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Archive for 'Social media'

How To Get Your Visitors To Click A Link

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 at 11:57 pm

Comments (50)

We all know that it’s hard enough to get people to visit your blog which is why we all try our best to get as many people as possible find their way to them. This includes such tedious tasks as SEO and the more enjoyable, if not arduous, task of commenting on other blogs and forums. So, we do all the hard yards to get them on our blogs but it all seems such a waste of time if they don’t click on our affiliate links.

This is because as hard as it is to increase a blog’s traffic it’s even harder to get them to click on an ad. We spoke about this in an old blog post called Rotating Banner Problem Resolved By Max Banner Ads where I concluded that we could reduce the effect of ad blindness by showing the reader a different image every time the page was loaded.

Overcoming Ad Blindness

The problem is that even rotating the ads didn’t work for long because people saw them for what they are, an ad! So, the way to overcome ad blindness is to give them something to click on that got their attention but didn’t look like an ad!

Let me ask you something, what is it that almost everyone is into these days? The answer would have to be some sort of social media, whether it’s FaceBook, MSN, or whatever, and being associated with such media they are constantly exposed to their instant messenger notifications. Enter Covert Messenger.

You’ve probably noticed the plugin in action while reading this post. Yep, that’s the one that popped up in the bottom right hand corner of this blog, the one that I’ve configured to look like a FaceBook instant message. That ad has only just gone live and while writing this post it’s already gotten two clicks, as can be seen on the image below.

Heck, since capturing that picture the figures had just doubled, and this post still hasn’t gone live yet! It just goes to show that rather than being turned away people are actually attracted to this form of ad. Of course they are because they don’t realize that it is an ad, even though mine does give it away because I placed that attention image in it.

Can you see the potential in this form of ad? Because people are going to be more prone to clicking on it you want to make sure that it actually takes them to somewhere useful. Don’t send them to some obscure site or squeeze page just to make a couple of bucks, especially if the product is somewhat suspect. So, what can you use it for?

Building Your List: This would be a great way to build that list you’ve always dreamed of.
Promote Your Affiliates: Can you think of a better way to send people to those affiliate products or services that you know and love?
Promoting A Special Post: This would also be a great way to send visitors to a particular post which may actually be promoting something.

I could go on and on but I’m sure you have a great idea of where I’m coming from.

How Good Is Covert Messenger?

Covert Messenger is a great little plugin for two very good reasons. The first is that it’s been formulated around an idea that has been tested and proved and the second is that its so simple to use. I’ve configured it to show a Facebook ‘instant message’ 10 seconds after the page loads. It then disappears after 60 seconds and reappears again after another 10 seconds. If they close the ad I’ve configured it so it won’t appear for another 24 hours. The beauty of it all is that you can change those values to anything you want so it works just the way you want it to.

As usual with any new plugin there appears to be a time limit before they lift the price. I decided to get in early and that wasn’t just because I wanted to save a few bucks. I would have paid much more for it because I can see how this would be a powerful tool to ad to my IM tool.

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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.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011The 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!

Which Is Of More Value A Tweet Or Google’s +1

Sunday, June 5th, 2011 at 4:29 am

Comments (70)

As I’ve been blog hopping the past few days I’ve seen heaps of discussions going on about Google’s +1. Some say they love it, some say they hate it and others don’t seem to give a damn. Those who dislike it seem to think it’s doomed and it’s only a matter of time before Google pulls the plug. Personally, I think as far as Google is concerned the +1 is more than just a social media tool.

Some of the comments on the posts I’ve read asked such questions as to which is more important. Should you delete the Twitter icon just so you can promote Google’s +1 or do you leave both. As far as I’m concerned I believe in giving my readers a choice so I’m not going to pull one just for the sake of the other. Even so, I believe both are of value, one short term and the other long term and I reckon you may just be interested in what I have to say about the value of both social media buttons.

Twitter’s biggest value, as far as promotion is concerned, is short term at best. Let’s say you write a brilliant post and someone with a huge following gives it a tweet. That tweet may be picked up by someone else who also tweets it and on it goes. This can lead to a huge traffic spike, I know because it’s happened to me a couple of times, but unfortunately it is very short lived. If you’re lucky you’ll get a few comments, you might even get a couple of people subscribing to your list, but that’s it. Once the spike is over things go back to normal as if it never happened.

Now we have Google’s +1 button. Is it really a rip off of FaceBook’s like button or is it a lot more than that? If you ask me the +1 will have far reaching consequences as its way more important than merely being tied to social media interaction. Think about it, apart from making the lives of SEO experts, and bloggers miserable, what is Googles main purpose in life? According to Google:

Google’s mission: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

So, they don’t really care about us except for when it comes to two things; the first is making them money by displaying Adsense ads and the second is by us providing quality content for their users, but these pale next to their main purpose for existing, that of providing the best search engine results for their customers.

Why do you think they keep changing their algorithm? I put it to you that backlinks will lose it’s importance sooner than you think. The biggest problem with backlinks is that it may not offer the most accurate way of determining the worth of any given site. Google knows that just because someone has a huge amount of backlinks doesn’t necessarily mean it’s providing the best content. It could also be because they have a bigger bank account or know how to do better SEO than the rest.

What if Google decided to let it’s users decide as to which is the better site? It could well be that Google’s ultimate plan for it’s +1 button goes way beyond the social media aspect. What if it plans to incorporate the results of the +1s into its search algorithm? Let’s say there are two sites discussing the same topic, one with a lot of backlinks and one with only a few. Let’s also say that the one with a lot of backlinks only had a few +1s but the one with a few backlinks had a lot more. Google may decide that the one with more +1s has a lot more relevance, because that’s what it’s users are saying, thereby bumping it up in the SERPs!

Yeah, sure there are going to be a lot of wankers who will try to game the system by fixing the results, but seriously, don’t you think Google is aware of that? After all, they weren’t born yesterday! If I know Google not only have they got a plan to prevent this, they also have a plan to make those who try to rig the system pay for it. Oh, and there are so many ways they could do this, the least being cancelling their Adsense account and the worst being removing them from the SERPs altogether. If you don’t believe me try it and see what happens.

As far as I’m concerned I think the +1 is a great idea and I hope that it takes off. As long as I continue to provide my readers the best content possible it can only have a positive effect. Anyway, that’s my take on it. Do you think I may have hit the nail on the head or do you think I’ve got it all wrong? If I am right, can you afford not to have Google’s +1 displayed on your blog?

Blogging! Why The Hell Do We Do It?

Monday, April 11th, 2011 at 6:24 pm

Comments (67)

Have you ever asked yourself why we take the time to write in our blogs? Let’s not fool ourselves because we all know that maintaining an active blog takes time, a lot of time, and effort. It’s not all about the research needed to write the post, or even working out the SEO, unless you’re using Market Samurai. No, blogging also involves marketing, hitting the social media networks and commenting on as many blogs possible.

Those who have been blogging for awhile know fully well how much time and effort goes into it. While many have given up because they’ve found it was a lot harder than what they were made to believe, from all those get rich quick stories, many still soldier on.

So, do we do it for the money? Ha! How many of us are actually making enough that it covers all the time we’re putting into it?
Maybe we’re doing it for the fame? So how’s that working for you, are you getting noticed yet?

Well, don’t sweat it because we’re all in the same boat and most of the people who tell you they’re not are lying to you. So why the hell are we such dedicated bloggers? Could it be that we love it? Yeah, that could be it because blogging isn’t all hard work, there’s also the thrill we get when someone links to our post or gives it a Tweet. And let’s not forget how great it feels when someone comments on our post and we get a real conversation going. Yeah, the interaction that comes with blogging is pretty cool.

But I reckon the best ever feeling is the moment just after you click submit. You’ve read through it looking for mistakes and everything looks perfect so you click submit and when it’s finally published it hits you. If I was looking for an analogy I reckon the closest one would be comparing it to when you’re dying for a leak but there’s nowhere to relieve yourself and so you hang on and hang on until you see it! A restroom! So you rush in knowing that at any moment you’re going to wet your pants. You run up to the urinal, ladies in your case you’d be rushing to the loo, fumbling to get your fly undone. You whip out your member and let it rip. Ahhhh, the sweet sensation of relief floods over you and for a moment you’re thinking that the sensation is almost as good as having sex. No, really? Shit, must be just me then.

So the post hits cyberspace, I’ve had my first cosmic orgasm but I haven’t got time to just sit back and with for the euphoria to dissipate. Nope, if I want the next rush to happen, the one I mentioned earlier that involves getting tweeted and commented on, I need to get my ass into gear. Time to hit the social networks and promote the heck out of the post. Time to also hop onto as many blogs and leave a comment so that I can get some backlinks, oh and I best make sure their killer comments so that it may generate some traffic. Let’s not forget to send an email to my growing list too and while I’m at it why not ask them to give the post a Tweet just to generate a little more interest. Yeah that should about cover it. What? I should do something else? Well, just don’t sit there gawking at your monitor like stuffed mullets, tell me what the heck else I should do?