Helping bloggers and webmasters increase their income via Adsense, Affiliate Advertising and General Blogging Help.
Marketing Socially: Robyn Tippins from Converge SC on Vimeo.
FYI, the very first of my talk is cut off, but what you miss is my telling you that I started a diaper company in 1998, at age 22, and in month one, using forums to market it, we grossed ~$30k. The video picks up there.
At BlogWorld Expo, I was interviewed by Network Solutions to answer a few questions that their customers might have. There are a serious of almost a dozen videos up now, with some major big names in social media, but with my ego being monstrous, I’ve only linked to the ones I’m in đ
The whole series is pretty good though, and if you have a few minutes, I recommend them.
Start with Listening
Strategy Drives Outreach
To Blog or Not to Blog
Rising Above the Noise
Tilly and I set up a wiki over the weekend (thanks to a HUGE load of help from Wetpaint) and the barebones of our Community Managers group is up and running now.
Community Managers Wiki
I love working with CMs because they are motivated! I sent out the invites around 11am and by 2pm, all but 3 of the folks we invited had accepted (and all of them had actually posted a pic!). CMs just ‘get’ how to interact!
If you are a community manager or your job revolves around community management (ie social media strategist, evangelist, etc.) or if you know someone who is (lucky you!), then please let them know about our little group.
Andrew Wee interviewed me last week about my prior consulting work. If you are interested in learning how I was bringing in a six figure consulting income before my move to Yahoo!, you might want to listen to it.
Yeah right… Bloggers with their gloom and doom are more dangerous. The gist of this ‘fear twitter’ story is that people are, gasp, talking to more than one person!
Imagine this scenario: 20 people are in a confidential meeting, one of them using Twitter. This attendee broadcasts an off-hand âtweetâ (Twitter comment) to his or her âfollowersâ (Twitter friends). With traditional instant messaging, that message would be received by perhaps one or two others. With Twitter, that comment may be seen by 10, 100, 1000, or more followers.
Egads, perhaps they will leak their secret to 20 people, instead of 1 person. I have news for you pal, whether it’s to 1 or 20, leaks happen, and only a moron would leak on twitter with it attached PUBLICLY to his name. There’s your safeguard.
I suppose the selective hiring process will ensure that people with IQs of less than 50 won’t have access to such large secrets. There are no need for IT directives or corporate Twitter policies. I repeat, a Memo is not necessary. We all know that leaks in any form of communication is wrong.
But, back to the original discussion… I’d get away with leaking much easier if I just told one person in conversation via my text message, and then another later over drinks, than I would for tweeting a secret to 20 people. Twitter *is* like the watercooler, only this watercooler has a history of all conversations that are public. Leaks happen, and Twitter won’t make that any more possible that anything else. If you want to fear something, fear those new fangled phones. Every leak I’ve ever heard has come from either a phone or IM…
Why do I let myself get riled up by this obvious linkbait?
I can never understand what it is that makes a large company think that they are indestructible, but apparently Google continues to believe that because they are the god of search that this will always remain the case. (Disclosure, I work for a search company that was once doing really, really well in search, ahem)
Most recently they decided to penalize bloggers who were selling text links, including this blog. Page rank, which now is apparently completely devalued, went from 5 to 3. I’m in good company here however, some of the best blogs on the net also lost 2-4 points of page rank. The points lost were not relative, but arbitrary, from what I can tell, with some blogs who sold text links only losing one point and others that did the same losing three. Again, they were secretive about the why, with the blogosphere having to determine that it was text link sales and interlinked blogs from blog networks. They have more secrets than the CIA…
Today it seems they have attempted to force morality, or their definition of it, by completely wiping out the page rank of PayPerPost blogs. Now, you know I am not a fan of PPP, having had more than one comment argument about it. However, who am I to say what someone can or can’t do on their own blog. I mean, it would be different if they were using Blogger blogs and only Blogger blogs were penalized, at least then they’d have an alternative to go about writing their blog the way they see fit (ie move to Vox or something like that). But, as you can see, the company that owns search has decided to single-handedly remove page rank from these blogs.
What alternative do these blogs have? Google has around 65% of the search market firmly in hand.
The saddest part is that many of the blogs in PayPerPost are not bloggers that have been doing this for very long, and they are not A-listers either. These bloggers are part of the blogosphere, but because they don’t pull in massive traffic (IMO, likely because they refuse to resort to linkbait day after day), they are evil to sell advertising space within the post. A-listers are ‘above’ selling posts, I mean unless the pay is substantial. Advertising is far different from posts that advertise, with disclosure.
Erm, you don’t see the difference? Well, there really is one, but it’s subtle. The real difference is that PayPerPost doesn’t pay very much for their posts and the ads on A-list blogs go for hundreds, and in some cases thousands of dollars, per month. See that difference now? It boils down to the have-nots getting punished and the haves all shaking their finger in an “I told you so” fashion.
I have no worries today. I am not a PPP user and I’ve already been penalized for selling links (with no traffic loss, by the way), but I can’t help but bastardize Niemoller’s poem:
They came first for the text link sellers, And I didnât speak up because I wasnât a seller of text links;
And then they came for the blog networks, And I didnât speak up because I wasnât in a blog network;
And then they came for the Posties, And I didnât speak up because I wasnât a Postie;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”
Here are the slides from my talk today at Webcom Montreal. I will follow with the video, if I can wrangle it from the presenters. đ If not, I have the notes saved as a pdf but I don’t have the bandwidth, literally not figuratively, to post them right now. Later today I promise.
Am I crazy or did Gmail drink the Kool Aide really, really quickly? I have never seen this in my gmail account before.
I am assuming this is part of their new Inbox 2.0 strategy? Whatever, Mama likes.
John Hong from Zappos, as a local, was great at showing us around Vegas. I was crushed that we didn’t have time to go to the Double Down, home of the Bacon Martini, which is the url that John asked me to credit for the photos. Well he wanted me to credit another one, but in the interest of decency I’m going with baconmartini.
Anyhoo, Double Down specializes in Punk music, and as I’m a fan of that sort of music (see my last.fm) I would have enjoyed it immensely, likely as would Jeremy as he actually knew who Henry Rollins was, but it was just the past adults bedtime by the time we got around to it.
John took some great shots of us Friday night, and video of Liz acting silly. She’s lucky he only sent me the pics. đ
Me and Maria Palma
Me and Jeremy Pepper
Me making fun of Jeremy’s choice in clothing
I’m getting ready to go to Webcom-Montreal now. If any of you are in Montreal, call me at 408-718-0886 so we meetup (more details on MyBlogLog blog)!
Over the past few years, Iâve written a number of posts that caught the attention of Digg users. Many were surprises, but a dozen or so were written specifically for Digg, mostly for clients. These successful Dugg stories or videos, etc. are what I want to discuss with you today. Were it not for Liz Strauss, I would not have had the inspiration to write this (sheâs a real expert on this topic), so thanks to Liz for spurring me on here.
Now, Iâm not going to tell you how to trick Digg users into digging your crappy content. If your content is crappy you stand little chance of getting dugg, I mean unless you have some hot pics of a geek girls in various stages of undress, lying in front of an extreme network connection or other appropriately IT-geek-fantasy pics. Itâs either quality content or nudy pics⌠There is no way to win at Digg without either.
Must Have Great Content
This goes along with the âdonât have crappy contentâ point, but itâs even more important. Donât market ANYTHING EVER that isnât absolutely fabulous. First, itâs a waste of time. Second, and more important, it can ruin your name. And, I donât just mean your brand, which is extremely important, but even worse it can ruin the chances that anyone is ever again willing to look at your site, even after your content improves. What I mean by this is that if I see a link to your site and click it, if itâs bad, I note this fact. Now, if I later see your link, no matter what others are saying about how awesome it is, I remember that Iâve already seen it and it is not worthy of my time, so Iâm not going to click through. Donât ruin your chances of world domination by marketing unworthy content.
Now, what do I mean by âGreat Contentâ? Well, here are some examples.
Note with each of these examples, you have something that is must see. In the case of the articles (not the video), you have something thatâs so long and so useful that itâs too much to take in at one sitting. You are compelled to bookmark it, because itâs that good (and that long). Just reading some of these is a chore, because they take so much scholarly attention, but the content is so valuable to Digg readers, that theyâll bookmark it and Digg it. In the case of the video, it’s so good you want to pass it along to others. Viral marketing at it’s finest, for 20/20 at least…
Who Are You Looking To Impress?
Note that I specifically said âvaluable to Digg readersâ. Knowing your audience is vital here. Nowâs the time to do some research. Not only are you specifically studying Digg readers overall, but you need to take time to study the Top Diggers. This used to be easier when there was a leaderboard, but a quick/easy way to find theme now is to study the homepage for a few days. Click on each homepage submitterâs name and check out their percentage of successful digs that made it Home.
Take a look at this guyâs stats. He was a random click for me on the homepage. However, note how high his submit percentage is (45%). Thatâs sizeable. That means that roughly out of every 2 stories he submits, almost 1 makes it to the homepage.
Do your research. Make impressing these guys your aim. If these guys submit you, then you have a great chance of success. Your goal should be to get these guys to find your article, and it should be specifically to tailor it to what they are already submitting.
A Little Friendly Stalking Never Hurt Anybody
There are a few ways to go about this, but the easiest is to stalk these guys. Yes, I know that sounds horrible, but if it didnât work, Netscape wouldnât have offered to pay them to do what they do so well (which is, of course, the reason there is no longer a Top 100 list, but thatâs another story altogether).
Iâve been on Digg for a relatively long time in web years (since early 2005) so I have built up relationships with some people that are helpful in this way. Please note that this is an example of how organic community involvement is vital to your success online, and by doing it the way I have done it (ie by actually taking part in the community) you gain validity. Doing it this way is better, as you will garner more success and still be able to sleep at night.
Off my soapbox and back to stalking school⌠For the stalking though, Iâm not talking about creepy âIâm a crazy personâ stalking, but really just attempting to form a relationship with them.
First, itâs research time. Take a look at their last 20 Diggs. What are they submitting? Who are they normally reading? Do you see any patterns you can exploit?
Now, for the next action: Take part in those communities (blogs, forums, etc.) and identify who they are and make an honest attempt to gain credibility in that community. Later, take a second to reach out to them asking for nothing. That relationship just may turn into their becoming a reader of your site.
Shoot for making relationships with at least 10 or so top Diggers. I donât consider this gaming the system, because you are just trying to get them to notice you, you arenât at all spamming them or annoying them.
Again, you get one shot here, so donât overstep and NEVER ask for them to Digg you. If your stuff is good enough, theyâll notice you. If not, then go back to the content-creating drawing board.
If it didnât work ask yourself, âIs your content relevant to Digg readersâ? Remember, they tend to like extreme science breakthroughs (medical, astronomy, physics, etc.), technology related content, Digg related content and sexy stuff. If your blog is not related to those topics at all, I wouldnât waste my time and energy with Digg. Itâs not worth the effort. Try broader sites like Netscape, or niche oriented ones like Lipstick. A quick Google Yahoo! search will garner you more social bookmarking sites than you can shake a stick at.
Monetize â What have you done for me lately?
You are probably thinking, âthis is a lot of workâ. Yes, it is a lot of work, but for some things it is worth the effort. Youâll need to calculate the ROI of each marketing campaign you run, and yes, this is just another marketing campaign. Your results, whether your aim is immediate money or long-term branding, are definitely measurable. If they are branding, itâs a bit harder, but just capturing the mentions, the comments, etc. in a spreadsheet will help you understand quickly if it was worth the effort.
Monetization tracking is even easier. Iâve never depended on Adsense on my sites for monetization, my money-maker has always been through direct consulting jobs. For my clients, however, the large majority have not been about ad clicks nor sales, but branding. Theyâd want a particular product to gain attention, a contest to gain traction or a specific area of their site to gain memberships and authoritative backlinks. Because we were careful to define exactly what we wanted, tracking the campaign was easy via tracking traffic, WOM buzz, sign-ups, sales, etc.
I promise not to bore you further with all this marketing talk, but I wanted to point out that the most important thing to remember when determining if all this is worth the effort is in defining exactly what you want to do from the beginning. With clear cut goals (ie I want to gain 5K views, 50 subscribers and earn $25 in advertising sales and I am willing to spend 4 hours on this effort), you can easily track your efforts and determine if this should get another try next month.
The Bottom Line
Odds are, you will not make hundreds of dollars on a Digg story, unless you know some hoodoo-voodoo that I donât know (and some of you probably do). PPC monetization is rarely effective on Dugg stories. Digg is much more effective at making sure your content, product, video, etc. get attention, at Digg and around the blogosphere.
Good luck, and as always, Iâm Duzins on Digg. Letâs be friends đ
