The Open Source Marketer

BlogCatalog Groups are here. BlogCatalog.com recently released “Groups” as part of their ongoing effort to bring bloggers together and create value among the blogging community. BlogCatalog is already a very active community of bloggers, so before you get confused about what’s going on, let’s review three reasons why you want to join a group and three things you should do once you have joined the discussion.

BlogCatalog’s Groups are another way for bloggers to connect, build relationship (maybe even joint venture partnerships), and learn from each other according to their topics of interest. BlogCatalog Groups are forming right now so this is a great time to get in and be active. You will get definite exposure and blog traffic by contributing now.

Here are three reasons why you should consider getting involved in a BlogCatalog Group. Read the rest of this entry »

A few really good questions about how to get blog traffic have recently come in my email so I thought I would share the answers with you.

To answer the questions I am drawing from my own personal experiences so if you have other suggestions or ideas, please share them in the comments for this article. I am sure others will appreciate the community feedback and my blog doesn’t use the nofollow tag so your comment link will benefit you as well. Here it goes.

Question: How did you build up visitors to your site? You have a lot of readers, and I was wondering if you actively went to other blogs and added comments or if MyBlogLog or BlogCatalog served to help with this.

Answer: I use blog commenting, forum posting, forum signatures, Meetup.com profiles, del.icio.us bookmarks, StumbleUpon submissions, email signatures, blogCatalog and MyBlogLog listings, and I joined Yaro’s Starak’s BlogMasterMind Course. That is all I can think of at the moment. There might be a few other things, but I think that is most of it. I use all of these methods in combination with offline events, and blog search engine optimization techniques. That helps me get search traffic as well as link traffic from multiple sources.

Question: Your content is a good reason for visitors to return, but how do you get them to show up in the first place?

Answer: I always suggest writing good articles that have attractive headlines and high value to the reader. Then link to that content in as many places as possible. Also, be sure you have multiple ways for the reader to stay connected to you when they get to your blog. For example, make sure you have options for RSS subscriptions and email updates. Then just keep pushing out value.

It helps me to think of blogging as one long continuous conversation. Each person I meet and each place I go is part of the collective voice of the reader I am writing for. It helps me to stay focused (though some days are easier than others). Overall I want people to find real information on the blog and not just filler. The idea being that this will keep them coming back and encourage them to spread the word. That’s what keeps me motivated during the journey.

I hope these tips help. It really is a lot of work to make an overnight success. So try to stay motivated and keep your focus on enriching the lives of others. It really is more about the journey than the destination. Even a ride on a first class flight can stink if you drop an engine along the way.

Aiming high,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Which is better, BlogRush visitor traffic or StumbleUpon? This is a good question and one that has several possible answers. Let’s look at the traffic types for both visitor sources and then compare them both to get a better understanding.

BlogRush was launched over the weekend and I signed up as soon as I heard it was open. Immediately I started seeing visitor traffic to my blog, OpenSourceMarketer.com. The result was a sharp increase in mailing list subscribers, RSS subscribers, and blog comments. In fact, I am continuing to get visitors from the BlogRush widget on the blogs, though it has slowed down just a bit. Some of the slow down might be due to the overwhelming response that BlogRush has received. I bet John Reese didn’t anticipate such a great response, even though he founded the project.

BlogRush has enjoyed great success so far because it is context sensitive so it display blog posts from other blogs that are relevant to the content on the page. That means if your blog is part of BlogRush then your blog posts will show up next to relevant keywords on another blog. Ultimately that means that if someone is looking for information on a specific topic and they are searching blogs for that information then a link to your blog posts are going to show up near those relevant keywords. This is how Google runs their entire Adsense program so you know this is a proven method of getting readers to click on links. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay gang, BlogRush has been online for about 60 hours now and apparently the response has been overwhelming. John Reese, the founder of BlogRush, had to release a statement to let all the site members know why they don’t have stats in their members area. These stats were suppose to show up after 24-48 hours. But as of this writing they still are not available.

So, what’s a blogger to do if BlogRush doesn’t produce stats? Well, no worries. From the beginning I have been using StatCounter.com and Google Analytics to track all blog activity.

You might be asking, “Why use two separate analytics tools?” And the answer would be, because not all analytics tools are created equal. Google Analytics is a very useful tool that has slick reporting features, but the numbers are only updated on a 24 hour cycle and sometimes you just want a quick look at how things are going on your site. This is where statcounter.com comes in.

StatCounter.com offers a free account that lets you track multiples sites. The stats are constantly updated so you get more of a real time view of what is going on with your blog and all the common information you are concerned with as a blogger is presented right at the top.

So, if you don’t want to wait for BlogRush to work out their reporting issues, then visit StatCounter.com and setup a free account. The process takes two minutes. Put the tracking code in the footer of your blog and your done. You will have stats to look at within minutes, as long a there is traffic on your site.

So what’s next? If you are getting traffic to your blog then today should be about creating more quality content and working on ways to reader conversions. Use the stats from statcounter to understand where people are coming from, how long they are staying, where they are leaving from, and what keywords they are using to find you. All these things create a story and that story should end with a desired result that makes your online business stronger.

Enjoying the BlogRush,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Get BlogRush: Syndicate Your Blog Posts To Get More Reader Traffic

More blog readers means more opportunities. I know you agree with that statement because that’s why you are reading this post. So here are two easy things that you can do to increase your blog reader traffic. What opportunities you can create from there will be the topic for a future article.

1. Listen to the blogcatalog interview I did with one of the experts from BlogCatalog.com. We talk about how to get blog readers and how to find joint venture partners for your online business. Every month I see a steady flow of new traffic from BlogCatalog.com and other social blog catalog sites. If you are looking for a solid way to build real relationships with your readers and other bloggers, then listen to this talkshoe interview and find out how.




2. Signup for a free BlogRush account and syndicate your blog posts on keyword targeted blogs. Remember, this is just one of the many ways that you should consider for getting reader traffic to your blog. This will not be a silver bullet for traffic generation but it promises to be a good method of sharing traffic between blogs. Your posts will appear on related blogs based on targeted context matching and blog categorization. This will put your blog posts on relevant blogs so you will get in front of the right reader audience.

Oh, and be sure to look for an upcoming blog post on what not to do when hosting a conference call using TalkShoe.com. I’ll share with you what I learned on the BlogCatalog call. It will save you some grief if and when you ever decide to conduct your own phone interviews.

Enjoying life,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Please do not beat me! You were promised an article about how to use Del.icio.us to get more visitor traffic for your blog and it is really almost finished. The problem is there is so much to say that I keep re-writing parts of it.

So, please don’t beat me. You will get your article and I will get to write the next article in the series. But, until then, here is something you need to read about. My good Italian friend who is a master of video tutorials recently put out seven fantastic videos about Firefox extensions that will make your life easier.

Here are the 7 Firefox extensions covered in the videos:

1. Get Pagerank And Alexa Rank Of Any Web Site - This is great for selecting sites to target for link building.
2. The Ultimate SEO Plug-in - I use this plugin and it will absolutely change the way you get information about websites.
3. Find Out Your Competition In Google In Different Countries - This is great for knowing who you can potentially target for joint venture partnerships.
4. Monitor Any Website For Changes - Stay on top of specific websites.
5. Exclude Your Own Visits In Google Analytics - Keep your numbers real so you get an honest look at your traffic.
6. Automatically Backup And Synchronize Your Bookmarks - Keep everything up to date without a hassle.
7. No More Waiting When You Click On A Pdf Link - Not waiting is always a good thing, especially when it comes to PDFs.

These extensions are a great addition to your productivity and Internet marketing toolbox. Vittorio walks you through each one. Vittorio really is a master at video, so read his blog post, Top 7 Firefox Extensions For Web Site Owners and give the videos a squint. While you’re there check out the rest of his video library. He does not sleep much so he has an impressive collection of video tutorials.

Now back to that Del.icio.us article,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Are you social. Sure you are! Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, there is a lot going on in the social media space these days. And, whether you think it is all fluff or not, you have to admit that there is evidence of some real website traffic mixed in with all those widgets and toolbar buttons.

Yet, everyone I talk to about using social media sites to get visitor traffic has been very interested and very confused all at the same time. So, to help cut through some of the confusion I have decided to host a TalkShoe conference call this coming Friday, September 14th at 7:00pm CST. and you are invited to participate. The call will cover social blog catalog sites and how they can be used to get move website traffic. If you want more website traffic that doesn’t cost you on a pay per click, then get in on this call.

Time magazine voted You as person of the year in their 2007 edition, but that doesn’t mean everyone understands the culture of the technology. Don’t worry, your not behind. These things are new and there are lot of them. That’s why you and I will discuss their benefits and their draw backs together. You will get all the information you need to successfully leverage these sites and build value for you and your site visitors.

Here are some of the things we will cover on the call:

1. 30 Second Caller Introductions (10 min)
2. Introduction to blog catalog sites (3 min)
3. Why a blog is better than a website (5 min)
4. How to create a compelling profile (5 min)
5. How to get people to add you as a friend (3 min)
6. How to pick the right neighborhoods (3 min)
7. How to use shout outs effectively (3 min)
8. How to leave useful comments that draw attention (5 min)
9. How to save time using any social media site (5 min)
10. What NOT to do on social media sites (5 min)
11. Open Discussion (15 min)

EVENT DETAILS:

Scheduled Time:
Date: Fri, September 14, 2007
Time: 7:00 CST / 8:00 PM EDT

How to participate:

Call in:

1. Dial: (724) 444-7444
2. Enter: 51402 # (Talkcast ID)
3. Enter: 1 # or your PIN

A pin is NOT required to call into this TalkCast. However, you will need a PIN and the TalkShoe client to chat and participate in the interactive online discussion.

Visit the TalkCast event page for more details:
http://opensourcemarketer.com/blogcatalogtalk

VIDEO TUTORIAL:
If you still have questions about how the conference all works, the
watch this short 3 minute video to learn how call into TalkCasts:
http://opensourcemarketer.com/howtotalkshoe

The information you will hear is extremely valuable so make plans to be on the call this Friday at 7:00 pm CST. I guarantee it will be the most important part of your week.

Seeking clarity,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Our next article, “Using Del.icio.us To Build Website Traffic”, is almost finished. But, in the mean time I couldn’t help but write a short post about a great article I read over at ProBlogger. Darren Rowse wrote an excellent short piece on using CrazyEgg.com to track and analyze blog title click throughs for a group writing project. He posted the results along with screen shots from CrazEgg and he gave an interesting break down of what the number meant. Checkout the article if you are interested in the details.

What is CrazyEgg.com

CrazzyEgg.com is a simple to use click through measuring tool I recently read about in Yaro Starak’s Blog Master Mind Course. I have to tell you, the tool will change the way you look at creating posts for your blog. Read the rest of this entry »