Jamdo Marketing Blog

One of the great things about bloggers is that they link to each other. While that seems pretty basic, it is at the core of what the internet is and a linking strategy, if done well, can add real value to a user’s experience.

I came accross a post this morning over at “Musings of a Gonzo” who is now one of Jamdo’s new readers (Welcome!). The post was describing how he had discovered Jamdo.

This got me to thinking about linking strategies and how they can benefit a reader.

Trackbacks

As most of you will know, Trackbacks are basically when one blog lets another blog know that they have written something similar. For example, when I wrote about “How I got 120 Visitors to a Brand New Blog on Day 1,” I sent a trackback to Yaro’s post which was the post that inspired me to write that.

This was an example of a highly relevant trackback that added something to the conversation that Yaro started (hopefully). As such, anyone who was interested enough to read Yaro’s post to the end would have seen that there was something more to read on the topic just by clicking on the link to my trackback.

A problem lies in the fact that many people abuse the trackback system and see it as a way to get extra incoming links into their blogs by leaving irrelevant trackbacks on lots of blogs. This is a real shame and it has lead to a lot of people turning off trackbacks on their own sites. But, luckily it is not quite dead yet, and many webmasters still see the value in leaving trackbacks on.

One thing to remember is that most blogs do not pass on Google Page Rank to trackbacks or comment links so if you are thinking of spamming people with trackbacks then you are wasting your time. Your efforts would be far better spent adding value to the comversation on another blog and then leaving a relevant trackback that will attract targeted readers.

As for receiving trackbacks, I highly encourage you to accept them, but remember that some people will spam you with trackbacks sometimes. If the trackback is not relevant feel completely free to delete it from your own blog.

Blog Tipping

I came accross this idea for the first time when I found the post I mentioned above from Musings of a Gonzo. Easton Ellsworth’s idea of “blog tipping” was mentioned in the post and Easton had also left a comment himself that sparked my interest.

Blog Tipping is simply an idea whereby you select three bloggers and write a short post about them with some ideas on how they could improve their own blogs. Basically constructive criticism amongst bloggers. A great idea.

If you think about this from a linking strategy point of view, you will be giving your own readers a couple of things that are valuable. For starters you will be giving them the links to some blogs that you find entertaining. If you enjoy them, then the chances are that your readers will too. You are also giving your readers insight into why you like them and things you would do differently. A good idea from both a content and a linking point of view.

Link Leak

This all leads into the idea of “link leak.” As I discovered (yet again) via Musings of a Gonzo, link leak is a term coined by Mike Sigers referring to:

the complete and utter abandon of worry about a link and all it’s mighty power leaving your blog.

In furtherance to the idea, he also defines somebody who doesn’t freely give up links as a “reader hoarder” - someone who is afraid to put external links on their blog.

I see where Mike is going with that idea and I certainly subscribe to the theory of reciprocity, but I would put a few provisos on it. Linking to anything less than highly relevant, good quality content is a disservice to your readers. Linking out is fine, but linking to any old garbage on the internet is not. You will only thrive on Mike’s idea if you add value for your readers (admittedly Mike does more or less say that).

I would also add that Mike’s idea is a lot easier to cop on the chin if you already have a highly trafficked site with lots of repeat readers. Regardless, it is still a decent idea for traditional blogs that you manually update regularly.

Note: I have talked before about creating blogs using data feeds. I would certainly not subscribe to Mike’s idea for that type of blog.

On the other hand, the most successful traditional blogs do have a lot of quality outgoing links. So the trick there is to define exactly what your site is. Once you have defined the purpose of your site, then choose your link strategy accordingly.

Conclusions

Regardless of your site, you should always have the needs and desires of your audience in mind when adding any link. That goes for both Affiliate links and links to other relevant content. By making your links highly relevant and useful, you will help ensure that you gain a reputation as a good resource. That will build your audience, and hopefully your income too.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, links

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Should you write longer, more detailed articles for your blog on a less regular basis, or should you write lots of shorter articles on a very regular basis?

This question seems to pop up on the blogosphere a little, and it is actually an important one to think about for people who want to build traffic to their own blogs.

The answer? It depends!

There are basically three strategies you can employ on this one.

Long Posts Less Regularly

Writing long, detailed posts is usually a pretty good option for several reasons (these are what Yaro Starak refers to as “Pillar Articles”). Perhaps one of the most successful of this type of site would be Steve Pavlina’s blog.

As a general rule, longer posts tend to be more in depth and contain more valuable content than shorter posts. Giving yourself space to get your point accross to your audience will usually make your audience appreciate your efforts more and allow them a more detailed understanding of the topic at hand. Detailed articles also tend to give more value to your audience, this is especially true if your blog contains evergreen content.

You will also find that in depth articles on a topic are far better at attracting those important incoming links from other bloggers. This is as a result of the fact that people perceive longer articles to be more valuable. It is difficult to paraphrase an entire detailed article on another blog, so the next best option is for other bloggers to link to your posts - an advantage not shared by shorter posts which can be easily summarised if another blog is talking about you.

For the purposes of search engine optimization, longer articles tend to attract far more search engine love than shorter articles. I have no concrete proof on this other than observation over time, but longer posts of mine seem to do better for drawing traffic.

Shorter Posts More Regularly

The next option that a lot of blogs use, is to post a lot of short articles on a more regular basis - usually at least several times per day.

This strategy has a few advantages too. For starters, it doesn;t require the degree of research and organisation that writing longer articles does and doesn’t take the same toll on a writer. Put simply, writing this type of short article blog is easier.

If done correctly, you can build an audience of people who come to your blog for breaking news. It is also a good strategy to ensure that the search engine spiders come to your site on a regular basis and hopefully index your stories. If you manage to get well ranked for a breaking news story very soon after that story breaks, then you can actually get a lot of traffic from the search engines.

Of course, unless you manage to break some news or be one of the first to get well ranked in the search engines for a new hot topic, then it might be difficult to naturally attract those important incoming links (at least it will be more difficult for you than for a blog with in depth articles).

The problem with this type of blog, is that if you take a break from posting, you will lose your audience much more quickly than a blog that has in depth articles. If people come to expect breaking news and you don’t give it to them, they will go elsewhere.

A successful example if this type of site would be Engadget.

The Mixture

Mixing both in depth articles with shorter newsy type articles is also an option for blogs. This strategy is used very successfully by Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger.

The advantage of this strategy is that you don’t have to get out a great quality, in depth article on a daily basis which takes a little pressure off you as a writer. You can keep your readers (and the search engine spiders) coming back with just some short updated newsy pieces from yoru niche. In depth articles take a little more time and research.

To be honest, I think this is probably the most versatile and sustainable strategy for most blogs. Most people who are committed to blogging ae able to get at least one or two newsy articles out without too much fuss - it just requires keeping up with your bloglines account. But if you are passionate about a subject then producing an in depth piece a couple of times a week will come naturally. As such, mixing up the different types of post that you write is usually a good option.

Conclusions

The type of posting strategy that you go with will vary with what you are trying to achieve on your blog.

Blogging with short articles on a daily basis can get your audience returning often for new news.

Blogging less regularly with in depth articles will get people linking to you and discussing your content.

A mixture of both offers a little of both worlds.

Ultimately the choice is yours.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogger, blogging, writing, writer

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Getting traffic to a new blog is not as difficult as people make it out to be.

I was reading Yaro Starak’s blog recently and strongly disagreed with something he said:

On the day your blog is born you will have no readers.

That is just plain wrong. (Note: The rest of Yaro’s tips were actually pretty good)

In fact only a short while before Yaro wrote that post, I had managed to drag over 120 unique visitors to a brand new blog on its first day of operation. And that would be a conservative goal for new blogs with just a little more organisation and luck than I had.

The key here is planning.

There are a few things you need to set up before you launch your blog.

Continue reading…

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I thought I’d jot down a few notes about blog spam and some observations I have made on my own blogs.

As somebody who passionately hates blog spam, let me say that if you are a blog spammer, then a plague on your house. Using automated posting software to drop standardised comments on other people’s blogs for the sake of getting a backlink is not cool.

But I have also noticed that a lot of my blogs seem to have some type of grace period. I haven’t yet quite figured it out, because some are quite popular and still don’t get any blog spam whereas others barely have any significant traffic and get a ton of the rubbish.

But one thing I have noticed is that certain posts on some of my blogs seem to repeatedly attract spam. I will log into my blog everyday and it is always that particular post. It isn’t spread out accross my whole blog. It’s to the point that I am wondering if individual blog posts make it onto some spammer secrect society list as a great post to spam. I really don’t know why this happens.

Anyway, as you can probably see, I use Spam Karma 2 to keep my blogs relatively free of spam. I am very happy with it.

On my more popular sites I also alter the comment settings so that only people who have had a comment approved by me can actually comment freely and have the comment go live immediately. It’s not a perfect solution, but it keep the rubbish off my blogs.

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I am a gin man.

More specifically I love Bombay Sapphire Gin.

Gin and Tonic with a slice of fresh lime is a very difficult drink to beat.

Well, I have been up all weekend launching a new blog. A friend and I decided it would be fun and the topic is something we’re both quite interested in. It isn’t really a money making venture - we’re just trying to get together a resource that is really comprehensive and that nobody elese has done yet - at least nobody we could find.

It’s been fun, but I have been blogging like a madman all weekend trying to get the content up - as much as possible in the first few days.

So we are pretty happy so far. Day one and we have over 120 unique visitors with an average of 6 page views per person. 1.7 visits per person and 30% of them are hanging around longer than 30 minutes. Lots of room for improvement but for a first day we are very happy and we haven’t even started emailing people to ask for links and plugs yet!

So I decided to celebrate and have a few G&Ts so went down to the local bottle shop.

I couldn’t find my beloved Bombay Sapphire! Gasp!

They had sold out!

Shock.

Horror.

“What else can I drink?” I asked the attendant?

“Tanqueray,” he replied.

It’s a little more expensive, but it’s still pretty popular.

So I take a bottle and make up a G&T and damn!

I am impressed. Very smooth, very tasty.

In fact I am a convert. No more Bombay Saphire for me.

So here I sit, blogging and sipping on a Tanqueray and Tonic thinking that there must be worse things in life to be doing.

I love this game.

Technorati Tags: bombay sapphire, tanqueray, gin, smug satisfaction

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Blog politics is an ugly ugly thing.

What I am talking about is when bloggers start airing their dirty laundry on their blogs.

This usually comes in the form of a very public falling out with another blogger over what usually amounts to a very trivial issue.

There have been a couple of quite famous blogs engaging in this rubbish over the last few weeks, and while I refuse to link to such garbage, I am sure at least a few of you will be aware of these spats in the blogosphere.

I was astonished to see one blog from a blogger that I quite respect even weigh into an issue between two other bloggers. The reasons I was very surprised to see this were several.

1) Professionalism - weighing into arguments in public is not classy. Professionals do not air this crap in public and professionals do not comment on others doing so. By participating in a blogosphere spat or even commenting on it, you degrade yourself and your blog and bring the issue of your professional conduct into question. There are very few arguments that are well served by being made public and very little to be won by responding to insults and threats in kind or by taking sides in others’ arguments. Continue reading…

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