SEO Pro

Luckily I have never lost any info inside any of my blogs, but I also credit my technology background and understanding that websites need to be backed up (and backing all mine up) to never losing any info. But what about the people who are less technical and using blogging software from websites like […]

Luckily I have never lost any info inside any of my blogs, but I also credit my technology background and understanding that websites need to be backed up (and backing all mine up) to never losing any info. But what about the people who are less technical and using blogging software from websites like Blogger, or Wordpress for family blogs? If this is you, and you did lose your blog, or these companies go out of business, how much of your life would you be saying goodbye to? Could you get it back? Do you know the policies of these companies, or how often they back up your information?

I was made aware this week of Bloggled, a company (in beta, but you can still sign up) that offers a service to back up your blog with the push of one button, along with a few other pretty cool features. It got me wondering how could a company like this go viral, and that is what I want to get into with today’s post.

You might be surprised how many people don’t know about different blogging softwares that are out there (free or paid) or even what blogs are (no really its true I talk to these kind of people everyday). Many people think that setting up a company or personal family blog will be to expensive, when that is not even close to being true. So my first thoughts for a post would appeal to the new users, and be something like “The Top 5 Free Blogging Software Sites, And How Users Rate Them” or “The Easiest To Use Blogging Software Winner Is”. Now, your posts don’t have to always be for beginners either, you can do an amazing list of Wordpress plugins like - “101 Wordpress Plugins That Are A Must Have” or “10 Must Have Wordpress Plugins For A Family Blog”. Of course you have a never ending supply of “The Top 10 Blogs For Fishing” or “The Top 10 Internet Marketing Blogs” and so on (hopefully you get the point). Once you get big enough with a site like this you could even have your own badges and widgets for your users to place on their blogs that state “This Is A Bloggled Top 10 Featured Site” - Again, the ideas just keep flowing and flowing!!

With your business model you are trying to appeal to the “old dog” users of blogs, and convert new users as well and make them both aware of the services you offer. Coming up with, and executing these kind of viral ideas on your own blog would be an amazing place to start getting the word out. Normally (and I think you would agree) software that backs up a blog is a pretty boring industry, but I hope you can see with the viral ideas I have given you today how you can get past that.

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How to choose a domain name from an SEO perspective. Continue to read more…

When I launch my browser (Firefox) it starts with 4 tabs. The first three are the major engines with “seo services” in the query just so I can keep close tabs on how we’re doing. The 4th is another Google datacenter with the same information. Yes, I’m that obsessed. It also gives me a close watch on what’s going on at Google - I can constantly see any time a minor adjustment is underway. Continue to read more…

by Jennifer Laycock

I’ve been having a grand time reading through Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere. I absolutely love their annual release of information because as both a marketer and a communicator, I love to find out what sends people scrambling for their blog to share their thoughts. This year’s report is pretty thorough and has a lot of juicy bits of info that give us insight into the communicators of the web. In this post though, I want to dive into the section that talks about what gets people blogging.

When I talk about blogging or social media in presentations, I tend to include a chart from one of the past Technorati reports.

What Sparks Those Blog Posts?

This image looks at the number of daily blog posts tracked by Technorati from the fall of 2004 to the winter of 2007. The team at Technorati has gone in and added markers to let you see what world events were taking place at different points in time. In some instances, the correlation between posting volume and topic is crystal clear.

During the fall of 2005, there’s a sharp drop off in blogging activity. That drop took place in the days leading up to the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. With such a huge portion of the population either preparing for or fleeing from the storm, blogging activity fell sharply. There’s then a huge burst in activity immediately after the storm came ashore and a second steep drop off when the levees break and things go crazy.

What really strikes me as telling about the chart though, is the enormous spike in the summer of 2006. Now chances are high if I’d asked you what the hottest blogging topic in 2006 was, you would NOT have said the Israel/Hezbollah conflict. In fact, I’d wager a great deal of you had even forgotten it happened. Yet there were more than 2.5 million posts made when that happened, over half a million more than any other event so far that year.

It’s easy enough for us to write blogs off as the sites that talk about singular passions. The mother who blogs about her children, the consultant who blogs business advice, the gossip monger who blogs about celebrity romance. We see blogs as topical and focused…and to an extent they are.

What the latest Technorati data tells us though is that bloggers cover an average of five distinct topics. These topics tend to be related, but they still offer variation.

Here on Search Engine Guide, we blog about search marketing, blogging, social media, viral marketing and even a little bit of usability and site coding. On one of my hobby blogs, I blogged ONLY about bento lunches. On another hobby blog I covered topics like parenting, breast feeding, natural living, organic foods and my faith. While the most successful blogs still seem to focus on pretty tight niches, bloggers are growing and exploring and they’re starting to broaden their horizons in order to hold the attention of their readers and themselves.

Bloggers Do Not Have One Track Minds

When Technorati decided to gather data on blog topics, they found further proof that blog topics are diversifying.

Both personal and professional topics are equally popular. Forty percent of bloggers consider their blogging topics outside of these categories. “Other” blog topics include: 2008 election, alternative energy, art, beauty, blogging, comics, communication, cooking/food, crafts, design, environment, Internet/Web 2.0, Jamaica, and media/journalism.

Three-quarters of bloggers cover three or more topics. The average number of topics blogged about is five.

While few people will be surprised to see topics like technology, politics, business, family updates and gaming on the list…there were a few categories that surprised me. I didn’t expect to learn that nearly 20% of bloggers regularly blog about religion or that 30% regularly blog about music and film. I also didn’t really expect to find personal topics outweighed technology and business, but that’s likely just a reflection of the way I view the web.

Which serves as a good wake up call to those of us in marketing.

It’s easy for us to focus in on our own little niches and the areas in which we’re comfortable. Easy to forget just how many people are out there having conversations on their blogs the same way they’d have conversations around the water cooler or over coffee.

It’s something we need to remember as we look to build relationships with bloggers. We need to remember they are real people with varied and in-depth interests. We need to learn to look for cross-over in topics and we need to learn how to approach complimentary blogs rather than limiting ourselves to purely “on topic” blogs when it comes time to seek coverage.

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I interviewed Aaron from SEOBook over at LinkJuicy.com. Aaron talks about paid links, Google, and shares a few ideas on how you can get more links. “The other thing I think people will get better at is buying links indirectly, using a wide array of techniques including social interaction, industry gathering sponsorships, awards and contests, buying established sites, hiring people who already Continue to read more…

I got an email a few days ago from Salman over at Lancaster University asking if I’d be interested in doing a survey on SEO and SEO tactics. There was nothing in it that crossed the line over into confidential information and thus, I was happy to do it. In return he’ll be providing me with the generic results the survey gathers. When I emailed him to let him know that I’d completed the survey Continue to read more…

While everyone around talking about how fast Google Chrome Javascript engine is, one important issue seems to be ignored is, how robust is Google Chrome?. One peculiar problem I noticed frequently is Google Chrome DNS error for well known sites (like digg, techcrunch and even gmail). How come Google Chrome gets DNS information differently than firefox? […]

While everyone around talking about how fast Google Chrome Javascript engine is, one important issue seems to be ignored is, how robust is Google Chrome?. One peculiar problem I noticed frequently is Google Chrome DNS error for well known sites (like digg, techcrunch and even gmail).

How come Google Chrome gets DNS information differently than firefox? Because I never had such problem with Firefox (or even IE).

Below is screenshot of DNS error while accessing TechCrunch.com

Other issues noted with Google Chrome are

1. Erratic performance - sometimes page will load in snap but other times will take more than normal to load even popular (and fast) sites
2. Scrolling up doesn’t work with my built-in scrollbar on HP Laptop touch pad

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I had a great viral idea the other day when my son came home with a shoe full of sand (see picture, because I really mean a SHOE FULL!!). This picture I am showing you is the sand that came out of only ONE of his shoes from a day of playing on the […]

I had a great viral idea the other day when my son came home with a shoe full of sand (see picture, because I really mean a SHOE FULL!!). This picture I am showing you is the sand that came out of only ONE of his shoes from a day of playing on the Kindergarten playground.

I got to talking to my sons Kindergarten teacher about this and how she keeps her room free from all the sand, or whatever else they bring in, and that got the conversation started. She started telling me all the things that the kids will walk around with and is amazed that more of them do not stop to empty their shoes out. One kid had a rock in his shoe that was the size of a golf ball (she says) and no wonder he kept complaining about how his toes felt.

Here are some of the things that she has seen her kids dump out of their shoes:
-bugs and insects
-gum
-cigarette butts (no lie)
-candy
-sand
-dirt
-rocks
-food

The list goes on, but I think you get the point of where I can go with this, not to mention the smell and state of some of these shoes … thats another post itself. It was good enough to get me thinking about what an online shoe retail site could blog about that just might get it some momentum in the social communities. Kids are cute, and if you can find pictures of crazy things found in kids shoes, or videos of them dumping out their shoes full of dirt, or rocks….or whatever it just might be cute enough for some people to want to pass around and share. I for one would love to see some kind of creative thought put into this kind of a post, because I would read it and share it with everyone!

“You Will Never Believe What Came Out Of My Kids Shoes” or “You Will Never Guess What I Found In My Kids Shoes” or “The Top 10 Grossest Things Your Kid Brought Home” (In Their Shoes) … You can have fun with this post for sure. As for the late posting today….I am sorry, but I was helping out in my sons Kindergarten class getting all this amazing ammo for the post today!! ha …

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