Written on May 27th, 2005 at 06:05 am by Darren Rowse
How to Name Your Blog
I was just checking my News Aggregator and for some reason a month old post from Strange Brand came up titled Top Ten Tips for Corporate Naming. I have no idea why it took 6 weeks for it to appear in my aggregator but I’m glad it did because today I’ve been thinking a lot about names for blogs and projects that I’m working on.
The 10 tips on naming a business are pretty good value and are worth considering for naming your next blog also.
- Determine How Important the Name Really Is
- Stand Out
- Avoid Generic Surnames
- Avoid Descriptive Names
- Avoid Acronyms
- Avoid Faux Latin
- Avoid Faux Latin (Cont’d): -nt Names
- Avoid Spaceless Names
- Avoid “Tech Power Synergy” Names
- Find Examples to Emulate
James writes excellent material on each point.
I guess with blogging there are a few other considerations in how it sounds and what it means to readers - one of the big ones being SEO. I know I tend to go on about Search Engine Optimization but your name is what people will predominately link to your site with and rule #1 of SEO is that the words that people link to you with is very important in helping SE’s like Google to determine what your site is about.
I tend to name most of my blogs with pretty functional names for this reason and because I want people who come to my blog to immediately to know what my blog is about within a few seconds of them arriving. Names like Digital Photography Blog, Camera Phone Reviews and Michael Jackson Trial Watch might not be the catchiest names for blogs going around but they do meet these two goals at least.
So how did/do/will you determine what to call your blog? Is it about SEO, creating a buzz, communicating what your blog is about, making it easy to remember, intriguing readers, building a brand, standing out or some other factor?
Written on May 27th, 2005 at 03:05 am by Darren Rowse
Blog Statistics Packages
A number of bloggers have recently asked me to write something about statistics packages - particularly to talk about the stats systems that I use and what features in them that I analyse.
I’m happy to do so but I’m not sure how unique my opinion will be. Perhaps it could make a good discussion - so consider this an ‘open mike’. What stats packages do you use on your blog? How do you use them? Which features do you look at most frequently? Share your thoughts in comments below.
My statistics habits
I use two statistics packages on most of my blogs. Both give me slightly different information - both have their strengths and weaknesses and working together give me a pretty decent understanding of what is going on in my blogs on a daily but also a longer term level.
Sitemeter - this is a free statistics package (unless you upgrade to unlock some of the premium features) that I use to check my daily statistics. It’s strength is that it is easy to install and gives a snapshot of each blog quickly. As I start a new blog I sign up for a new sitemeter counter so each blog has its own independent stats. Let me take you through it’s features using enternetusers.net as an example (you can do this any time by clicking the little colored square at the bottom my blog which I keep open to the public - I have nothing to hide).
Summary Page - The stats I check on this page at least once per day are:
• Average Per Day - this is an average of the last 7 days unique visitors.
• Last Hour - I like this one as it tells me at a glance how the site performed very recently.
• Today - today’s unique visitors.
Each of these stats can be viewed per unique visitors or page views. I tend to look mainly at unique visitors.
Referrals Page - This page gives you a snapshot of where the last 20 visitors of your site came from. At the bottom of the last 20 referrals are links to 5 other pages giving you access to the last 100 visitors site of referral. This tells you who is sending your traffic. Knowing this is useful in building relationships and tracking conversations. You’ll see a lot of mine are ‘unknown’ (depending on when you view this) - this means it could be news aggregator, bookmarks or email referrals.
Daily Graph - This doesn’t really tell me much useable information - but is interesting. Patterns do become obvious from day to day though. You can also see it with page views and unique visitors.
Monthly Graph - This tracks the last month’s daily totals. I find this a more useful graph as it identifies patterns and trends (ie like weekly rhythms - how a series of posts might be affecting stats etc). Again you can view it with page views.
Yearly Graph - Handy for tracking the big picture stuff. Not so useful after just a few months but after 12 months it can be quite interesting to track seasonal events like Christmas. Here is the page views one.
Entry Pages - I find this very useful - it gives me an idea of which posts are ‘hot’ today as it tracks which page people are entering my blog on. Usually my home page is the biggest one - but there is usually one or two posts that are bigger than others which gives me some indication of what is working and what is not. Again this tracks the last 100 visitors entry pages.
These are the main pages that I check using Sitemeter - these give me a quick handle on what is going on at any given time. Sitemeter has other features which I check from time to time like Time Zones (which graphs where in the world the last 100 visitors are viewing the site from) but I don’t tend to view the other features too often.
You’ll notice a little lock icon next to some features which are locked because I have not upgraded to the premium version. I haven’t done this simply because my web hosting comes with another stats package that gives me a much more comprehensive statistics package called AWStats.
I won’t show you the inner workings of this package except to say that these statistics are more accurate and comprehensive. They don’t just show the last 100 visitors details but capture a whole months and store previous months. They have pretty much everything Sitemeter has on a larger scale however the way my host has theme set up they only update once per day and doesn’t really give you a quick snapshot like the sitemeter stats do.
I tend to use AWStats on a less frequent basis (weekly and monthly) to track the bigger picture trends.
Lastly - the only other statistics package that I’ve used id Extreme Tracking. This is another free service that many bloggers use. It has similar features to Sitemeter - however I don’t find it quite as comprehensive.
So - now lets turn this over to the wise and experienced enternetusers readership. I know there are plenty of other stats packages out there - a few of the owners of them have been trying to get me to try some out recently but I’ve stayed with the tried, true and familiar so far - but I’m curious about what stats packages do you use and recommend? How do you use them? Which features do you look at most frequently?
Update: A few wise readers have pointed out another advantage of systems like AWStats - the fact that it tells you the words that people are using to search for your blog with. ie it gives you the top individual words and phrases that people type into Google, Yahoo!, MSN etc to end up at my page. This is incredibly valuable information.
SiteMeter gives you this information if you updgrade - and you can get it indirectly by looking at your referral pages and clicking on the links - but AWStats is much more comprehensive on this. The only down side of AWStats keyword tool is that you can only really view it on a monthly period and not a daily one.
Written on May 27th, 2005 at 12:05 am by Darren Rowse
Weblogs Inc: $2,000 a day on Google Adsense - But Could it be More?
Jason Calacanis announces that Weblogs Inc has reached his target of $2,000 a day on Google Adsense:
‘It took us just over seven months (from September 2004 to April 2005) to go from $0 to $1,000, and about six weeks to go from $1,000 to $2,000. The increase was based on traffic gains and adding Google Adsense for RSS. We’re also involved in one other unannounced Google Adsense program that makes our sites a little more targeted (I can’t go into details on it, but it’s not having a huge impact).’
It’s interesting to watch him debating himself on whether to include ads inside content though.
‘Now, we didn’t do any more shifting of the ad position. I’m not willing—at least at this time—to wrap our content around the ad box…. it just looks really cheap (no offense to my friends who are doing it).
We spend a decent amount making out sites look good (we did a bad job and the start, now we’re kicking butt with things like www.divester.com and www.cinematical.com), and I just don’t want to destroy that for an extra $200-300 a day. Yes, I know that’s $6,000 to $9,000 a month and $72,000 to $108k a year, and that is a lot of of money, but you have to draw the line at some point. Actually, I think I may have just convinced myself to do it. :-)’
The emphasis is mine. I can’t find the post in his archives but I seem to remember a previous post that was a lot more adamant that they’d never consider such an approach - maybe it was in an interview or article.
I wonder if we should start a book on when they’ll start experimenting with in content ads for a bit of fun.
You see I think it could be more lucrative than the $200-$300 per day that Jason mentions it could be worth (which in itself would be a handy $108,000 per year). As I say in comments to Jason - my experience on ads inside content that are well positioned is that they can increase CTR by as much as 100%. There is not too many moves you can make that double your income in one move. Of course the 100% factor might be an overestimation in Weblogs Inc’s case as they have some well positioned ads already - but I’d guess it’ll go up by more than 10% - 15%.
Of course there is the ‘ugliness’ factor which I do agree with. However as I look at my stats - I can’t see any of my blogs that decreased their traffic since turning ‘ugly’. Maybe readers don’t mind so much as we might think? Interesting debate.
What do you think? What would you do if you were Jason?
Written on May 26th, 2005 at 10:05 pm by Darren Rowse
Gizmodo.com Hits MTV
John Bradbury has just emailed me to let me know that he’s just seen (and posted about) an advertisement for Gawker Media blog Gizmodo on MTV.
Like John - I’ve not heard of a blog advertising itself on mainstream media like this. It’s quite the promotional campaign they’ve got going there over at Gawker.
Update: John has corrected his mistake - the ad was not for Gizmodo but for Gizmondo.
Written on May 26th, 2005 at 05:05 pm by Darren Rowse
Feedburner enable Adsense Ads in RSS Feeds
Feedburner have just announced that they can add Adsense RSS ads to their publishers feeds if those publishers are already approved by Adsense.
I’m testing Adsense ads on one or two of my feeds (or will be when they start appearing) but you won’t see them on enternetusers.net at this point because it is a WordPress Blog which is not supported by Adsense for feeds yet.
Written on May 26th, 2005 at 10:05 am by Darren Rowse
enternetusers Coaching Services
Susannah has posted an interesting post on Getting a Big-Picture Person for your blog. She writes:
‘I was just sitting here feeling a bit dissatisified with myself and with this blog. How can I get more comments? How can I be better motivated to write more? How can I know what my readers really want from me?
And then it hit me: I need an editor.
Oh, not an editor in the traditional sense. I don’t need someone to check my spelling or grammar, or to make sure I’m libeling people. I take all that onto my own head. What I really need is someone who is interested in my focus, and who reads my blog and is tasked with thinking about things on a macro-level. Someone who can say, “Hey, you really missed the boat on that one,” or “I’m desperate to know more about X, Y, and Z.” In a sense I need a coach—a blog coach….’
I think a blog coach is a great idea and it is something I’m seriously considering getting more into myself. I’m probably not interested in coaching business bloggers - rather I’m thinking of starting a service for entrepreneurial bloggers.
I’ve spoken about this before but have not acted upon it for a few reasons. Firstly I’m heading overseas for a month shortly and don’t want to start something just before that, secondly I’ve got a couple of months to go on a non blog related project that takes two days per week of my time and thirdly because I’ve been trying to build up a little more credibility and a broader skill set to offer to potential coachees (is that a word?).
So - when I get back from OS in July - expect me to launch something new - a enternetusers Coaching service. The details are forming in my mind but here is what I do know:
- enternetusers.net will continue to run as a free blog (as it has been for the last few months).
- I won’t be taking on everyone who asks for coaching.
- I will be charging for the service.
- I am considering a variety of levels of coaching.
I am interested in what people think about such a service. I have a list of things I’ll offer potential clients that I’m not going to go public with yet - but I’m interested in what those of you as enternetuserss (beginners through to experienced) would be interested in being coached on.
Written on May 26th, 2005 at 10:05 am by Darren Rowse
Link Blogs
Steve Rubel has started a link blog. I’ve been wondering about doing something similar as there are so many stories that I see each day that I’d love to link to but don’t - for fear of cluttering things up too much here. Any thoughts friends?
Would you prefer it all together? A new blog? In my side bar? A bloglines blog? Interested in your opinions as it’s you who reads it.
Written on May 26th, 2005 at 08:05 am by Darren Rowse
Melbourne Blogger BBQ
Cameron Reilly and I have had a couple of breakfasts recently and both times we’ve talked about having a Melbourne bloggers get together. Of course with the busyness of life I’ve not done anything about it - but today Cameron has by posting a survey for Melbourne bloggers to respond to. He’s suggesting a Blogger BBQ.
So if you live in Melbourne (or country Victoria even) head over to the Cameron Reilly blog and fill in the survey he’s got running there to let him know your preferences.
Written on May 26th, 2005 at 03:05 am by Darren Rowse
Blogebrity - Creating Blogging Buzz in 3 Easy Lists
I’ve been watchign the Blogebrity Blog with interest this week - it’s been quite an amusing read and a great example of how a blog can get some big inbound links and a lot of buzz from the blogosphere with a little controversy, humor and by listing some big blogs as A-List Blogs, some almost as big blogs as B-List Blogs, some not so big blogs as C-List Blogs and a few million smaller blogs as not even making the C-List. On top of all the A,B and C listers linking to it to let their readers know about their own fame - it’s probably the millions of unnamed bloggers who will make this blog a successful with all their inbound links to it complaining about not making the list. See the full A, B and C lists here.
Whilst the validity of such lists will be debated til the cows come home - I give them an A for creating a buzz. Now it’ll be interesting to see what they do with the page rank and buzz they’ll build through the initial publicity.
Written on May 26th, 2005 at 01:05 am by Darren Rowse
Adsense Competitive Ad Filter URLs Missing?
Has anyone else noticed that their Adsense Competitive Ad Filter no longer has any URLs in it?
When I last checked there were at least 15 URLs on it - but today I noticed there were none.
Two readers have also notified me that they too have noticed this on their accounts.
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