You had a personality (and it didn't suck) discovered something new that made us want to try our luck No "How To" post for love of Digg , it's something new you said - no millionth link to Problogger (which we've already read) You made us think, or maybe smile (sans web-A.D.D crap), you made us STOP, or be inspired - no sugar spinal tap The title hooked, the promise kept to rss we fed it, and there was no link to Copyblogger (we've already read it )

Cool points are hereby awarded to StumbleUpon . Think of it as a mid-point between del.icio.us and Digg , with a great social element. Here's why winners use it: It's fun, and the toolbar is actually useful. It's easy to integrate into your blogging/surfing habits. It connects your blog to a larger community. The 'Stumble Effect' is arguably better, and far less painful than the 'Digg Effect' (traffic over time as opposed to all at once) The friend/contact mechanism makes much more sense than, say, MyBlogLog 's. You get ME as a buddy. (This clearly should have been #1) The Basics and More The Basics: There's really not much to using StumbleUpon (I like this). There's a toolbar you'll use to find, vote on and review new pages, and there's your profile page which includes a mini-blog that catalogs your Stumble activity. The Toolbar: The main functions of the toolbar are the "Stumble" button, which takes you to various websites...

Write something good enough to make it to the Digg front page. Endure obscene, INHUMAN levels of Digg traffic; fall down. Against all odds , get up. Write this time about the beating Digg just gave you. It shoots to the front page! Your site takes enough Digg effect to render it clinically dead this time. Get up... "eye of the tiger, man." Repeat until you've gone the DISTANCE. CONGRATULATIONS You Have SHOCKED THE WORLD!

So you discovered the concept of link-baiting , but it isn't working for your readership-challenged blog. Chances are, you're baiting the wrong people. Who are the right people? Why will they read our blog? Who do we have to lay What do we have to do to get a link in this town? The answers are so, so simple. Who Are the Right People? The right people are bloggers somewhat more successful than ourselves. Additionally, we: Like them Read their blogs regularly Actively contribute to their community Why Will They Read Our Blog? Because we provide them with readers. Oh, yes. Call it enlightened self-interest. Want to get the right people to read your blog? Follow this simple rule: a link is not enough . Me, I'm easy; if you link to me and click that link, you're fairly assured of a visit (because, you know, I'm bored). The majority of popular/busy bloggers are not. Therefore, if you're going to link to someone, make that link damn compelling . Actually liking th...

Dosh Dosh - A Very Simple Method to Increase your RSS Subscribers & MyBloglog community members. The idea is that instead of pointing your comment name-link to your blog, use your RSS feed or MyBlogLog community page instead. Cool points awarded. ChrisG - Are You Burning Blog Bridges? Some people (NOT ME) are fond of using a snarky, snide, and otherwise smartass-y writing style. While this may get you some short-term attention and link-baitage reward, you could be hurting yourself in the long run. A good reminder for those of us (NOT ME) who's mouths and fingers get us into trouble a little too often. Kumiko - AGLOCO Will Not Make Money Online! Ever! While it is indeed possible that AGLOCO will fail to deliver, this is the most wrong-headed analysis I've seen yet. I like all the exclamation points, though; that's passion.

Google just announced that GMail is now open to all - no more of that "invitation" nonsense. What's interesting, though, is this AP article reporting Google's intention to add a paid to service to GMail (thanks, Avinash ): "Now that Google has more computing muscle, Brin said the company will start selling additional storage capacity to e-mail users with extraordinary needs. Google still hasn't figured out the specifics, but Brin indicated the e-mail storage and fees to be introduced later this year would be similar to Google's photo-hosting service that charges $25 annually for 6.25 gigabytes and $500 annually for 250 gigabytes. 'We can't afford to give away everything for free,' Brin said." All I can say is: affiliate program, please- thanks! See Also: How to Make $100 (Without Spending a Dime)

1. You genuinely want to connect with other bloggers. 2. You genuinely want to connect with well known, popular bloggers. So you can spam the hell out of them. 3. Your hit counter says "0" and you want it to stop doing that. 4. You want to find out how many bloggers are actually sexist pigs sexy chicks in bikinis. 5. You want to witness the link-spam fiesta that is the comment section at any blog of sufficient popularity. (No Akismet for you!) 6. You want a long list of "Admirers" who have never seen your blog but somehow want to be your buddy. (Contact collection as a meta-game. Go ahead and cry.) 7. You cleverly understand the decoy-value of MyBlogLog, as the spammers and hangers-on swarm to your unmoderated MBL presence under the illusion that you and your community are more "accessible" there. 8. Your blog is an island nowhere near as lively as Gilligan's. 9. You want the cool outbound-link tracking function. 10. Tracking, schmacking. Did you kn...

Interesting reading , of course. Informative, but not overly practical. Below, I take a look at the list and add some practical info. If we're lucky, Darren will do the same at Problogger. 1. Chitika (Cool, but exlusive) Chances are, you'll be making pretty good money from Adsense and other less restrictive programs before you'd be accepted into Chitika . Beside some undisclosed traffic requirement, they seem to reject applications for various , arcane reasons (never explained). One reason appears to be that they're prone to screw up . 2. Adsense (Your friend and mine) Let's not bother with this one, since every single site in the known universe is running Adsense . 3. Text Link Ads (See Chitika) Another program that seems to (more or less) require a well-trafficked blog. They'll check your Alexa traffic info as well your backlinks via Yahoo . A new-ish company (like Chitika ), their customer service and communication methods can be less than polished , to...

WARNING: I AM BREAKING THE RULES HERE . This post is neither short, pithy, or catered to web-ADHD. This post is for people with an adult-level attention span. If that is not you, go check out Gawker or Boing Boing for your sugar rush. Thanks! There are too many traffic tips out there. Way too many. There are too many Top 10 lists and too many How-to articles about getting traffic to your blog. With so many "Easy Steps" lists relating to traffic, why is blogging such a revolving door? It is, you realize. There's a reason that most of the "professional blogger" sites cater their content to newbies and neophytes. New bloggers quit, newer bloggers show up. Old bloggers don't need all this advice. They need some, but not this much . You see, new bloggers are, in fact, a market segment. Are we tracking? It's far too easy to find newbie blogging tips. The bitch of it is, most of these lists omit, downplay or vague-out on the most important tip there is . Let...

Miracle Traffic Bot Remember: Adsense doesn't make you money; traffic makes you money Write posts that link to good content on higher-ranked sites in your niche. If your traffic is low, click on those links yourself - webmasters will take notice. Post on forums in your niche and add your site to your signature Submit articles to article directories Use Technorati Tags Submit your best articles to Digg and Del.icio.us Comment on other blogs with similar themes to yours Become a regular on several similarly-themed blogs you like Use Google Sitemaps Write about well-known people in your niche Use a blogroll, but only add sites that you would really recommend. Less is more. Read Problogger Remember: Good content + good advertising = traffic Choose a niche you're passionate about Post/write an article/add content every day ( update : or don't ) Make your content unique and useful Be timely: break news, comment on new information, become a valuable source of i...

Related Post: Are Professional Bloggers Out of Touch? tagsters: nick denton , gawker , gawker media

Tom says you are . Not sure I want to use that particular term, but I like the article. Here's the summary: 1 . Join the conversation. I.e., don't expect traffic to come to you just because you're adding content to your blog. Get out there and comment, people will take notice and check you out. While I agree with this, it really depends on the kind of content you're writing. For instance, this blog gets a lot more traffic from web searches, Technorati and other blog directories than I could ever get from commenting on other blogs. I could probably stop commenting on other blogs without any significant loss in traffic; but being a traffic ho' pretty much guarantees that won't happen. 2 . Don't spend too much time trying to get links from the big boys. If a site like Problogger linked to you, you'd get a bunch of traffic; but a site like Problogger probably won't link to you. Focus your traffic efforts elsewhere (say, on blogs that aren't miles ahe...

Adsense, as we know it, is ending. (Not really.) But a title at Copyblogger that reads, " It’s the End of AdSense as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) ", does make it sound that way. The post itself is referring to this li'l report here ; a study finding that advertisers wasted about $800 million on bogus clicks in 2005. It found that 15% of clicks are dirty. That's not just Adsense click fraud; they're talking about Yahoo and all the rest as well. Are we surprised? Nah'. Most Adwords advertisers are already well aware that conversion rates on ads that run on independent websites (as opposed to search results) are For Sucks, in general. However, depending on the kind of ads you're running and the ratio of slimy-suck-punk ass websites to good websites they show up on, it can be worth it. Personally, the ads I run show up on Google searches only. For instance, I'm fond of selling Rhapsody (aff) subscriptions, but running those ads on independent websites i...

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Please, please: don't post on your whereabouts. We don't care where you are. Looking around for new feeds to suck on (stop it), I came across a "popular blog" -- or shall I say "successful blog"? -- whatever; it was a blog that people think is all that . The first two posts were all about some trip to somewhere-or-other and what country said blogger currently was in. Blink. Yawn. Bye. Sure, the blogger in question probably doesn't care that he's losing a potential subscriber here and there due to putting them to sleep; after all, the money's rolling in. But hey, just because you're making a bunch of money doesn't mean you can't make more . This is America. And if you don't happen to be a "successful blogger"/"pro blogger"/"numero uno blogger", you really can't afford to be the blogging sandman. So, tell us something cool. Your geographical disposition is, shall we say, not. If you have already co...

This is just way too much drama over putting a little Adsense banner on her blog. I don't mean to laugh at her pain... and I didn't. I just smiled a little. Woke Up This Morning : "I don't know if you noticed the adverts that appeared on the left hand side. I always said I would rather stick a fork in my eye that(sic) put adverts on my site, and let me tell you, if I could find a fork, I might be heading towards a hospital right about now." (...insert more self-loathing...) And then the best part: "If it makes you feel any better, I labelled the div they are contained in "sellout" because that is what it is." Ouch. Looking over the blog, I'd hardly call it a charity gig. Just a web diary-type affair. Nothing wrong with getting a little ad revenue to cover the costs. But you know, if it causes you this much pain to use Adsense, why not consider a tip jar ? Hell, you could even call it a "Karma Jar". Tags: adsense , advertising , ti...

Being a Ticking Timebomb of Rage (as you do) while surfing around today, hated things started coming to mind. About blog posts. It's easy to find fault in others (and fun, too); but I started wondering, do I do the same things? Since it's nearly impossible to impartially judge your own writing, why not judge other people's writing, find what sucks, and then look for the same problems in your own? Next best thing. So, a list of Hated Things was formed (enjoyable in itself), and then compared to my own posting habits. The results were illuminating. What this article isn't: This isn't really about the "rules" of writing, or even advice on how to write well. It's about writing for yourself. You've seen it; the advice articles encouraging you to "write for yourself first". I can't personally vouch for the money-making power of "writing for yourself first" - I'm sure others can - but who cares? Finding The Money is about doin...

6/30/06 How-to guides good , remember? Step-by-step guide to adding Google Sitemaps to your blogger page. Thanks to Randy for pointing it out. BDSM: Baptist Doing Some Muckraking Okay, it's not muckraking; but it worked for the acronym. :/ Darren of Problogger interviews an adult-content publisher . Darren's a Baptist Minister, which makes it fun. Great interview, at any rate. "Content Feed" sounds pretty good (because "RSS" is hard to sell) You like good content; I like good content. If you, like me, enjoy good content that also happens to involve one blogger trashing another blogger's post, read How to Sell RSS (Or Where the Feed Fanboys Drop the Ball). (And while you're at, build your fan club . I'll join.) Tags: google , sitemaps , adult , rss , feed , problogger , besting adwords , copyblogger

Ivan the Optimiser explains how he did it. "Ivan". Heh. Problogger also has some stuff on the subject, as I recall.

Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere Great reading. A fair amount of it is focused on blogs as corporate/business extensions, but there's plenty on successful independent blogs.