The Copyblogger Effect

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In one of the many Link Karma posts on Copyblogger, this blog was mentioned, and even though the link was mixed in with many others on the site, Copyblogger still brought the highest amount of traffic a non-social bookmarking site has brought to date.

With over 250 unique visitors, and a rather noticeable feed subscription boost in the twenty four hours after the link to this blog, I would say that getting mentioned on Copyblogger is pretty powerful, especially for a starting out blog. The visitors were also higher quality than most social bookmarking traffic, having checked out many articles on this site, as well as subscribing to the RSS feed.

A big thanks from me goes out to Brian Clark and the Copyblogger team. And for those of you entering a niche where copywriting is key, let Brian know about what you are writing, and just maybe you will be mentioned.

Originally posted on August 21, 2007 @ 1:29 am

Introduction to Things That Effect Your Page Rank

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google_smGoogle is constantly tweaking its PageRank system, and it is important to continually optimize your site so that each time they update, you grow or keep your rank.

Here is what Google says about their PageRank system:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages’ relative importance.

There are some  things you can do to help boost your rank, and other things that you should avoid so that you aren’t penalized.

Avoid

Always avoid posting in short bursts if you can, or even worse, at predictable intervals. Google will think you are a content scraper, or that their is a bot (computer program) at work behind the scenes.

Never write for machines. Writing for machines is when you fill your posts with keywords to the point of being spam. Google hates spam, and while you might get some decent traffic at first, if you aren’t writing for people, you will never make it to the upper echelons.

Try to make sure you keep static links in your sidebar and footer to a minimum. These static links are weighed strongly by Google, and if they are all linking to low quality sites, you can bet Google’s algorithm will start to consider you “low quality”.

The biggest tip I can give though is avoiding duplicate content. Some people don’t even realize they are creating duplicate content, but unfortunately, most blogging platforms publish the full text of your posts in more than one place. The full article might be on the front page, under a category archive page, and on your archives page. Google sees this as three articles in different places with the same content.

Positive Factors

There are some things that Google looks for that could work in your favor, and one of the biggest ones is inbound links. The more inbound links, especially quality links with a high Google PageRank, you can get pointing to your site, the bigger the boost you will get to your PageRank. Each link to your site is seen as approval from another site that you have quality content. If the site linking you has a higher rank, it is seen as someone important saying you have quality content, and so Google trusts their assessment.

It is said that Google also tracks things like RSS subscribers, but I am not sure how they would get such data, unless they are looking at how many are subscribing to your site via their Google Reader service. With Google now owning FeedBurner though, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is quickly going to become a more important addition to their ranking system, so promote your RSS feeds.

The last factor that I will mention in this article is how often your blog is clicked from their search results. This is where search engine optimization can play a key factor to boosting your PageRank in the next update. If you learn how to properly optimize your site, thus making people interested in clicking on your article rather than the one below or above you, it might just help you get to that next level.

Final Thoughts

Google is often seen as this big cloud in which little information is divulged, but through research, and due diligence, you can help Google see your site in a positive light and get that PageRank one step higher.

Originally posted on July 20, 2007 @ 7:58 pm

How To Blog Like Dumb Little Man

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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

Time Line: Becoming a Problogger

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I have been working as a problogger for two years now, and I wanted to create a record for myself and others on my progression to this point in my career. I also have to say that my time line is not the norm and I know of people that have become a problogger faster, or way slower than myself.

Early 2002 – I start to get into web publishing. Not really blogging yet, but the best I can do with my limited understanding of the web.

January 2003 – I create a Blogger account and use it to publish my life on my personal site. Only my friends read it. I can now manipulate the web better now, but I am still a horrible coder, and an even worse designer.

September 2003 – I get off Blogger and start using a PHP script called Elite News (dead?). It works, so I try to focus on getting better at design. I haven’t yet even heard of blogging for money, and I am actually a little annoyed at sites with advertising.

December 2004 – I am now using WordPress for all the blogs I write on. Thanks to Michael of Binary Bonsai, I have inspiration to try to make my site look better, but of course, my design skill is horrible. I have also found out that I love reading blogs, and begin to subscribe to just about everything I can find.

Early 2005 – I find Problogger.net and I am hooked. People make money from their blogs? I have only been using mine to complain about my life. Who knew? I am studying to be a Computer Network Administrator and I am totally devoted to that career goal, but I am worried there won’t be any jobs when I am done school.

May 2005 – Darren Rowse decides he is going on vacation and would love to have people write on his blogs. I am lucky enough to get one of those positions. My blog at the time even gets a link from Problogger.net. It is mixed in with a list of twenty-four people, but the traffic it brings is still substantial.

June 2005 – Wrote articles for Darren on his laptop blog, and watched the traffic increase during the summer months. Pretty much unheard of when it comes to blogs. Traffic usually declines during the summer months, or at best stays stable.

July 2005 – Interviewed Jacob Gower about his business, and the sites he recently acquired. It didn’t really get much traffic to my site, but it interested him in me, and my writing.

July 2005 – I get a job doing a bunch of things online. It has horrible pay, long hours, and posting many times a day. It is rough, but I love it.

September 2005 – Jacob offers me a full time problogger for Bloggy Network. I write on a numerous amount of sites, including his headline sites. This quickly spins me into a state of constant burn out, but I realize that this is the career that I was made for.

November 2005 – Change roles a bit because Jacob can tell I am swamped. With all the work I had been doing, quality had really suffered. My job shifts away from doing massive numbers of posts, to doing bigger articles, research, and continuing to manage multiple sites. By changing things up, I enjoyed my job more, and was also able to have a better work and life balance.

All of 2006 – Not much changes, Bloggy Network continues to grow, and I am given more responsibilities. I work on coding WordPress themes for the company and its clients, as well as taking over almost all WordPress related responsibilities.

April 2007 – Promoted to Director of Communications at Bloggy Network LLC. My job changes again. I am working more on the back end of things, including setting up our blogs to use subversion repositories.

June 2007 – Put in charge of a sub-network within Bloggy Network called IsMyHome. I never realized how much work it takes to run a blog network.

Other Interesting Facts

I have been given a Digital Camera, Xbox 360, and a bunch of other things from my job. These perks have been absolutely great, and I wouldn’t have these things otherwise. Not all networks give them, but when they do, it is an amazing feeling. Though over the last while, my pay has gone up, and the perks have gone away, I am still very grateful for all the cool gadgets and whatnot that I received.

I never planned on being a problogger. It fell into my lap thanks to working on increasing my profile through interviewing big name people, and reporting on changes in ownership of popular websites. Taking on the guest blogging position was also one of the biggest career boosts I could have gotten.

As Director of Communications for Bloggy Network, I get to do very little blogging anymore. This has decreased my profile online, since I am no longer in the “public eye”. I am trying to find ways to compensate for this through networking and constant communication, but it is difficult.

Most of the staff at Bloggy Network were not into blogging for even half as long as I was before getting paid for their work. Michael, one of the people I am most happy about us hiring, was only blogging for a few months before transitioning into a full time problogger for Bloggy Network.

Final Notes

Blogging can be the greatest career, but you really need to be patient with it. Too many people are trying to rush for the quick buck, but passion, attention, patience and networking can get you a problogging job, if you want it bad enough.

Originally posted on July 31, 2007 @ 1:05 am

Writing Issues: Lack of Tone

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One of the worst things about writing is the lack of depth that it has in comparison to other forms of communication. You don’t have the inflections that voice has, or the facial expressions and body language that face to face or video communication has. This means that what you write can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, creating a huge misunderstanding.

This happened to me recently in my posting about the con’s of problogging, where some people thought I was trying to make problogging sound like a really hard job, where I was instead only implying that it isn’t the celebrity lifestyle that many people picture when they think about working from home on the computer all day.

I was hoping to inform people looking at the career, and instead some people too offense thinking that I was complaining about the job. These are the misunderstandings that are difficult to avoid in writing, and something that even I need to work on.

Making sure that you work hard to be very explicit in your writing to provide proper tone, and sticking to that single tone, can reduce problems of misunderstanding.

I am sorry to those that thought I was belittling the difficulties that go along with their careers.

Originally posted on August 9, 2007 @ 10:19 pm