User djinferno asked a question over at the Authority Blogger Forum that I know is on the minds of many bloggers. It is a question I see a lot, expressed in many ways "How do I promote my blog" "What can I do to get more visitors?" "How do you increase traffic?" In the thread already there is some great comprehensive advice from glblbuy that I totally agree with. Do read the whole thing but here are a couple of the main points. Have great content - everyone knows content is a … [Read more...]

One of the great things about the internet is the fact you can connect with people from all around the world with diverse backgrounds and interests. In fact I think technology has followed a very human drive for connecting, when techies connected computers together they were really connecting people. Only yesterday I was telling someone how networking got me to where I am. It's true success is as much about who you know as what you know. I owe a huge part of my career to online communities … [Read more...]

Since I wrote about how bloggers make money I have had three different people asking about the controversial topic of paid links. I know from past experience when one or two people ask there are usually many more people who are interested, so here are my thoughts and a small poll to see how you stand on the issue :) It seems to me the various positions can be summarized as follows. Let me know in the comments if I have missed any. Against - It's bad for the web - This is the position of … [Read more...]

I consider myself a pretty clued up geek but since my Social Media Marketing roundup I have been learning loads about my favourite social media internet tools. One new find for me that I am quite interested in is the discovery on CornwallSEO that you can send your Stumbleupon pages to your friends If you stumble a page and want the people who have friended you to check it out. Click the "Send to" button, it will then display all the people you can send the page to. Next time they stumble they … [Read more...]

Social Media seems to be quite a popular topic, you guys seemingly had no problems submitting your social media links. Thanks to all who submitted and for anyone who did not get featured, please try on the next one, better luck next time! So What Is Social Media? The main problem seemed to be from people wondering if they had the correct definition. Some folks have a stricter definition than me but here is mine: The term "Social Media" describes tools, websites and software that allows people … [Read more...]

I have just been going through and editing the Social Media Roundup for tomorrow (submissions closed by the way). As part of the process I have gone through the major social media sites for insights. One thing that is common to almost all of them struck me as missing from Facebook. What is it? Discoverability. Did I just make up a word? My dictionary thinks so ... I define "Discoverability" as the ability to discover or be discovered. Facebook lacks this but Digg, Del.icio.us, Blogs, … [Read more...]

In my last post I asked "Does Your Site Frighten Readers Away?". When you think about websites that attract or distract, what do you think of? Imagine if your website or blog was as friendly as one of these ... Take a good look at the picture above. What do you see? Consider what the publishers have done. Can you understand how they draw us in? I think I had a stroke of luck with the newspaper. Usually I don't buy any newspapers, and if I did it wouldn't have been this particular … [Read more...]

When someone arrives at your website, be it a corporate site, personal site, or blog, they have a couple of questions on their mind: Where am I? What is there to see/do? Why should I care? Many times a potential reader will have these additional thoughts: Woah, what is this guy talking about? This looks like a lot of effort ... Looks nice, but not relevant to me! I'm going to set you some weekend homework :) I want you to look at the following blogs and figure out the … [Read more...]

There are still people who believe the "build it and they will come" idea. That all you need is great content. Unfortunately it is not true. Look at the examples they provide and you will see what I mean. I challenge anyone to come up with an example of content that required zero promotion. There are rare examples though where the content is the promotion. Remember word of mouth is promotion, if the content is ripe for buzz in effect you have created an unpaid team of … [Read more...]

Branding, love it or hate it, try to ignore it, or embrace it, it's there and we have to deal with it. Every part of our blogging, professional and personal lives is impacted by what we do, what people say about us, the brand we create. Below are some of the best links I was sent after my call for blog posts on the subject of branding. As you will see, they are diverse and interesting all. I hope you enjoy! The Brand You I believe the brand process should start with you, so it is quite … [Read more...]