Interesting Idea: Weed Out Bad Staff Fast

3 Replies

I was recently looking at stuff listed on Digg thanks to Popurls, and saw an article entitled, Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit—And You Should Too, and it struck me as a really interesting idea. Zappos tries to weed out potential staff members that won’t understand and be part of the company culture, and I think that blog networks really need to work on some way of weeding out their own problem employees.

From the article:

After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!

Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later.

Not everyone is committed to being an amazing blogger, and I understand more than most how hard it is to not only write content, but also promote it, and actively communicate with those in your niche, both on and off your blog, but as blog networks try to grow their business, they really need to make sure they have the right staff, or they will only be ruining their company in the long run.

Originally posted on May 21, 2008 @ 7:36 pm

Grand Effect Round-up

Leave a reply

I just wanted to give a shout out to the great articles being written by Grand Effect members. We are still looking to increase our membership a little more, so if you are interested in joining our little group, please head on over to Grand Effect’s main network site, and contact us.

Over on Sarah in Tampa, there is a great mention of the recent interview on BloggerTalks, where Sarah answered questions about herself and Grand Effect. It is a great read.

On Ghacks, you can find out more about online desktops, something that I believe is still a growing market, despite the numerous competitors.

Next, we have a great article about establishing your web identity over on SheGeeks. I have worked hard on my online identity, have you?

Over on ParisLemon, you can find out something very close to my heart as MG Siegler talks about the stresses of dealing with cable television and the hefty bill it creates.

Echoing my own problems, and I am sure many others, The Last Podcast talks about quitting Twitter. I have to admit, using anything that isn’t stable online makes me grind my teeth.

WinExtra covers the advantages bloggers with sidebars have if they use them correctly in a recent post entitled, “A blogger’s secret weapon – the sidebar”.

Second to last we have Webby’s World and a great article about being an experienced blogger. The article culminates in asking how people define experience level online.

Last, but certainly not least is Mark Evans’ blog where he talks about hiring the right people, something that more and more blogs are trying to do to reach out to the masses. I like to think of myself as fairly smart, but feel free to correct me if you think I am wrong.

So many great articles on so many great sites. It is definitely an honour to be in the same group as these fine blogs, and I highly recommend that everyone subscribe to all of the Grand Effect blogs as they are amazing writers, with valuable opinions.

Originally posted on June 2, 2008 @ 11:13 am

Are Your Ad Prices Too High?

2 Replies

Filling your advertising inventory with AdSense and affiliate links? Hoping that putting up an advertising page will convince advertisers to contact you and promote their products or services? They might never come, and if they do, will they pay the fees you have requested?

How did you decide on your advertising prices?

CPM

One way that I have always tried to make my advertising as fair as possible is to decide my rates based on a sliding CPM scale. The more traffic I get, the lower the cost per thousand advertising impressions gets in any advertising spot I have available.

This means that I will still get more money for advertising spots as I get more traffic, but it also keeps my rates at a reasonable and affordable level.

When I had over ten thousands page views a month, I wanted to get twenty dollars a month, or a rate of $2 CPM. Since then, I have been sliding that rate ever downwards. Currently, this blog earns only $0.15 CPM and while that doesn’t sound like much, that still comes to $60 for a 125 by 125 pixel banner in the sidebar.

Also, you have to remember that your CPM rate is per advertisement, and as such over the entire page, you might make upwards of $0.50 CPM to $50 CPM. It really depends on your audience, number and placement of advertisements, size of your traffic, and the competition for advertising spaces on your site.

CPC

Another way that I decided rates on blogs before was to try out an advertising position with my own ad first, placing various affiliate programs or AdSense, and looking at the number of clicks. If you have two hundred clicks on an ad space in any given month, that can quickly be converted into real figures that most advertisers can understand.

Most advertisers want to pay as little as possible for clicks, but if you have proof of clicks, they might be more willing to advertise on your blog then throwing money at CPM advertising where they don’t know what kind of real traffic they can expect to see to their blog.

So we take those two hundred ad clicks we talked about, and convert that into a figure of around $0.20 per click, and you get an advertising total for a specific position of $40 for the month.
Cheaper rotational ads or expensive ads?

You can research the CPC rates you might want to consider on Google’s Traffic Estimator tool, among other places, though I find that their rates are usually an order of magnitude higher than most private advertisers are willing to pay, so use your best discretion.

Competition

Another great way to price advertising is to be competitive. I have advertised on a few sites that I found with rates far lower than other blogs of the same size, traffic, and community. Bargains just beg to be advertised on, and so if you look at your immediate competition, it can give you some key indicators on what you should price your own advertising at.

Just be sure not to price yourself too low, as there are psychological effects of pricing too low that will stop possible potential advertisers from considering you, as they will wonder what the problem with your site is that you don’t value the advertising space properly.

Other Effects

Another thing that most people don’t consider when setting their advertising rates, but it can be very important to potential advertisers is the number of advertising positions you have open.

Advertisers know that the more advertising spots that you have open, the less likely a visitor will notice their specific ad, and as such, the less likely they are to make money, or build branding by advertising with you.

Some people like to go crazy when it comes to adding advertising positions, while others like to limit advertising to just one position. I have always been on the heavier side of the equation, and I try to make sure to adjust my prices to make sure that advertisers are getting the best deal possible.

It can be very hard to find higher priced advertisers for your site, and so I have never been one to chase the “super sponsor” before, but it is something I still think about from time to time.

Discounting

Discounting your advertising in exchange for longer advertising periods is almost always a smart move. It reduces the amount of time you have to spend actively searching for advertisers, and it provides the advertisers a better chance to really drive their branding home, but there are other ways you can hopefully win advertisers through discounting.

Contests have helped many bloggers become very popular in a short period of time, and usually those prizes are sponsored in some way. If you find a company that has a product your audience would really like, it never hurts to ask them if they would send the product to a contest winner in exchange for advertising. The worst they could say is “no”, and then you either try to negotiate with them, or move on.

You could also try to sell them on buying multiple types of ads, or price exclusive deals for slightly more money. Currently, I have a few different advertisements for WordPress theme makers. I probably could have asked for slightly more money from one of them and in turn gave them exclusivity during the month as the only advertisement about WordPress themes.

The only issue with providing exclusivity in such a way is that as soon as you agree to provide exclusivity, competing companies come out of the woodwork wanting advertising inventory.

Lastly, another great way of getting advertisers, if you don’t need the cash in hand is to trade for product. I have received free product from a few advertisers, and in turn provided them a spot to place their banner on my site. This is one of my favourite types of advertising because it allows me to get the product, and I only accept this type of advertising when it is something that I really want or think I would enjoy. This type of advertising is fairly guilt-free as I am promoting something I own and usually enjoy.

Conclusion

There are many other ways to price advertising, and I think most people randomly select a figure they would be comfortable with. Usually though, in the advertisers mind, it ends up being too expensive or too inexpensive that they wonder “what’s wrong”. Correct pricing can help secure you more advertisers, and make sure you are getting properly compensated.

Originally posted on May 18, 2008 @ 1:22 pm

24 Ways To Contribute To WordPress

1 Reply

WordPress can be amazing software, but it wouldn’t be that way if it wasn’t for a dedicated group of people working on every aspect of the software. Jeff Chandler has posted on Weblog Tools Collection a list of ways that people can contribute to the popular open source software and most require no programming knowledge whatsoever.

From the post:

Create A WordPress Centric Podcast

Maybe writing isn’t your thing, perhaps video isn’t either but you discover audio is no problem. As it stands, there are a limited number of WordPress centric podcast that exist on the net today. I’m talking about ones that come out with new episodes on a regular basis. One of the way you can share your knowledge of WordPress is through audio and right now would be a good time for you to launch that podcast.

There are some really great ideas here that don’t take up too much time, and yet help the software that you probably use. The more people that participate, the better the software could be.

Originally posted on May 20, 2008 @ 9:40 am

When Your Best Posts Aren’t On Your Blog

Leave a reply

Over the last few years, I have posted on a variety of blogs and I made some major mistakes in building my brand that I am still paying for today. While I produced great content, it wasn’t me that was getting credit for it, but instead the blogs I wrote on.

I have also been reading a bunch of blogs over the same period of time, and a friend of mine, who is doing well, has been posting all of their best work on blogs that aren’t his/her own, leaving their blog a wasteland for great content.

I have been there, and dealt with this issue. It seems like a great idea to get paid for your best content, but usually this means building someone else’s brand and the best thing you can do to continue to make sure you have jobs in the future is to build your own brand as much as possible.

Building your own brand can quickly differentiate you from the millions of others working solely for others.

Spend Time

The best thing you can do for yourself, and your site is to spend time. I am not talking about a huge commitment, but if you aren’t creating one pillar article every week or two, you are doing yourself a great disservice.

Promote Your Stuff

Even if your best content is not on your blog, make sure you promote your best work. Mention your work on other blogs, on your own blog. Make sure to mention your own blog here and there on the site you are publishing on. If the blog you are writing on doesn’t allow you to promote yourself in some way, they are not someone you want to work for, as they are stopping you from building your own brand.

In the current generation of the web, there isn’t Nike or Coke type brands in blogging, instead there are singular names that everyone knows. Darren Rowse is Problogger and without him writing on the site, who would read it?

Chris Garrett writes everywhere, but always makes sure to leave his own fingerprint on his writing, and as such, he continues to build his personal brand above all others.

Is It Worth It?

Is it worth it to write all of your best content on someone else’s site? For me, I really didn’t see any other option. I wanted to continue to be a full time blogger, and to do so, I had to sell my best thoughts, ideas, and writing to earn a living.

I still think that this is a great way to go, as building up a site that will pay your full time income is very difficult, but please, make sure you still take the time to put some great content on your own blog as that is your main portfolio. That is most likely what drew someone into hiring you in the first place, and that is most likely what will help secure you your next job.

To the friend that isn’t writing any great content, in my mind, on her/his blog, please read this, take it to heart and find an hour or two a week to really hammer out something amazing, like I know you can!

Originally posted on May 18, 2008 @ 12:14 pm