Written on November 10th, 2004 at 03:11 pm by Darren Rowse

TypePad Blogs to get Contextual Advertising

Advertising, Blogging Tools and Services 0 comments

Kanoodle and Six Apart (makers of Typepad and Moveable Type blogging systems) are partnering together to offer Typepad bloggers the opportunity to run contextual ads to their site - and thereby add a revenue stream to their blogs. This is similar to what Blogger blogs can do with Adsense - however it seems that this new system will be a little more seamless and integrated into the Typepad blogs. It will be interesting to see how many TypePad bloggers utilise the system due to go live in the first quarter of next year. For more information see the following press relase.

Press Release

Kanoodle and Six Apart to Offer First Integrated Weblog Publishing and Monetization Service; Six Apart to Offer Kanoodle’s Content-Targeted Sponsored Links to Webloggers

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 9, 2004–Kanoodle, a leading provider of sponsored listings for search results and content pages and Six Apart, the maker of award-winning Movable Type and TypePad weblog software, today announced that the companies will offer TypePad subscribers the ability to easily add Kanoodle’s content-targeted sponsored links to their sites. This marks the first time that webloggers will have seamless access to revenue-generating sponsored links as part of their publishing toolset. The companies expect the product to be live by the first quarter of next year.

“Six Apart is the clear leader in the creation of publishing tools and platforms that empower independent publishers. Offering industry-leading advertising tools via Kanoodle’s sponsored links is the logical next step,” said Lance Podell, president of Kanoodle. “We are excited to bring first class relevancy and monetization to this large group of content creators.”

“TypePad’s subscribers are creating some of the Web’s most innovative content and we are committed to providing them with additional services in partnership with industry leaders,” said Andrew L. Anker, executive vice president of Six Apart. “Kanoodle demonstrates the level of relevancy and monetization that Six Apart and our customers demand.”

About Kanoodle

Kanoodle provides advertisers an unparalleled opportunity to leverage text-based, cost-per-click sponsored links to reach their customers on the Web’s search engines and content destinations. Kanoodle’s products — KeywordTarget(TM) for search-targeted sponsored links, ContextTarget(TM) for context-targeted sponsored links and BehaviorTarget(TM) for behavioral-targeted sponsored links — are distributed on networks of high quality search and content providers, including CBS MarketWatch.com, MSNBC.com, USAToday.com, CNET’s Search.com, the InfoSpace search properties and Kanoodle.com. Kanoodle was founded in 1999 and has offices in Amherst, NY and New York City.

About Six Apart

Six Apart Ltd., based in San Mateo, CA, is the recognized leader in weblogging software and services. Its Movable Type publishing platform and TypePad personal weblogging service power the world’s premiere weblogs for business, politics, media, and everyday life. Founded by husband and wife team Ben Trott and Mena G. Trott in 2002, Six Apart’s sole focus is to create the tools that enable millions of individuals, organizations and corporations to participate in the Web’s full potential by publishing their ideas on the Internet with simple, yet powerful software and services.

Written on November 9th, 2004 at 12:11 pm by Darren Rowse

Ways to promote your Blog

Blog Promotion 10 comments

Boston.com has a good article on ways to promote your weblog called Don’t let your blog get lost in the fog.

They write - ‘But even good blogs can go unread, without a little extra effort to attract visitors.

What’s needed are some eyeball magnets — blogging tools that will bring new traffic to your site. And there are plenty to choose from.

Syndication, for one. That’s the popular practice of adding a tag to your blog that will automatically let readers know when you’ve added material.

On many popular blogs, you’ll see a link marked RSS, XML, or Atom. Plug that link into a syndication software program, and you’ll get an update every time the website is updated. Most avid blog readers use syndication programs to keep tabs on their favorite sites. Adding syndication to your own blog can deliver a quick boost in readership.

The leading blog-hosting companies, like Google Inc.’s Blogger, provide syndication; it’s just a matter of switching it on and adding a bit of extra code to your blog. If you’re serious about expanding your audience, it’s the first move to make.’

Written on November 7th, 2004 at 12:11 pm by Darren Rowse

Google traffic vs Slashdot traffic - Which would you prefer?

Blog Promotion 3 comments

Have you ever been Slashdotted?

It sounds painful doesn’t it - but its actually quite fun. Being Slashdotted basically means that you’re linked to by the mega-blog - Slashdot. The cool thing about the experience is that if you chance upon being mentioned on Slashdot that you are about to have a deluge of traffic.

This morning I awoke to find that one of my new blogs had been mentioned in a post - just 6 hours after it was linked to the blog had had over 25,000 unique visitors. Pretty cool stuff - I mean traffic is the key to making a fortune online isn’t it?

Does 1000 times the traffic = 1000 times the income??

Wrong - Buzzz - Please Try Again….

You see each time I’ve been linked to by Slashdot (and other mega-blogs) I’ve noticed a pattern. My traffic goes up massively (in this case many thousands of times over) but my income (from pay per click ads) goes up only slightly - if at all. How can that be so?

Well you see I have a theory that some traffic is more valuable than other traffic when it comes to pay per click advertising.

Slashdot is a megablog in more senses than it has a massive readership - it is also fairly general in topics covered. Mostly it posts on techy topics, but within that scope anything goes - it posts on Science, Gadgets, Robotics, Computers - everything. As a result its readership has a pretty general interest in a wide variety of topics also. So when they follow a link to your blog they are doing so out of general interest and not searching for particular information. They are not surfing with intent and are less likely to click on an ad.

On the other hand there are web surfers out there who are surfing with intent. They want to buy a product or find a service. They know what they are looking for and they go straight to the source where they will find it - Google.

Google traffic in my opinion is more valuable than traffic from a megablog like Slashdot. (Don’t get me wrong - I like the slashdot traffic too - for one the link can’t hurt my page rank - for two (is that an expression?) a certain percentage of them will click an ad (a lower % but a % non the less) - and for three its nice to look at your traffic counter and see 6500 people surfed your blog in one hour.) Anyway - I digress - the Google traffic is more valuable in my mind because it brings targeted traffic to your blog.

Example Joe is on Google searching for information on ‘Gizmo A’ - he’s in research mode for a purchase he’s about to make. He types ‘Gizmo A’ into Google and is presented with 4,973,235 results. Because of all your hard work in Optimizing your site for search engines, your blog is the first result listed - the title is ‘Gizmo A’. He clicks the link and surfs on in. He reads your quality content but as he does so he also notices a contextual ad on your site which is conveniently for ‘Gizmo A’s’. The chances of Joe clicking that ad are a whole lot better than a slashdot reader who has come to your site out of general interest.

I know a lot of bloggers who spend most of their time trying to get links from blogs or websites higher up the food chain - their hope is that one of their emails or submissions to the big sites will make them rich - as a result they don’t pay much attention to the simple things like optimizing their site for Search Engines. Whilst I understand the temptation of their approach I believe that a more balanced strategy would actually be more beneficial in the long term.

Build quality traffic to give yourself a stable base income and when the opportunity comes for the big link ups ride the wave of traffic that it brings.

Written on November 7th, 2004 at 12:11 pm by Darren Rowse

Making Money from Blogs - BloggerCon III

Pro Blogging News 0 comments

I wish I were able to get to BloggerCon III - the Making Money session sounds particularly interesting as reported on PaidContent.org. Here are a few of the quotes that they quote that I find of most interest:

– “One sure way to make money — provide infrastructure to people like me.”
– to make money from Google, “try to be as small and niche-like as possible.”
– Dave Winer wants to know why we’re talking about nickels and dimes instead of the real money that can be made by creating business because of your blog, with people you meet through the blog, with ideas that bubble up through the blog? He says he flips hundreds of thousands of dollars through his blog.
– An author says he can make twice as much referring his book through Amazon then from the royalty.
– “If you want to make money from blogging maybe it’s not your personal blog that’s going to do it.”

Read more at PaidContent.org’s coverage of BloggerCon III

update - a few of other bloggers are also covering this session at:
- RConversation
- Roland Tanglao’s Weblog
- John Furrier

Written on November 7th, 2004 at 12:11 am by Darren Rowse

Ad Networks for your Blog

Advertising 0 comments

I was just reading a thread over at SitePoint Forums on where someone ask which is the Best Ad Network?

Someone answered with this list which I found really helpful. I’ve filled in the links of some of those mentioned.

Tier 1: Tribal Fusion, Fast Click, Burst, 24/7 Real Media
Tier 2: Casale, RealTechNetwork, Max Online, RightMedia, Rydium

Tier 3: BUDS, JoeTec, RealCastMedia, GorillaNation, ValueClick

Tier 4: FocusIN, EzzPublishers, BannerSpace, ClickXchange, Adtegrity, BraveNet, Undertone Network

Tier 5: ValueAd, CompactBanner, Adinfinity (same company), ClixGalore

They write in explaining the list - ‘based on rates, difficulty of becoming accepted, and quality of advertisements. Tiers 1 - 3 are, overall, good ad networks. Anything below three either means their ad quality, ease of entrance into their network, or questionable business in the past is in question.’



What ad providers have you tried? What additions or changes would you add to the above list?

Written on November 6th, 2004 at 12:11 pm by Darren Rowse

Lessons Learned: AdSense

Adsense 2 comments

‘Brainy Betty’ over at the Adsense forum at Webmaster World has started a good thread on Lessons Learned with Adsense. She writes:



‘A year and a half later with AdSense and still going strong - here are my lessons learned: (What are yours?)

1. Graphic design: Provide clean pages and lots of them with a simple, 1 color (non-tiled, generally) background

2. Meta Tags: Use them! Make sure you don’t have 90 bijillion keywords. The fewer and more targeted the better. Put the title tag up on top first.

3. Content: Provide useful, necessary content. Get feedback from your visitors to find out what they are looking for; what they want, and create pages accordingly. The more descriptive text on each individual page, the better.

4. Ad Settings: Change them about once a month or so. Make large banners smaller; use verticals in some places, definitely change colors so people notice - especially repeat visitors who have ‘turned off’ the ads in their heads if they see them in the same place with the same colors and formats all the time…’

Read more from Betty and others at Lessons Learned: AdSense

Written on November 5th, 2004 at 10:11 pm by Darren Rowse

Unique Titles for Each Page of your Blog

Blog Design 1 comment

Good post over at Search Engine Roundtable on the importance Unique Titles for Each Page of your Site (Blog). I can’t agree with the post more - I have all my blogs set up this way (ie the title of my post becomes the title of my page) and noticed a huge difference in search engine referrals a few days after I made the change.

Some blogging systems are set up this way by default, but most require you to specify it and manually set it up this way. Also important is having your key words in the URL of your page. I incorporate the title (and therefore the keywords of my post) in my URLs and again noticed an increase in traffic after making this change a year or so back. Here’s an excerpt from the post mentioned above.



‘Each page should have a unique title - one that will attract clicks.

A title consisting of keywords separated by commas may not be the most appealing to surfers - it’s the title that appears as the clickable link in the SERPs. So make it about 8-9 words or less, including the main keyword phrase for the page and also a word or two that’s a variation or additional modifier, to target a little wider variety of phrases.’



Read more at Unique Titles for Each Web Page

update - also check out Permalinks, Key Feature Number One which is a post on the same topic that is well worth the read.

Written on November 5th, 2004 at 10:11 pm by Darren Rowse

Why Weblogs work so good at site promotion

Blog Promotion 2 comments

Sohosad has a good post on Why Weblogs work so good at site promotion. Complete with cool little pictures!

Written on November 5th, 2004 at 09:11 am by Darren Rowse

BlogAds: Is There Life after Nov. 2?

Advertising 0 comments

‘The outfit, which sells ads on Web logs, has enjoyed this year’s burst of interest in political sites, but it needs a post-election plan….

‘Copeland’s company sells ads to run on more than 500 blogs, including political specialists like InstaPundit and DailyKos. After Sept. 20, he says, business went through the roof. “Watching big corporate media suffer at the hands of 100 individual bloggers, I have to admit I was happy,” Copeland says. “There was a big traffic spike and a nice gush of ads.” By some estimates, DailyKos was pulling in $20,000 per month advertising at its peak. Copeland gets a 20% cut.

But can the blog business survive without a Presidential election and gaffes by mainstream media firing up the Internet masses? Skeptics wonder, particularly since some blog sites damaged their credibility when they jumped the gun and erroneously predicted Senator John Kerry would win the election.’



Read more at BlogAds: Is There Life after Nov. 2?

Written on November 4th, 2004 at 05:11 pm by Darren Rowse

The Adsense Shuffle - Is it time for a Direct Debit Payment System?

Adsense 1 comment

With the arrival of September’s Adsense cheque today (its now November 4) I find myself doing what I like to call the ‘Adsense Shuffle’.

As a non US citizen cashing my cheque is becoming an increasingly difficult prospect. You see not only do I have to arrange for my cheque to be cashed, exchanged into Aussie dollars (which involves the filling in a number of forms) - cheques over $xxxx require further authentication which means the cheque has to be physically sent back to the US before they are cleared. Despite the planes that fly back to the US every day this extra process takes a further 6 weeks!

So the money that I earned on the first day of September is not likely to hit my bank account until the 18th December (if I’m lucky)!

Of course I’m getting used to it now - money still comes to me every month - but its amazing that a company with as many innovations and cutting edge technologies as Google can’t arrange for the people who are paying a lot of their bills to get their share of the profits a little quicker than 108 days after they earned them.

Of course I shouldn’t complain too much - my real gripe is with Amazon which only sends cheques quarterly. The money I earned from them on the first day of July won’t hit my bank account until 18th December also!




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