Blog HOT or NOT: The idea of this site is twofold. One reason is to get some sort of ranking system on weblogs just like we have for people’s pictures. The other reason is to create a system that helps weblog writers find an audience, and for that audience to find new weblogs.
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com
Blogging | John Hocking | 
11/4/2005 9:39 am | 
Comments (0)
Blogging, Spamming and Blog Spam
There is a right way and a wrong way to do things…
By Trina L.C. Schiller
Email marketing once proved to be immensely effective, but the greedy and idiotic polluted the well by spamming the planet with everything from weight-loss products to sexual enhancement drugs and beyond. Because of the stench, filters and laws have been created to attempt to fix the problem, but still the Internet is polluted with more and more junk each day. So obviously, filters and legislation are not the solution, for consumers, publishers, or marketers.
Everyone has been left scratching their heads and asking… What do I do to avoid this crap and make the Internet mine again? How do I build my business and promote it without having to deal with email? After all, what’s the point in spending money on email advertising campaigns when there is no guarantee that the emails will even reach their destination?
Enter… RSS.
RSS is the perfect communication tool. It’s applications far outreach those of email for marketing, publishing and personal communications. RSS is the answer to our communication woes.
Using RSS to create blogs for communicating with customers, affiliates, partners and family is far and away more effective and reliable than email ever was. As a marketing tool, it really packs a punch that email never could. The reason being is that blogs are targets for search engine spiders. They are themselves, a web presence, whereas email never was and never will be.
Just like a web page, search engine spiders hit blog pages and rank them. The difference between the static web page and the RSS feed is that web pages seldom update their content, RSS feeds, by design, are created to be dynamic and provide regularly updated content, in theory, depending on the blog owner of course. This prompts the search engine spiders to revisit and rerank them more often.
For writers, publishers and and anyone else with something to say, RSS has been a godsend. It has provided the answer to the question of what to do now. Blogging has replaced email for those who have become frustrated with dealing with the problems of email publishing and marketing. Publishers can now get their message out to their subscribers without the headaches associated with sending email, or posting static pages to the web. Even publishing an ezine to the Internet as a web page required the sending of email to make readers aware of the newest issue.
As with anything, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and blog publishing is no exception. Now that RSS has become the rage for marketing purposes, several people have taken it upon themselves, in the name of the almighty dollar, to pollute this well too. The newest rash of ‘RSS tools’ have created some issues of ethics and and credibility. With perhaps the honest intention of being search engine optimization tools, or an automated system for fetching content, this batch of stuff has too much potential for misuse. The result of misuse of these types of programs can be devastating. Already some of these programs have been banned from places like Google and Blogharbour because of this potential.
Programs such as these in the hands of the inexperienced, will cause future problems for bloggers down the road. More and more pages generated using these programs will be banned, and getting banned, right out of the gate, for a newbie, would be a sad thing indeed.
The right way to use blogging to increase your search engine presence is to publish good content. Period. Provide useful information to those who are looking for it. Become someone’s trusted information provider, and you have a customer for life. Publish keyword rich articles that give the searcher what they are looking for… solutions for problems.
Publish your information regularly. Weekly is good, daily is better. Sending pings and things too often will get you blacklisted too.
And here is where networking comes in… Find content for your blog from article banks, where authors submit their work for reprint. List yourself in databases as one who accepts article submissions. Get to know other authors and publishers and share content with them. Syndicate your blogs in exchange with other bloggers. Watch your world explode with new opportunities.
Automation in business is a good thing, but it has its place. Nothing beats human communication when dealing with people and creating partnerships. Do you want to talk to an autoresponder? No, and I doubt anyone else does either.
Some of the new programs designed for the automation of article collection have legal issues to consider. The biggest being copyright infringement. Not every author wants their work reprinted, or they require control over where their work is displayed. (Which is as it should be.) Without manually seeking your content, you could very well find yourself being served papers for publishing someone else’s work without permission.
Plagiarism is another issue. If you don’t follow certain rules for reprinting contributory work, you stand to be hounded for plagiarism. Yet another sticky issue.
Some of the new programs mock safelists, or resemble FFA sites. Before long, those types of blog pages will become banned as well. Search engines will figure out a way to block non-informational blog pages, those that carry nothing but links or classifieds. (Is your head sore from hitting that brick wall yet?)
Still, there are other programs designed to post spam to blogs using the comments feature. This is referred to as comment spam. The only solution thus far, to battle comment spam, is to disallow your readers the option of leaving comments. This is a bad thing, because allowing your readers to interact with you is supposed to be one of the benefits of using this form of communication.
The makers of these programs may have had good intentions to start with, but have ultimately created Frankenstein’s Monster. Many are stating that their programs are not spam, because they do not involve email. That is a cop out if I ever heard one. Spam is the transmission of unwanted stuff, whether it is sent to your inbox, or your blog, or even the search engines themselves. Search engines want relevant content, not pages of of keywords, or links. So feeding them page after page of nonsense is spam.
Everyone hates spam, except the spammers, so why be a part of something loathed by so many and embraced by a few? Bad business if you ask me.
The only real way to combat these issues is to simply not use the programs themselves. Do your due diligence and create a reputation as a trusted information provider, not a blog bomber, and your business will prosper. Using these programs will ultimately diminish your reputation and your livelihood.
Your customers are looking for information, a solution to a problem. Give that to them, not just endless pages of links. You will achieve your rightful spot in the ranks, and you stand a far better chance for longevity. There are good RSS tools available, you just need to look beneath the sales copy to find them. And if you are new to RSS and blogging, do some research. Find someone who knows, really knows what RSS is and how to use it, and ask some questions. Don’t go out and spend buckets of money on something you’re not sure how to use, because you could be doing yourself more harm than good.
A few good books to read some solid information on RSS and blogs…
RSS, Blogs and Syndication
http://www.ads-on-q.com/RSS.html
Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?trii65/mrktstudy
RSS Advertising Secrets
http://www.ebookadvertising.biz/products/rssad/
Taming The eBeastie
http://www.feedyourhungrymind.com/Taming-the-eBeastie.html
Copyright © 2005
The Trii-Zine Ezine
Blogging | John Hocking | 5/23/2005 6:37 am | Comments (0)
10 Tips for Bloggers
Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley
Tips for creating a blog.
There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.
1.) Stay on topic.
Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme.
Unless you have an uncanny knack for wit, humor or cynicism, the majority of your readers will be interested in the content that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of interest. Most readers won’t care that you eat Cheerios for breakfast. They may, however, be interested in the fact that vinegar takes out stains and that toilet paper rolls make great wreaths. Define a topic and stick to it. This will ensure that you create a loyal following of interested readers.
2.) Stay informative.
If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news. If you are endorsing a product or voicing an opinion, be sure to check your facts; your reputation is at stake. If you are offering an opinion, be sure to qualify your post, making it clear that the content is intended as an editorial.
3.) Old news is not news.
While blogging every day can be a drain, it is important that the information presented is current and accurate, writing an article or blurb about something that happened 6 months ago, will not be of interest to many. Telling your audience that Martha Stewart was convicted and will be going to prison, after her sentence is completed will make people question the value of your columns.
4.) Adhere to a schedule.
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don’t create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don’t want to lose them due to lack of communication.
5.) Clarity and simplicity.
Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don’t always translate. Sometimes a little explanation goes a long way.
6.) Keyword-rich.
If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post should have a title that will attract attention but still be relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than
10-12 words.
7.) Quantity matters.
In order to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly-themed content.
8.) Frequency.
If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals.
9.) Spell checking and proof-reading.
It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from having to make embarrassing explanations. Remember that whatever you publish on the Internet can be found and archived. Think carefully about what you post before doing so.
10.) RSS.
RSS will increase your blog’s reach. It is important that you include your blog’s content in an RSS feed to increase readership and distribution.
Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates audiences grow. Bloggers may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to regularly are generally interested in what you have to say.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds and NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software.
Blogging | John Hocking | 5/4/2005 7:28 am | Comments (0)
Sometimes you want to search the past. That’s what Google and Yahoo and the other search engines are for.
Sometimes you want to search the future. Jonathan Dube tells us about PubSub, a new site that doesn’t search what’s been posted already, but monitors topics you specify for posts yet to come.
Goodiesblog.com was founded to highlight promotional and household items of significance which manufactures choose to share with us. We find significance in items which are: innovative, unique, timely or an improvement on a classic theme.
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com
Blogging | John Hocking | 3/27/2005 4:18 pm | Comments (0)
The Google Codewebsite (“Google’s place for Open Source software”) indicates the launch on March 17 of two RSS feeds: “the updates feed and the featured program feed, in which we pick a great app that uses some Google tool or api.
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com
Blogging | John Hocking | 3/19/2005 5:26 am | Comments (0)
“Until today, bloggers primarily embraced tools such as Google Adsense or Henry Copeland’s BlogAds.com to generate revenues,” said Jim Kukral, founder of BlogKits.com. “While both excellent solutions, the fact remains that both of those tools rely on a blogger’s ability to generate large amounts of web traffic for any real income opportunities, leaving 99% of all blogs out in the cold.”
The BlogKits BlogMatch Network alleges to allow all blogs the no-cost opportunity to earn revenues in a multitude of ways by matching them with advertisers and marketers that care more about reaching the right target audience, not just necessarily the biggest one, and not necessarily through only traditional methods like banner ads.
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com
Blogging | John Hocking | 1/7/2005 12:42 pm | Comments (0)
Internet web logs – blogs – are offering a different view into the greatest natural disaster of our times. The immediacy with which blogs can deliver and disseminate personal accounts, information, and news about the tsunami disaster is an essential component to Yahoo! News’ in-depth coverage of this historic event.
Yahoo offers a roundup of tsunami blogs from around the Web covering the topics of emergency relief and aid, finding the missing and/or identifying the dead, and reconstruction and renewal. This page tracks feeds from some blogs, displaying entries as they are added, and links to other blogs that don’t offer feeds as of yet.
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com
Blogging | John Hocking | 12:37 pm | Comments (0)
A new feature added to Mobdex – choose a public domain eBook and have a small chunk delivered daily via RSS.
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com
Blogging | John Hocking | 1/5/2005 1:16 pm | Comments (0)
RSS Submit is the quickest way to submit your RSS Feeds to the RSS search engines. RSS Submit automates the process of submitting your RSS feeds, publishing your content, and getting more traffic.
RSS Submit supports the following RSS Search Engines: Yahoo, Moreover, News Knowledge, Syndic8, Newsmob, Sourceforge, YellowBrix, Genecast, Blogdex, Popdex, Blog Street, Blog Wise, Boing Boing, 2RSS, Blog Digger, Bloogz, Easy RSS, Edu RSS, Fyber Search, Memigo, News Trove, RSS Clipping, Feedster, Day Pop, Technorati, Postami, Pub Sub, Bulk Feeds, Feeds Farm, Yenra, Fastbuzz, Search4RSS, Feed Directory, News Is Free, Topix, Blog Tree, Truth Laid Bear, Blogarama, Blog Search Engine, Eatonweb, Anse, Sarthak Blog, Rocket Info, Headline Spot, Findory, Blog Catalog
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com
Blogging | John Hocking | 10:55 am | Comments (0)
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