I have to mention this article I found over at Copyblogger, it just blows me away. An e-learning blog was able to get over six thousand subscribers to the site in less than twenty-four hours!

Here is a snippet from the article:

That’s what Adam Schwartz, CEO of Articulate, said it felt like last Wednesday when we launched their new Rapid E-Learning Blog. The blog attracted 6,312 subscribers in the 24-hour period following the launch promotion, and now has over 8,500 and counting less than a week later.

Existing businesses have incredibly valuable assets that others do not—customer and prospect lists. That being said, telling your existing customers about your new blog full of press release content and expecting them to come running is a recipe for mediocrity. If you don’t have an existing list, you can create an offer that is attractive to social media news site users and your results will be similar.

Yes, for the new blogger out there, or the non-business site, this might seem like an insurmountable goal, but honestly, Brian breaks down some easy to use tips and tricks that might help you get at least part of the way there.

He mentions things like positioning, cornerstone content, incentive, launch email, landing page, delivery and just start blogging.

Read the full details about each of these points over at Copyblogger.

Originally posted on August 23, 2007 @ 12:52 am

I just finished reading 21 Effective Ways to Build Links, Bring Traffic, and Promote Your Site, and while the title is long, and the points are right, I feel like I have read this type of thing before.

The list includes items like:

Guest blogging
Comments
Linking out
Blog Carnivals

Most of the items listed are what I would consider common sense to promoting your blog, so I won’t bore you with those things. I will also recommend you be careful before blindly following any such list, as some points, done incorrectly, could actually harm your blog’s standings in the blogosphere.

My biggest word of advice is still to network. Surrounding yourself with like minded people may sound odd, as they will be your competition in a way, but you can learn volumes from their failures and their successes.

The biggest traffic sources for this blog have been Stumbleupon, and traffic from the trackbacks I have created by linking out to other great blog posts.

Read the whole article on Logo Design Works, and follow their advice, warnings, and promote your blog.

Originally posted on August 14, 2007 @ 10:03 pm

Robin Yap, a very wise friend of mine commented on Facebook today, and it seems that we have to be more careful about the sites we sign up for. If you don’t read it, you could be giving away all your content.

Here is a piece from his post:

From the initial discussion on a Facebook thread with Liz Strauss, I decided to investigate other network ToS’. First stop, Facebook (text in bold are for your reference).

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

Read all of Robin’s post to understand how problematic this could all be.

Originally posted on August 9, 2007 @ 12:49 am

A blog I really enjoy, Dumb Little Man, has posted how he blogs, including his daily routine. For a blogger that maintains a full time job, I have to admit, I am quite jealous of how far he has come, but his daily schedule is a bit more than I could handle. Four hours of sleep just isn’t enough for this blogger.

Here is a snippet from his post:

Do it right: Choose a topic that you are seriously in love with. I love saving time and money and obviously that is what Dumb Little Man is all about. When I write, the ideas flow without much thought. If you goal is to make money, you should still choose something you love and not what pays the most in advertising. If you choose something based on money, your writing will suffer and you will subsequently get no visitors. Guess what…no visitors = no advertisers = no money.

Check out his full post over at Dumb Little Man.

Originally posted on August 21, 2007 @ 1:13 am

Over on John Chow’s blog I found a report from Chitika (pdf) that states that the top fifty-thousand blogs brought in five hundred million dollars in ad revenue in 2006. My first thought is that if that money was evenly split, that would only be $10,000 per blog. While I know it isn’t an even split, I have to say that $10,000 per blog isn’t enough to live on.

According to a recent case study by the University of Texas and Chitika, the top 50,000 blogs on the Internet generated $500 million in ad revenue last year. That sounds all well and good but I think the methodology to come up with the $500 million number is questionable.

Chitika took their 12,000 publishers, found their Technorati ranking and how much they made from Chitika in 2006. Then they made the assumption that the blogs will run three revenue sources and came up with a revenue number.

It is an interesting article, and if you want more details you will have to check out the report, it is only three pages long.

Originally posted on August 4, 2007 @ 2:29 am