Written on July 19th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 12:07 am by Darren Rowse
What would I do different if I had to start my blog over? - Wendy Boswell
The following is an answer from Wendy Boswell from Lifehacker, Snarky Gossip and Stewies Playground (just three of her projects) responding to my one question interview question of what she’d do differently if he had to start her blog over again.
I wouldn’t worry about being everything to everyone.
I would have more fun, lighten up, and laugh at myself more and the geeky world that I tend to move in.
That’s about it for now, I think that sums it up for me.
Written on July 18th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 08:07 pm by Darren Rowse
Integrating Digg Within Your Blog Gets Easier
Digg is making it easier to add ‘digg this’ buttons on your blog. I’ve not worked out how to do it yet but apparently you can set it up so that the number of diggs an article has can be shown and people can digg an article directly from your page. Full details at the Digg Blog.
Written on July 18th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 03:07 pm by Darren Rowse
The Podcast Network Selling Advertising Space on Ebay
The Podcast Network has taken an interesting step and is auctioning advertising in their G’day World podcast on ebay. Three ads are up for auction - get the details of how it works here.
Written on July 18th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 02:07 am by Darren Rowse
What would I do different if I had to start my blog over? - Mike Rundle
The following is an answer from Mike Rundle from Business Logs and 9rules Network responding to my one question interview question of what he’d do differently if he had to start his blog over again.
Well before I can really answer that question, I should probably talk about why I started my weblog in the first place. Back when I was a Sophomore in college (19 years old, Winter 2002/03) I really started getting into web design, and I saw it as what I truly wanted to do as a career. The design courses in my major were lacking back then, so I used to hide myself in RIT’s extremely well-stocked art & design books section at our bookstore and plow through the myriad books on typography, art, and graphic design that were shelved there. Normally I’d sit down, take 2-3 books with me, and in the course of an hour go through the books and I guess through osmosis I picked up a “design education” by reading/viewing them all. One of the books I read was Fresh Styles for Web Designers which highlighted a few different design styles that were popular back then, and one of these styles was Minimalism with 37signals as the featured design firm. I checked out their site, and then their blog Signal vs. Noise, and that was the very first weblog I had ever read. I started seeing so many people commenting and linking to their own sites, so I checked out them too and ended up just being overwhelmed with fantastic design blogs. It seemed as though everyone who was a leader in the design industry was reading either SvN or Jeffrey Zeldman, so I thought that positioning myself with Jason Fried, Zeldman, and other respected industry heavyweights would be the right way to learn best practices.
I don’t know if I’d do anything differently with my blog/career (one and the same!), and the only reason I can say that is because I truly had an overall plan from the beginning of the whole journey. When I first started blogging, I would comment on 15+ design blogs every single day with something valuable to say and a link back to my own site, just to get my name out there. Back in 2003 I could count the design innovators who had weblogs on my hands so it was easier to be recognized since the traffic was more centralized, but now there’s an entirely new crop of technologists trying to get on the radar and it’s tougher to become well-known. I can’t pretend to know what’s best for everyone’s blogs, but I think I am slightly qualified to talk about how to “get on the radar” if you’re a new designer or developer just getting started in this Web 2.0 game. That’s my one piece of advice for everyone who’s trying to make a break into a tech industry: write great blog content, and then make sure to get on and stay on the radar of those that matter. Befriend those who are your idols, study what they’ve done in the past and learn from their mistakes, and then take all that knowledge with you as you make your path. The great thing about weblogs is that there is so much information to be had, but the trick is figuring out how to take all that information and then work with it to make good decisions for yourself.
Written on July 17th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 11:07 pm by Aaron Brazell
BlogBeat Purchased by Feedburner
It’s been an interesting weekend culminating in the announcement this morning that BlogBeat, the feed-based stats service has been purchased by Feedburner.
I’m a big Feedburner fan so my initial instincts on this news are good. I think there’s a valuable market for stats by feed and I would add them to my collection of stat programs. From the press release, it sounds that the features of BlogBeat which have thus-far been a paid-for service will be integrated into Feedburner’s StandardStats - a free service. So for all of you who paid for BlogBeat are entitled to a refund.
Written on July 17th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 08:07 am by Darren Rowse
What would I do different if I had to start my blog over? - Andy Wibbels
The following is an answer from Andy Wibbels from Six Figure Blogging and Blog Wild responding to my one question interview question of what he’d do differently if he had to start his blog over again.
I would have been keen on keywords from the get-go. I sorta kinda knew they were important and sorta kinda thought I should use them but not using them effectively from the start earns me a big D’oh! award. For example, I wrote a post on my personal blog a long time ago about hunky CNN weatherman Rob Marciano and it has turned into a mini-fan club. Everytime there is a hurricane or a tropical storm, the comments roll in on where Rob is today, what he’s wearing, if he looks like he’s been working out… I’m still not where I want to be keywords-wise for either of my blogs, but I think it is a mindset that the earlier you adopt, the better. Stop talking about yourself and start talking about your topic in relevant, topical, real-world keywords and language - be finable, be searchable.
Also crucial is an email newsletter. Newbie/luddites still think inside the inbox. RSS adoption is growing but ‘real people’ are still wanting information in their email.
I also would have been less nuts about wanting to be the first to blog on a topic. As my near-sightedness increases, I’m trying to spend less time at the computer. I’m reading more (gasp!) and focusing on summarizing the trends that I see online and offline for the benefits of my clients and colleagues.
Written on July 16th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 12:07 am by Darren Rowse
1 Question Interview - Index Page
Thanks for all the wonderful feedback so far on the 1 Question Interview series I’m running here at enternetusers.
So far I’ve featured responses from 9 bloggers. There are another 5 to go in the next week before I return from my paternity leave (things are going really well by the way - thanks for the many emails and comments of support and well wishes).
A number of people have asked for me to collate them all into one post or at least link to them from a central location - so here’s the interviews so far - in the order that they were featured:
- Hugh MacLeod
- Theron Parlin
- Seth Godin
- Gina Trapani
- Merlin Mann
- Duncan Riley
- Guy Kawasaki
- Robert Scoble, Mark Frauenfelder and John Battelle
- Kathy Sierra
- Andy Wibbels
- Mike Rundle
- Wendy Boswell
- Jeremy Schoemaker
- Hugh Hewitt
That’s all folks!
Written on July 15th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 12:07 am by Darren Rowse
What would I do different if I had to start my blog over? - Kathy Sierra
The following is an answer from Kathy Sierra from Creating Passionate Users responding to my one question interview question of what she’d do differently if he had to start her blog over again.
1) Use my own domain name instead of a typepad domain! If I’d had even the slightest clue my blog would ever end up with this much traffic, I would have been much smarter. It’s much too hard to change it now without completely messing with rankings, etc.
2) I would never–not for a moment–change/filter/censor what I write simply to keep the harshest detractors at bay (which doesn’t work anyway). I found myself falling into the trap when my blog comments, posts about me on other blogs, and emails started to become really nasty.
While legitimate criticisms are one of the best reasons to have comments (you learn a phenomenal amount from your commenters), the more traffic you get, the more personal attacks you get–including flamers, trolls, and a few who are sincerely and passionately against whatever it is you’re doing. Learning from the legit critics while simultaneously ignoring the attackers is the strategy I wish I’d had from the beginning. If I started over, I would not withold topics I care about and believe in, and I’d do a better job of recognizing who/what I should just ignore.
3) If I had to start over, I would not hesitate. This has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I keep wishing I’d started earlier!
Written on July 14th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 02:07 am by Brian Clark
Why This Blog Sells Tons of Ebooks (And How It Can Sell Even More)
For our first product blog review, let’s take a look at SEO Book, a blog by SEO expert Aaron Wall that ultimately revolves around the sale of a continually-updated book on search engine optimization techniques that bring more traffic to websites.
Like any successful product blog, it all starts with the product. Aaron’s book is excellent, and stands head and shoulders above a lot of the SEO dreck that gets peddled to unwary newbies.
The fact that Aaron uses a blog to sell his book is incredibly smart. Beyond the natural search engine benefits provided by publishing via blog and RSS, Aaron’s regular posting schedule and archives are critical tools for information product sales. They build his authority on the subject matter, help people take a liking to him, create relationships via a free subscription to the blog, and even put people in a position to feel indebted to him (via reciprocity) for all the great free information he provides.
When it comes down to the sales process for the book, Aaron actually promotes his consulting services a bit stronger first with a graphic on the right sidebar. At $500 for an hour of phone consultation, a comprehensive ebook for $79 starts looking really attrActive to a lot of folks. Note that if Aaron had not first built up his authority and credibility with his blog, this strategy might backfire.
OK, on to the sales page for the book. Aaron starts off with a strong headline, which is the absolute most important element to anything you want people to actually read — whether a sales letter, article or blog post.
His states:
All good headlines make a reader-focused beneficial promise, and Aaron accomplishes that by speaking to you (the webmaster) about how you can get something you want — more traffic. He then takes the promise a step forward by turning it into another crucial element; a money back guarantee that transfers risk away from the buyer and back to the seller.
Just below the headline, Aaron has a nice testimonial from Mario Sanchez of The Internet Digest. Later on down the page, Aaron has a string of other testimonials, all of which are crucial to building trust due to the power of social proof — the psychological mechanism by which we look to others to guide our own actions.
The problem with written testimonials (especially online) is that people may think they are fake. Aaron does something very smart with his — he gives a full name, website, and a live hyperlink. Many people are afraid to do this out of fear that the reader will click away.
The thing is, someone who is truly interested in what you have to offer most likely will not click away. But they will be reassured by the fact that they could… and then even email the person to verify the testimonial. It shows Aaron has nothing to hide.
Next, Aaron gives the price and has a “Buy Now” button. Most copywriters would advise against this, but in this case I think it works. The beauty of selling a product with a blog is the “pre-selling” that happens when people engage with your free content. A certain percentage of people might buy off of the headline and testimonial alone.
Not completely sold yet? Most people aren’t.
The page continues with a very nice tactic. Aaron creates a bond with readers by letting them know he’ll share with you the secrets that other SEO experts won’t, and that it’s much easier to achieve great ranking results than you think. This is a mild form of “creating a common enemy,” which hopes to shift the adversarial nature of the “seller vs. buyer” mindset into one where the reader is on Aaron’s side.
From there, Aaron goes into a “FAQ” mode to pose, and then answer, common questions. This is a great way to raise, and then knock down, common objections.
Then, Aaron goes deeper into the features of the book, sets forth his testimonials, reinforces his credentials, and closes with the 90-day money back guarantee, offers free bonuses to sweeten the deal, and asks for the purchase one last time.
What Could be Done Better?
Knowing what works is not a matter of personal opinion. The only way to know if Option “A” is better than “Option “B” is to test them both, and know for sure. This is called split testing, and it can be done with Google AdWords, autoresponders, and web scripts.
For example, although I like the gist of the headline, it’s possible that tweaking only a word or two could raise conversion rates hugely. Headlines are THAT important. Advertising legend (and testing fanatic) John Caples asserted that 75% of buying decisions are made at the headline alone (but, ironically, the rest of the copy still needs to be there to make the decision stick).
Likewise, an alternative to the initial testimonial and “buy now” button could be tested, just to see if it’s having the unintended effect of driving too many people off before they were fully engaged.
While Aaron’s use of the “creating a common enemy” tactic is smart, it might be more effective in story form. Illustrating how easy it can be in a personal narrative is much more powerful, and creating vivid mental imagery early on is crucial to keeping the reader engaged.
Another crucial element of copy that sells is a focus on the benefits of the product, not the features. As it’s been aptly said, “No one wants a drill, they want a hole. Sell the hole.”
Likewise, no one really wants to learn SEO. They want traffic. While the headline nails this, it needs to be elaborated on early and strongly in the copy. Examples of traffic growth that can result from using Aaron’s techniques would work nicely.
I might then lead directly into the list of testimonials after the benefits section. With that powerful combination in place, a follow-up section designed to raise and address common objections, plus illustrate the features of the book, would lead the reader on a slippery slope to the free bonuses, money-back guarantee, and the close of the sale.
Conclusion:
Aaron sells a lot of books already. The reasons why include having a great product, but the blog element cannot be underestimated. By pre-selling without selling, plus having a concept that attracts people via search engines looking for exactly what he offers, the SEO Book blog acts as an ideal platform for selling an information product. In this way, he’s capitalizing on the “low-hanging fruit” exceptionally well.
By making some adjustments to his sales page, Aaron could boost his conversion rates even higher, especially through other sales channels like his affiliate program. Not everyone is familiar with SEO or why they would want to learn it, but everyone with a website understands the need for traffic.
Telling a compelling story about big spikes in traffic (thanks to SEO tactics that work) can result in more sales for Aaron across the board.
Brian Clark teaches his readers how to blog (and sell) more effectively at Copyblogger.
Written on July 14th, surf Active Apparel website 1cecilia397 zone.at 12:07 am by Darren Rowse
What would I do different if I had to start my blog over? - John Battelle, Robert Scoble and Mark Frauenfelder
The following are answers from Mark Frauenfelder from Boing Boing, Robert Scoble and John Battelle responding to my one question interview question of what he’d do differently if he had to start his blog over again. I put them together because they were short and both felt they wouldn’t change much.
John Battelle - I’d really not have done anything differently. It turned out really really well and I had no idea where it might go. I’m pleased as can be.
Robert Scoble - If I had to start my blog again I don’t know what I would have done differently. I don’t have any regrets, honestly. Yeah, I wish I had even more time to blog. I wish I could read even more people’s blogs. I wish I had more time to make more photos and share those. I wish I had more time to hang out with interesting people and share their thoughts. I wish I had invented Memeorandum.
Mark Frauenfelder - I don’t really have an answer for this. The great thing about being a blogger is that you can change the blog anytime you want. Boing Boing has evolved over the years and will continue to evolve as we figure out new ways to do things.
From Darren - While some might wonder whether they can learn anything from these responses I think they both give some insight into blogging and each speaks of my own journey. I don’t think many successful bloggers really know where they are headed with their blogs when they first start out - I know I didn’t have a clue what I was getting into on the day I started mine - but one of the key characteristics that I find many (if not all) top bloggers have is an ability to work hard but let things evolve.
I’ve got an metaphore brewing in my mind that is a little unformed (please forgive me) - it’s sort of like riding a horse in a race. I talked to a jockey about this once and he told me that good jockeys know when to drive the horse hard and when to let it go with the flow and do it’s thing. Drive it too hard and you can over do it - give it the reins at the right time and amazing things can happen.
Good bloggers have a knack at letting their blog take them where it will take them but also knowing when to kick the heels in and drive it forward under their own steam (mixed metaphors I know - but you get the picture - I hope).
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