Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 11:05 am by David Shawver Stanton
Fastclick Launch Text Ads
An email was just sent out to Fastclick Publishers announcing that their new Text Ad program has just gone live.
We have exciting news to announce - we launched our new Text Ads ad format today! Text Ads are the perfect supplement to your current display advertising, using unobtrusive text with customizable formatting to fit your site-specific needs and generate additional revenue.
This is different to Google’s Adsense due to ads not being contextual in nature. This should mean that both ads can be shown on the same page as long as the Fastclick ads do not look too similar to Adsense ones (I guess this is open for interpretation - but I’d advice being careful).
Get more details on what this new program involves at their official press release.
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 09:05 am by David Shawver Stanton
Google Adsense Local Currency Payments are Here
Just went down to my PO Box - and my first local currency cheque arrived from Google. Very exciting. Normally when I get a cheque from Google it takes another 6 WEEKS to get it cleared. Today when I go to the bank it should be a few days at the most before the money hits my account.
It comes at a good time - we settle on our new house this week!
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 09:05 am by David Shawver Stanton
Content Blogs versus Syndicate Blogs?
Scrivs takes a look at whether its best to write an original content blog or a syndicated (linking to others articles) blog. It is a good question that is well worth thinking through for each of your blogs.
My advice is similar to Paul’s - for me it comes down to a number of factors which will vary from blog to blog. These factors include:
- Time - it takes more time to write original content than to syndicate others content. I’m not saying syndication is ‘easy’ - it does take time to find quality articles to link to - but I find once you’re in a rhythm you can do it reasonably quickly.
- Inbound Links - if you want to get a lot of people linking to your blog you might want to consider some original content. You might get a few links by doing syndication but they’ll usually be scattered ‘hat tip’ type links of people acknowledging you as a source of their own syndication rather than a link that will bring you traffic.
- Quantity - if you’re wanting to get a lot of content up quickly then syndication is probably your best option as its easier to post larger numbers of posts if you’re not having to come up with all the ideas yourself and then write them up.
- Community - as Scrivs writes in his post - content sites tend to build more community than syndication sites. This is the case in most of my blogs - however there are always exceptions. For example the Michael Jackson Trial Blog gets a lot more comments than most of my other blogs - yet the content is largely syndicated.
- Writing and Creative Skills - are you able to write well? Some of us are better at writing than others and may be more suited to a content blog. Whilst writing skills are still important with syndication sites however when you’re translating original thought into content the they especially come into play.
So which is best?
I guess it depends how you define ‘best’ but on a personal level I am drawn more to original content blogs. However as an entrepreneur blogger I know that it is not feasible for me to write any more than a handful of such blogs - the energy, creativity and drive to keep more than two or three of them going is too much for most people. enternetusers is probably the blog that I run that has the most original content on (although I mix it up with some link posts also) - and it takes more time than any of my other blogs to run. However I get a lot more personal satisfaction here than in most of my other blogs.
So the majority of my blogs would fall into the syndication category. I aim to mix some original content through most of them from time to time to add a little spice - but the majority of my 25 posts per day schedule is of a syndication nature with a link, quote and comment.
I have had some criticism for this approach from a minority - but most of my regular readers on the different topics that I cover value the blogs as places where they get a filtered, targeted, organised and relevant selection of the latest news on a particular area. These blogs may not be quite as profitable on a ‘per post’ basis - however due to their larger volume of posting actually end up being more profitable.
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 03:05 am by David Shawver Stanton
Blogging as Farming - How to Grow a Bumper Blogging Crop
On the weekend I was speaking with a friend, Alex, who is a Farmer about blogging and the more we talked the more we realized that there is a lot of similarities between what we do. I thought I’d rehash some of the main points from our conversation here:
Taking Time - One of the most frustrating parts of farming for Alex is the length of time it takes from the time of sowing to that of harvest. From the day he plants a crop to the day its safely on the way to be sold can be a nerve wracking period of months. There is a lot of hard work and money that goes into the initial time of planting and no income until quite a long period later (and sometimes not even then).
Blogging takes time also. Building up a blog to the point where it earns a good income can take months, if not years. No one starts a profitable blog and makes a fortune straight away - you have to build up archives, build up a reputation in your niche, build up your ranking in Search Engines, build up relationships with other bloggers - these things take time. I worked for 18 months on my blogs outside of my normal jobs before I was able to pull enough income from them to justify going full time.
Risky Business - Alex never knows whether the crop he’s planting will be a bumper one or a complete failure. Farming is hit and miss. External factors like weather, plague and market prices can make you or break you.
Blogging is similar - there are a lot of things you can do to prepare for a good harvest - but sometimes its the external factors that can be the difference between success and failure. The way other bloggers link to you or how Google decides to treat your site can play a massive part in traffic levels and earning capacity. Of course you can better your chances with some good strategy but ultimately its out of your control.
Creating an environments - Farmers don’t make crops grow. Ultimately there are forces ‘out there’ that bring about the growth. Its got to do with a magic mix of sun, rain, soil etc - coming together to do their biological thing. Alex told me that one of the biggest paradigm shifts in his farming that he’s gone through was about understanding this process and realizing that he couldn’t make his crops grow. Instead of making his crops grow - his job was to understand the process of growth and what sort of environment it takes for good growth. He now sees his business not as growing crops - but as creating furtile environments. It might seem like a bit of a pedantic distinction but I think its helpful.
As bloggers we can’t make blogs earn us a living. But we can understand the process and be in the business of creating an environment where our blogs have every chance of flourishing. This means educating ourselves on things like SEO, income streams, writing well etc, doing our best to act on what we learn, working hard at the different elements that stimulate growth and then stepping back to watch what happens. In the process we should be learning more about what to do next season. That is the approach I’ve been taking for a couple of years now with blogging and I hope that enternetusers is becoming a useful part of that process for more than just me.
Seasons - Farming is obviously a game of playing the seasons - timing is everything and learning to read the environment is a skill that a farmer relies heavily upon. Alex makes calls all through the year about which crops to plant in which fields at which times, about when to harvest, when to irrigate, when to fertilize etc.
Blogging can be similar. I look at my earnings graph for the past 12 months and I notice some definitely swings up and down. If I break down my performance on a blob by blog basis the swings differ vastly between blogs also as different events. A skill I’d recommend you develop as a blogger is being a good observer of what is happening around you. If you can anticipate environmental changes and trends you can position yourself nicely for harvest time. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to entrepreneurial blogging - each blogger and topic takes a different blend of skills, income sources, design etc to make it fruitful.
Patience - Alex is one of the most patient people I know. He has persisted in his work for many years - sometimes through very lean periods in the belief that if he continues to employ the knowledge that he has that his work will be beneficial to him and his family. He works at producing quality crops rather than taking short cuts, he puts in many hours of work and the result is that he’s built himself a farm that is not only sustaining him but that is a thriving business in a time where many farmers are struggling. Alex is smart - he plans and he persists. These are all strengths that we as bloggers would do well to learn from as we seek to grow our own blogging crops.
PS: yes the picture is of me - its a from about 8 years ago when i did a trip around Australia. I used to do a little bit of farming myself!
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 12:05 am by David Shawver Stanton
Blog Networks and Blog Ownership
I’ve been following on with interest and fascination at John Battelle’s emerging FMPublishing project. John is attempting to build a publishing company that focusses upon high quality content (nothing too different so far) that attempts to keep the ownership of that content in the hands of the authors writing for it. It is a very hands off approach that I quite like.
One of the balancing acts that I’m seeing many blog networks grappling with is over this question of ownership and equity of the blog. Most people can see the benefit of a publishing network - but there is no obvious, tried and tested model at this stage that presents a win win situation for both publisher and author/editor.
Many of the issues I’m seeing authors and network owners struggling with revolve around ownership.
Who owns the blog, which party holds copyright, who has rights to take the content?
Some of the newer blog networks (like 9 Rules and Creative Weblogging) are offering authors ownership of their content and allow them to take what they write with them at the end of any relationship. The bigger networks like Weblogs Inc and Gawker do not - instead treating readers more like employees. Weblog Empire is walking a middle ground and has been talking of shared ownership where both parties take the content away from any relationship.
This is a tricky issue - whoever retains ownership holds considerable power in any relationship. If the publisher owns the blog then they are able to sell it at any point - if the author owns it they are able to walk away from the relationship without warning , taking an income stream away from the network.
Both sides might make a reasonable case for holding ownership:
Publishers need to cover their costs for things like hosting, sourcing advertising, design, promotion - and are entitled to their profits. They often sink significant funds into any partnership with a blogger. Some networks now employ people to look after the back end of the blogs that they own - their overheads are significant.
Bloggers on the other hand are the heartbeat of any blog - without them there is no blog. They too poor time and energy into their craft and deserve to be rewarded fairly for their efforts. At the same time the experience of Weblogs Inc shows that bloggers like a stable income - they moved away from a revenue share model to one of paying bloggers to write (payments tied to traffic of the blog).
The issue is and will always remain a sticky one. I’ve had conversations with a number of network bloggers (from a variety of networks) recently who have either complained of how they are being treated by their networks or have expressed concern for a lack of power in the relationships that they find themselves in. Whilst I’m sure network owners sometimes feel like they are getting a raw deal it seems to be authors themselves who are feeling most out of sorts in many circumstances.
One of the difficult elements of this issue is that over time, as blogs grow, the dynamics change. I can think of a couple of circumstances where agreements at the start of a relationship between author and blogger were mutually beneficial for both parties - but as the blogs grew authors felt they were left with less and less and risked losing it all if the publisher were to sell - after a year or two of investing themselves into a blog they feared they were just building someone else’s asset base.
I sympathize with both sides of the equation. I’d hate to work years on a project only to see it sold off to the benefit of someone else - however part of me wonders if this is ‘just life’ - after all isn’t it what happens in most businesses with employees?
So what is a win win model? I’ll be the first to say I don’t really know - however I’m watching the different emerging networks with real interest as they grapple with these and other important questions. I like to think there is some middle ground where incentive can be built in for all to benefit from the running of blog networks - however every time I try to come up with a model my head begins to hurt as it becomes complicated.
Interested in your thoughts on this issue - would you join a blog network? What would your preference be in terms of ownership, payments and incentives?
Written on May 2nd, 2005 at 11:05 pm by David Shawver Stanton
Pajamas Media - Proceed with Caution
Duncan over at the Blog Herald has considered the new blog network being proposed by Pajamas Media (which I linked to a couple of days back). Duncan has taken a look over the documentation that Pajamas Media sent out to interested participants in the program and expresses a number of concerns with what he reads.
It seems that despite some of the concerns that have been raised that many have signed up for the program - Roger posts that over 150 have signed up to be a part of the network.
Duncan questions the legality of the documents sent out by the Pajamas Media team and points out that there is a 3 month exclusivity clause which stops publishers talking to any new advertisers and publishing networks. In a sense what bloggers are being asked to do is take something of a step out into the dark without knowing exactly what conditions Pajamas Media will offer. He goes on to talk about concerns with the secrecy clause in the contract, confusion between the two programs that they seem to be promoting at once and lastly about the right wing political nature of most of the bloggers behind this program and the implications that this might have.
All in all its a pretty comprehensive critique of a program that to this date has revealed very little about what it will actually do.
I have been asked by a number of bloggers about Pajamas Media and have refrained from posting much about it largely because there is so little information about it so far. I share many of the same concerns that Duncan expresses (and have talked with a number of high profile bloggers who hold similar opinions) - but am willing to wait and see what the actual package that they will offer is before give too much of a critique.
All I will say at this point (in addition to agreeing that Duncan raises some legitimate questions and concerns) is that I worry about a system that seems to be looking to selling ads by advertisers on such a large collection of blogs. I am not sure what advertiser would be willing to have their ads displayed on such a wide range of blogs that are currently out there. To me it reminds me a little of some of the concerns that Henry raised about Volvo putting their ads on MSN Spaces Blogs.
Of course Pajamas Media might have a way of targeting relevant ads to relevant blogs and all my concerns might be completely out of order. I guess we wait and see. I’d advise readers read the documentation carefully - take your time in making a decision on this and if you proceed do so with a little caution until more information becomes available.
Update: Just noticed Paul over at BlogLogic has a post with similar conclusions - he’s waiting to see also.
Written on May 2nd, 2005 at 03:05 pm by David Shawver Stanton
Creating A Search Engine Copywriting Plan
Karon Thackston wrote a good piece recently over at WebProNews that I’ve been meaning to link to. She breaks down the posting process into 9 elements for writing posts and articles that will rank well in Search Engines. They are good, basic, non technical tips for bloggers wanting a simple starting point for thinking about SEO. It is easy to get caught up in the technicalities of SEO - but if you at least start with these tips you’ll be on the right track.
1) Use Three Keyphrases Per Page
2) Have 250 or More Words of Copy
3) Write In Natural Language
4) Use Keyword Phrases In Headlines and Sub-headlines
5) Use Keyword Phrases Once or Twice Per Paragraph
6) Use Keyword Phrases In Bold, Italic or Bulleted Lists
7) Do NOT Use Keyword Phrases As Substitutes For Generic Terms
8) Use Keyword Phrases As Anchor Text In Links
9) Test and Track
Found via Learning SEO
Written on May 2nd, 2005 at 12:05 pm by David Shawver Stanton
How Most Visited Blogs Make Money - Visuals
Dutch site Marketing Facts has posted a little table to visualise the post I did on how top traffic blogs are making income.
Written on May 2nd, 2005 at 12:05 pm by David Shawver Stanton
Professional Blogging Frenzy - June 2005
Boy oh Boy do I have a treat for you readers in June when I go away for a month (we’re heading to Turkey for a few weeks and will have a little time in London also - purely holiday apart from one or two meetings in London).
I’ve just emailed some of my favorite bloggers asking them to be guest contributers while I’m away and the replies have just started coming in - so far there are some pretty amazing bloggers who are agreeing to post here over that four week period while I’m taking a bit of a break.
I won’t drop any names yet - but needless to say that these are people I read daily and am excited about having write all in the one place - even if its just for a few weeks. It could be quite the professional blogging frenzy around here in June. More news on who is coming over to enternetusers to play as we get closer to June.
If there is a Blogger you’d like to see write on Pro Blogging in June - let me know in comments below and I’ll see if they are willing to participate.
Written on May 2nd, 2005 at 11:05 am by David Shawver Stanton
Search Engine Marketing Tools
Three tools that you might like to use to analyze how well your blog is going are over at Marketleap. They are:
- Search Engine Placement Check - gives you a ranking for a particular keyword in 7 search engines.
- Search Engine Index Check - gives an indication of how well saturated your blog is in different search engines (or how many pages each SE has indexed for your blog).
- Link Popularity Check - compares how many inbound links your blog has to other sites and blogs. You can enter a number of others to compare yours to and can see how it compares to other popular sites. This one is my favorite (this blog is more popular than coke.com!)
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