Maki at DoshDosh is running a survey about displaying your Feed Count and has tagged me with his meme: I would really love to know the purpose (if any) behind putting up a feed count chicklet. Other secondary issues I want to examine include the following: How long did it take you to reach the current feed count? Was the growth gradual? Any notable external factors that had a positive or negative effect? Apart from displaying subscription buttons, what other ways (if any) do you use to encourage … [Read more...]
Cool SEO Metrics Firefox Plugin
This one goes in the "possibly useful but definitely cool in a geeky way" category. Yeah, a lot of what I like goes in that category, heh. In this case I am talking about a plugin called Search Status which I was just reading about over at dailyblogtipsSearch status is a very useful extension for bloggers, web developers and Internet marketers. Once installed Search Status will add a tollbar to Firefox, displaying various information about the page that you are visiting. The information includes … [Read more...]
10 Reasons Commenting is Good For Bloggers
Remember last week I asked you to try commenting more? Please try this. For the next week make an effort to comment on more blogs. Each day post more comments than the last, on more blogs. Comment well, not just "ditto". Add something of value, your own thoughts. So what was all that about? I don't think we comment enough and I put that down to bloggers not realising the benefits. Here are the benefits as I see them, let me know if I miss any: It's the right thing to do - people … [Read more...]
Adsense Profits Are Fragile
A reader asked me about my monetization plan for chrisg.com and was surprised that I didn't feature Adsense. My answer? Adsense is too fragile for me. Then I read Darrens Speedlinking postShoemoney posts an email from someone trying to extort money from him as an AdSense publisher by threatening to close down his AdSense account. I got the same email asking me for $250 a month (woohooo - I beat Shoemoney by $50 a month). I guess I need to watch out for 'special robots'—¦.While this guy … [Read more...]
Blog Readers Show Loyalty in Ad Age Study
Threadwatch.org reports on a Ad Age study researching blog reader habits. It showed they are loyal, reading the same blogs regularly, and judge them based on quality of writing. A specific topic focus is also valued highly.Most interesting to me was the confirmation of how people find new blogs67.3% of the respondents follow links to learn about new blogs. What is more blog readers rely upon recommendations on blogs (22.9%) more highly than simply finding a blog via a search engine (19.9%).I … [Read more...]
GeekyTraveller.com For Sale
Darren Barefoot is thinking of selling GeekyTraveller.com according to his post it has the following statsGoogle PageRank: 6 Incoming Links (according to Google): 1410 Technorati Rank: 98, 860 Visitors in 2006: 16, 314 Current average daily visitors: 65I did comment over on his blog but my comments rarely appear over there so thought I would comment here. My advice to Darren was to get in touch with The Krug. David has experience of blog sales from both sides of the table. In website sale … [Read more...]
Comment!
Two tips I always advise when someone asks about starting a blogRead lots of blogsComment often and wellBefore even considering setting up a blog I think you should do those things, and when you have started blogging you should do them even more.I imagine most of you already do read blogs. Perhaps more than you can cope with. Feeds are usually not a problem. You see, I don't think bloggers comment enough.Please try this. For the next week make an effort to comment on more blogs. Each day post … [Read more...]
Internet Marketing vs. Blogging
As a strange hybrid of Internet Marketer and Blogger (amongst other things) I noted with interest Darrens worry about Talking to Internet Marketers about Blogging The —˜daunting' feelings don't come from being afraid of public speaking (I've been doing that for years) but more because to this point I've always found internet marketing —˜types' to be slightly different (or extremely different) to blogging —˜types'.I spend all my time with one foot in both camps so I feel I … [Read more...]
Why We Need a Next Generation RSS
When dealing with customers or subscribers to an email newsletter you know you are dealing with an individual. You can judge the depth of your relationship with this individual and look for signs of their level of satisfaction. RSS subscribers are anonymous.Most emails are personalised somewhat, at the very least "Dear Sir/Madam" becomes "Hi Chris". RSS is one-size-fits-all.OK on many blogs you can subscribe to a category, comments or a particular thread. Many companies provide custom RSS based … [Read more...]
The Right Way To Approach Communities With Content and Traffic
Garrett French learned the hard way how to approach forums for content and traffic One key difference is that I opened a forum thread to DISTRIBUTE content rather than to ask a question and start to GENERATE content. I did ask a question at the end of the thread, but my intention was partly to get a quick shot of traffic which in my rear view mirror now looks like a bad idea.Communities can sniff out someone just there for the take, you need to contribute in a meaningful way. Rather than what … [Read more...]
Hi, I’m Chris Garrett: I work with business owners and entrepreneurs to help them build lasting and profitable relationships with audiences who grow to know, like and trust them
