The Open Source Marketer

Well if you haven’t heard, Rich Schefren has finally released part 2 of his special Attention Age Doctrine report that offers recommended solutions for getting attention in an age of information noise.

What’s the main take away?
Of course you will need to read the whole Attention Age Doctrine report to fully get all the recommendations that Rich provides, but the the main take away is that traditional pushy sales tactics aren’t going to cut it online anymore.

People are tired of being sold to and they are tuning out anything that feels like a sales pitch.

So What’s The Solution?
The solution is to make selling online a conversation. As marketers and online business owners, the solution is simply not to present ourselves like used car salesmen (sorry guys).

People (you and I) still want to buy things. Truthfully, in a lot of cases we all still enjoy the act of buying things. But, if given a choice, we want to buy from people we trust and not from people who push things on us. In fact, we want to make buying decisions based on information from sources we trust. Rich’s report will help you understand how to make this happen.

So, download the report. Give it a read. And, learn from someone who is leading the way for the next stage of marketing on the Internet. Things are changing rapidly and not everyone is paying attention. That’s why now is your time to get ahead of everyone else.

Looking to the future,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

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

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

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

Blog comments are extremely important to the health of a successful blog. But responding to comments in a blog tool like WordPress can be time consuming and awkward. Today we’re going to talk about a WordPress plug-in that can make replying to comments painless.

Successful bloggers know that blogs are fueled by content. In fact, it’s been said many times that it’s important for the blogger to produce content on a daily basis. Publishing articles and short posts on a regular basis is what brings in new visitors and what keeps veteran readers coming back. But, did you know that comments are just as important as the content that bloggers create.

You see comments are free content that the blogger doesn’t have to produce. Comments create a sense of community and encourage reader participation. Comments are an active expression of the reader’s opinion that can add a unique voice to a blog beyond what even the blogger envisioned. Smart bloggers know that in order to increase their content, they must encourage and nurture comments from their readers. Read the rest of this entry »

In article one, How To Create Text To Speech Blog Posts, of this three part series we used a free service to convert your text blog posts into downloadable audio files. In article two, How To Add Podcast Audio To Blog Posts, we examined what it takes to add a podcast to your blog. In this third and final article in the series we are going to learn how you can use your cell phone to create audio content for your blog using some pretty handy commercial services.

Okay, I bet you’re thinking. Why on earth would I ever use a cell phone to create content for my blog? And, even if I wanted to, how could I possibly do such a thing? Well the answer is simple on both points.

The logic is simple really. We all want to get more done in the day and we are all looking for ways to make better use of the time we do have. But, during the course of the day you probably still have some dead time that could be better utilized. This is probably while you are in the car traveling to work, traveling to lunch, traveling back from lunch, or on your travel time back from work. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like to space out during drive time as much as the next guy, but I bet you’ve thought to yourself at least once that it would be good if there was a way to make better use of your travel time. Read the rest of this entry »

In the previous article of this three part series on adding audio to your blog we explored Talkr.com as a solution for offering text to speech audio publishing on your blog. In this article we’re going to cover the fundamentals of what it takes to include a podcast in your blog posts. Podcasting is very popular and a natural extension of blogging.

But, before we get into the how of podcasting, let’s take a quick look at why you might want to add podcast audio to your blog in the first place.

To start, podcasting is the “in demand” thing. It offers portable content to busy people who are on the move. Today’s mobile lifestyle is all about doing things when you want and not when “the schedule” says it can be done. In this way podcasting has transformed the way people take in information online. They download it and stick it on their MP3 players. They listen to it in their cars and at their desks, while they exercise and while they clean the house. If you want your audience to take your content with them wherever they go, then podcasting can help you do that. Read the rest of this entry »