Sometimes the Best Blogging Tips Are Somewhere Else
November 16, 2007
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One of the goals that I had when I started BNN was to act as an aggregator, collecting a lot of the best blogging tips from around the blogosphere and then sending readers off to the blogs that originally posted the material. While some people would wonder just why I’d want to send people away, the answer is quite simple.
If I send you off to a bunch of cool sites with good content, my hope is that you’ll keep coming back here to see what links I’ll have today. This is something that’s worked very well for Robert Scoble, and I’m hoping that my readers will feel the same way.
And this morning, I came across a very eye-opening post by Grizzly in my feed reader, and it actually made me go back to the top of the post, pull out a notebook and start taking notes so that I could apply some of what was said to my own site.
As I’ve said in the past, I’m no guru, but I’m pretty good at picking out the most useful information and implementing it to my advantage if at all possible.
I’m going to take some of the most useful information from Grizz’ post and add a few of my thoughts. Everything in quotes was written by Grizzly, and if I take anything out of context, I apologize in advance.
Social networks like stumbleupon and the like are often quoted as providing huge bursts of traffic and this has got people to thinking that maybe they don’t need Google anymore.
I think they are wrong.
So do I. Like it or not, Google is the standard for search, and until something better comes along, that’s not going to change. Look, Google has been doing this for 10 years. Sure social networks may carry a lot of clout in some circles, but they are not going to come along after a year of existence and knock Google off. Accept it.
The traffic is largely from the broad community of what has been called "webmasters" but I’m not sure what to call all of us now. The community is us. The people displaying everything on the web for the rest of the non-we/us world to surf. Average people don’t have a clue about these social networks (teenagers excluded). Stumbleupon is used by and large by us - not them. This type of traffic is excellent if you want to make a name for yourself on the Internet Walk of Fame. This traffic sucks if you are trying to make money from it.
If you are reading this chances are you have your own blog or website. You are an "us". Part of the community. You know what this is all about and you didn’t come to my site to buy anything, you wont be clicking any adsense ads either. You came here to read what I have to say and when you are done you will make your rounds on other sites you frequent. You are looking for information or maybe even entertainment.
While I had never really thought of it much in terms like this, he’s absolutely right. People like me aren’t generally going to click on ads on blogs. Bloggers aren’t the target. People like my parents are the target you want. Admittedly, this makes the "blogging about blogging" niche even tougher, because generally the only readers in the niche are other bloggers.
If you see the ads for "Blogging" on your site this is Google’s way of telling you that the only thing they know about your site is that you are a blog and have something to do with blogging.
If you are getting traffic from the search engines for irrelevant or out of context terms and very few for your main keywords then you know that your site is poorly optimized for your niche.
Ding! This was what made me start reading over again, and taking notes, because it describes my blog exactly. Now that I’ve been slapped upside the head with something obvious, I won’t keep making the same mistake. By far one of the best blogging tips I’ve ever seen.
Oh and one reader pointed out that my long posts cause readers to click the ads just to get the hell away from here.
If someone’s going to click to get away from reading this content, it’s their loss. Expect no sympathy.
Again, go read the post that Grizz put up. There’s probably more that will resonate with you. I only commented on what had the most impact for me.
And when you’re done - read it again. Truly some of the best blogging tips I’ve ever read.
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November 17th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Believe me, social networks are the Google of tomorrow. Google might have started 10 years ago, but it overtook Yahoo in search only 5-6 years ago…
Social media hasn’t really reached the level of search due to 1 reason: Most people on the internet know absolutely nothing about it. They just know about messenger, mail, yahoo and Google.
November 17th, 2007 at 10:03 am
To some extent, that’s true, although Facebook is becoming better known.
The drawback to sites like MySpace and Facebook, though, is that their users are fickle and will move on to the next “in” thing before its had a chance to overtake.
There’s no social site today that comes close to possessing the clout that Google has, and until one comes along that people will stay with, Google’s position is safe.
Some great feedback, though, and I *do* see your point.