Mikes Blog Marketing Tips

On this day, let us not forget those who have served, are serving and especially those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us.

Let us also not forget the beacon of freedom we, as Americans, represent to the rest of the world. So, where ever you are in this great country of ours, enjoying a beverage of your choice, be sure to pour some out on the ground for the those who have served to never return and for those who’ve paid the ultimate sacrifice in their struggle for the same freedoms that we enjoy.

Have a really great weekend, everyone.

Peace.

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Wow. I’m simply flabbergasted at the audacity of some these Entrecard bloggers who seem to feel that they are entitled to a comment from every person who drops a card on their widget. Seriously. You know, I don’t expect everyone who drops on my card to comment on everything I blog about. Part of marketing yourself with a blog is developing relationships with people and you don’t do that by demanding that everyone who visits your blog make a comment. To suggest that everything you blog about is going to be found interesting by everyone who visits your blog is simply ludicrous. In fact, it would suggest that you may not be the blogger you think you are, if you believe that.

I read Graham’s post about the new algorithm they’re trying to come up with to ensure the bounce rate comes down. He seems to believe that EC’s bounce rate is so high only because of the “drop and run” crowd, those people who are dropping 300 card in 15-20 minutes in an effort to gin up their traffic rates. And I agree with him to a point. Where he and I differ is putting the high bounce rate solely on the “drop and run” crowd. Because that’s not entirely accurate, nor do I believe that’s the only reason for EC to be doing this. Absolutely all of us have, at one time or another, “dropped and run”. Maybe some more than others, but for one to suggest that they never have is simply in denial.

And then there’s the “I don’t write posts for myself” crowd. You know who I’m talking about. Those people so full of themselves that they actually believe that every post they put out is somehow a chapter out of a best selling Stephen King novel and who just cannot believe that someone wouldn’t be so moved by said chapter, that someone wouldn’t want to leave a rambling, overbearing comment filled with glorious platitudes reveling in the artistry and sophistication prevalent throughout said post. Well, I don’t know where the “I don’t write posts for myself” crowd lives, but down here in the real world, even Stephen King, Issac Asimov and the great Shakespeare himself have all been known to put out work that was less than spectacular.

So, if you want your posts to be sticky, if you want folks to comment, the burden is on you, of the “I don’t write posts for myself” crowd to get with the program. Even if your post are way out there, way wacked out and completely controversial, the simple fact is, not everyone is going to into what you write about, no matter what. And if people aren’t into what you write about, they damn sure ain’t gonna leave a comment. So do us all a favor. Get off your pompous, overbearing, sanctimonious high horse and join us down here in the real world. Because, in part, of your attitude, you may have just helped screw up Entrecard for ALL of us. Remember, this ain’t Burger King and no, you can’t have it your own way.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope this finds you well.

By now, I seriously doubt there are many people who aren’t aware of the many social networking sites that exist online today. Social Networking sites are communities of like minded people who share similar interests. In fact, I’ll bet that you are a member of at least one social networking site. But did you know that you can use your social networking site to market yourself, your blog, a product or service?

Sure you do.

Everyone who has an online presence of any kind understands the need for marketing their blog or website. In fact, the whole purpose of a blog is to share your thoughts on a particular subject matter and what good is that if you have no one to read them? That means you going to have to market your blog, especially if you’re looking to make some money from your blog. No traffic equals no money and we don’t want that, do we?

Now, unless your blog suddenly becomes an overnight success with the major search engines, I’d advise against relying solely on Google and the like to be hooking you up with major amounts of traffic. My blog ranks in the top 10 for the keywords “blog marketing tips” in Google and Yahoo and I can tell you first hand, not much of my traffic comes from the organic search engines. I’m starting to think that all the hype about ranking high in the SERPS in a bunch of crap, but that’s a topic for another post. My point is, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can rely on just organic search engine traffic.

As I’ve already said, I’m betting that every single one of you reading this post belong to at least one social network or community. In fact, those of you who are in Entrecard, Blog Catalog, MyBlogLog or Blogged know exactly what I’m talking about. All of you use those online communities to showcase your blog to each community and in doing so, let people know that your blog exists. What most people do is leave a link to their blog on their profile page which lets people know that you have a blog. There are others who private message others in the community, encouraging them to visit. You want to be careful about private messaging people. Hammer them too much or blatantly advertise and you run the risk of being labeled a spammer. Spamming folks isn’t cool and I want you all to be cool, don’t you?

There’s a ton of other social networking sites out there, like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, just to name a few. But don’t just run out there in cyberspace and start joining all of them you can find. Keeping track of a bunch of social networking sites requires a great deal of effort. That means work, my friends. While making friends is a good thing, it can be very labor intensive if you’re signed up with 100 different social networking site and trying to keep up with all of them. Another way to make friends and get your blog out there is to make comments on other people’s blogs. But, again, make sure you are making relevant comments that deal with the current post of the blogs you visit. That means you need to actually read the post, my friends. Making a comment just to be making a comment is called spam. Not only that, making spammy comments is WAY disrespectful. When you disrespect other peoples work like that, you disrespect yourself in the process. And that’s not cool, you feel me?

Done right, using social networking site to market your blog can be a very effective means of driving traffic to your blog. Just use some common sense and don’t do anything you wouldn’t want done to yourself and you’ll be fine. And along the way you find yourself making some really good friends.

Hey, my wife and I found each other that way.

But that’s a topic for another blog post. 

That’s all for today. I hope this finds you having a great day.

Update: I have managed to get my about page about 90% done, for those of you keeping track. It is live and you can access it by clicking on the “Welcome to my world” tab above. Thanks for visiting. Peace.

AN UPDATE: I’m working on a new blog which will be about things that are of more of a personal nature like Bloggers Unite Day and the like so that I can get back on track with what this blog is really more about. Also, I hope to unveil my web site soon, which is still a work in progress (you are more than welcome to visit it here if you like), however it is live right now.