Posted by randfish

Today, instead of playing in the uber-rare Seattle sunshine, I spent the day polishing off the PRO Training seminar schedule and it looks amazing. I’m excited to see these sessions myself (and I rarely sit through presentations). Check it out for yourself below; if you’re inclined and available, we’d love to see you.

Oh, and don’t worry, I’m not cruelly sharing when we’ve already sold out. We still do have some seats left. Dates are Monday & Tuesday August 30th + 31st with the tools training half day Wednesday, September 1st. However, I would strongly urge you to register soon, as we’ve sold out by early August in each of the past 4 years.

Top 5 Ways Our PRO Seminar is Different

1. "Tips" Focused Content
   Many sessions that I attend have discussions and opinions as featured content. Although I think that can be great, our focus is 100% on providing value you can apply back to your sites + campaigns immediately. I’ve talked to every speaker and reviewed every outline – the sessions at our seminar are exclusively focused on making you smarter, faster and better at your job.
2. Single-Track, Deep Dives by Only the Best Speakers
   Rather than panels of 2, 3, 4 or more speakers on an hourlong session, we have only a few sessions each day, enabling us to pick only the most talented, compelling speakers for our event. You can’t pitch to speak at SEOmoz – it’s by invitation only and those invites come because we’ve seen you speak many times and been seriously impressed. There are only 14 speakers in total at the event and every one is an oustanding presenter – we know because we’ve watched them.
3. The Same Incentives for all Participants
   At many events, the real revenue comes from sales of booths, promotional materials or sponsored sessions. SEOmoz has none of these. Our primary goal with the PRO Training isn’t to make money (being fully TAGFEE; this year, we anticipate the seminar to generate less than 4% of our gross with relatively slim margins), but to spread knowledge of SEO in a deep, meaningful way and meet many of our community members in person. We also pay for our speakers’ transportation and hotels so they don’t have the burden of selling to recoup travel costs.
4. Less than 1/2 the Price of Other Events
   With a PRO membership, the event costs just $649. Add in a hotel for 2 nights and a flight from most US locations and it’s still less than a single ticket to many of the larger conferences (e.g. the on-site price for Web 2.0 NYC or SES SF is $1,995).
5. No Vendors, Pitches, Booths or Sales
   There’s no expo hall, no sponsors, no SWAG in a bag, no salespeople seeking to close a deal at lunch, nada. This event is about learning from experts, networking with peers and coming home with phenomenal, actionable information.

The Full PRO Training Schedule

Monday, August 29th

• 9:00am – 9:45am: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad SERP
  • The expansion of new results types in the search result pages has SEOs asking if traditional rankings are dead. They’re not, but there are a whole lot more opportunities to get SEO traffic. In this session, Rand Fishkin explores the world of real-time, social, news, images, video & expanded listing results with specific recommendations for how to get included, stand out and win clicks.
• 9:45am – 10:30am: How to Win Rankings and Influence Competitive Local/Maps Results
  • As Google Maps and the 3/7/10-pack results have become more competitive, SEOs have been thinking less about the question "what are the local ranking factors?" and more about "how do I beat that guy in the top position?" David Mihm explores the answers with specifics about how to jump to the top of the pack.
• 10:30am – 10:45am: Morning Break
• 10:45am – 11:45am: The Science of Twitter Success
  • What makes some Twitter updates spread across the web while other languish in obscurity? Hubspot’s Dan Zarrella examines the science of tweets, retweets and clicks and provides specific, actionable tactics for how to improve the results marketers derive from promotion of their content on Twitter.
• 11:45am – 12:30pm: Presentation Off: How to Pitch SEO
  • Distilled’s esteemed director, Will Critchlow, has never lost against Rand, but they’ve also never faced off in the US. Watch Rand and Will on SEOmoz’s home turf as they break down how to pitch SEO internally to your team/managers or externally, to a potential client. Specific strategies of how to win the battle for marketing dollars will rule the day. Voting to be determined by a show of hands immediately following the presentations.
• 12:30pm – 1:30pm: Lunch
• 1:30pm – 2:00pm: Earning Direct ROI on Social Media
  • Social media tends to send traffic that clicks once, visits fast and leaves without much engagement. Yet, we know that over time, these branding touchpoints and positive references can lead to awareness, influence and, ultimately, conversion. In this session, SEOmoz’s community manager, Jen Lopez, shows real life examples of how social media can lead directly to conversions. She’ll also cover how to track clicks to and conversations about your site/brand that happen across the web and map these to the metrics that predict web success.
• 2:00pm – 2:45pm: Site Architecture & Best Practices for Big Site SEO
  • Large sites frequently struggle against indexation, navigation and organization issues. In this session, Marshall Simmonds, chief search strategist for the NYTimes, About.com, and many other large content-based sites will present solutions for effectively analyzing the problems inherent with large sites, identifying solutions and implementation. Specific topics include controlling faceted navigation, creating index-worthy category and sub-category pages as well as XML sitemap & internal link optimization.
• 2:45pm – 3:00pm: Afternoon Break
• 3:00pm – 4:00pm: Uncovering a Hidden Technique for SEO
  • You’re familiar with optimizing for a keyword by placing it on a page and acquiring anchor-text targeted links, but this session goes in a completely different direction. We’ll be pulling back the curtain on a new way to rank higher, and a process to do it! Led by Ben Hendrickson, SEOmoz’s Senior Scientist, this session will go heads down in the math and science of how search engines crawl, index and rank web pages.
• 4:00pm – 4:30pm: Constructing Effective SEO Audits
  • As the director of consulting at SEOmoz, Lindsay built dozens of audits for clients like Microsoft, Etsy, SimplyHired and more. In this presentation, she’ll share her methodology for delivering a site audit that clients and managers will appreciate and actually use!
• 4:30pm – 5:30pm: Conversion Rate Optimization
  • One of the web’s foremost experts in conversion rate optimization, Tim Ash will be sharing case studies and specific tips for how to make more of the visitors who click into customers.

Tuesday, August 31st

• 9:00am – 9:45am: 10 Sites the Earned Amazing Links: How they Did It & What we Can Learn
  • Sometimes, the best way to learn is through direct observation. In this session, Rand will walk through 10 sites that achieved top rankings through remarkable link acquisition strategies. He’ll explore not just where they earned links, but why those links were created and what other SEOs can take away from the success stories.
• 9:45am – 10:30am: Reverse Engineering Your Competitors’ Rankings
  • Why does that page rank above yours? Until you know the answer, you’re optimizing in the dark and potentially wasting massive amounts of time, energy and resources on metrics that won’t move the needle. In this session, Wil Reynolds, head of digital agency Thinkseer, walks through their process for strategically de-constructing the search results, determining the keys to ranking and executing on those metrics.
• 10:30am – 10:45am: Morning Break
• 10:45am – 11:30am: Manual Link Building: That’s Right; It Still Works
  • Picking up links one-by-one may not be highly scalable nor incredibly fun work, but it does work. In this session, Distilled Consulting head of US operations, Rob Ousbey, walks through the power and process of manual link building. If you’re ready to put your shoulder to the grindstone, you can have a serious impact on your business with these tactics.
• 11:30am – 11:50am: Top 10 Tips for Community Building
  • The power of user-generated-content and user engagement to build up a site’s reach, branding and SEO is phenomenal. SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin walks through his top tactics for attracting an engaged audience.
• 11:50am – 12:10pm: Top 10 Tips for Blogging
  • Blogs are still one of the most powerful ways to build content, draw in links, grow your branding & attract new customers. Ian Lurie, founder of Portent Interactive and Conversation Marketing has a list of unbeatable tips to maximize the value you get from blogging.
• 12:10pm – 12:30pm:Top 10 Tips for Paid Search Optimization
  • Paid search will draw in $25 billion dollars in the US alone this year – a lot of that won’t make much of an ROI. Joanna Lord wants to make sure that doesn’t happen to you. Join her as she walks through 10 amazing tips to get high value out of paid search without spending a fortune.
• 12:30pm – 1:15pm: Lunch
• 1:15pm – 2:00pm: Designing Your SEO Strategy
  • Formerly the head of technical marketing at Yahoo!, Laura Lippay’s responsibility included managing SEO across dozens of the web’s most visited sites. In this session, she shares her process from years of experience and her popular blog series on SEOmoz covering the design and execution of an SEO strategy.
• 2:00pm – 2:45pm: Advanced Keyword Selection + Targeting
  • The basics of keyword research are well known, but discovering terms and phrases that are on the verge of becoming popular, in the middle or tail of the demand curve or have cyclical demand can be a huge advantage for your website. Tom Critchlow, Head of Search for Distilled, presents killer tips on how to select the right keywords and use them in the right ways to maximize your search traffic potential.
• 2:45pm – 3:30pm: The End of Analysis Paralysis: Tracking What Matters & Ignoring the Rest
  • Too often, the overwhelming quantity of data we get from tools like Google Analytics, Omniture, Conversion Rate Tracking + Testing Software can overwhelm us. SEOmoz’s Joanna Lord is here to put an end to the overload and give striking examples of how to build an analytics dashboard that records what matters and ignores what doesn’t so you can make the right decisions about what to invest in.
• 3:30pm – 3:45pm: Ice Cream Break
• 3:45pm – 4:30pm: How to Make SEO Data Reporting Sexy
  • Ready to take your data visualization skills to the next level? Join Distilled’s Will Critchlow as he remakes the tedious process of SEO reporting on keywords, links, traffic and SERPs into something not only beautiful, but useful and ready to apply to the real world. Your clients & managers will be head over heels when they see the amazing, actionable data visualizations you present.
• 4:30pm – 5:30pm: No More Secrets: SEO Veterans Spill the Goods on Tactics that Work
  • 6 Expert Practitioners of SEO will share their most powerful & actionable tips for all things web marketing. If you’re seeking an unfair advantage over the competition, listen closely – it doesn’t come any better than this. Join Ian Lurie, Will & Tom Critchlow, Laura Lippay, Wil Reynolds & Todd Friesen for a remarkable session.
• 7:00pm – 12:00am: SEOmoz Annual Garage Party!
  • Bowling, billiards, beer and more! Don’t miss our favorite party of the year, replete with free drinks, food and entertainment.

Wednesday, September 1st (Tools Training)

• 9:30am – 10:30am: A Deep Dive Into Link Research w/ Linkscape, Open Site Explorer & Keyword Difficulty
  • These three tools comprise the most powerful resources available for advanced link exploration, algorithm reversing and competitive analysis. In this hour, Rand Fishkin shows how to apply the full spectrum of data to strategize, measure and acquire links.
• 10:30am – 10:45am: Morning Coffee Break
• 10:45am – 11:45pm: Getting the Most from the New (REDACTED UNTIL LAUNCH)
  • Obviously, I can’t provide a description without giving too much away. Needless to say, though, it will be big
• 11:45pm – 12:15pm: Adding Value to Your SEO w/ Q+A, the mozBar + SEOmoz Labs
  • Rand walks through the best practices and some hidden ways to employ PRO membership utilities from Labs, Q+A and the mozBar. There’s a lot of information and functionality to be found here and with Ran’d guidance, you’ll be able to get maximum value from these products.
• 12:15pm – 1:00pm: A Sneak Peek Into SEOmoz’s Product Roadmap & Call for Suggestions
  • Join Adam Feldstein, head of Product at SEOmoz and Rand Fishkin, CEO, for a look at the product roadmap for SEOmoz over the next 6 months. We’ll be soliciting your feedback, too, so please come ready with your ideas!

Bonus: Oilman is Our MC!

We’ve employed copious quantities of beer, cookies and B-rated action movies on DVD to compel Todd Friesen, aka Oilman, to MC the event for us. We’re honored to have Todd run the show, make sure our panelists stick to their time slots and badger anyone who tries to hold back critical information. In exchange, he’s promised to wear his pearliest white hat and make sure every attendee has a phenomenal experience.

That smile means he’s up to something… (via jenn.matthews)

Thanks Todd! We’re showing our appreciation by bolstering your follower count on Twitter.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the PRO Seminar and showing off our big August launch too!

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One of the most exciting things to happen to me in the last couple of months is to see a group of bloggers come together to do the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook together.

In this post I’d like to share the story of how one blogger got a group of bloggers collaborating together using the workbook and in doing so grew in his leadership within the niche.

A few months back I was approached by Paul Steinbrueck from Ourchurch.com with an interesting request. He wanted to take a group of bloggers from within his niche (Church/Christian bloggers) through the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook. They were going to tackle it over 6 weeks rather than just 31 days (to give people weekends off) and had set up a forum area for bloggers participating to interact. They were also offering some rewards for those participating, held some reviews of blogs taking part etc.

I was really excited by the idea – while I’ve run live versions of 31DBBB here on ProBlogger before this was one of the first times I’d seen a group of bloggers from a single niche work through it together. The potential for collaboration and encouragement from a group of bloggers all working in the same niche was powerful so I gave it my blessing and offered all those participating 25% off the workbook.

What happened over the next 6 weeks was great to watch. You can see Paul’s announcement post calling people to join here. I’m not sure of the exact numbers of those who participated (I heard early on that it was at least 23 but know that another network of bloggers joined in so there were more than that – and based on those who bought the eBook with the discount code it was around 40).

Over the coming weeks I had emails from quite a few participants feeding back how much they had gotten out of it. Most commented on how much more powerful it was doing it as a group. Not everyone made it to the end (6 weeks is a long time to commit) but it seems that those who did saw some tangible benefit. Paul surveyed bloggers at the start and end of the project to measure the results and here’s what he reported:

For those who read at least half the lessons and did at least half the assignments the results were stunning:

• Pageviews increased 97%
• Visits increased 48%
• Unique visitors increased 67%
• Comments increased 152%
• RSS subscribers increased 13%

Paul went on to report:

“While some of this growth is probably a temporary bump due to the project itself, the most remarkable improvement came in an area that is certain to have a long lasting impact – how participants rated themselves as bloggers.

Those who read at least half the lessons and did at least half the assignments prior to the 31DBBB project rated themselves on average at 3.0 out of a possible 10.  After completing the project, they gave themselves a 6.9 rating, almost a 4 point jump. Wow!

Clearly these folks feel they learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence through their participation in this project.”

You can read more about the results of the project in Paul’s post here.

Run Your Own Niche focused 31DBBB Challenge

In the coming months you’ll see another live version of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog here on ProBlogger. It’s going to be bigger and better than ever before – however it strikes me that what Paul did in this niche focused project could be beneficial to others too.

The idea of joining with other bloggers within your niche is a powerful thing. Not only did Paul’s challenge help bloggers improve their blogs in isolation, it helped them come together and network, collaborate and strengthen their whole niche.

Paul was already fairly established in his niche but in pulling them together Paul also build credibility, trust and authority as a leader within his niche. The project really helped grow his own blog as well as genuinely helping others in his niche.

So while I prepare to release the next live version of 31DBBB later in the year here on ProBlogger – if you’d like to lead a group of bloggers in your own niche through 31DBBB I’d love to hear from you.

As most of you know – the 31DBBB workbook is a process of 31 sets of teaching combined with 31 action items to help any blog improve. It covers a variety of topics which will apply in almost any niche – but they work best when you’re sharing the journey with others (particularly others in a similar niche).

For any group of more than 5 bloggers wanting to work through the workbook together I’m happy to set up a 25% off discount code to help you get started and I’d be happy to tweet out to my own network that you’re running a group and are looking for other bloggers in whatever niche it is that you’re running it for.

You’ll need to coordinate and manage the project yourself by gathering people together and setting up some way for everyone to collaborate (perhaps setting up a private WordPress.com blog or using a social networking tool like Ning) but I’m happy to help out with a discount and by giving it some Tweet-Love.

If you’re interested in this – try to gather together 5 bloggers and then shoot me an email via the contact form here at ProBlogger with your details and the niche you’re running it for and I’ll get it set up for you.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Become the Blogging Expert in Your Own Niche by Running a Blogging Course

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Would you be interested in joining with a group of other bloggers for a month long intensive program of blog improvement? If so – please read on:

ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook has been downloaded many thousands of times since it was launched last year. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive – however the one negative that I’ve heard quite a few times has generally been:

“It’s great…. but I’m only up to day 13….”

OK – you can change ‘13′ for 11, 17, 25 or any other number – the consistent feedback I’ve had from some buyers of 31DBBB is that they’ve found it very worthwhile…. but that they didn’t get to the end – often because they got distracted.

I was talking with Chris Garrett about this a week or so back when we met up at SXSW and as we talked about it an idea for a ‘31 Days to Build a Better Blog Bootcamp‘ emerged.

The main idea behind this more intensive and collaborative approach to 31DBBB was that it be something that we run for a small to medium sized group of bloggers to work through together.

It’d be based upon the 31DBBB workbook but also include some extra teaching audio/calls, the opportunity to ask questions and perhaps a forum/community area for participants to share what they’re learning and interact. We’d also have some incentives/bonuses for people to complete the 31 days/tasks to help people keep moving rather than getting distracted.

There would of course be some additional cost on top of the workbook to be involved in the bootcamp – to pay for the extra time/resources we’d need to assemble – but we’d do our best to keep it affordable.

Are you interested?

If this sounds like something that you’d like to participate in to help you kick start your blog – please add your name and email address to the form below. This will give us an indication that there is interest but also give us a list of people to invite to participate in the first bootcamp (if there’s enough interest). There’s no obligation to participate – but by adding your details below you are just giving us an expression of interest.

Note: if you can’t see the form above it could be due to you using an ad blocker plugin in your browser. If you switch it off for a moment and refresh the page you should be able to view it.exercise

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog Bootcamp – Are You Interested?

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Brian Clark over at TeachingSells is at it again – giving away some great free teaching.

The TeachingSells program has been closed to new participants for quite a few months now but in the coming weeks they plan to open the doors again. In the lead up to it Brian’s put together some great free content that even if you don’t signup for the full course you’ll benefit from.

For starters there’s a cool (and quite funny) new video to introduce you to the ‘teaching sells philosophy’. See it here:

Once you’ve watched it sign up for the free goodies including:

• A Free 22 Page PDF report – Forget Everything You Know About Making Money Online (And Start Making Some)
• An audio version of the same report
• The outline of a 20 Step Process Map to build an online training business
• A great instructional video on ‘traffic’ (an excellent watch)
• 3 case studies (audio and transcripts) that illustrate how 3 online entrepreneurs have used Teaching to build successful businesses online.

I’ve just gone through all the free stuff and have come away freshly inspired even though I’ve previously taken the full Teaching Sells course in the first time they ran it.

The reason I particularly like Brian’s teaching is that many bloggers get stuck in a rut of thinking that the only way to make money from blogs is by running ads or promoting affiliate programs. While some bloggers make it with this approach many choose to blog about topics where this model is really tough. Brian present another model of making money online that I think many bloggers could use to monetize previously un-monetizable niches.

To me what he teaches is a common sense next step for many blogs that seem to ‘get stuck’.

Yes – you do need to give an email address to get the free stuff but if you know Brian’s approach you know he’s not one of those guys who goes over the top once he’s got you on his list. Yes you’ll get information on the Teaching Sells course but subscribers to Brian’s lists know that he also gives extra stuff (articles, videos etc) along the way and he’s someone who completely respects unsubscribe requests.

I hope you’ll find this great free content worthwhile! Grab it here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Get These Free Goodies at Teaching Sells

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Posted by randfish

I’m thrilled to announce that after months of hard work, SEOmoz’s biennial Search Engine Ranking Factors is finally launching. Every two years, we survey 100 of the industry’s top SEO minds. In 2009, 72 SEOs participated in the data gathering process, answering survey questions that consumed hours of time. The resulting document is an amazing aggregation of data about how search engines rank documents and, at least in my opinion, should be read by anyone serious about practicing search engine optimization.

The document contains five important sections:

• The Overview – offering the most high level view of the ranking elements
• Ranking Factors – the raw data, showing the importance and level of consensus for each factor; this year also includes a set of opinions on how geo-targeting across countries is perceived.
• Link Building – this year, we’ve also added a section asking our SEO participants which methods they find most effective for link acquisition. I think this data is tremendously valuable and interesting for anyone seeking to engage in link building campaigns.
• Additional SEO Data – we asked a few specific questions around SEO to gauge the opinions of the experts; lots of cool stuff in here, too
• Contributors – a list of those who participated in the survey and details about who they are and where you can find them on the web

My great thanks goes out to Timmy & Sam here at SEOmoz, who helped create this year’s document and to all of the generous participants from across the SEO world. Practitioners in more than a dozen countries around the world, all of whom have extremely busy schedules, gave up their time to help those learning SEO get a better view of the subject – please join me in thanking them.

If you’ve got questions, feedback or want to bring up interesting topics, feel free to do so in the comments on this post.

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Since launching 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook there have been many reviews written by other bloggers of the resource. I’ve not really linked up to too many of them as I’m naturally a little shy about promoting my own work – but today was challenged by another blogger to step out of my comfort zone a little and share some of the testimonies.

OK – so here’s a sample of what others have written about the workbook!

“If you’re ready to get over the hump and take your blog to the next level, download the 31DBB Workbook and follow it daily. Until it becomes habit.” – Lynn Terry

“I highly recommend that anybody who blogs for business purposes reads this book. You may want to print a hard copy of this electronic book and put it in a three-ring binder for easy reference. And keep a highlighter handy…you’ll need it!” – Write Associate

“If you want to improve your blog but somehow always procrastinate, therefore, I would highly recommend the workbook.” – Daniel Scocco

“Darren’s not known as “ProBlogger” for nothin’. In 31DBBB, Darren teaches you proven methods of improving your blog and engaging your readers. Since completing 31DBBB, I’ve noticed an increase in traffic and it’s helped me hone my blogging mission.” – The Mogul Mom

“The cost of this valuable resource is only $19.95. That makes it almost an impulse purchase. Darren is one of the best known bloggers in the world. All of his works are top notch and his latest offering is no exception. If you want a better blog, you can have it in the next 31 days. Go get it.” – John Chow

“Participants in Darren’s program are reporting great things—increased traffic, deeper reader engagement, broader networking with other bloggers, creative new ideas, getting through bloggers block, and more. And at $19.95 it’s a steal.” – Brian Clark

“Darren knows what he’s talking about, so definitely check out whichever of his books pertains to you.” – Shawn Collins

There’s a lot more been written around the blogosphere on the workbook but these were the reviews that I found at the top of Google’s rankings when I searched. If you’ve got your own review on your blog – feel free to link to it in comments.

Don’t Have a Copy Yet? – learn more about the workbook and secure your copy here.

Update on Sales – a few people have asked me how the workbook has been selling. I don’t have exact figures on hand as those sold in a bundle with a book on SitePoint are yet to be tallied up but it’s been a profitable journey so far. My estimate is that once the SitePoint figures are tallied up that over 3500 will have been sold with more sales coming in on a daily basis.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

What people are saying about the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook

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Give your Blog a Kick Start with this 31 Day Challenge.

Regular readers of ProBlogger are familiar with the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project that we ran here recently.

The concept was simple: bloggers set aside 31 days to be intentional about improving their blogs.

Each day for 31 days readers were presented with a daily task and teaching to give them concrete ways to take their blogs to the next level – the goal being more readers, higher quality content, deeper reader engagement and higher levels of creativity and energy for the blogger.

Challenges included writing tasks, promotion techniques, methods to deepen reader engagement, creating thinking exercises, ideas for breaking through bloggers block and much more.

Today I’m releasing a Workbook that puts a fully updated version of 31 Day Challenge in your hands

If you already know about it and want a copy now – you can buy it now here.

Why a Workbook?

Over 13,000 bloggers signed up for the initial challenge and the feedback was fantastic.

Bloggers who’ve taken the tasks seriously are reporting increases in traffic, greater reader engagement, fresh inspiration for posts and a greater sense of where their blog is headed.

However two common requests came from participants repeatedly:

• 1. People wanted to do the challenge at their own pace (some found daily tasks too fast, some too slow).
• 2. People wanted all the content in the one place (so they could keep it somewhere handy and dip into it again and again over time).

As a result I decided to put together a downloadable workbook version of the challenge.

The work book is professionally edited – contains new content, unique to the workbook and it is available to purchase today in two ways.

Two Ways to Get the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook

1. Get the Book By Itself For $19.95

Download the 31DBBB workbook as described below for $19.95 USD.

To order it with this option simply hit the following ‘buy now’ button and you’ll be taken to PayPal where you can finalize your payment and download the workbook immediately.

2. Get the Workbook + Online Marketing Inside Out Book For $29.95

SitePoint (who helped me with editing the book) are also releasing a new book (a hard cover book not an e-book) today – it’s called Online Marketing Inside Out.

It is a great resource for those wanting to market products or services on the Web. This book shows you how to reach customers through podcasting, blogs, social networks, video, email, and contextual advertising and much more.

To get this 2-for-1 deal simply head over to SitePoint where you can read more about the book they’re offering and will receive both books when you order. Order Now (via SitePoint).

What You Receive with the Workbook

The 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project is all about giving participants a series of 31 daily tasks to help them make improvements in their blogs. This workbook takes this goal a step further with:

• Refreshed and Edited Versions of the Daily Tasks and Teaching
• New Bonus Material – each day has extra tips, questions and reflections (6000 extra words of content to help you extend the daily tasks and help you to apply them)
• Notes Areas – if you print out the book there is room to take notes, record ideas and make plans to help you implement the content
• 94 pages of content – actually we put two pages on each page in the book so it’s actually 188 pages.

Grab Yourself a Copy Today

Whether you’ve completed each of the 31 Daily tasks already and want to have a copy to dip into again and again as you continue to develop your blog or whether you’re yet to really start 31DBBB – I hope you’ll find this workbook helpful.

Grab your copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook here

PS: How are Bloggers using 31DBBB?

One of the things that I’ve loved about 31DBBB is seeing how it is being used so differently by different participants.

While originally designed for bloggers to work through over a month – the feedback that we’ve been hearing from bloggers indicates that 31DBBB is being used in a variety of ways including:

• Intense Training – bloggers setting aside days, weekends or weeks to go through multiple tasks at once
• 1 Task a Day – the way we designed it – one day at a time
• 1 Task a Week – bloggers taking their time with the challenge and making the tasks week long tasks
• Monthly Cycle – bloggers using the tasks again and again each month as a monthly routine for their blogging.
• Occasional Inspirational Resource – bloggers dipping into 31DBBB on a more occasional basis – using it on days when they have time or lack inspiration.

The great thing about 31DBBB is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way. Daily tasks don’t need to be done daily or in any particular order as all but two are independent tasks that can be repeated time and time again to help you grow a dynamic blog.

Grab your copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook here

PS: A special thanks to the team at SitePoint who helped with cover design and editing as well as to Reese Spykerman with help with layout and design.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Get Your Own Copy of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog WorkBook

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If you’re looking for some more training in building a blog after our 31 Day challenge I’ve got a special offer for you in this post.

Since finishing 31DBBB yesterday I’ve had a number of participants in the project email me to ask what other training that they can do to keep improving their blogs.

The realization that it seems many have had is that when you invest time and energy into your blog it does improve – our 31 day project has led many people to really step up their blogs and continue to see them improve.

As a result of these reader questions I’ve approached Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick from the popular Become a Blogger course to see if they’d be willing to open up their course again to 31DBBB participants (and all ProBlogger readers). I chose Become a Blogger because I think it’s at a level that many 31DBBB participants will find useful.

Get Become a Blogger for $1 for 2 Weeks – Yaro and Gideon didn’t hesitate to agree and then blew me away by offering ProBlogger readers access to their course for just $1 so that people could sample what they offer and see if it’s something that they want to continue with.

The deal is simple – Become a Blogger is normally $77 a month (it goes for 6 months) but if you sign up as a ProBlogger reader you get a trial period of two weeks for $1. If you don’t want to continue just email Yaro and Gideon and canceling your membership.

What is Become a Blogger?

This is a course for those just starting out with blogging or who have started but are struggling to set it up a level. Here are the 8 modules covered in the video training:

1. Get Your Blog Up And Running Fast And FREE
2. How To Optimize Your Blog For Maximum Search Engine Performance
3. How To Create Powerful Content For Your Blog, Consistently and Without Fail
4. How To Use Images On Your Blog To Make You Stand Out From The Crowd
5. How To Create A Different Dimension To Your Blog By Adding Audio
6. How To Breathe Life Into Your Blog Using Online Video
7. How To Create Multiple Streams of High Quality Traffic To Your Blog
8. How To Make Money From Your Blog

There are a variety of good bonuses also on the sales page including a forum are and teleconferences to help you step it up.

You can read full details of what is included in the modules and bonuses on the sales page of Become a Blogger. They also have some free videos on that page to give you a feel for what the course is like.

PS – Don’t have a Blog?: if you don’t yet have a blog then this course is relevant for you as it does have a module on setting up blogs from scratch. Others who already have blogs will find modules 2-7 well worth their time.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Get 2 Weeks Access to ‘Become a Blogger’ for $1 [Exclusive to ProBlogger Readers]

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Today Patrick O’Keefe from iFroggy Network and the author of the book Managing Online Forums shares how appreciation can help grow the community on your blog.

As online community managers and administrators, bloggers and general social media participants, we sometimes get so caught up in growing our community, that we forget to appreciate what it is that we do have.

Appreciation is a powerful thing. If you manage an online community and are concerned with encouraging a healthy, positive atmosphere and with retaining members, there is one simple, relatively easy thing that you can do to improve your chances of doing both. Appreciate your contributors.

What brought this to mind was a recent message that a member sent me over at PhotoshopForums.com, where he thanked me for thanking members for their contributions because, he felt, it was a part of what made the community great. Now, you may be thinking – “you, Patrick, the administrator, thank people on your community. What’s the big deal?”

Well, it made a big deal to this gentleman, who wrote a really nice message, expressing his love of the community and highlighting my notes of appreciation as a major reason for him loving it. It was a great, kind message that meant a lot to me. Beyond just the personal sentiment, it meant that what I had wanted to be expressed; was expressed. The member received my message of appreciation loud and clear.

When I say messages of appreciation, what am I talking about? Drawing from the forums example at PhotoshopForums.com, primarily I am talking about thanking members for good contributions, in the very thread that they make them in.

For example, let’s say someone joins the community and asks a question, in an effort to find out how Photoshop does something. Then, one of our members replies with the answer, in detail, written in a kind and helpful manner. And then, after the member replies, saying that it has helped them, I also reply – thanking the person who provided the answer and, perhaps, welcoming the member who asked the question, if they are new.

It’s not like I write long posts to do this. “Great stuff, Dave!” “Excellent work, Joe.” “Thanks, Bob.” Basically short messages of appreciation, letting them know that I am reading and that I appreciate what they are doing within the community.

The member who contacted me reasoned that all too often, when people try to help someone, they disappear or they don’t say thanks. That is simply the reality of running a community where support is a large part of what you offer. That’s life and it happens. But, my messages had helped to soften this and offset it and make people feel more at ease and at home, as a valued member of our community.

I know this is a simple concept. I recently gave a talk at South by Southwest Interactive where I discussed responding to feedback. I didn’t consider any of it to be earth shattering. In fact, to many, I believe it was probably common sense.

But, I feel that when something is common sense, sometimes we take it for granted. We must remind ourselves. People want to help. People want to be appreciated and they want to know that someone cares. As the leader of a community, you can help them understand that.

You may say, “well, Patrick, you just say those things like a robot – you don’t mean it.” No, no, no. I do mean it. I mean it deeply. Yes, I may be repetitive in what I say. But, I only say it when I mean it. I don’t randomly pop it into threads without any care or without reading the thread, nor do I say it on every good post I see. But, I try to make an effort to see great contributions and say thank you.

How this helps you retain members should be clear. People like to be in a place where they are welcome, where people notice them, remember them, appreciate them. Remember the line from the “Cheers” TV show theme? “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came.”

As cheesy as I know that sounds, it’s also true. Maybe not everyone knows their name, but some do, and they are appreciated and recognized. That’s the point.

How does it encourage a good environment? If people feel appreciated, that’s instantly a better environment than if the opposite were true.

But, also, members take cues on how to act from staff members. If you and your staff have bad habits, members will pick up those bad habits. If you and your staff have good habits, members will pick them up, as well. You and your staff are an example. Take this power seriously and responsibly.

You can appreciate members in other ways, as well. You appreciate them by listening to their feedback. Not doing what they say, necessarily, but listening openly and considering it.

In addition to public posts, I also like to randomly send a private message to a member who is doing a good job, just to say hey and to let them know that I’ve seen their posts, that I like what they are doing and to please keep it up because we appreciate them. Simple and genuine.

There are many ways to thank people in a more public way, as well. Having a member of the month program or a yearly awards program (where you and/or your community vote and select winners) can be a great way to show appreciation. Make sure that these programs have meaning, though, and are awarded to the truly deserving.

Making someone a member of your staff can be a form of appreciation, but that’s not what it should be about, in and of itself. Staff spots should be reserved for people who set a great example for members to follow, who follow your guidelines and who communicate in a kind and respectful manner consistently for an extended period of time. Don’t hand out staff spots to your top posters without thought. Make sure you pick people that you can work with to accomplish the goals you have set for the community.

Appreciation is a powerful thing. It can open doors, start relationships, give people happiness, bring people back and give them confidence. In the interest of cultivating community, please consider how not just appreciating people – but making sure they know you appreciate them – can enhance your community.

Patrick O’Keefe is the owner of the iFroggy Network and the author of the book “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online forums, communities and social spaces. He blogs at ManagingCommunities.com and is on Twitter as @iFroggy.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Enhance and Grow Your Online Community Through Appreciation

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Today your task in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to spend some time looking at your blog’s statistics/metrics package to see what you can learn from it.

I encouraged participants in 31DBBB to make sure they had a metrics package installed on their blog before they started so I hope you have at least a month’s worth of stats to look at. If you’ve not got a stats package installed yet you should get one on your blog ASAP as it’ll help you track how it is performing.

Take some time out today to do a little analysis of your blog’s statistics. There is a wealth of information in them that can be incredibly useful.

Important Note: this exercise tends to become more useful over time. If this is the first time you do it then hopefully it’ll be illuminating – but the longer you have been collecting metrics on your blog the more useful it can become as you track trends and see patterns over time. As a result – this type of exercise should be something you build into your regular blogging routine (I try to do an in depth review each month).

Some of you will be used to doing this type of analysis so you won’t need a lot of help in doing it – but if you’re new to this here are a few metrics to pay particular attention to:

1. Overall Visitors – this is the metric most of us probably look at the most so I’ll start with it. Are visitor numbers on the increase or decrease? What might be the reasons for these changes (ie could it be tied to frequency of posting, topics, other sites links etc).
2. Most Popular Posts – what posts are being read more than other posts? Knowing this is important for a couple of reasons. For starters it gives you a hint of what topics you could write more on – but secondly it gives you some key pages on your site to optimize (ie think about how you can drive people from these posts deeper into your blog).
3. Referral Stats – what sites are sending you the most traffic? If it’s another blog or site, perhaps you could develop a relationship with them to see this increase. If it’s Search Engines, how can you adapt the posts to see it rise even more using on page SEO techniques).
4. What Questions are being asked? – what questions are readers typing into search engines to find your blog? These could make great future posts (learn more about how to do this here).
5. What Keywords are sending traffic? – knowing the keywords that people search for to find your site is very useful. It helps you to know how to optimize your blog for SEO even better and can give hints on what content to write more of.
6. What seasonal traffic is there? – are there any seasonal trends that you should be aware of and could use to capture more traffic? What caused the bumps in traffic and how can you prepare yourself better for next time those conditions might happen again (read more on seasonal traffic and how to capture it).
7. Daily/Weekly Trends – another trend to watch is what traffic does over different periods of time. What are the most popular times of day? What days of the week are most popular? Knowing this gives you ammunition in planning when to release new posts.
8. What’s Your Bounce Rate? – metrics packages like Google Analytics provide you with a ‘bounce rate’ stat which measures how many people arrive at your site and then leave again without viewing any extra pages. I find this a key metric to watch and attempt to change. Set yourself some goals to get this rate down and the page views viewed per visitor up by making your blog sticky.
9. Page Views Per Visit – Similarly to ‘Bounce Rate’ – This is a good one to watch over time as it shows you whether those coming to your blog are going deep into your blog’s content or simply looking at the page they arrive on. My goal on my blogs is to see this number increase over time. For tips on how to increase page views also check out 4 Quick and Simple Ways to Increase Page Views on Your Blog.
10. Time on Site – Another stat that can give you a sense on whether readers are engaging with your content is to look at how long they stay on your blog. The longer they are staying the more likely it is that they’re reading, commenting and interacting (or that they forgot to close their browser).
11. New vs Returning Visitors – This one gives you a sense of whether you’re succeeding in converting people to loyal visitors.
12. RSS Stats – If you’re using a tool like Feedburner to manage your RSS feeds you’ll have access to more useful information. Feedburner provides you with the number of subscribers but also what posts people are reading most of (again showing you what content people are engaging with most which gives you some good information on what type of content is working best).
13. Outbound Clicks – Not every metrics package will give you this type of information but if you have access to it knowing what links on your blog people are clicking to leave it can be very useful. It’s not that you want to stop people clicking links – but knowing what links they click on can give you some useful information on what motivates your readers to click a link and what type of information they want more of.
14. Where are People Clicking on Your Page – not all stats packages track this but some like Google Analytics or packages specifically for it like CrazyEgg will create heatmaps or visual pictures of what people click on when they visit your blog. I find CrazyEgg’s heatmaps better than Google Analytics but you do need to set it up on specific pages of your blog to be able to see them. This is very useful information when thinking about the design and layout of your blog but also can help you test how to layout posts to see where people click.
15. Exit Pages – A similar metric is knowing what page on your blog people are leaving from. A couple of years ago I checked my stats and noticed that the % of people leaving a particular page on my blog was triple other pages. When I investigated I found that the page had some very bad formatting issues on it that made the page almost unreadable – I was able to fix the problem and keep more readers engaged as a result.
16. Monetization Stats – many of you are looking to make money from your blogs so it’s also important to pay attention to any stats you have at your disposal on how your blog is performing in this way. The metrics you have at your disposal will vary from income stream to income stream but if possible try to work out where on your blog the income is coming from specifically. For example if you use Google Analytics and AdSense you’ll be able to see what specific pages are earning more than others. Otherwise – use what ever channel or tracking options your ad network or affiliate program gives you to help you work out which posts are performing.
17. Other Stats – There are plenty of other stats that can be revealing when you dig into them. Knowing the Geographic regions of your readers can be helpful as you think about content but also is useful if you’re dealing with advertisers, knowing the screen resolution and browsers people are using to view your site is good from a design perspective etc. Also worth doing from time to time is looking at other stats like how many posts you’ve done over time (post frequency can help you monitor how you’re performing personally) and how many comments you’ve had on your blog over a period of time and on which posts (which can be a great indicator of what kind of posts are working best on your blog and how reader engagement is going).

What Would You Add?

There are many other types of metrics that most statistics packages will provide you with. Feel free to share the metrics that you check most often and how you use them to improve your blog in comments below. Also let us know what tools you are using to check your blog’s metrics.

Warning: Don’t become a stats addict. Most new bloggers go through a period where they are checking their stats every hour. This is pretty normal but over time can add up to a lot of wasted time.

I personally try to do a quick check of stats throughout the day 2-3 times (just looking at traffic numbers mainly to see if there’s any spike in traffic that I need to know about) and then month put aside an hour or two to go deeper and look at some of the above statistics.

Further Reading: Using Google Analytics to Compare Traffic from Different Periods of Time – in this post I use the ‘compare’ feature on Google Analytics to track how my blog is going over time by comparing it to other periods.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

17 Statistics to Monitor on Your Blog [Day 30 - 31DBBB]

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