Jamdo Marketing Blog

Losing an entire is not (touch wood) something I have yet had to endure.

The thought of it does make me break out in a cold sweat though - the postential of losing years of posts isn’t something I relish.

The problem for bloggers traditionally has been that “back up your database” to a non tech person sounds something remotely similar to Swahili. I mean how the hell do you do that? Blogging is supposed to be simple!

Luckily there are a couple of really simple solutions available to people who aren’t so tech savvy.

The first is the Wordpress Database Backup Plugin - this installs as like any normal plugin on your blog and is really intuitive to use. In fact, Tubetorial has a 5 minute video on installing and using this plugin that is well worth the time to watch. If you have a recent version of Wordpress installed, then it should already be in the plugins option - you just need to activate it. If not, then you can still download it from here.

The other option, which is great if you are totally technically illiterate is a site called Blog Backup Online which is really easy to sign up to and get your blog backed up. The only glitch I found is that one of my blogs only offered partial feeds and Blog Backup Online backs up using the XML feed, so only those excerpts were being backed up (rather than the full content), so make sure you change your settings from your Options>>Reading menu in your Wordpress Login to offer full feeds. Now, I still think the above plugin is  better option, but as I said, if you are a total technical incompetent then this is a great service.

So go backup everything and stay safe!

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In the world of blogging there are a few things that really stand out. Here’s what I think they are.

BoingBoing - the blog that set the benchmark from the beginning on content, attitude and community. This is the most linked to blog in the world and it is still the best.

Scribefire - a little tool that has revolutionised blog posting and cut massive amounts of time off the usual process of logging in and posting content. You don’t even have to be online to use it.

Adsense - the most popular form of monetisation for bloggers the world over. It is the benchmark by which all other forms of blog monetisation are judged and the tool that allows more bloggers to make a living and thus produce more great content than any other monetisation strategy.

Wordpress - one of the biggest open source success stories of the new millenium, this free software has given a voice to millions and allowed the technically incompetent access to the world of online content provision.

Old Media - the more jealous and bitchy these guys get, the more power they give to the new revolution of democratised information.  Thanks for the props guys - it’s almost sad watching you go down in flames.

XML - the thing that allows us to easily keep up with new information on the internet. This language allows us to take information, share others’ information or share our own.

Google - still the granddaddy of traffic and the pimp that every blogger panders to. Find what you’re blogging about, get traffic, Google is indespensible for the blogger.

They are pretty much what I would regrd as the top 7 in the blogging world. Any other contenders?

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Getting links to your blog or site is at the very heart of your SEO and traffic efforts. One of the better strategies for getting the links is linkbaiting - the art of producing content so good that other bloggers and sites are compelled to link to it without being asked.

Linkbaiting has become so popular among marketers and SEOs that some SEO companies charge up to $10,000 for a link baiting campaign and many believe that constant link baiting can be so effective that it will propel them to the top of the search engines in very competitive niches if done properly.

In short it is a good strategy to get links.

But do some people take that a bit too far?

Recently a fairly well known internet marketer made a post about an eploit he discovered in the search engines. The exploit allowed him to get his link on the pages of some very highly trafficked sites.

The post drew the attention of a few other bloggers and got him some incoming links and quite a few comments.

The problem?

He was lying.

This managed to upset a few people.

Now, this one post obviously had the desired effect - it got people talking and linking.

But was it worth it?

I don’t think so.

I think the post may have damaged the credibility of his blog and in the future he will probably have a harder time convincing people to link to him. He has damaged the credibility of his blog. (If the link bait was a one off page where long term credibility was not so important, this may not be such an issue).

Why would I, as a blogger,  link to a blog with a history of lies that makes me look like an idiot who fell for the lies in front of my readers?

In short, I wouldn’t.

I would therefore encourage people to be very careful about misleading linkbait on their blogs.

After all, the credibility of a blog is really its main value.

Technorati Tags: linkbait, seo

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Just thought I would share a quick trick that I sometimes use when I need urgent help with some coding issue or geek problem.

Pretend to be a girl.

I am sure you have noticed how pathetic most geeks are. I mean, they just have no damn self respect.

This is nowhere more prevalent than in internet forums - especially ones to do with coding.

Now, when “Bob Jones” shows up in those forums asking for help with coding in PHP or whatever, he will most often be rudely met with a response of “Use the damn search function, noob” or some other geek witicism. (Of course, I would also suggest you use the search function of forums or Google too, but sometimes you just don’t even know what the wording or vocabulary of what you need so that’s also quite difficult.)

You will also notice that the exact same question when asked by “Mandy” and signed off with:

Kisses,
Mandy
XX

… seems miraculously to get some very helpful responses.

So what should Bob Jones do?

Easy!

Be Mandy.

It won’t work every time and you still won’t get away with askinng TOTALLY dumb questions, but you will get a lot more slack.

Technorati Tags: geeks, forums

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Is there something a little inane about the “Buy Me a Beer” donation plugin that seems to be doing the rounds of most blogger’s plugin lists of late?

I mean, it’s a nice little idea for a plugin and all, but there’s something about pretending to buy someone a cyber-coffee that just bugs me.

Who in their right mind would go and buy a beer or a coffee with their paypal funds anyway?

So I though I would put a little honesty and humour back into that plugin by coming up with some more realistic scenarios.

1) If You Think This Post Makes Me Look Insane, Buy Me Prozac

2) If You Think I Make Flickr Cry, Donate to My Plastic Surgery Fund

3) Screw Beer - Buy Me Johnny Walker Blue Label

4) Ninjas Killed My Blog - Help Me Buy Kung Fu Lessons

5) Need More Advertising Space - Help Me Buy an Extra Collumn for My Blog

6) If You Think I Make Gilligan Look Like The Professor, Buy Me an Online Degree

7) PornoTube Made Me Blind - Buy Me an Optometrist Appointment

8 ) Tom Laughs at Me - Buy Me Friends

9) Adsense Shut My Account - Need Money to Assasinate Larry and Sergei

10) Need Directory Listing - Donate to My DMOZ Bribery Fund

That should do for starters!

Technorati Tags: blogs, plugins, wordpress

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There are a lot of little jobs with blogging that seem to eat up your time. The thing is a lot of them are repetitive and don’t take a lot of brain power or effort… just time.

Unfortunately time is one of your greatest assets - you should be using it to create even more killer content for your blog. Here are a few things to consider farming out so you can free up that finite resource.

Directory Submissions - probably of more and more decreasing importance, but a link is still a link. You don’t want to get too many too quickly, but a steady build up of directory links can help establish a good, long-term linking profile for your blog or site. Luckily, there are plenty of cheap guys around who will do this job very well. Remember to use a few different titles (ie. anchor text) and spread the link building out over time (the guy I use does 3000 submissions over the course of a year for $200 which is hard to beat - contact me if you want his details).

MyBlogLog Friend and Community Adding - MyBlogLog is a great little way to build your blog’s profile and readership. Just by adding interesting new people to your contact list and joining new communities you will get people interested in the topic of your blog. Of course, taking the time to find interesting new people who are possibly interested in your niche and new communities in your niche to join can be a little time-consuming (even though there is a 15 per day limit on each). It can add up if you have a few different blogs with different accounts though. It’s a fairly easy job though, so why not outsource it?

Forum Posting - You don’t want to outsource the posting as such (unless you can find someone you trust with your brand absolutely), but there are plenty of regular posters in big forums who are more than happy to rent links in their signatures for as little as $5 per month. If the forum is right and the potential traffic is well targetted, then this can be a good investment.

Blog Comments - Be careful with this one, but there are plenty of cheap writers available who will visit other blogs to comment constructively and enter your website address as that of the commenter. You want to REALLY trust whoever you get to do this one, because your brand is in their hands, but it can still be had fairly cheaply. This will help you build traffic to your own blog.

Product Reviews - I have one or two blogs that have a category for product reviews in their niche. Each of the product reviews is in exactly the same format as the others and they are easy, but time consuming to write. Now, I wouldn’t trust a hired writer to write the main content of most of my blogs, but I would happily trust them to write these product reviews for me as the template is very straight forward and quite easy. My guy charges $6 per review which is fine with me and I am very happy with them (contact me if you want their details).

The main thing about outsourcing is that it is difficult to find someone who is up to the standards you expect. To be honest I have had a few bad experiences with outsourcing. But I have also found a couple of gems in a sea of coal and they make my life a lot easier.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, blogging

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