. No Monetization Model - every business needs to make money, but “Web 2.0″ has been defined by businesses that simply don’t know how to make money. And at the end of the day, making money is what businesses exist for. Bloggers who fail generally have no idea how to monetize their content, or often think that by slapping up a few AdSense blocks they can become an Internet Millionaire overnight - and that’s simply not the case. You need to know how you’re going to monetize your content - and how much money you can realistically expect from those avenues of monetization - before you could ever hope to become successful.
4. No Marketing Writing Experience - when people advise bloggers to just “write what [they] know” they don’t tell people how to write that content. “OMG teh Wheee iz teh aw4rsomz” simply will not do. You’ve got to know how to not only write properly (use spell check, please), but you have to know how to write to sell.
5. No Drive - 99% of bloggers fail for one main reason: no drive to continue. By not pursuing your dream you kill it before it had a proper chance to be successful. while creating new content day in and day out is a very monotonous procedure, it’s also the single most important procedure for any blogger to follow - no fresh content = no money.

Hopefully some bloggers can take this information to the bank, but others, I know, will run into these obstacles (just like I have). If you’re one of the many bloggers who fails to make money online, check out the Atomic Blogging System eBook. It’s a tried and true system for blogging for money. Click Here to check it out.

Myth 1: You need to hard-sell a product

Hard-selling a product is a sure way to not make an affiliate sale. One of the most important things to learn in the affiliate marketing world is that you are not a salesman, but a provider of information.

Why would you not hard-sell a product? Yes, your goal is to get a sale, however your job is to warm a “potential customer” into a “ready to buy customer” - the key difference here is that you turn a person who might have an interest in a product into someone who needs the product you wrote about.

Provide information then recommendations, not a hard sell.

Myth 2: You need to buy a lot of advertising to be successful

This isn’t true at all - most affiliates will get their trffic through niche keywords on the major search engines, not through advertisements.

“But Jason,” I hear you say, “why are there so many affiliate advertisements on Google AdSense?” A good question indeed, but you need to realize that AdSense is just another vector for getting your message out there, and something affiliates know how to take advantage of. It is not the only means of generating revenue with affiliate sales.

Myth 3: You need a popular site to make minimal sales

While having a lot of natural traffic already coming into your website helps a great deal, just remember this little bit of scientific truth: “correlation is not causation” - just because one fact is true (lots of traffic) does not mean that caused the other fact to be true (lots of affiliate sales). While traffic and sales are related, they are not the cause of each other.

Traffic comes from highly-optimized pages that lures search engines in with tons of backlinks, crosslinks, frontlinks, keywords, etc… the list goes on and on. Sales come from high-optimized articles that causes a human to take action. While lots of traffic means you’ll get more humans to read your page, it does not follow that this will lead to an increase in sales.

Remember: sales and traffic are optimized differently.

Myth 4: Only the gurus make money

Simple fact: I make money through affiliate sales; but, you wouldn’t consider me a guru, would you? The so-called gurus might in fact be gurus of affiliate sales, but they’re also gurus of hard selling products. A lot of people make affiliate sales in unique ways.

As a fun example, why don’t you browser around Lockergnome.com and see where we’re making some affiliate sales!

Myth 5: Anyone can do it

One of the most annoying things about affiliate marketing is the mindset that anyone can do it and be successful at it - that’s simply not true. It takes a special kind of individual to become successful at affiliate marketing: someone who is dedicated, undeterred, patient. Affiliate sales don’t come easily at first, and it generally takes a lot of time in order to really start making a living off of the sales.

There are going to be a lot of bumps in the road, and anyone who gives up easily will find it difficult to make money with affiliate marketing. Of course, if you’re too stubborn, you’ll just end up doing the same wrong thing over and over again, and never see a dime.

If you don’t want to make the same mistakes that I’ve made, or if you think you’re taking the wrong path down the road to affiliate sales, check out The Lazy Affiliate System Videos, video tutorials on the various techniques used to make money with affiliate sales. Click Here to learn more.

• Watch Traffic Patterns - no, I’m not talking about your daily traffic patterns, I’m talking about your topical traffic patterns: what topics within your niche are the most popular? If you have a game review site, is your Nintendo Wii section more popular than the Xbox 360 section? By monitoring your traffic patterns you can further refine your blogs topics, in order to maximize your profits.
• Listen to Your Comments - your readers are your life, and they know what they want. If one particular article (or set of articles) get more feedback than another, take the hint ans continue to write about that subject!
• Stick to One Niche - everyone has an opinion about everything, but websites generally are not successful if they cover every topic known to man. Your blog needs to be laser-focused, and not divert on other subjects.

Recommended Reading

If you’re looking to make some serious cash with your blog, why not check out Blogging to the Bank - an eBook that shows you the in’s and out’s out making money with your blog.

Selling hope - the idea that the product you’re selling will solve the customers problem - is the simple most effective way to sell a product. Of course there are a lot of way to sell hope, and our previous example, Automated Cash Formula, employs most of the techniques to sell hope.

Personal Identification

The author of our example sales letter does a great job of creating a personal connection between the author and the reader: by explaining how an average person learned how to make money online (in this case, he links a blue collar worker - a window washer - with making millions). This connection - using a blue collar worker - is one of the strongest connections the author can make:

1. It creates a sense of familiarity between the author and reader, as the reader believes that both she and the author have walked down the same road (so to speak).
2. It removes the social class disconnection that many lower-class people feel towards the upper class. In this case, the author comes across as just an average guy who got lucky and wants to share that luck with you - not as an experienced businessman who is trying to sell you a product.

Simple Outlines

The Automated Cash Formula sales letter provides simple outlines on what the product does - and does not - deliver. Aside from the obvious attention-grabbing aspect of these outlines, they provide two functions:

• Reinforce the ideas that the product fixes the problems the customer has
• Give the reader a quick overview of what to expect in the product

Previous Failures

The sales letter outlines several examples of why people fail (in this case, why people fail to make money online) and then provides several examples of why this product helps the customer not fail. in the majority of cases, your customer is going to be coming to you with past experiences involving your products niche. So by listing - and accounting for - previous failures, the sales letter accomplishes two things:

• Customers who already have experience in your niche are going to feel a bit of relief knowing that you’ve answered these concerns for them.
• By answering to previous failures, you can easily discredit other products

Discredit Other Products

One of the strongest ways to create hope in your particular product is to list the advantages your item has over competing products. Don’t worry, you don’t need a specific feature list for every product you’re competing with - you only need a general list of concerns that the customer is going to have (this is usually specific to your niche, although other general concerns could be address; for example, addressing the concern of going bankrupt in a money making sales letter).

If you’re lucky, you’ll acquire a customer that will have had experience with previous (failed) products. In this instance, you could make a sale simply by reaffirming their fears and then assuring the customer that your product doesn’t fall short of their hopes.

A Good Story

Everyone loves a good story, and customers reading a sales letter are no exception. if you have a great rags-to-riches story, detailing that story can more closely associate you with your customers. Of course, not everyone has a great rags to riches story - most of them are boring “I worked 16 hours a day to get to where I am.” In these cases a story is still important!

• Stories, no matter how boring they are, still create a more personal bond than any straight-sales technique will ever generate. The more personal the bond between the author and the reader, the more hope a customer is willing to place in a product.
• Stories allow for lead-ins to “action shots” (see below) and testimonials

Action Shots

Everyone needs proof that a product works. Simply put, you cannot sell a product without “proving” that it works - even if the proof seems flaky to you. Automated Cash Formula has some great examples of action shots in action: account statements showing obscene amounts of money being withdrawn and deposited.

Action shots simply serve to reaffirm, visually, what the reader has been told through words.

Testimonials

While you can spout off anything and everything in an attempt to sell a product, nothing proves just how effective a product is than unsolicited testimonials. Are they difficult to get? Sure, but there are tricks you can use to get testimonials from users (you’ll have to wait for our article on that later).

Why are testimonials so effective? Up until this point in the sales pitch, you’ve been describing what you - the salesman - think of the product. While you can be the greatest salesman in the world, customers are going to pass up on your amazing offer if there is the slightest bit of doubt in their minds about your products effectiveness. Testimonials serve to reinforce the hope - and eliminate the doubt - that your product is simply the best solution for their problem.

Money-Back Guarantee

it should be obvious by now what a money-back guarantee gives a user. In case it’s not clear, let me state it bluntly: hope. A money-back guarantee helps eliminate doubt and build hope in three ways:

• First, it eliminates the doubt that you’re going to take the customers money and run
• Second, it builds hope by reassuring the customer that you’re a valid business venture
• Finally, it reassures the customer that their money will be well spent, and if they feel otherwise they can get it back.

While you may think that a money-back guarantee will cost you money in the long run, you would be wrong: most of the people that order a product will never return it or request a refund, either because they love the product, or because they simply forget about it and move on with their lives.

There are other ways you can create hope in your sales letter, but just remember a simple rule: in order to create hope you must remove doubt.

Take a read through the Automated Cash Formula sales letter to see an implementation of the techniques we talked about in this article.

Here are the Top 5 Ways You can Make Money with AdSense

1. Laser-Focused Content - Everyone wants to write a blog that covers every topic known to man, but AdSense (and SEO in general) works best when you stay focused on a laser-focused topic; for example, you may want to focus on the Nintendo Wii, or the Mario games, rather than “video games” in general.
2. Lots of Content - A lot of people fail in their bid to make money with AdSense because they just simply don’t write enough content. While it’s nice to have short “stubby” articles, longer articles, upwards of 500 words, tend to perform better. your mileage may vary, of course.
3. Laser-Focused Content - While on the subject of content, you must keep your articles laser-focused. It’s all too easy to start writing about a different subject (I could easily start writing about how to write the proper AdSense article, for instance), but you must resist this urge. Instead of writing everything about an entire subject in one article, keep the article laser-focused and spin any additional topics off into their own articles.
4. Colors and Formatting - It’s pretty easy to think that ads that stand out would make more money, but you’d be dead wrong. the best way to make money with AdSense is to make the ads look unassuming. People will more readily click on the ads when they feel they’re simply links that are additional content. Additionally, ads that look like ads won’t get clicked - so steer clear of the typical ‘banner’ ads.
5. Content Integration - AdSense works best when people think they’re part of the content, so make the ads part of the content! By inserting the AdSense blocks directly into your content - by having the words actually wrap around the ad blocks - you’ll increase your clickthroughs tenfold.

Of course, the best way to increase your AdSense revenue is to increase the amount of traffic you generate ;)

More Info

If you want more information on how to make money with AdSense, Michael Cheney has a series of videos you might be interested in: Michael Cheney’s AdSense Videos. in it he provides 9 step by step videos from understanding the basics of AdSense, to writing content that will get clicks.

These sales letters follow the single most basic sales pitch: buy our product, solve your problem, and live a better life. What’s interesting is not the message - which is the basic core message every good salesman should be sending - but the methods they use to get that message across.

Today we’re going to take a look at one method employed by e-product sellers across the globe:

Nobody Ever Got Popular By Being Obscure

Making sales online is a big popularity contest, and the current popular program is David Gales Automated Cash Formula. By the title of the product you can already guess what it is: a “formula” which promises to bring in money via an automated (or most-autonomous) method. Fairly straightforward, yes? This is key: the message of what the product does must be short, clear, and concise.

While Automated Cash Formula overtly tells us one specific thing, it sends several different subversive messages to the reader:

• This method is automated, therefore it is simple and does not require hard work
• This is a formula, something written out that can be executed time and time again for proven results
• This automated formula generates cash, money, moolah.

In other words, Automated Cash Formula expresses the idea that any fool can pick up the product, read it, understand it, use the formula, and generate cash from that formula. It’s not just a product name, it’s the entire product message.

Why is this important? Makes sales - both online and offline - is about grabbing your customers attention as fast as you can - and the greatest sellers do this by promising to solve a problem. To better understand what I mean watch any infomercial of your choice (I prefer the kitchen appliance ones myself): in the first minute of the infomercial you will be presented with three things: the problem, how to solve that problem, and the product that solves said problem.

Infomercial products have the benefit of being able to have cutesy names (like “GT eXpress 101″) because they have much more time to capture their potential buyers attention. On the Internet, you have about 15 seconds before a potential customers clicks the back button, therefore your product title becomes about ten thousand times more important, and the economics of the Internet forces you to select a name that is more productive than promotional.

Unlike traditional sales methods, where you can describe a problem and describe a solution, the Internet forces you to state the problem, solution, and product inside of 15 seconds.

So, what’s in a name? In the world of Internet Marketing: everything.

When you think of authorities on web analytics, one person that should be on your list is Eric T. Peterson. Eric is currently Vice President with the Visual Sciences division of web analytics firm, WebSideStory, is the author of several books on web measurement and moderates several popular discussion lists on analytics. He also manages an excellent site on web analytics called Web Analytics Demystified. He previously worked as an analyst with JupiterResearch and has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, Business 2.0 and others as an expert on the topic.
Eric will be speaking at a MIMA Interactive Marketing event tomorrow evening here in Minneapolis so I thought I would check in with him and do a little interview.

Please share a bit about your background

I’ve worked in the web analytics field since 1998 when I started at WebTrends as a webmaster. Since then I’ve worked mostly as an analyst (WebSideStory, JupiterResearch) and currently head up the Strategic Services group at Visual Sciences (a division of WebSideStory.) I’ve written three books on the subject of web analytics–Web Analytics Demystified (Celilo), Web Site Measurement Hacks (O’Reilly) and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators (self-published in PDF format only)–and have founded a few web analytics “community” groups–the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo! Groups and Web Analytics Wednesday. You can learn more about my activity in the web analytics community at www.webanalyticsdemystified.com.

What do you think are some of the most significant unrealized opportunities for companies regarding web analytics?

Most companies aren’t realizing the full benefit of their investment in web analytic technology because they’ve failed to assign proper/enough resources to the task of “improving the web site.” Measurement tools are a critical piece of the continual improvement process–basically working to improve your site incrementally rather than hoping that a massive redesign will solve your problems–but too few companies are leveraging this opportunity effectively.

What are some of the most common mistakes companies make regarding measuring web site performance?

Not taking the time to clearly define their business objectives and activities before they start generating “reports” that they push out to people. In my experience folks don’t need more reports, they need the “right” reports that speak directly to the business problems they’re trying to solve. The act of clearly defining value the web site is supposed to deliver and then mapping those goals to measurable clickstream helps clarify which data and reports are valuable at the strategic and tactical levels.

What are a few of the most important new trends companies should pay attention to regarding the future of web analytics?

At the recent Emetrics summit in Santa Barbara, one thing I was really impressed by was the fairly dramatic increase in the quality of questions people were asking from 2005 to 2006, which leads me to believe (at least in the microcosm) that the overall level of web analytics maturity is increasing. Given that there is already some pretty sophisticated technology out there, I think the most important trend that we should all watch for (and encourage) is how companies think about this type of technology and the impact it can have on their overall business.

Can you recommend educational resources for companies that want to improve their practical knowledge about web analytics?

Sure. I personally really like my site, www.webanalyticsdemystified.com which is about to get an overhaul and has links to tons of web analytics resources, jobs and community events like the Web Analytics Forum and Web Analytics Wednesday. Another good resource is the Web Analytics Association, our communities “professional association”.

You’ve written some excellent books on web analytics. (Web Analytics Demystified, Web Site Measurement Hacks, The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators) What are some resources you rely on for information on web analytics regarding best practices and up to date information?

Well, the Web Analytics Forum at Yahoo! Groups helps me keep my finger on the pulse of the larger community. I subscribe to a number of different RSS feeds written by “web analytics bloggers” like A. Clinton Ivy (Instant Cognition) and Minnesota’s own Mike Keyes (Ciceron). I read Jason Burby, Bryan Eisenberg and Neil Mason at Clickz and have a persistent Google search set up for the keywords “web analytics” which uncovers a bunch of interesting articles every week. Now that I’m at Visual Sciences, I also rely on our customers who, by and large, are a pretty sophisticated group of companies.

What are your favorite search engines?

Google. I pretty much only use Google.

Thanks Eric!

If you are in the Minneapolis - St. Paul area this week on Wednesday, be sure to come and see Eric speak at the MIMA (Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association) seminar, “Making Your Analytics Work. Hard.“. The event will be held on the 50th floor (Windows on Minnesota) of the IDS tower in downtown Minneapolis. More information is available at the MIMA events page.

Also, here’s a press release, “Get Smart About Web Analytics“.

Tags: web analytics, interactive marketing, web measurement

[tags]jupiterresearch,web analytics,analytics,webtrends,web measurement,eric t peterson,visual sciences,websidestory[/tags]

My response is that a really good writer can optimize a press release that does TRIPLE duty. What I mean by that is, a release can use keywords in the right places and frequency and form on a press release in a way that is engaging and effective for the journalists and bloggers that will receive them in their inbox or find them as they search for story ideas.

Optimized releases will also help news search engines such as Yahoo News, Google News and Topix.net as well as mainstream search engines like Google and Yahoo to categorize and rank the release in the search results.

The third function an optimized release can perform is as a direct to consumer communication tool, particularly through syndication via RSS. Whether folks like Steve Rubel buy into this or not is irrelevant. Wire services like PRWeb have engaged this aspect of press release distribution wholeheartedly with impressive results for their clients. In the end it is the behavior of end consumers that matters.

While news releases are meant to be a mechanism for announcing company news and/or financials to news media and journalists, the use of RSS to syndicate releases to news and blog websites places that content directly in front of consumers. This bypasses the media filters and search algorithms and allows companies to get their announcements directly to an intended audience.

Understanding all of the possible outcomes of a well written release can improve the productivity you get out of it. Make no mistake though, it takes an impressive level of creativity to write such a release. In many cases, a release’s purpose is designated to one of the three applications I mentioned above: for journalists, for search engines or for consumers. But if a release can serve all three, you’ve hit a home run.

Tags: press release optimization, seo press releases, online pr

[tags]public relations,press release optimization,online pr,optimized press releases,seo pr,seo press releases,pr and seo,internet pr[/tags]

The 2006 RSS Marketing Survey being conducted by MarketingStudies.net which will produce a report uncovering the uses, metrics and case studies from online marketers that are using RSS.
 MarketingStudies.net is run by RSS Marketing guru, Rok Hrastnik, who is the author of “Unleashing the Marketing and Publishing Power of RSS“. He also publishes a free report, “The Business Case for RSS“.

Rok and I did an interview in March 2005 on using integrated online PR, blogs and RSS for improved results in search engines.

If you’re in Chicago next week, you see Rok at the ACCM conference in a session called, “RSS What marketers need to know“. While you’re there, check out the “15 Sizzling Hot Search Ideas for Merchants” session where I’ll be presenting with Heather Lloyd-Martin, Patricia Hursh and Lisa Papageras.

You can take the 2006 RSS Marketing Survey here. Respondents will also be able to receive a copy of the overview report including RSS metrics and best practices.

[tags]rss,seo,search engine optimization,rss marketing,blog marketing,lee odden,rss survey,rss research,rok hrastnik,accm,catalog conference[/tags]

I started out by posing a few specific questions:

1. Does Google currently use toolbar data for rankings?
2. What do you see as the pros and cons of using such data for rankings?
3. Can you describe any scenario where information from a downloaded application from Google might be used in some way for ranking web pages?
4. If Google does not employ toolbar or other user data for rankings and another search engine does, could that provide the other search engine an advantage?

And Matt provided this reply:

Hey Lee, it was nice to meet you in person at Pubcon! I’ll answer this all in one chunk, if that’s okay. Personally, I think this issue is on SEO’s minds more because there was a speculative thread at http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/33… where WMW folks discussed toolbar data.

I read the story at SearchNewz and saw your conclusion from our conversation that “Google does not use toolbar data for rankings” and wanted to clarify that answer a little bit. In general, when someone asks me the question “Do you use signal X in rankings?” a good way to answer that question is usually to say that while we don’t comment specifically on most of the factors that we use in ranking, it’s wise not to rule something out absolutely.

Let’s take the example in a different context. Meta tags got a bad rap in the early days of search engines because a few people abused them heavily. As a result Google doesn’t use meta tags much in ranking documents. But I’ve learned not to say “We would never use meta tags” because it’s not wise to preclude using any particular signal; in the future, someone might work out a way to use that signal.

So I’m not going to say definitively that Google doesn’t/won’t use toolbar data (or other signals) in ranking. I think what you were picking up on was my long list of “cons” in data like that.

For more insight from Google’s Matt Cutts, read the full post over at Online Marketing Blog.

The “elegance” in RSS is in the distribution possibilities: Desktop reader, email addon, web browser and mobile devices.

The art of RSS is evident in blogs, sites, pdc, vblogs, rss search engines and web 2.0 applications. (press releases via PRWeb)

Build your RSS feeds right the first time. Considerations:
- What do you want to feed? (content sources)
- How many feeds?
- How much content is needed to keep the feed fresh?
- How much content should you include in each feed entry?
- What kind of content will the feed include? test, audio or video?
- How will you ping the feeds at first and then on each update?
- How to measure performance?

RSS is not just for blogs:
- Syndicating your content on other web sites
- Product announcements, tips, articles and customer communications
- Press room
- Jobs

How to optimize a blog and feed
- Optimize the blog
- Socialize your blog
- Submit you blog

Customize your templates
-Archive structure for shorter urls
- Tweak CSS for H1
- Titles so keywords are first
- Add a robots.txt
- Add a Favicon
- Validate code

Use plugins to increase functionality
WordPress
- Google sitempa
- related posts
- customize feed
- handle 301 redirects
- social bookmarks
- create tag clouds

MoveableType
Google and Yahoo maps, related entries based on keywords, anti spam filters, link checkers

Optimize the template once. Optimize the content on an ongoing basis.
Use basic search engine optimization tactics:
- Keywords
- Text markup
- Give each post a theme
- Link out to authority websites
- Breakup long posts

Socialize your blog
- Inbound links by with socializing other blogs.
- Cross link your blog and web site
- Notify other bloggers about your blog via email
- Reference other blogs in posts
- Become a link hub

Ram up your traffic
- Submit feeds
- Ping on each post
- Claim you feed at Technorati
- Subscribe to your own feeds at My Yahoo and My MSN (which will submit your blog to those readers)

Make subscriptions easy
- RSS Buttons
- Add bookmarking links
- Use auto discovery
- Each feed should have a keyword theme
- Use images for branding
- Make feeds available for syndication - feedroll.com
- Use media specific feeds for iTunes and Yahoo Media

Measuring Results
- Feedburner
- Feedcraft
- Simplefeed
- Nooked
- MeasureMap
- SiteMeter
- Technorati ratings

Next up is Daron Babin of Webmaster Radio.

Things you should be aware of if you want to get into Podcasting. Considerations and pitfalls.

1. Start small - Buy basic podcast recording hardware.

One thing you need to be prepared for is bandwidth consumption. Daron relates a story about how he hit 1 Terra byte of bandwidth per month. Need to consider content syndication networks that can handle the distribution. A CDN will push a file out on an on-demand basis, rather than connecting to your primary servers and eating up your bandwidth.

Compelling content is the one thing that will eat up your bandwidth.

2. Need to focus on high quality content. Be very aware of the techincal quality as well. Think about the branding of the program long term. When you name your programming you need to take that into consideration. Also take into account the episodic titles. This is akin to the site title. Also consider the description of the episode.

Also take into account the ID3 tags. Use a ID3 V2 editor. That will allow you to add all sorts of information (think keyword optimization) to the media file.

Optimize every aspect of your RSS feed. iTunes is like Lycos in 1999. It’s there for the taking.

Next up is Greg Hartnet from Best of the Web  botw.org)

How you can get the most out of the blogosphere? The more you put in, the more you get out. It’s not a minor undertaking, it’s a lot of work.

Your readers are going to judge you based on the quality of your writing. Consistent grammar errors will reduce your credibility.

Optimize for Performance
Titles, descriptions, rewrite with just post title in url, categorical archives, enable ping service

Get on the Map
Submit your blog to search engines and blog/RSS search engines - Monster Blog Directory list at www.toprankresults.com

Get Social
Subscribe to other feeds. When you find good resources, be sure to blogroll them. Post about other bloggers to get their attention. Take advantage of the vanity characteristic of many bloggers.

Participate in the Conversation
Comment on other people’s blogs. It is very important what you say in other people’s comments. Witty, insightgful and compelling makes you (and your blog) stand out and can drive traffic. Make sure whatever you say contributes to the conversation. If you don’t have something intelligent to say, keep it to yourself (or put it on your own blog).

Community Sites: gabbr.com
digg - Favors technically oriented posts. Graywolf blog has articles on digg. del.icio.us myspace.com - Referenced article by Roger Monti (martinibuster) about the myspace landgrab.
slashdot
craigslist

The Power of Pictures
Images convey an emotion and can be transmitted easily. Images are cross-cultural and

Flickr
Zoto

Nothing will attract eyeballs to your blog like video.
YouTube
Google Video
Can include your url in the video itself as part of the image, or in the description of the video.

Heavy Traffic
Once you get a lot of traffic, be sure to be prepared to handle it.

Q/A added Jeremy Zawodny and Matt Cutts

Q (David McInnis of PRWeb): How do you go about picking a Content Delivery Network
Daron: It’s a tough thing - pretty much by trial and error. Have a network engineer monitor and adjust. Ask what kind of back end reporting features there are. Spend time with them asking questions. Make sure there is a firm commitment to bandwidhth. Ask for a free month to see what bandwidth usage will really be.

Q: What’s the lowdown on search engine performance and blogs?
Matt: It’s interesting that there are still people who want to exclude blogs. For the most part, search engines do pretty well and indexing blogs.
Zawodny: Relates that digg membership want people to post actual stories and not to blog posts about a story.
Greg says something about “craptastic” blog posts, but I didn’t catch what he said.

Amanda: As more plugins are implemented, blogs will look less like blogs and more like web sites. How do you define a blog and how do you define a web site?

Q: The word “blog” doesn’t mean much. Has a web site with a news section, a forum and information pages on each city. Should I convert all that to a blog?
Greg: Don’t change your site to a blog, but add a blog.
Amanda: The blog lets you produce a different voice for your content. Your main web site might be focused on factual information and the blog would be less formal.
Matt: Don’t be thinking of the maximum you can do with the miniumum of content. Think about the user and don’t duplicate the exact same content.
Jeremy: Use the right tool for the job. Blogs are not for everything. Each type of function usually has a corresponding type of software. Ex: Forums, blogs, web site, etc.

Q: WordPress blog using FeedBurner. My FeedBurner feed url is showing up in the search engines before
Daron: Burn all feeds with your branding, your domain name as part of the feed url. Think about it from the beginning. Use a master feed and commit to it. Then if Feedburner tanks, you still have a url under your control.
Jeremy: Points out the auto discovery tag. Explains the issue of auto discovery showing one feed and a FeedBurner link as a link on the page causing dilution.
Greg: Recommends not using Feedburner so he maintains control.
Daron: Recommends putting subscription options in as a pulldown menu and not showing all the chicklets. It simplifies subscription options.
Matt: A lot of feed chicklets gets to be a lot. Keeps it simple with his own feed.

Q: XML feeds show up in search results. Is Google working on that or a directory of RSS feeds?
Matt: You can add a -.xml operator to your query (audience laugh). Yeah, you shouldn’t have to see that. He’ll pass feedback on the Google team.

Tags: blogs, rss, podcasting, pubcon, blog optimization

[tags]rss,blogging,blogs,rss marketing,blog marketing,podcasting[/tags]

Common blog linking tactics include:

• Trackbacks
• Comments
• Social book marks
• Tagging
• Blogrolls
• Guest writing on other blogs
• Blog, RSS directories

Methods to gain links commonly associated with web sites include:

• Backlink analysis on competing web sites or blogs
• Search engine directory submissions
• Profiles and bios
• Testimonials
• Job listings
• Interviews
• Contributions to non-profits
• Article marketing
• Social book marks
• Press releases
• Contributed articles to MSM web sites
• Media coverage
• Buying web sites
• Viral marketing - linkbait

Many bloggers miss out on the benefit of blogs being inherently search engine friendly by not taking advantage of web site linking tactics. In fact, blogs have an advantage over web sites without a RSS feed because they can easily be syndicated and they can be listed with blog and RSS search engines.

Here are some rankings on Google for Online Marketing Blog:

• “marketing blog” #1
• “blog marketing” #1

And on Yahoo:

• “marketing blog” #1
• “blog marketing” #2

These rankings are a result of good content AND inbound links. Each month more sites link to the blog without being asked. I call that “linking momentum”. In order to achieve linking momentum for a blog, you need to kickstart things by using linking tactics normally associated with web sites. Then you need to make sure you are creating linkable content.

Blog template optimization can only improve a blog’s rankings so much and many search engine optimization and blog marketing experts out there should pay more attention to blog linking. A steady stream of inbound links from a variety of relevant and authoritative sources can make a night and day difference for your blog’s search engine rankings.

[tags]blogging,seo,search engine optimization,blog marketing,link building,lee odden,blog optimization[/tags]

In September 2005 Yahoo released their site explorer and it’s quite a handy little tool. However, we wanted quicker access to the tool so Thomas created the yExplore Firefox extension. It simply allows you to right click on any web page, select yExplore and it’ll open Yahoo Site Explorer in a background tab with the URL already submitted. A few more details are available at the yExplore Extension page or you can get yExplore from the Mozilla site.

[tags]yahoo,yahoo site explorer,firefox extension[/tags]

Stephan Spencer also wrote up an informative list of Podcast SEO tips on his blog.

I would also like to point out a few things regarding how podcasts can support your online marketing efforts, particularly in conjuction with online PR.

The first is the very cool Podcast recording, production and hosting service offered by PRWeb Podcast. More details in this press release.

As an example, TopRank recently did a PRWeb Podcast in conjunction with Blogs, SEO and online PR press release recently for the upcoming WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference in Boston. David McInnis, the CEO and founder of PRWeb and I are speaking on the same panel about Public Relations.

My conference pals Amanda Watlington, Daron Babin and Brian Prince will be talking about RSS and podcasts at the Boston Pubcon conference along with Michael Levine from Yahoo, so be sure to check that out if you’re going.

We’re monitoring the effect of this service from a traffic perspective, but are rolling it out with all of our online PR clients. In fact, one of our Public Relations managers has had great success using podcasts in her pitching efforts to the media. Karen has posted about that over on her Media Relations Blog.

From an advertising perspective, this recent research from PQ Media shows that combined U.S. spending on blog, podcast and RSS advertising increased 198.4% to $20.4 million in 2005. This kind of advertising is expected to grow another 144.9% to $49.8 million in 2006. Those are some pretty impressive growth numbers.

So you can use SEO for more traffic to your podcasts, you can use podcasts to enhance your online public relations and you can advertise on podcasts. What else can you do with podcasts related to SEO?

You can stay on top of the happenings in the search engine industry as well as search engine optimization tactics by listening to the wide array of podcasts and live internet radio feeds over at WebmasterRadio.fm.

Danny Sullivan also posts a daily “SearchCast” from Search Engine Watch. Chris Pirillo did a series of podcast interviews at Search Engine Strategies NYC that are pretty interesting.

There are many others I’m sure, so post your favorites if you like.

[tags]rss,feeds,seo,search engine optimization,rss marketing,blog marketing,podcasting,pubcon,podcast marketing,prweb[/tags]

According to this AP story:

“The fees, which would range from 1/4 cent to 1 cent per e-mail, are the latest attempts by the companies to weed out unsolicited ads, commonly called spam, and identity-theft scams. In exchange for paying, e-mail senders will be guaranteed their messages won’t be filtered and will bear a seal alerting recipients they’re legitimate.”

To get the story from the other side, you can read the response from Jason Calacanis of Weblogs, Inc. which is now a part of AOL. I also found this response from the Antispam Product Manager at Yahoo! Mail at this blog.

This is a development that you should be aware of if you are currently using email marketing as a way to reach potential and existing customers.

I have to wonder what the advantage is from the advertiser’s point of view. Is the winning bid for the ads going to be much lower than going rates for purchasing the ads directly from the magazines? It is unclear how Google is going to make this service unique.

[tags]google ad,hock ng,radio ad,offline ad,online ad,auction for print ad[/tags]

For all those domainers out there, this should be quite an event. Some think domainers are making millions off of type in traffic. Domain name traffic monetization or domain parking is an interesting business.

Gooogle offers a program to monetize domain name parking which is worth checking out, called Google AdSense for domains.

[tags]dotster,domainers,domain name registration,domain parking[/tags]

“dMarc connects advertisers directly to radio stations through its automated advertising platform. The platform simplifies the sales process, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio advertising, enabling advertisers to more efficiently purchase and track their campaigns.”

The keywords here are “efficient” and “track.” Much of the success of Google AdWords can be traced to the efficiency of the system with instant approval of ads and keyword bids. The other key point which dictates the success or failure of an advertising campaign is the ability to accurately track the return on investment.

A recent report noted that the purchase has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). With this acquisitioin, Google watchers are speculating that Google is going to expand into more traditional offline advertising channels.

Remember not too long ago that Google was starting to buy print ads in magazines and newspapers? With this most recent acquisition, it seems that it is definitely pursuing other venues of advertising.

[tags]dmarc,google radio,google print ad,google offline,advertising offline[/tags]

According to SearchEngineJournal:

“The Kanoodle/MSN agreement will also pay the bloggers themselves via a revenue sharing model: ‘As part of its relationship with MSN, Kanoodle will enable MSN Spaces users to seamlessly add sponsored links to their Space. In return, participating members will receive a percentage of revenues generated by these links. Kanoodle will provide sponsored links and manage the reporting and payment aspects for all MSN Spaces members who opt-in to the program.’”

On the MSN Spaces blog, there is also a mention of allowing bloggers to monetize their blogs with Amazon affiliate links.

Many MSN watchers are wondering why MSN is not coming up with its own version of contextual advertising to compete with Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network. It would only make sense since MSN is already beta testing its own version of pay per click advertising: MSN adCenter.

[tags]adsense,msn spaces,kanoodle,msn adcenter,blog revenue share[/tags]

Yet in this evolving field, there are not yet clear understandings about what inferences can properly or accurately be drawn from demonstrated behavior. Other than the individual who clicks through to a completed sale, most behavioral targeting at this point is guess work.

Consider several approaches for evaluating or scoring behavior.

Repetitive Behavior

Logically someone who does the same thing or visits the same place repeatedly is probably more interested than the average Joe. Assuming that most people only make one or two clicks in error, it is reasonable to guess that someone returning for a 3rd click is probably interested, if not a real buyer.

My wife is a prime example. She visits future purchases frequently before buying. To her, multiple visits to the shoe store, the furniture store or the big box retailer to hover over her intended item are no big deal. In fact she enjoys visiting and revisiting.

The repetition confirms her interest or ratchets up her intent and her commitment to the purchase. The same holds true on the Web. She will click and click again on an item. Perhaps she’ll visit it at multiple sites in search of greater product detail, to compare prices or to discover a deal on shipping or a favorable return policy.

If we were to track her behavior with a cookie or some other technology, the question would be how many visits signal her intent? Should we dynamically serve her content or intervene by popping up an offer on her third or fourth visit? How do we know how much repetition is sufficient to encourage her to convert or at what point would we freak her out with a big brother intervention?

Sequential Behavior

Perhaps if we watched where she went before and after visiting the product, we might get a better idea. If she visits the same product at a competitor site, does that signal intensity of interest or intent? If she looks at a similar product or a product that goes together with the first product can we infer a pending purchase?

What about if she makes a beeline for something? Would that be enough evidence to treat her differently from the great mass of Web surfers? Say she responded to an email and clicked on a designated landing page or navigated from the home page to a particular product page in the shortest possible sequence (3 clicks?), would that mark her as an A prospect and separate her from the herd?

Expected Responses

How about if she fills in a form or clicks a “contact me” button? Assuming that only X percent click these frivolously or because they are lonely shut-ins, would using the expected response device qualify her as a hot prospect or merely mark her as a tire kicker?

Most direct marketers will tell you that even among those who answer the call to action and utilize the provided response mechanisms; most responders are generally interested but not ready-to-buy. So the act of responding, while rarely more than 2 percent of those exposed to an offer, still doesn’t turn you into a qualified, hot lead.

So what’s a marketer to do?

Charged with generating demand, we want to do so in the fastest most cost effective manner. Accepting the notion that actions speak louder than words we buy into the notion of behavioral marketing. But how do we draw the right inferences from the behavior we observe?

The short answer is we test and learn. It’s a classic way, but it is limited because we cannot project our learning across product sets or categories. Another approach is to aggregate the varying dimensions and triangulate purchase intent and intensity. This might work for larger value items and in B2B marketing where the shopping cycle is longer and more complex. The third answer to is share data and get collectively smarter at reading these digital tea leaves.

If behavioral targeting has value, it must be to help us sell more things faster to those most likely to buy. Otherwise it is just digital voyeurism.

Danny Flamberg is Presdent of Prescients, LLC, a marketing consultancy.

[tags]danny flamberg,behavioral targeting,web marketing,business psychology[/tags]