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Archive for 'commenting'

Knowing Your Traffic Source Can Help Your Blog

Friday, September 23rd, 2011 at 11:25 pm

Comments (57)

A few days back my mate Mitch did a post called Guest Posts, Comments Or Interviews; Which Drives More Traffic To Your Site where he examines where most of his traffic comes from, other than the search engines. It turns out that the site that generates most of the traffic happens to be this one. While some of it would have to be attributed to the amount of comments he leaves on this blog I would say his titles also have a lot to do with it. Although Mitch would say he doesn’t incorporate the best of titles I am sure that even if that it the case they still stir the reader enough for them to click on the CommentLuv link. This just goes to show how important a CommentLuv blog is for getting you that extra traffic.

Anyway, that post got me to thinking about where all my traffic was coming from, and that is saying something as I normally don’t bother all that much with statistics.

Where My Traffic Comes From

Well, as one would expect most of my traffic comes from Google, second on the list coming from direct traffic. Surprisingly my third greatest traffic source was Zaparena, a site that I’ve done several posts on and in case you’re interested I will link to those posts in the related posts section at the end of this post, sending me 238 visitors.

The next half dozen or so came from blog sites that list me as a dofollow blog. Although they seem to bring in a fair few visitors I would love to do a study to see how many of their comments actually get deleted as spam. I’m sure that the traffic I get from Zaparena is of a higher quality as it is more targeted than those blogs who are more interested in getting a link back to their site than anything else. Read the rest of this entry

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Social Media Should Begin At Home

Friday, August 12th, 2011 at 11:42 am

Comments (74)

Everyone knows how important comments are to a blog. They virtually breathe life into a post! When people see that a post doesn’t have many comments the first impression could well be that the post itself is inferior. This could cause them to move on without reading the post or at the very least it can give them a preconceived perception that the post is somewhat imperfect in some way.

Knowing that to be the case I have over the years conducted a personal crusade to show people how important comments really are and what they should do get more comments on their blogs. I’ve even written posts, like Teaching People The Proper Way To Comment to help commentators improve their commenting skills so they have more chance of getting their comments approved. More importantly I’ve tried to show them how leaving great comments will actually increase traffic to their blogs.

In my post How Much Do You Really Want To Cheese Off Your Readers I listed reasons why I wouldn’t comment on people’s blogs finishing off with a poll asking people to vote on what things stopped them from commenting on a blog. I think it’s time we analyzed those results.

What Stops People From Commenting!

Closed Comments: OK, obviously you can’t comment if you have the comments closed but the thing to be aware of is that if people can’t comment they may decide not to stop by anymore. 59% of people said selected this choice.
Need To Subscribe: 36% voted that they would not comment if they had to subscribe to do so.
Third Party Comment System: 34% voted that they would not comment on blogs that used third party comment systems. I know those people who use it say people will comment regardless but the facts speak for themselves. What really makes no sense is some of these people say it actually attracts comments and that is just crazy.
Poor Blog Content: 27% said that they would not comment on a blog with poor content! That alone should be incentive enough to publish the best content you know how. Make it interesting and appealing enough and you’re bound to get more comments.
Comment Moderation: 25% of people said the blogs who constantly moderated their comments pissed them off to such an extent they stopped commenting and if they’re not going to comment they probably won’t read it anymore.
Pop Ups: 25% of people found pop ups so annoying they left without commenting, and probably without reading it as well.
Rude Blog Owners: These are blog owners who were unnecessarily rude to some commentators. 23% said they would no longer comment on blogs that had rude owners. Message here is to be polite at all times. Show that you are the better person.
Being Ignored: Only 16% said that being ignored would stop them from commenting. I’m one of those 16% so if you don’t want me to ~~comment~~ read your blog then don’t bother replying to my comments.
It’s A Blogger Blog: only 16% said they wouldn’t comment on a blogger blog. I occasionally do but only if I know the blogger.

Well, that’s it for that poll, and with the end of one we have the birth of another.

Why Social Media Should Begin At Home

Once you’ve voted please leave a comment telling us why you chose the ones you did. You may also choose to use the social media buttons on this post to spread the word amongst your contacts because as with most polls you always get a better result when a larger representation of people take part.

Back From L.A. With A Tip For Bloggers

Monday, April 4th, 2011 at 5:54 am

Comments (50)

In case you’re wondering why it’s been a little quiet around here the past few days, don’t worry WassupBlog is alive and well, it’s just that I decided to have a little break from blogging while I took Anna, my wife, to the States for our 25th wedding anniversary. We spent the first five days in Hollywood staying in the Renaissance Hotel which was simply superb. While in Hollywood we did a lot of the touristy things which has brought us into contact with a lot of sales people and those in the hospitality industry. For the most part I can safely say that these guys really know how to deal with the public, those very people who are necessary to their livelihood, especially as those working in the hospitality industry depend on getting tips and the size of those tips is usually related to the quality of the service they provide.

I truly believe their efforts to please the paying customer helped to make our stay in the States a pleasurable one. I also believe that, tips aside, a lot of it had to do with the on the job training these people received. It got me to wondering about how we can utilise good service when it comes to our blogs. Naturally it all has to do with the way we interact with our readers and the obvious way we do that is through our comments.

It’s a damn shame that all those A List bloggers feel that it’s not necessary to provide the interaction as they feel their time is best spent elsewhere such as finding ways to increase their revenue. The problem being that all those newbie bloggers seeing their lack of interaction may get the impression that the interaction isn’t really necessary. So they go off and write some great posts and getting a couple of comments think they’re heading in the right direction only to find them dry up not realising that it’s all because they haven’t taken the time to interact with their commentators.

What we need to remember is those guys have already established themselves and the only reason they’re getting all those comments is because most of the commentators want to get noticed, perhaps hoping it may lead to the A Lister visiting their blog or some other miraculous event. What we need to know is we’re not those guys and we have to work smarter and that means replying to as many comments as we can and maybe even going the extra mile by visiting their blog and leaving a quality comment in return.

Something else that I’ve learned while being away is that failing to post regularly leads to a direct drop in traffic and I reckon I don’t have to tell you the last thing any blogger wants is a drop in traffic. As to my time in the States, well I reckon I’ll leave that for future posts. For now you will have to make do with these few photos.

So, What The Frak Is Good Content Anyway?

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at 2:22 am

Comments (51)

If you’re an inspiring new blogger surfing the net you’ve probably come across a whole heap of blogs telling you that to succeed you need to supply killer content and how Content Is King! It must be pretty damn frustrating though when everyone is telling you how important content is but no-one is really telling you what constitutes good content. It’s a little bit like Obi-Wan Kenobi telling Luke Skywalker, Use the force Luke. Man, if I was Luke I’d be saying use the force, what the frak is that and slapping Obi-Wan around until he came up with the goods.

My mate Mitch has a great post dealing with this subject called What Is High Quality Content but before you head off there or I give you my version of what good content really is I highly recommend you read Blogging It’s All About Presentation. You’ll find this post very important because no matter how good your actual content is if you don’t present it properly you’ll lose your reader before they even get a chance to see how good your content really is.

So, what is good content? Well, I can’t speak for everyone else but I’ll tell you what I look for in a blog, or website, when I’m looking for something on the Net. One thing to keep in mind is that like beauty, content is in the eye of the beholder. What is good content to one reader may be complete gibberish to another, so when writing your content keep your reader in mind by asking yourself one very simple question, what is it you want your reader to gain from your post? If you can supply that you’re on your way to providing some killer content. Now let’s look at some different types of content.

How To Guide: There are a lot of how to guides on the Net and if you want yours to stand out you want to make it better than the rest. Some people like to show others that they are a wealth of knowledge, that they know their subject and they try to do this by using jargon that only another expert will understand, Unfortunately these experts already know what you know and probably aren’t going to bother searching for your particular solution so your time has been wasted.

When writing your post you should write it in such a way that someone without your extensive knowledge will find it easy to understand. Give examples that are easy to follow and if it involves a step by step process then so be it. To promote discussion it’s also a good idea to let your reader know that you’re happy to answer any questions that they may have.

Be Factual: Don’t just make things up because I hate reading something that has no factual basis behind it. I don’t believe everything that I read on the Net and if something doesn’t make a whole lot of sense I’ll check it against other sources and if they disagree with the one I was reading I will frown upon the site that wrote all that BS and will more likely than not never go there again.

If you’re not completely sure that your knowledge on any given topic is up to scratch it’s important to research it thoroughly before posting your article, listing your resources so that others can see you’ve done your homework. It’s also a great idea to give your personal opinion, if warranted, as this is more likely to generate discussion, and discussion is something all good bloggers crave for.

Entertainment: A blog can be many things and they have come a long way since those early days when they were little more than an online journal. There are a lot out there who write merely to entertain others and do it so well that they have amassed quite a following. If this is your purpose for having a blog then my best advice is to be yourself because doing anything else will only work against you.

These blogs naturally aim to entertain the reader. They may take the form of story telling or provide other forms of light entertainment like posting humorous or entertaining videos. Whatever the content the aim is to bring some sort of joy to the reader. If I come away from one of these blogs with a smile on my face then the blogger has indeed written some good content.

Useful Content: Different from the ‘how to guide’ point listed above, by useful content I’m referring to content that answer a readers need. A good example of this is my post that resolves the problem of Safari not working on the iPodTouch. That particular post gets about a hundred views a day and with the aid of MediaPass is now earning me a steady income, not as much as I would like but we all have to start somewhere.

Many people may not believe that they have anything of use to offer anyone but if you’ve ever found a solution to a problem then you should write about it because there is every chance that someone else has or will come across the same problem and will look for a solution online. That solution may well be the content you’ve provided and if that’s the case they will consider your content to be of the good kind.

The problem is that although you may provide the best content on the Net it’s all pretty well useless unless others get to see it. When it comes to blogging good content is only one part of the equation of having a successful blog. Another very important part of the equation is drawing people to your blog. There are many ways of doing this, the most important of which would have to be SEO because done properly this will guarantee that the search engines will send you the targeted traffic that you require to have a popular and perhaps even a profitable blog. As far as SEO goes you’ll find in your wanderings that one of the most important facets of SEO is selecting the right keywords and you’ll find Market Samurai to be the most popular and efficient keyword research tool in your arsenal of blogging tools.

Other than paying for advertising a great free way of getting your name out there is to comment on other people’s blogs. Teaching others the proper way to comment on blogs has been one of my most popular articles, and if you want your comments to count you will want to do it properly. Rather than me listing all the free ways of getting traffic I reckon Adrienne more than adequately covers this in her post Free Methods For Driving Traffic To Your Blog.

Phew, this is way longer than I intended this post to be, reckon I got a little carried away. So, what do you consider to be good content when you’re surfing the Net?

Sometimes It’s Better To Just Not Give A Shit

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010 at 5:00 pm

Comments (80)

I’m Sire and I am a Blogaholic! That’s exactly how I began my Comment Policy page and I suppose at the time I thought it was kind of cute. The rest of that post explains the rules that commentators have to live by if they expect their comments to be published. It also talks about the a movement I started, and although it never really took off it’s one of the main reasons why this blog is so successful.

I wasn’t always a blogger. I started off as a casual in the retail business while I worked my way through teachers college. I was a semester from completing the course when I decided it wasn’t for me. There were those who tried to convince me to change my mind saying that I should just stick it out until I completed the course. But I knew it was t Mood Meter he wrong thing to do because my heart wasn’t in it and I figured I wouldn’t be doing those kids any favors if I became a teacher. I felt that all those good teachers I ever had were good because they loved what they did and all the bad ones were those whose heart just wasn’t in it and I didn’t want to be one of those.

I’ve now been on this earth for some fifty two years and one of the little gems I can pass on to those who will come after me is that there are times when it’s best to just not give a shit. One of the reasons why there is so much strife in this world is that people get so uptight over the smallest of things. Instead of taking a breath and deciding that it’s not all that big a deal and how it would be better to let things go they get angry.

Anger is like poison. It corrupts the soul and destroys reason. It’s because of anger that people say things they don’t really mean, thereby hurting the ones they love. It’s anger that clouds judgment and causes people to make the wrong choice. Anger should probably be sitting there right alongside envy.

I believe there was many a time when this attitude saved me from making a mistake, both in my business and in my personal life. I have to admit it hasn’t always been easy in the real world because when a situation hits you more often than not you have to deal with it then and there.

Things should be different in the online world and I can’t understand it when I see people getting upset over something that they’ve read. I’ve seen it happen over a bloggers review of a product and how the owner of the product didn’t agree with it. Rather than conversing with the blogger in a calm and orderly manner, trying to resolve the issue he went on the attack and was a complete ass. After reading the comments I could see that his actions was hurting his reputation and credibility, and it was all so unnecessary.

: Image via Wikipedia

I was attacked on one of my blogs by a bloke who turned out to be a huge bigot and I admit at first I was pretty upset. Although I was pretty pissed I knew it would be wrong of me to reply while I was in that mood. I sat there for a long while and I thought about it and I decided that as wrong as his comment was it couldn’t really hurt me unless I let it, so I decided not to give a shit because it wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth it.

Once I calmed down I replied calmly trying to show him the error of his ways which seemed to only make things worse. The calmer I remained the more abusive he got. Some of his comments were so vile I had to delete them. What he failed to see was that his actions actually did his cause more harm than good and because of this people sided with me.

As bloggers, online marketers or whatever else we want to be while we are online we must always remember that we have one real advantage over those times when we’re in the real world. That advantage is time! Time to take a breath, count to 10 grab a coffee or whatever it takes to calm us down. It’s only when we’re in a calm frame of mind that we’re able to treat the situation rationally.

So, next time someone writes or says something that pisses you off, and it doesn’t matter if it’s on your blog or via one of the many social medias such as Twitter or Facebook just imagine that you’re a duck and that those words are like water falling off a ducks back. This will give you the time to gather your thoughts so that when you do write your comment it’s one that does you proud rather than one that may lead you on the road to self destruction.

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010The FlexSqueeze Theme gives my blog that professional look. I loved it so much that I bought the developers license. It's the easiest most customizable theme I've come across. See how easy it is to change your theme's appearance! Compare it to Thesis to see how much better it is! Check out some of the latest Latest Updates

I highly recommend you to get your FlexSqueeze copy today!