The Mass Guest Bloggging Strategy: Can You Do It?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post saying that I needed to hustle more , and one of the goals I set to myself was to reach 50,000 subscribers by July 21. Many readers posted a comment or emailed me asking how I planned to achieve that goal. Well, I have many things in mind, and I'll talk about them individually. Today I want to talk about the first strategy I'll use: mass guest blogging . You already know what guest blogging is, and why it is an effective promotional strategy. It basically allows you to rea..
Daily Blog Tips (8 hours ago)
What Is Your Blogging Goal for February?
A few days back I asked readers a question: What Have You Been Putting Off and What's Holding You Back? Some of the responses to the question in comments (and via email and Twitter) revealed a lot of bloggers really wanting to step things up and get what they've been putting off done. So – lets set some goals – what do you want to achieve by the end of February? I'm not going to be calling you up to check up to see if you're meeting your goals – but hopefully in putting them down publicly yo..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (9 hours ago)
Two Biggest Advantages of Small Businesses SEO
With search engine optimization , small businesses have two advantages larger competitors often can't match: creativity and agility. By embracing these two philosophies as part of their digital marketing DNA, small businesses can carve out a search marketing strategy that runs circles around larger competitors. Today, we'll briefly explore why creativity and agility are advantages small businesses have for search marketing, and some quick tips to activate each. Creativity as a search marketing advantage Larg..
Online Marketing Blog (12 hours ago)
What Happened In My Birth Year
What Happened In My Birth Year is a new site I've been working on. Feedback to this project very welcome, bug reports too! [Thanks Tony , Niniane and Aaron for early testing!] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: What Happened In My Birth Year | Comments ] [Advertisement] Directory Journal: Search Engine Friendly Directory
Google Blogoscoped (13 hours ago)
Personalization of Google Results Creates a Huge Advertising Opportunity
Posted by randfish Like 150 million or so other folks, I spent today watching the Superbowl. As a marketer, it's hard not to pay close attention to the advertisements, and this year featured a heavy focus on sending viewers to the web . However, I was a bit surprised that we didn't see anything like 2007's Pontiac advertisement : At the end of the ad, Pontiac invites viewers to "Google" their brand to learn more. This seemed a bit odd in 2007, but today, it would have been a brilliant marketing move..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (23 hours ago)
The Elements of an HTML Link
Posted by RobOusbey Links. We often talk about why we want them and how to get them, but today I'd like to go back to basics and look at the constituent parts of the HTML code behind them. This is definitely a post for the new SEO, or web-developer looking to expand their experience, but even experienced search marketers may want to comment the nuances of some parts of the humble anchor tag's attributes. Here's a couple of example links; the first is a link to the White House's website, the other is to Distil..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (1 day ago)
9 Tricks I Used To Triple My AdSense Earnings In 30 Days
Guest post by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips . I have been using Google AdSense to monetize my blogs and websites for as long as I remember. In fact it was the first method I ever tried (I made a whooping $15 on my first month… back in 2005). Over the years I migrated to other methods (e.g., direct sponsors and affiliate marketing), which made AdSense become merely an inventory filler. I was still making around $1,000 monthly from it, but whenever I could I would use other methods over it. Then some month..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (1 day ago)
Google to Air Super Bowl Ad?
On their way to become a more normal company, Google went from No Ads to Mostly Good Ads. Two examples are the “story” videos for for Google search and one for the Nexus One phone. Some speculations are that Google will now air an ad in the Super Bowl due in some hours. Wikipedia explains: The Super Bowl has been the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the premier association of professional American football, since 1967. In most years, the Super Bowl is the most-watched Ameri..
Google Blogoscoped (1 day ago)
How I Got Some Paying Sponsors Without Really Meaning To
A guest post by Josh Hanagarne . World’s Strongest Librarian was about four months old when I got interested in sponsors. I’d read the articles about how to do it, and none of them sounded that plausible for me and my situation. For one, my traffic wasn’t impressive, certainly not to the point where sponsors were approaching me. And, while my blog has become slightly more focused in its first ten months, it wasn’t targeted at any group of readers in particular, so I wasn’t sure how confident niche advertisers..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (2 days ago)
Frequency of Strip Versions of Various Games (xkcd)
[Cartoon from Xkcd by Randall Munroe, ( cc ) free to share but not to sell] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Frequency of Strip Versions of Various Games ... | Comments ] [Advertisement] Books about Google available on Ebay
Google Blogoscoped (2 days ago)
Google Chrome PageRank Checker
I was just trying to find out the PageRank of a couple of sites using Internet Explorer's Google Toolbar, but something was broken. Google Chrome has a nice PageRank extension , though. As you can see in the screenshot, it's helpful by immediately showing the actual value instead of just a green bar. A couple of times it reverted to zero after loading, but otherwise the values it was showing looked like they were the correct ones. (Considering it doesn't look like it's an offical extension, I'm not sure thoug..
Google Blogoscoped (3 days ago)
29 Debates Bloggers Have about Blogging
Do you want a formula to guarantee the success of your blog? Yesterday I was interviewed by a journalist about blogging and half way though the interview he asked me what the formula for successful blogging was. His question was innocent enough and asked without agenda but as I pondered it and pondered the many successful blogs that we see in our medium it became very clear to me that while it might be simpler to have a formula to follow to make our blogs succeed that there are many many different approaches ..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (3 days ago)
5 Ways to Show Digital Assets a Little Respect
Don't ignore digital assets in your optimization efforts Don’t fight it: Blended search results, and hence digital asset optimization , are here (at least for now). Text content may be your SEO poster child, but with images, video and audio content often appearing in standard search results, digital assets can no longer be treated as the ugly stepsister in the online marketing family. Many companies produce a variety of content and media that never make it to the public web. To this point, the majority of mar..
Online Marketing Blog (3 days ago)
Testing How Crawl Priority Works
Posted by mgalecki This post was originally in YOUmoz , and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. A SHORT INTRODUCTION... We all know that the search engine robots more frequently visit popular pages, i.e. those that have the largest number of incoming links, both internal and external ones. The architecture of a website is usually correlated with the popularity o..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (3 days ago)
Google People Hopper
Google's social network site Orkut has a new application that lets you morph one face into another. Called People Hopper , it was broken yesterday but is working now. I've created a profile for this purpose (I deleted my real one a while ago) and morphed the first picture, Mr. John Cleese, into Tony Ruscoe below: The interesting part here is that the intermediate steps themselves are other people from Orkut. Clicking on any face will take you to their profile. Nice here is that Google does some face detection..
Google Blogoscoped (4 days ago)
BIGLIST Update: SEM Blog Reviews Snarky Edition 020410
Welcome to the newest BIGLIST review of Search Marketing Blogs . We have a little bit of everything today ranging from Chinese focused PPC to the World's Greatest SEO to a steaming pile of SEO Bull$#*t. Enjoy! If you think your blog deserves to be included, then write a compelling and maybe humorous comment below. We'll almost certainly ignore it but you never know. The SEO blog design recognition for this week's BIGLIST update goes to a newer blog from an experienced search marketer: SEO Mofo . I like th..
Online Marketing Blog (4 days ago)
Whiteboard Friday - Choosing an SEO Consultant
Posted by great scott! Will Critchlow of Distilled (who recently took over SEOmoz's consulting business ) is back in Whiteboard studios to help Rand discuss how to Choose an SEO consultant--or any consultant for that matter. Whether you're a consultant yourself, you frequently work with consultants, or you're thinking of outsourcing some work for the very first time, you'll find this week's video worthwhile. Knowing beforehand how the engagement needs to be structured, what you expect to get, where to f..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (4 days ago)
What does treating your blog “Like a Business” really mean?
Guest post by Mike CJ . “Treat your blog like a business” is something we're told all the time. It's solid advice, assuming you want or plan to make an income from your blog, and adopting it as a mindset often leads to the successful transition from a blog into a business . But what does it actually mean? Have a proper accounts system Record income and expenses as they happen. Monitor cashflow – every day if things are tight. There are so many tools out there to help you do this, and many of..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (4 days ago)
Google + NSA?
The Washington Post writes: The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity. Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google – and i..
Google Blogoscoped (5 days ago)
How to Find Guest Post Opportunities For Your Blog
Guest posting is a great way to increase traffic, network with other bloggers, and build links. But how do you know which blogs are good guest post opportunities? In the last couple of weeks, I've been doing a lot of guest posting for various blogs so I thought I'd share what I learned from my experience. Check Blogs For Previous Guest Posts The strategy that worked the best was checking blogs to see if they published guest posts previously. If a blog had published them in the past, then there was a really go..
Performancing.com - Helping Bloggers Succeed (5 days ago)
Getting Started Publishing on Google News
Posted by Sam Niccolls The New York Times, CNN, and Yahoo News each get more traffic than Google News, but in a given month Google News sends almost a billion clicks to publishers worldwide, which makes it an incredibly compelling syndication platform for sites with newsworthy content. But how do you get articles indexed and ranking in Google News? And how can you get your article snippets to appear in the SERPs for Google web search, embedded within the organic listings? In an attempt to answer some of the b..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (5 days ago)
2010 MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Guide
One of the most trusted sources of marketing research and information is MarketingSherpa. I've been a subscriber for many years and always look forward to the reports on Search Marketing, Email Marketing and B2B Marketing. Last year MarketingSherpa started conducting research and publishing a Benchmark Report on social media marketing. The new Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report was recently released and I've had a few days to take a look and will provide a review for our readers. As you can expect, this ..
Online Marketing Blog (5 days ago)
The Third Tribe – Launched [My Back Story]
Just over 48 hours ago those of you on my newsletter list would have received an email from me introducing a new venture that I've been working on – The Third Tribe . Third Tribe is a new collaboration between myself, Chris Brogan , Brian Clark and Sonia Simone . I'm going to tell some of my story of why I'm involved in this venture below – but if you want to skip straight to the offer you can read the story behind Third Tribe, what it is and how you can be involved here . Third Tribe – A Co..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (5 days ago)
Craftsmanship – Principles of Successful Blogs #9
As we continue to explore principles of successful blogging I want to turn our attention to a matter at the heart of the topic – content. Much could be said on the topic but in the presentation that sparked my principles of successful blogging series of posts I spoke at length about the idea of ‘ crafting content ‘. The idea of of successful bloggers displaying ‘craftsmanship' began to strike me after meeting a number of pretty high profile bloggers at the SXSW interactive conference a..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (5 days ago)
Upcoming TopRank Social SEO & PR Events
Our team works hard to stay on top of current best practices and as a result, we're asked to speak at a variety of conferences, workshops and webinars. One of the goals at TopRank Online Marketing is to help companies better understand the current landscape of the digital marketing & PR environment. That includes strategies that can be executed more efficiently and marketing programs that can adjust to persistent change. Hopefully you'll find an event below that fits your needs. Feb 9, 2010 Webinar: Secrets t..
Online Marketing Blog (5 days ago)
The Brain-Computer Interface X Prize
H+ Magazine writes : Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites recently rolled out SpaceShipTwo, a commercial passenger spaceship designed after the winning ship that captured the $10M Ansari X PRIZE for spaceflight in 2004. (...) The latest X PRIZE, however, has nothing to do with the commercialization of outer space. The Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) X PRIZE will reward nothing less than a team that provides vision to the blind, new bodies to disabled people, and perhaps event a geographical “sixth sense..
Google Blogoscoped (6 days ago)
Google Chrome OS Tablet Design Exploration
Google's Chromium.org site contains some pictures “of how a Chrome OS tablet UI might look in hardware” . Design studies for other hardware are available too. [Via Spiegel . Pics CC-licensed by Google.] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google Chrome OS Tablet Design Exploration | Comments ] [Advertisement] Books about Google available on Ebay
Google Blogoscoped (6 days ago)
Get Rich Blogging: Fact or Fiction?
This is a guest post by Jonas Adamson. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here. It's harder than ever to spend even a few minutes online these days without bumping into some get-rich-quick story or advertisement, whether it's news about Ponzi schemes netting crooked financiers billions of dollars or annoying Google sidebar paid ads promising you that you'll make $7,287,964/hour working from home, stuffing envelopes. The siren's call of easy money is a tempting one, indeed, and it..
Daily Blog Tips (6 days ago)
Did YouTube Block Marijuana Questions in Obama Interview?
Google's YouTube allowed viewers to submit a question for US president Obama. Over 11,000 questions were asked and over 667,000 votes were cast, YouTube writes, saying they “collected the top questions”. Now, Toke of the Town however writes that “YouTube Censors Marijuana Question In Obama Interview”: Yes, questions about marijuana were the most popular in the CitizenTube voting Monday afternoon. But YouTube, in a gutless move, decided at the last minute not to present the highest rank..
Google Blogoscoped (6 days ago)
An App Store for Google Docs, Gmail?
The Wall Street Journal writes: Google Inc. is preparing to launch a store selling online business software that integrates with its Web services, according to people briefed by the company, enlisting software developers in its battle against Microsoft Corp. These people said the store will sell business software designed by outside developers to integrate and add capabilities to Google Apps, such as enhanced security features or the ability to import contacts. Google eventually plans to allow customers to pu..
Google Blogoscoped (6 days ago)
Finding Out a Visitor's Name by Checking Their Social Network Browser History
In A Practical Attack to De-Anonymize Social Network Users , the authors write: In this paper, we introduce a novel de-anonymization attack against users of social networking sites. In particular, we show that information about the group memberships of a user (i.e., the groups of a social network to which a user belongs) is often sufficient to uniquely identify this user. When unique identification is not possible, then the attack might still significantly reduce the size of the set of candidates that the vic..
Google Blogoscoped (6 days ago)
Senior Marketers Need Greater Accountability
Posted by randfish I ran across this survey data eMarketer released last week and my heart sank: This first chart looks innocent enough. It's when you look at the next one (from the same report) that things get ugly: As a CEO, an SEO, a web marketer and a participant in social media, this drives me absolutely crazy. The very last item on the list is "conversions, ROI, etc." If your pulse isn't pounding, you might need to cut back on the pharmaceuticals. Absolutely nothing in the analytics world sh..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (6 days ago)
What Have You Been Putting Off and What’s Holding You Back?
In a quiet moment yesterday I asked my Twitter network: “what's one thing that you have been putting off that would improve your blog? (and what's stopping you from doing it now?)” The answers were quite varied – everything from redesigns, to writing E-Books, to posting more regularly to SEO optimization, to monetization. A number of people reflected that just being asked the question helped them to move forward with things that they'd been procrastinating with – so I thought I'd ask t..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (6 days ago)
Lessons from a Fine Dining Experience
Yesterday I had the privilege of eating at a great Melbourne restaurant – Maha . The food was exceptional but what I came away from the meal with was…. well it was an ‘experience' and not just a ‘meal'. A number of things went into the 3 hours that we dined at Maha that stood out and left me pondering what I could learn from the success of this restaurant and apply to my own business. note: I'm not going to draw too many parallels to blogging specifically but rather will put the lesson..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (6 days ago)
Tips for Promoting New Blogs
TopRank's recent Blogging and SEO survey of in-house, agency and independent marketing, advertising and PR professionals revealed that 95% of respondents incorporate blogs as part of their online marketing mix. Nearly 88% have successfully increased measurable SEO objectives as a direct result of blogging. Thousands of new blogs are started by companies and individuals each day. Yet getting a blog set-up, optimized, and launched are just the first steps. No one will know you have a blog to read, subscribe or ..
Online Marketing Blog (6 days ago)
Picasa Web Album Limits (1000 x 1000)
Google apparently previously said that on Picasa Web Albums, you can “Store up to 8,192,000 photos from a 5MP camera”. However, Picasa is limited to 1000 albums containing 1000 pics each... which is far less than the advertised 8,192,000. People complained about this, some wanting a refund for buying additional Picasa storage, and now Google's explanatory text reads “Store up to 10,000 photos from a 5MP camera”. [Thanks Dave K.!] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Picasa Web Album Limits (1..
Google Blogoscoped (7 days ago)
My Most Frequently Asked Questions at Parties (since 2002)
I started blogging in 2002. Since that time the question I'm most frequently asked by strangers at parties who hear what I do has changed 3 times. what's a blog? (2002-2004) how do you make money blogging? (2005-2008) you still blog – doesn't everyone Tweet these days? (2009-2010) I wonder what'll be next? Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger . My Most Frequently Asked Questions at Parties (since 2002) Share This
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (7 days ago)
It's a Feeding Frenzy for Keyword-Rich Domains
Posted by MichaelC It's a well-known fact in the SEO world that Google shows enormous favoritism in its rankings to domain names that contain one or more of the keywords being searched for. If your domain name is a close match to the search keywords all glued together, it's as easy as fishing with dynamite to get on page 1 of the SERPs for that search phrase. While some (like me) might argue (like, against Rand) that it's a flaw in the algorithm, it's not a bug--Google deliberately favors this kind of match. ..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (7 days ago)
I Fight Authority and Authority Always Wins. (And What IS Online Authority Anyway?)
guest post by Kelly Diels I have a problem with authority. Step inside my echo chamber. I'm a blogger, and apparently now a ProBlogger (just quit my job and I'm making money!) so I'm keenly interested in bloggers who blog about blogging. Especially bloggers who blog about blogging for money. ‘Cuz, like, I like to eat. And I figure that reading and digesting and applying the bloggingforcash lessons of those who have climbed this hill a little longer, for a little more money, is a good idea. And up high ..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (7 days ago)
The End of Consulting: A New Partnership & Our Focus on Software
Posted by randfish Today I have two very big announcements. First, SEOmoz is exiting the consulting business to focus exclusively on our software model. And, second, we have an expanded partnership with Distilled (new US site: Distilled LLC ), who'll be taking over many of our consulting clients and opening offices here in Seattle. I'm going to talk briefly about both of these below, then add detail on why we're so bullish about the SEO software market. SEOmoz started in 2004 as a blog where I could..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (8 days ago)
Wikiracing
Wikipedia states : “A Wikirace ... is a race by as many people as you wish, using wikilinks to travel from one Wikipedia page to another. The first person to reach the destination page, or the person that reaches the destination using the fewest number of links, wins the race.” Anyone dare race from Google to Doink the Clown ? [Via Milivella .] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Wikiracing | Comments ] [Advertisement] Books about Google available on Ebay
Google Blogoscoped (8 days ago)
How To Ease the Pressure of Blogging
A Guest Post by David Turnbull of Adventures of a Barefoot Geek After the initial excitement of launching a new blog fades most bloggers are a few steps away from being overwhelmed with the pressure of blogging to the point that they quit, losing the momentum they were building up and all the progress they'd made. This is an unfortunately common occurence. Writing. Guest posting. Commenting. Responding to emails. Continuous learning. It's a lot to take in and if you're not adequately prepared to face challeng..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (8 days ago)
Gmail Buzz?
Scott noticed that when you create a label named “buzz” in Gmail, the app will tell you: “Sorry, you can't create a label named 'buzz' (it's a reserved system label). Please try another name” Does anyone know what this could be? The label wasn't always reserved, according to Scott, who says he had used the name buzz before. Looking up the word “buzz” in Google, we get several definitions, like the following: “If a place is buzzing with activity or conversation, there ..
Google Blogoscoped (9 days ago)
44% of Bloggers Sell a Product or Service Of Their Own From Their Blog
The last poll here on ProBlogger examined a growing trend among bloggers trying to monetize their sites – to sell their own products from their blogs rather than just relying upon advertising and affiliate revenue. Whether it be by selling an E-Book, training program or some other kind of learning program or whether it is selling one self as a consultant or promoting a product from a business that the blogger owns – more and more bloggers do seem to be exploring this as a way to make money. The po..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (9 days ago)
Virtual Pianos
You might enjoy playing this virtual piano . Try pessing the arrows and numbers 1 to 7 on your keyboard, and click on the notes. This other online piano is nice too. [Via Reddit .] [By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Virtual Pianos | Comments ] [Advertisement] Directory Journal: Search Engine Friendly Directory
Google Blogoscoped (10 days ago)
20 Ways to Up Your Blogging Fun Quota
A Guest Post by Christie Burnett . Image Source . Feeling sluggish about blogging in the new year? Being innovative on your blog can be a great way to re-energise yourself. The process of being creative and trying something different can definitely up your blogging fun quota when you are feeling stale and uninspired. Trying something new also has the advantage of showing readers a new side to your blogging persona and this could have the added benefit of engaging a whole new set of followers. And you never kn..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (10 days ago)
5 Ingredients for a Perfect Twitter Marketing Recipe
After reading Lee ’s post earlier this week on how to source content on Twitter , I started to think about the homemade guacamole I made for the football playoff games last weekend. Stick with me here. With my guacamole, I carefully strategize on the right mix of each ingredient to achieve the perfect flavor and consistency. Not enough lemon and lime juice, and the avocados brown too quickly. Too much garlic salt, and the guacamole gets a pungent taste. Twitter as a marketing tool is much the same way. Too mu..
Online Marketing Blog (10 days ago)
Whiteboard Friday - Optimizing Topic Pages
Posted by great scott! This week we're pleased to welcome Marshall Simmonds , CEO of Define Search Strategies and Chief Strategist for the New York Times, to Whiteboard Studios. Whether or not to use topic pages--and how to use them effectively--is a topic of some debate in the SEO world. Well, who better to ask about it than the guy in charge of SEO strategy for the NYT and About.com, two of the topic page-iest sites on the web? If you're using a topic page strategy, or you've considered it, watch this week'..
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog (11 days ago)
Interview with Six Figure Blogger Pat Flynn Available for ProBlogger Newsletter Subscribers
A couple of weeks ago I hooked up on Skype with a great blogger by the name of Pat Flynn who has a fantastic story to share. Pat was working as an architect and was about to get married – life was good – but unexpectedly he was laid off from his job and was left wondering what to do. It turns out that getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to Pat – he took a small blog about an architectural exam (the LEED exam) that he'd been using to help himself study for the exam and turn..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (11 days ago)
Leverage What You Have and Take Your Blog to the Next Level
This post continues my series exploring Principles of Successful Blogs . Have you ever seen a snowball rolling down a hill, gathering speed and momentum and growing in size as it rolls until it gets to a size that will destroy anything and anyone in it's path??? Me neither…. not outside of cartoons anyway…. While the image may not be one too many of us have seen in reality – it's a great metaphor for what seems to happen to many successful blogs. They start small (like any other ..
Blog Tips at ProBlogger (11 days ago)
