By $5 Submissions aka Gene
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Weblogs (personal journals/commentaries published online for public consumption) or blogs, in one form or another, have been around for a long time. However, blogs have been gaining a lot of traction over the past three or so years because of the following (not exhaustive) factors (a) a lot of journalists/literati types use this format to flesh out their ideas for future paper articles or publish their formerly paperbound archives (b) a subculture of influential internet tastemakers and opinionmakers have turned on to blogs as an alternative source of opinion/feedback/trendspottin (c) search engines use blogs as one pool of "trusted" sources for prioritizing page rank/importance (d) an increasing number of surfers appreciate the personal feel of blogs and tend to form loyal niches.
Blogs are important to webmasters as a promotional vehicle because of reasons (b) (c) and (d) above. Using the dynamics present in these blog qualities, webmasters can tap in to an influential and potentially lucrative pool of traffic. However, given the recent rise of blog spiders and post bots (and search engines' reactions to it), it has become increasingly clear that there are definite right and wrong ways to use blogs as marketing tools.
Moreover, through the use of XML and RSS, blog owners can syndicate each other's content resulting in a network of sites with their own small pools of loyal traffic which can aggregate to a large pool of traffic. This pool is worth the effort to woo but be careful of the wrong ways to go about getting blog traffic.
Here are some common mistakes in blog promotion and proposed solutions.
Wrong way 1: shallow posting
Many blogs (not all) have areas where surfers can leave their comments. These are often spidered by SE's in addition to the bulk of the articles in the blog. In addition to the obvious problem of drive by spamming, even sophisticated blog marketers that don't outright spam are sometimes guilty of very shallow posts that are thinly veiled attempts to get the blog article's reader to their site.
Solution: Contribute something new to the discussion in terms of news links, original commentary, or provocative questions. The best way to get traction would be to post excerpts of articles you have written in your own blog that are general but interesting enough to add to the discussion/article at hand.
Payoffs: 1:1 content parity which may lead to direct clicks to your blog (and the deeper advertising links contained therein). Less, if any, complaints from the blog owner regarding spamming. Search Engines have a higher chance of spidering YOUR site.
Best solution: promote only your OWN blog with excerpts and comments and put your promotional links DEEPER inside your own blog.
Encourage other blogs to link to you through RSS/XML by (1) updating your blog daily (2) offering funny/ironic/unique content.
Wrong way 2: drive by spamming
Blogs are very personal creations. A person who goes out of their way to create a blog obviously feels they have something important or worthwhile to say. If a passing surfer drops obvious spam links or text blurbs with spam links into the journal--EXPECT a lot of complaints. Moreover, your spam will probably be deleted quickly as well. A good commentary on the rise of blog spam and how to prevent it is located
HERE
Many webmasters are also using automated blog spambots to seed the blogosphere (Webwide collection of blogs) with their spam text and link.
This is a serious problem and must be avoided. Advertising is the art of seduction--seduction means persistence and soft but constant credibility building. Spamming blogs with blatant links to sponsors or shallow text promoting something will only draw the ANGER of blog owners.
Solution: Contribute content and do all the hard selling in deeper sections of your own blog. Promote your own blog by sharing your non-porn compelling content. Remember--the selling must happen in your OWN blog instead of others.
Solution pt 2: Advertising in your blog. The better ways of advertising involve 'advertorial' blog entries which you seed (sparingly) your own blog with. These blog entries compare products, gather testimonials, or feature original stories. This format is great for penis pills or FastSize.Com type penish enlargement devices. They also work great for occassional dating experience stories which subtly push AdultFriendFinder.Com, DatingGold.com, or other dating sites. Great for ClickCash.Com's iFriends as well.
Wrong way 3: drive by se spamming
Wrong way #2 is easy to spot. Same with Wrong Way 3--this form of spamming involves dropping a lot of keywords in one link and linking it to a site you will spam from. Blog owners hate this as much as drive by spamming because the comments/excerpts are crap and don't make much sense. Many online pharmacies (before recent Google updates) were promoted this way--involving a long non sequitur of medication brandnames hyperlinked singularly to one url.
Search engines are quickly putting an end to this practice by not spidering these links. Even if they do not kill it directly by omission, the blog owners are sure to kill these as well.
Solution: The same solution as above. Contribute actual content and excerpts. Advertise from your OWN blog.
Wrong way 4: shallow advertising at your own blog
The blog crowd is attuned to a specific way of writing. Take the time to actually write articles or short entries on your blog site. Don't advertise on all your blog entries UNLESS you are swapping traffic/links with other advertising blogs. Advertise in a subtle manner--don't hit the surfer over the head with a big ad. Weave the ad and its value proposition into your day's journal. Use differing sponsors. Mix your ad links with innocuous non profit links to non-governmental organizations/research sites.
NEXT: The Right Ways To Blog and Maximizing RSS/XML
(c) 2004
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