Today I spent a little time digging around in my AdSense earnings stats to see how they’d been performing over the last 6-12 months and particularly was interested in how the RSS advertising was performing.

I decided to pull out some of the data that I found and chart it (I’m a visual kind of guy) and thought I’d share some of what I saw when I analyzed how the ads are performing in the feed of my photography site since August 2008 when I started running AdSense in the feed.

I’ve removed the figures from the chart to comply with the Terms of Service that AdSense has that prohibit sharing of too many specifics but have below charted Earnings (the blue line), eCPM (earnings per 1000 impressions – the Red line) and Impression numbers (the yellow line). I’ve also included a linear trend line to help visualize the average movement.

When I initially looked at the raw data I was surprised to see how much the ads were now earning on a daily basis. It’s been a long while since I looked at the figures so they actually looked quite healthy (RSS ads now make up around 10% of my overall AdSense earnings). My first reaction was that perhaps AdSense have got RSS advertising right at last and it’s starting to earn more per impression.

However the chart above tells a different story with the increase in earnings coming from an increase in impressions. In fact eCPM has been falling.

My next question was whether this fall in eCPM was due to the economy or whether it was more to do with a trend in RSS advertising – so I decided to compare the eCPM of my RSS ads vs the eCPM of the AdSense ads on my site. Here’s what I found:

This surprised me. While RSS eCPM (blue) is on the downward slope onsite eCPM has been on the up and up.

Of course this could be explained by the increase in the popularity of the site and more advertisers targeting it (I’ve noticed that as traffic and the brand of DPS grows that more and more advertisers are targeting the site) – but from what I can see advertisers are targeting the feed as well as the site, yet the eCPM is falling there.

Keep in mind that this is just an observation of a single site – I’m sure it’ll differ from site to site and industry to industry (for example the RSS ads here on ProBlogger’s feeds are performing appallingly less than a tenth of what they earn on DPS despite having half as many subscribers) but it does make me wonder whether others are seeing similar trends?

How is RSS advertising performing for you?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Let me Show You How my RSS Advertising is Performing

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One of the most common questions I’m asked by readers starting out with blogging is around blog design and how they can get an affordable but unique blog design.

The irony of this is that I’m a self confessed dud when it comes to blog design. These days I hire others to do custom designs for my blog – but of course this doesn’t come cheap.

A recent survey here on ProBlogger showed that 79% of readers here use free themes or design their blogs themselves – but what if you want something more unique and/or don’t have the ability to design a blog or tweak a free theme?

I had all these questions buzzing around in my head recently when I paid a visit to local design marketplace site 99designs. I didn’t expect anything to come out of the conversation but what did come out of it excited me because it could meet a need that I see many of our readers having.

What 99designs have put together is a way to run a competition to have a new WordPress blog design created for your blog for as little as $369.

Now before I go any further – $369 is out of many bloggers leagues – but it is certainly a cheaper option than hiring a designer for $2000-$3000 to do a custom job for you. It’s not going to be for everyone but is sure to be an attractive option for those looking for a mid priced design.

The process to run a competition is simple. Here’s how 99designs describe it:

1. Set your budget and requirements

Tell us your budget and what you want designed, and we will post it on 99designs.com

2. Designers will create designs just for you

Designers from around the world will compete to create the best looking design just for you. Most projects get over 20 different design concepts to choose from. Rate the designers you like, eliminate the ones you don’t like.

3. Choose your favorite design

Pick your favorite design as the winner. Show it off to your friends! The winning design is yours to keep forever.

4. We code and install your theme (optional extra)

Through our partner, Thinktank Media, we’ll have your new WordPress theme up and running on your blog in 5 working days. Our themes are coded on the Sandbox theme, so they’re compatible with both WordPress.org and WordPress.com blogs!

They also have a 100% money back guarantee if you run a competition and don’t find a design that you like.

Keep in mind that what you’re running the competition for is the ‘design’ – to have it coded and/or installed you either need to choose to pay extra for these options or do that part yourself.

I hope those of you looking to find a new design for your WordPress blog find this useful! Check it out here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Run a Competition to Find Your Next WordPress Blog Design

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Stuck for ideas to write about? Here’s a quick and easy to use tool from Google to help you identify topics within most niches.

View this video at full size to get all the visual details in the video here on Facebook.

PS: a number of people have been asking about how I made this video and what microphone I am using. The mic is a Rode Podcaster USB microphone which I only recently have received. It’s not a small microphone but the quality it has produced is excellent.

The software I used to record the video and screen capture is a Mac tool called ScreenFlow. This is the first time I’ve used it and I there’s a lot more I could have done with it – I’m still learning to use its features.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Use Google’s Wonder Wheel to Find Topics to Write about

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Posted by jennita

Ok, so you’ve all read about The Best Spam Submission Ever which was illustrated ever so eloquently (and if you haven’t read it, please read it now… uhm well ok after you read this – it’s awesomely funny!). As the post mentions, we sift through many YOUmoz entries every day determining which ones to post to the site. Most spam is easily detected; such as the body of the post only consists of 1 or 2 sentences, or the title is obviously nothing related to online marketing (buy gold and silver online!). However every now and then, there is a spark of spam brilliance that makes its way through.

The other day I ran across this entry that had an odd title, but it actually seemed to have real potential. I opened the entry and at first glance, I thought "YAY! I have a good contender." There were multiple paragraphs, headings and even bullet points… this had to be legit, right? Not so much. I found myself reading the entire entry because I was so dumbfounded by the sheer brilliance of the whole thing. If this person had posted to a blog that automatically checks for spam entries, and auto-posts, this one probably would have made it through.

So the idea is quite simple. Take an excerpt of a book (or anything written I suppose), and add keyword rich links throughout! Essentially, make the post look as authentic as possible, without having to spend time writing a blog post. I’ve taken the idea and put together an example for you below. It’s not perfect, but it is damn simple!

<!– Begin Example Spam Post –>

---

Her name is Esther; she is a war correspondent who has just returned from Iraq because of the imminent invasion of that country; she is thirty years old, married, without children. He is an unidentified male, between twenty-three and twenty-five years old, with dark, Mongolian features. The two were last seen in a café on the Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré. He was reading: Buy Gold jewelry and diamonds direct.

Just the beginning

The police were told that they had met before, although no one knew how often: Esther had always said that the man — who concealed his true identity behind the name Mikhail — was someone very important, although she had never explained whether he was important for her career as a journalist or for her as a woman.

The police began a formal investigation. Various theories were put forward — kidnapping, blackmail, a kidnapping that had ended in murder — none of which were beyond the bounds of possibility given that, in her search for information, her work brought her into frequent contact with people who had links with terrorist cells. They discovered that, women love gold necklaces and jewelry in the weeks prior to her disappearance, regular sums of money had been withdrawn from her bank account: those in charge of the investigation felt that these could have been payments made for information. She had taken no change of clothes with her, but, oddly enough, her passport was nowhere to be found.

• He is a stranger, very young, with no police record, with no clue as to his identity.
• She is Esther, thirty years old, the winner of two international prizes for journalism, and married.
• My wife.

Next steps

I immediately come under suspicion and am detained because I refuse to say where I was on the day she disappeared. However, a prison officer has just opened the door of my cell, saying that I’m a free man. A man who reads Silver and Gold Jewelry.

And why am I a free man? Because nowadays, everyone knows everything about everyone; you just have to ask and the information is there: where you’ve used your credit card, where you spend your time, whom you’ve slept with. In my case, it was even easier: a woman, another journalist, a friend of my wife, and divorced — which is why she doesn’t mind revealing that she slept with me — came forward as a witness in my favor when she heard that I had been detained. She provided concrete proof that I was with her and with gold necklaces on the day and the night of Esther’s disappearance.

I talk to the chief inspector, who returns my belongings and offers his apologies, adding that my rapid detention was entirely within the law, and that I have no grounds on which to accuse or sue the state. I say that I haven’t the slightest intention of doing either of those things, that I am perfectly aware that we are all under constant suspicion and under twenty-four-hour surveillance, even when we have committed no crime.

"You’re free to go," he says, echoing the words of the prison officer.

Conclusion

I ask: Isn’t it possible that something buy gold direct and diamonds really has happened to my wife? She had said to me once that — understandably given her vast network of contacts in the terrorist underworld — she occasionally got the feeling she was being followed.

• The inspector changes the subject. I insist, but he says nothing.
• I ask if she would be able to travel on her passport, and he says, of course, since she has committed no crime. Why shouldn’t she leave and enter the country freely?
• "So she may no longer be in France?"
• "Do you think she left you because of that woman you’ve been sleeping with?"
• That’s none of your business, I reply.

---

<!– End Example Spam Post –>

Creative! Right? But, just think about this… if these spammers took a few minutes to actually think through and write a relevant post, they would have not only received exposure but they would have some SWEET links from SEOmoz as well. Plus, if the post is well-written and is quickly getting popular (thumbs up), you may even get promoted to the main blog… talk about exposure! I encourage you all to submit well thought out, relevant posts to YOUmoz. Submit entries you will be proud of showing to the rest of the community, and make sure the content is unique.

Every day we receive many spam entries for YOUmoz, which slows down the process of publishing the real, legitimate ones. This is a reminder for all our spammers out there: Real people read and publish these posts! You can stop spamming us, because at least for now, we’re smarter than you are. With that, I’d love to hear some of your best spam submissions!

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PS. This is my own made up spam example and was not taking from any of the actual spam we’ve received.

I used an excerpt from Paulo Coelho’s "The Zahir" and if you have never read his work, I highly recommend him.

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Posted by randfish

The search landscape is changing significantly this morning, and SEOs of all stripes need to pay close attention. I’m going to do my best to summarize the impact of these changes based on what we already know and interpret what’s going to change for the field of search engine optimization and what we, as representatives of our clients and our companies, need to know and do.

Background on the Deal

First off, a few background snippets from several of the sources on this topic – SearchEngineLand’s Live Blogging Coverage; TechCrunch; ReadWriteWeb; and the new MS/Yahoo! website Choice, Value, Innovation.

• The term of the agreement is 10 years
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms
• Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
• Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology.
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.

In case that wasn’t quite clear, the big takeaway is that Bing will now power search on Yahoo! and Yahoo!’s salesforce will sell the premium (non-self service) search advertising for Yahoo!/Bing. Bing also gets access to Yahoo!’s core search technology and can, at its option, leverage that to help create more relevant results.

• Google has 78% of market share of paid search (direct quote on SELand from Microsoft)
• Bartz: Yes there are many Yahoo search employees who will be asked to take jobs at Microsoft. There will also be search employees who we look to help us on the display side. And then unfortunately there will be some redundancy in Yahoo. (Just a quick note; if you work in Yahoo! search, please email me - rand@seomoz.org – we’re hiring on the engineering team!)
• Bartz: Notes that when it comes to paid search, Panama is the provider in most international marketplaces for Microsoft already.

• Danny Sullivan: What happens to other things search like at Yahoo? What powered Yahoo News? What happens to the Yahoo Directory? Is Delicious search? And what happens to Yahoo paid inclusion?
  Bartz: We have full flexibility on what to do within our own sites. Paid inclusion, we’ll decide on that later.

• AdAge reports that ComScore shows Bing will now have a 28% market share when combined with Yahoo! search, though.
• ReadWriteWeb worried about this large list of services from Yahoo! that are under "search services." Yahoo! PR called them to say that "this is a consumer facing list of search-related services, like News Search and Map Search, but most of those are not or are no longer formally part of the Search Department." So, probably at least some of them are safe.

Search Query Demand Market Share

The search landscape right now looks like something between:

Market Share from the thousands of accounts served by their hit counter/referral tracking software
(note: I don’t know why it says 82% on the left and 72% on the right, but 82% appears more accurate when adding up all the other figures)

AND

Based on data from Comscore’s June Release

We’re somewhere between a market where Google dominates 65-82% of all search queries. When it comes to referring queries that point out from the engine’s properties (Google/Yahoo!/Microsoft not searching or linking to their own content), I believe Google’s closer to sending out 80-85% of that traffic.

What’s Changing for SEOs?

Note that some of thse are speculative, while others are direct and actionable. However, until the deal actually goes into effect and is publically accessible (which could take some serious time depending on regulators), my best advice is to be prepared (and take those steps that can ensure maximum benefit once the changes go live). Remember that Yahoo! said full implementation may lag up to 24 months (2 years) behind regulatory approval (which itself could take months), so you’ve got some time.

#1 – SEO for Bing is Worth Your Optimization Effort

Even if the lowest numbers are accurate, 15% of search market share is worth the optimization effort. Bing’s algorithm, while certainly an upgrade from Live.com still has a few noticeable preferences, such as concentration on keyword use in subdomains and root domain names (Google loves exact keyword matches, but Bing really likes any keyword placement in the sub or root). Bing’s core relevancy sometimes suffers from manipulative link patterns more so than Google & Yahoo!, though, they often do a good job surfacing alternative queries and instant answers.

Bing’s results are, by default, "richer" than those of Yahoo! and Google. Although Yahoo! will be controlling the user interface on their end, it’s likely much of that "richness" will make its way into the Bing results inside Yahoo!. Bing also surfaces only the top 5 results for many queries, meaning a higher concentration of clicks on those top results.

Bing’s traffic is, in general, also more likely to convert and click on ads. Whether this is a result of demographics or of how the engine frames information isn’t clear, though we may get more insight on that soon.

We at SEOmoz will certainly be doing more work to provide insight into how Bing ranks results and where it differs substantively from Google. You can go play around with results here or here. I strongly suspect there will be more SEO focus overall on Bing in both R&D and active practice.

#2 – We May Lose Yahoo! Link Data

The largest two providers of link information to SEOs today are Yahoo!’s advanced search queries and Yahoo! Site Explorer. If these go away, which seems likely with Bing, since Microsoft removed the link query operator’s functionality a few years back (and Google torched theirs nearly 5 years ago), we’ll be left with very few sources of link information. Obviously, SEOmoz itself provides Linkscape, but we’ll be likely to offer a slightly deprecated, free version of that tool if/when this happens. Exalead.com still does provide link data, though not as richly as Yahoo!

This change would likely see the rise of more propietary link indices as well as the breaking of a large number of internal and external tools that rely on Yahoo! for their link data. We may not know for sure for some time to come, but it may make have a substantive impact on the link research landscape.

#3 – PPC Consolidation

Right now, many companies and agencies exclusively use Google AdWords. I think both Microsoft and Yahoo! are counting on a lowered complexity and barrier to entry with only two major search engines making a compelling case that one should, at the least, participate in the two leading platforms for search. I suspect more people will buy ads from MSN AdCenter, which is likely to increase ad relevancy, quality and competition. The days of low cost traffic via AdCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing may be nearing an end (unless market share slips so far that they become largely irrelevant, but that seem unlikely, at least in the short term).

#4 – Bing’s Webmaster Tools Are Important

If you don’t have an account with Bing Webmaster Tools, now is the time. Although not yet as robust as Google’s, Bing WMT is working hard to catch up and even surpass their rivals with features that will prove valuable for webmasters on all platforms. The data you get from Bing WMT will also be important for conducting better organic SEO campaigns on that engine and seeing how Google & Bing may view your site differently.

#5 – Yahoo! & Bing Local Become More Essential

We’re still not 100% sure of the status of local search – according the ReadWriteWeb piece, Yahoo! may consider this a "consumer service" and not part of core search. However, if Bing is serving up local listings in the search results (as they do now), Bing’s local registration is going to become very important for local businesses. Check out Bing Local and their local listing center in the near futuer if this impacts you.

#6 - Bing Will Get more Spam

With greater search share comes greater spam attempts. Google’s still a ways out in front in terms of catching and discounting manipulative practices, but Yahoo! has been a close second for some time. I’d expect that Bing will recruit a number of the staff and algorithmic work Yahoo! search has done on this front, but they should also expect serious spammer attention to be focused their way. The loopholes that Google’s closed will still likely be open on Bing for some time to come and spammers will use the chaos that comes from a merger to exploit these.

#7 – Bing Will Get Lots more Data

Bing’s going to know a lot more about you. Perhaps not as much as Google, but with Yahoo! analytics, Yahoo!’s database of profiles, Yahoo!’s behavioral targeting and their own research, Bing’s going to be a close second. This should, conceptually, help improve core search and may pave the way for greater advances on the personalization front, too.

#8 – Important Yahoo! Properties May Dissappear

As Danny Sullivan and ReadWriteWeb noted, we’re in some danger of losing stalwarts like the Yahoo! Directory, Delicious (which has often been seen as an alternative search play), Yahoo! Maps, SearchMonkey & BOSS (two of the best search apps out there). It’s still speculative, but by watching the activities inside Yahoo! over the next 3-6 months, we’ll probably get a lot more insight about who’s headed to the chopping block.

 #9 – Yahoo! Maintains UI Control for their Search Experience

This means that Yahoo!’s results ordering, layout, sidebars and searcher focus may continue to be unique from Bing, thus requiring that SEOs still pay attention to the differences in the two engines and optimize accordingly. It will be tough to know the extent of Bing’s integration until it launches, but there’s a lot of room for variation, which means complexity for SEOs.

#10 – Yahoo! Will Become a More Powerful Content Competitor

With Yahoo! out of the core search business, many people, myself included, expect them to focus even more on the content side of the business. That means properties inside Yahoo! News & Media Group are going to get more attention and more investment. If you’re competing with Yahoo!’s content now, that battle may get tougher in the future.

 

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I have no doubt that this quick analysis doesn’t cover every important aspect of the deal for SEOs, and definitely appreciate any comments you have that can help to provide further insight. Once again, the SEO field is proving that if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.

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Have you ever read a blog post that just seems to have ‘it’?

You arrive at the page, begin reading and immediately feel drawn into what the blogger is communicating. You can’t really put your finger on why – but there’s something about the way that they write that connects with you – that makes you want to read more – that makes reading easy.

That blogger has ‘blogging mojo’.

While there are many concrete things that we can identify about successful blogs – some things are hard to define. One of these is blogging mojo.

Some bloggers just seem to be able to write in a way that connects. They go beyond technically writing well to a style that just works.

How to Develop Your ‘Mojo’

I’ve observed ‘blogging mojo’ in a number of bloggers over the years and have done my best to identify why some bloggers have it and some don’t. Perhaps it’s partly natural ability, personality or learning how to write from a young age – but there’s one important factor that I’ve seen over and over again in successful bloggers.

Most successful bloggers that I question tell me that on top of any natural ability that they have that they’ve spent years experimenting with different styles of writing, different types of posts, different topics, different voices and different approaches to communicating that shape who they are today.

As they say – ‘Practice makes perfect’.

One of the best ways to develop your writing and learn to consistently produce compelling content is to practice writing in different styles and voices.

Of course this doesn’t just happen – sometimes you need to set yourself a challenge (or ask someone else to do so).

I chatted with a journalist friend recently who told me that he learns most about writing when his editor allocates him a story that takes him out of his comfort zone, when he’s asked to write on a topic he’s not overly familiar with or asked to write in a style that isn’t his normal one.

He said that when he’s given these challenging stories that he’s forced to learn and discover new ways to communicate. It doesn’t always feel good but each time he discovers something new about what works (and doesn’t work) for him.

Which leads us to today’s homework…

Your Homework for Today

Today’s homework task is to pick a style of blog post that you don’t normally write. For example:

• If you always write in the 1st person why not try writing in the 3rd person for a post?
• If your posts are always deadpan serious why not attempt something a little more light hearted and humorous.
• Try writing a post from the perspective of another person?
• Throw an opinion piece into your blog that is normally just covering ‘news’.
• Write a list post if your blog is usually more ‘essay’ like.

If you’re unsure what to write check out my list of 20 Types of Blog Posts – hopefully one of them will fit with where you’re at. There’s also a few of these types of writing posts in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook.

The benefit of mixing things up from time to time is that you grow as a writer and you might just stumble upon a type of post that connects with your readers. Even if the post falls flat on it’s face and fails you’ve learned what not to do on your blog.

Once you’ve written your post and published it please come back to this post and share the link and share how you went with the challenge!

This post belongs to our current series on Creating Compelling Content. Stay tuned for more principles of building this type of content in the week ahead.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Find Your Blogging Mojo – Experiment with Different Voices and Styles of Writing

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This week at ProBlogger I’m writing about principles of creating Compelling Content on a blog. Read principle #1, Being in Tune with Your Readers Needs here.

Sometimes what makes a blog post compelling is not so much what the blogger writes but how the post is interacted with by readers.

The real action on many successful blogs happens in a comment section where a post can be taken to the next level and have new layers of depth added to it as readers share their thoughts, ideas and experiences on a topic.

3 Benefits of Reader Interaction on Blogs

The benefits of an interactive blog are many but the main three that I think help to make a blog compelling are:

1. Wisdom of the Crowd

While we as bloggers often like to think of ourselves as experts on our topics the reality is that when you get a group of people with an interest in a topic together that the collective expertise and authority of the group is generally more than any one member. I’ve seen this time and time again on my own blogs.

For example last week I asked readers what makes content compelling to them – the 100+ comments are really very insightful when you take them all together.

Similarly a year or so back on my photography site I posted a reader question that asked the community to share their tips on how to photograph a dying grandmother with dignity. What came out of that post drew our community together and made a real impact upon many. The post itself wasn’t compelling – it was the reaction and wisdom of the community.

2. Social Proof

Visit a blog which has numerous comments on every post and you get a sense that there’s something going on there. There’s an energy, a buzz, a sense of community that seeing reader participation can bring to a blog which in itself can be compelling and make you want to see what’s going on there to create that interaction.

While having reader interaction doesn’t automatically make your blog compelling – it can encourage others to take a second look at it to see what all the fuss is about.

3. Reader Investment

I’ve struggled a little to put a name to this but there’s something about getting a reader to leave a comment on a post that means that they’ve invested something of themselves into your blog. I know when I comment on something that someone else has written that I’m much more likely to return to that post and to that blog because I’ve invested a little time, energy and thought into it – I’ve contributed something to the discussion and as a result it becomes a bit more compelling to me.

The Problem of Lurkers [+ How to Build Reader Interaction]

Image by Big Fat Rat

Of course the problem most bloggers face is that most readers simply ‘lurk’ on blogs. Less than 1% of readers regularly comment on blogs – most simply read (or scan) content and then silently leave.

So how do you build reader interaction? I’d love to hear your suggestions and experiences in this below but here are a few suggestions and 4 lessons I’ve learned over the years.

1. Call people to Interact

Perhaps the greatest lesson I’ve learned is that when you ask people to do something they’re much more likely to do it.

It sounds like a no brainer doesn’t it? However the reality is that many bloggers I hear complaining about no comments don’t actually write in a way that invites people to interact.

Calling people to interact with you can take many forms:

• Ask people to leave a comment (I’ve done this already in this post – you don’t have to do it just at the end)
• Ask readers specific questions in your posts -  (I find that some people need some prompting on what type of reactions you want from them rather than just having a generic ‘what do you think?’ type call to comment)
• Writing posts that are only questions can work well (example)
• Create space for readers to showcase their expertise or participate in a challenge (for example I recently ran this challenge on DPS which readers loved).

Keep in mind that when you call readers to interact with you that you’ll have more chance of success if you do so in a conversational and natural way. Also worth noting is that sometimes you need to leave space for your readers to have something to say. Some bloggers write in a tone and style that is so comprehensive that there’s really little else to say on a topic.

2. Don’t just focus upon comments

Some people just don’t like comments, perhaps it is their personality, perhaps they’re wary of giving you their contact details, perhaps they feel intimidated, perhaps they don’t know how to do it, or perhaps they just take a while to warm up to that type of interaction.

So don’t just focus upon commenting as the only way for readers to participate. Other options for interaction inlclude:

• Polls (much more anonymous and easy to use)
• Quizzes and Surveys
• Invite readers to email you
• Forums – some people just seem to be wired more to forums more than blogs as a medium
• Social Media – get people interacting on their social media platform of choice

Try different methods to see what works best for your blog.

3. Use the Data in Reader Interactions

It struck me recently just how much knowledge, wisdom and useful information sits in the comments sections and poll results of most blogs. Many of us as bloggers are just happy to have people interacting – but perhaps what would be more ‘compelling’ is to not only have interaction but to ‘use’ the interactions to create meaning and be more useful to readers.

Let me illustrate with a recent example here at ProBlogger:

Just over a week ago I asked readers – What do you do with your blog over the weekend? The post was simply a weekend discussion starter – while I suggested a few responses to get things started the real action in the post happened in the comments section with over 130 comments left.

I could have left it at that. I had a fantastic response from the question and readers seemed to be enjoying the interactions that they had with one another – it was a successful post.

However it struck me that in the comments section of that post was some useful data. 130+ people had just shared what they did with their blog on the weekend! That’s useful information to know.

So I decided to get the answers collated together and see what they told us – this resulted in a followup post on the topic. Sometimes going to the effort of making sense of how readers are responding can be very worthwhile.

Another example – I also regularly do this by not only posting Polls on my blogs but following them up with ‘results’ posts from the polls which take the information, put them into a nice chart and draw out any meaning that I find interesting in them. For example this recent results post on blog design. The results post itself got 78 comments!

4. Re-purpose Readers Responses (and Make them Famous)

Similarly I also try to showcase or feature individual reader responses and interactions.

Often the wisdom shared in the comments section of a blog is just too good to leave it languishing there where only a few people will see it. In these cases why not promote it to a blog post of it’s own or at least to quote your readers in another post you’re writing.

Readers will notice that I’m doing this in this series on compelling content (for example see yesterdays post where I featured quotes from 9 comments left on this blog that supported what I’ve written).

Doing this not only adds depth to your blog post (making it more compelling) but also gives those readers featured a sense of being noticed and valued as well as showing other readers that you value reader interactions (giving them a little extra motivation to participate too).

Further Reading

There is much more I could write on how to build an interactive blog. In fact I’ve written several posts on the topic including:

• 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog
• How to Kick off a Great Comment Thread by Targeting Previous Commenters
• How to Be a More Interactive and Accessible Blogger
• How to Build Community on Your Blog by Giving People Jobs

Your Homework for Today

OK – so we’ve talked about the theory of reader interaction. Now it’s time to put some of it into action.

Your task for today is to write a post that attempts to be interactive with those who will read it. This could be as simple as tweaking something you’ve already written to include a question or could be a new post that is all about reader interaction (a poll, a reader discussion, a survey etc). Once you’ve written it please share a link to it in comments below so we can all learn from how you approached it.

What You’ve Said on the Topic So Far:

Earlier in the week I asked you for your reflections on what makes content compelling. The responses were rich with wisdom and compelling in themselves (I’ve read them numerous times). Here’s a few of the comments from you that touched on similar themes to what I’ve written above:

• “Being conversational brings the writer to life and creates a human connection. That’s compelling.” – Jody
• “Truly compelling content not only sparks my interest, but makes me want to share the insight I’ve gained with others.” – Patrick
• “Compelling content should cause the reader to ask questions. It needs to persuade or teach the reader in some way. It’s content that’s unique and can’t be found anywhere else. It begins a dicussion amongst other bloggers who comment on your content. Compelling content shows the reader that you, as a blogger, are interested in them.” – Surveys for Money
• “Seriously, these eighty-five honest and detailed descriptions of what each person thinks is compelling content. If you ask me, it doesn’t get much more compelling than this.” – Debbie
• “Compelling content elicits a response. It draws me into conversation. It inspires me to react. It is this very post, despite it being nothing more than a question.” – Brad

Have Your Say

Of course this post wouldn’t be complete without an invitation to leave your reactions, experiences and insights on this topic.

• How have you built reader interaction into your blog?
• What has worked (and not worked) for you?
• What posts have you written where you got the most reader interaction (feel free to share a link)?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

How to Create Compelling Content Through Reader Interaction

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Posted by great scott!

Not but a few short days ago I had the distinct pleasure of being included on a list of 51 of the world’s top Search Marketers.  Alas, for this great honor I did not receive an award statue or a shiny plaque, not even an ornate certificate.  What I received was an email. A horribly executed email that would result in one of the most amusing email threads I’ve ever read, from some of the smartest minds in our industry.

What I’m about to share is a lesson in one fundamental rule: if you’re going to send an RFP to elite consultants, DO NOT simply CC them all in the same email…you’re about to see what will happen.  Names and URLs have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. All of the SEO’s are referred to as SEO1-SEO51, just as we were in the To: field of the email (I was SEO8)…those who feel like it can reveal themselves in the comments. 

July 24th, 5:32PM: The saga begins…the email below (edited for privacy) was sent to all of us, with everyone’s email address prominently visible in the To: field.

Dear SEO Consultant,

We are looking for estimates for our new internet venture. We have been in the technology and internet business for over 10 years, and successfully own and operate a technology consulting company called PDmunkeez. 

I have designed and developed a new concept for an auction site which will revolutionize the online auction market and has the potential for over $100,000,000 in annual revenue.  Similar sites include  swoopo.com   ($28 million per year), bidray.com  and bidstick.com.  HOWEVER, what makes YARNZER.COM unique is our patent pending software program that will retain customers and make the bidding experience more exciting.  (It includes Python for the back end and JAVA/HTML for the front end).

In addition, we have a key member of our team with in-depth experience from one of the afore-mentioned auction websites, which gives us an advantage with our customer database and sales projections.
YARNZER.COM is 100% ready to go live. We seek early stage capital for advertisement and operations.  The advertisement capital will go to three major advertisement websites:  google.com, yahoo.com, and facebook.com.  

YARNZER.COM is not just an idea:  the site is built, the software is complete and operational, and my team is ready to launch at a moment’s notice. 

We have our business plan and presentation ready.

We do not require an NDA if you will acknowledge that we have a patent pending for our site.  This way we can give you access to the site.

We are looking for full advertisement campaign in SEO and PPC  for Yarnzer.com.  Our budget is $100,000/month.  Please submit a detailed estimate for your services.  We appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you!

Regards,
Roland

(Seems fairly harmless, right? It’s even a decent contract he’s offering. But as you’ll soon see, a client who makes such an obvious email blunder, and can’t even customize a greeting, is not going to win over top SEO talent.)

July 24th, 8:03PM: The backlash ensues…

Roland,

For someone with over 10 years experience with an internet
business, you sure as f**k don’t have a clue how to
properly contact the people you hope to work with.

I could give a s**t if you have a million bucks to spend.
If you think this is the right way to start, then my
rude reply here matches your rude spam perfectly.

My advice is that you spend your money on a bankruptcy
attorney, which you will no doubt need, it’s just
a matter of when.

Sincerely,
seo32

(SEO32 later apologized for cc’ing us all on his reply, admitting he was cranky and may have been slightly drunk at the time…I, for one, was thoroughly amused, and SEO43 agreed. )

I was just grabbing the pop corn. I totally agree as well.
-SEO43

July 25th: Cue the mockery…

If anyone admits they took the job at this point, they’re voted off the island.
-SEO42

I actually don’t offer SEO, but just for kicks, I might go by a new alias. You can all call me seo29 from here on out

The last time I was sent a similar email, I set up a facebook page for the recipients. If there is a silver lining, having everyone on one email trail/group brings great minds together.
-SEO29

I will be known as SEO19 from now on.

At least this is worth some comic relief.
-SEO41

(Uh-oh, confusion)

Wait. I’m SEO19!  Go get your own number, Gilligan

Love,
SEO19

What an awesome rant, just found this jewel in my spam-box.

Going to get seo26 tattooed on my face this weekend.
-SEO26

How must our good friend Caroline feel about being SEO51?

Or as I like to call her, "info@"
-SEO42

I was feeling pretty good at SEO7! After all, ranking is everything, right?
-SEO7

Didn’t know I was agent SEO25? Was I on this email by accident or is there a reason? Was this originally an email to market something to SEOs?
-SEO25

July 26th: Roland attempts to apologize…

First of all, my apologies to all of you for failing to send blind copy emails. My assistant carelessly sent those emails and obviously did not understand what I was trying to relay to all of you.  My objective was simply to obtain a customized estimate from each of you to perform a comprehensive advertisement campaign for Yarnzer.com, including SEO and PPC estimates (with most of the budget spent on PPC activities).  We are seeking to launch Yarnzer.com with an advertisement budget of $100,000.00 for the first month of operations.

For your additional reference, the following is a link to our technology consulting company: http://pdmunkeez.com. If you review this site, ypu (sic) will see that we have experience in SEO.  However, we are looking to outsource the advertisement campaign for Yarnzer.com because it is a sizeable project that cannot be handled "in house."  What is most critical for us is to locate a seasoned professional like yourself who has extensive experience with PPC on sites such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Finally, we would greatly appreciate your visiting the Yarnzer.com site and reviewing all of its key features in providing your proposal and good faith, customized estimate for your services.   

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.  We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Regards
Roland

(Let it be noted that this message was once again sent to everyone, with all addresses in the To: field. Face-palm.)

July 26th continued: It doesn’t work…

Greetings Sir Roland,

For $100,000 per annual year your company Yarnzer.com will generously receive a sponsored link on the sidebar of Search Engine Notebook, from all of our posts, with the anchor text "[Insert Anchor Text Here]", totaling in over 10,000 targeted inbound links to your site, [Insert Site Here], over the course of the fiscal year.

Fear not Sir Roland, for that is not all, we will also submit Yarnzer.com to over 5,000 targeted search engines and SEO directories, building the authority link equity of Yarnzer.com from these high profile search engines and SEO directories.

And Sir Roland, as part of this innovative SEO package, we will also participate in commenting on over 10,000 Blogspot blogs in your favour. As you may know, Google owns Blogspot, so a comment from Blogspot is the same as a link from Google, except for you will have 120,000 of them over the course of a year.

For the investment of 10,000 US Dollars per month, you will not find a better deal.

Sir Roland, do feel free to contact us or send your Paypal address, and we will set you up with a monthly subscription.

Godspeed, SEO #52

[PS. Can you spell parody?]

(Hey-ooooo!)

Well Done SEO52! LMAO
-SEO45

Dearest SEO52,

I wish to bid $12,000/month for services you described very nice.  Please let me know, does include happy ending, yes?
-SEO24

Dear SEO1 to seo51,

Greetings to all, I’m happy to see us all on the same mailing list.. looks like somebody was doing their homework.

Lets see… Roland’s algorithm landed me the #2 spot here…  Links do not appear to be a factor, though it seems that special attention is given to SEO1 – SEO4… possibly hand selected? .. how must I optimize?
-SEO2

You guys are nuts. Entertaining, but nuts nevertheless – seo32 is clearly a bad influence. Now quit cc’ing us all and get back to work

-SEO39

(Perhaps SEO39 was right, but tomorrow is another day, and a whole new crop saw the thread and became involved)

July 27th: The hits just keep on comin’…

Dear Roland,

It will be 10K for me to waste my time even preparing a proposal for a guy too lazy to even narrow his choices down to three to five SEO firms and instead feels because he has a big budget, in his mind, he can waste our time instead.

F**k off,
SEO 15

Dear Roland,

*Sigh* I almost felt badly for you.  Certainly you chose the wrong crowd in front of which to make such a bonehead mistake.  And everyone deserves a second chance.  So I was pleased to see the title of your apology email in my inbox…until I read it.

Rather than taking responsibility for your mistakes, you start by blaming your assistant for the cc fiasco.  It was your email mate; your responsibility.  

Beyond that, and as SEO15 notes, you clearly have no idea what kind of firm you want to work with (or don’t care), choosing instead to contact every imaginable kind of search marketing provider, some of whom do not even provide PPC services.  

Most of us prefer to work with straight shooters who take responsibility for their actions and do their homework.  We also know from experience that the way people approach potential business partners is a good indicator of how they are likely to function in the future.  So good luck with this one.

Unfortunately, you are now in the awkward position of knowing that any firm on this list that actually wishes to continue talking must really, really need (want?) the money.  At this point, you might consider just hiring a new employee, with some decent PPC and paid advertising experience.

Regards,
SEO34

(There were a few more clever jabs, including an amusing exchange between two people who were both labeled SEO26 in the list.  One suggested a duel, the other just registered www.seo26.com.  The latter wins.)

July 27th: The saga comes to an end, "Shawshank" style…

I wish I could tell you that Roland fought the good fight, and the SEOs let him be. I wish I could tell you that – but internet marketing is no fairy-tale world. He never said who did it, but we all knew. Things went on like that for awhile – the internet consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, Roland would show up with fresh bruises. The SEOs kept at him – sometimes he was able to fight ‘em off, sometimes not. And that’s how it went for Roland – that was his routine. I do believe those first two years were the worst for him, and I also believe that if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him.
-SEO37

Please, someone compile this whole thread in a readable format, and package it off to Valleywag.

Who to do it… hmm…. might I suggest Martin’s assistant?

Have a great week, Team SEO (/PPC)!
-SEO42

And what SEO42 asks for, SEO42 gets, so here we are (Valleywag, feel free to pick this up). 

Now I know a lot of you must be reading this and wondering how these consultants can be so cavalier and dismissive about a large contract, even if the potential client made a stupid mistake.  What you need to understand is that the people on this list are not hurting for clients. They’re busy, they’re successful, and they’re damn good at what they do. They have the luxury of being able to select which projects they take on and, as SEO34 so eloquently pointed out, mistakes like this can be a good indicator of a client that will be difficult to deal with and everyone on this list knows better than to take on a miserable client.

What can be learned from this?  When you’re contacting people you want to work with, whether it’s asking for an RFP, marketing your consulting services, looking to partner, hell, even requesting a link, you need to not only know who you’re talking to, but show some respect.  Few things make people less receptive to you than making them feel like a number; like they have no individual value and that their skills and accomplishments are not appreciated.  Be personable, knowledgeable and respectful and you’ll get a lot further in this industry whether you’re a beginner asking for advice, or a company with a good-sized budget.

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Posted by randfish

There are lots of standardized definitions of SEO (see define query), but few that exist to define or distill the qualities that make a person a professional SEO. The way I see it, there are three ways a professional can be categorized and assigned – technical, self-constructed and peer validated.

Technical: An SEO is one who practices search engine optimization.

Self-Constructed: I practice search engine optimization as a significant portion of the professional work I undertake and am, therefore, an SEO.

Peer Validated: A community of peers in the SEO field has recognized this individual’s achievement and views them as qualified for the title.

In the SEO world, these are very informal and anyone is technically allowed to call themselves what they like (and though I’ll quibble later in the post with some self-titling, I don’t believe any regulation should exist). However, in many other fields, primarily those with a long-established history (lawyer, doctor, law enforcement, engineer, politician), external requirements are a neccessity.

That said, the SEO community appears to be growing in its formalization. Events, organizations, and external recognition, along with the growing value and importance of the practice seem, to me, to be the driving forces at work. I love this community and always have – it’s inspired me, carried me and given me so much that I can never repay enough, but I’d like to add a brief editorialization. It is my personal opinion that unless an individual has these three qualities, I would not personally peer-validate them as an SEO and would hope to be cast out should I not personally exhibit these:

1. Knowledgable in the Basics of Search Engine Operations (not just SEO, but the fundamentals of how search engines work)
2. Actively Practicing SEO by Influencing Change to Websites & Pages and Measuring the Impact
3. Consistently Formulating & Testing Theories About Metrics/Variables that Influence Search Engine Results

I’ve been a bit frustrated of late by the demeaning of our profession by those who do not take the practice seriously nor apply the craft with the respect it’s due. And, furthermore, I’m conflicted about those who’d suggest that our field or our practice should not embrace the principles above. It seems disingenuous, even intellecutally dishonest, to claim to "optimize" for search engines, and yet be lacking in knowledge, not actively practicing (and measuring!), or refrain from critical thinking, brainstorming, forming hypotheses and testing.

Am I too harsh? Should I be more lenient? Or, do we, as a community, want to apply some standards in peer validating those who claim the title of SEO? If so… Are these the right ones?

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