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Archives for November 2007

EatonWeb To Devalue PageRank… What Are Your Thoughts?

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The EatonWeb blog directory, which attempts to order blogs in each category by “importance” according to a variety of metrics, has decided to devalue the role of PageRank in its algorithm.

The basic argument is this: PageRank no longer serves as a reliable indicator of importance. If EatonWeb wants to be a reliable indicator of importance, then it needs to devalue the role of PageRank in its algorithm.

So what are your thoughts? Is this a smart move? A bad move? A reactionary move? From an objective standpoint, does it make sense to start ignoring PageRank in favor of other more reliable indicators of blog value?

ReBlogging: The new pest

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Have your articles been reblogged?
Are you aware of the copyright rules here on p.com?
You know that using ads on a site makes that site ‘commercial’?

Stop automatic reblogging of your articles!

Or better: Go ahead and tell Google to stop indexing those sites.

The case

Today I was alerted that my name is showing up on some website. I checked the page and could see that my p.com feed is reblogged. Some others, like Darren Rowse are also hit.

  • The site: article words .com
  • The issue narrowed in : Google Blog Search (GBS) BlogBridge to monitor my name and links to my sites. Those search feeds show up in a guide called ‘MM Blogs’ and give me an immediate feedback. BlogBridge offers so called ‘smart searches’ which make it very easy to get those results. In other feed readers you will have to set up those searches by copying & pasting the appropriate RSS sources.

    It is no big deal to set up such an automatic monitoring to search for good or bad usage of your content!

    My reaction

    I simply sent the above GBS address and search term to make them aware of the website. A stronger weapon would be to file an AdSense DMCA Complaint.

    This is a reminder to follow your traces, may they be good or bad…

Clue 5 In the Performancing Treasure Hunt

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Better late than never. Performancing has been encountering some terrible server issues over the last 3 days…catastrophic issues that we simply could not prepare for in advance. That’s our excuse. Take it or leave it. But please do send us your sympathies for 72 hours worth of massive “what the hell” headaches.

Back to the treasure hunt. We’re now four clues into the Performancing Treasure Hunt where you can win up to seven great prizes. For the last four days you’ve been searching around for Clue 4. Hope everyone has found it by now;-)

Before introducing Clue Number 5, let me just put in a huge plug for Brian Clark’s Teaching Sells program. I’ve heard so many good things about Brian’s program in the last month or so, that I’ve stopped counting. Suffice it to say…if you want to learn how to build a membership based site, look no further than Brian’s guide.

Now you all know that I love Brian…right? So let’s get on with the clue:

Clue #5: “Brian Clark teaches wannabes”

What? “I thought you just got done saying that Brian’s program was top notch…now you’re insulting him?” Nah…I’m a Brian Clark wannabe. I personally think that Brian has had the single most positive and lasting influence on the blogosphere through his site Copyblogger….period. I think everyone should want to be a Brian Clark wannabe.

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here’s a 4 step algorithm for how to use the clue.

  1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
  2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
  3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
  4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that’s how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you’ve collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word. All the clues together will represent a phrase. The first person to identify that phrase wins the grand prize.

If you need confirmation that you’ve found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message.

Sponsor Performancing’s December “Tis The Season” Holiday Theme

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The holiday season is right around the corner and we at Performancing are glad to share in the holiday spirit by releasing the ‘Tis the Season theme for WordPress on December 1st.

‘Tis the Season uses the popular red-and-green color scheme that is very much in tune with the holiday seasons. The theme uses a fixed-width layout with a basic two-column structure featuring well-proportioned column widths.

We are officially opening this great new WordPres theme to sponsorship, with bids starting at $250. Theme Sponsorship allows you to not only support Performancing’s monthly release of free, high quality WordPress themes but to also gain exposure for your own site or product.

So let the bidding begin!

View a preview of the theme.

Why I Like Working With Girls Better Than Most Guys

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I’ve been working online long enough to have learned a few lessons.

Lesson Numero Uno: Girls, on average, are much better working partners than guys.

It’s as good as a scientific law. I’ve worked with enough people (hundreds) to feel confident in my conclusion.

Now this doesn’t mean that there aren’t some good guys out there. My friends Chris, Raj and Ahmed are three of the best people you could imagine working with. But for every Chris, there are nine lazy-ass guys sitting around trying to suck away your money. It’s a fact. A law of nature.

So here are three reasons I like working with girls better than guys:

1. Girls are more dependable.

Ask a female for a favor (no, not that kind sickos), and if she says yes, it gets done, done well, and earlier than you expect. Not so with most guys. Just an observation. But I bet you know what I’m talking about.

2. Girls do it more thoroughly

Aside from the rare perfectionist beast like Chris Pearson, I’ve found that most girls just do the job more completely. I get a more polished product from the average girl, then I do from the average guy. Just an observation. No need to flame me.

3. Girls are more willing to take suggestions

Whether it’s because they don’t have egos the size of Texas, or because they just want to do the best job possible, I’ve never had a girl act offended or defensible from a suggestion. And revisions…they do them with joy.

Most guys I’ve worked with…drag their feet, and mumble some incoherent nonsense when asked for improvements. Just an observation. A fact, that’s as good as a law of nature.

Clue 4 In the Performancing Treasure Hunt

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So we’re now three clues into the Performancing Treasure Hunt where you can win up to seven great prizes. On Saturday, we let you search around the Internet for Clue 3. With each clue, we see more and more people playing, which is awesome. Keep hunting and keep spreading the word!

So let’s get straight to Clue Number 4:

Clue #4: “PageRank epicycles are chinks in the Google armor”

Ok. So what are you supposed to do with the clue?

Well, here’s a 4 step algorithm for how to use the clue.

  1. Do a Google search on the exact clue phrase.
  2. Visit any page on the Internet that shows up in the Google SERPS for that phrase.
  3. Once you are on the page, find only the *outbound* links in the article.
  4. Write down the first letter of the domains of any *outbound* links.

So that’s how you get started. The earlier you start searching, the better, because the less chance there is of SERP corruption by mischiefs;-)

Once you’ve collected all the letters for a clue, try to unscramble them into a word.

Each clue represents one word. All the clues together will represent a phrase. The first person to identify that phrase wins the grand prize.

If you need confirmation that you’ve found the *official* pages of the Treasure Hunt, send me, Ryan a private message.

7 Easy Tips To Maximize Your Blog Posts

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A while back I wrote a post titled 10 Articles All Bloggers Should Read where I listed the 10 articles that I generally show to all my bloggers when they first start.

Since writing that article, I’ve come up with a list of 7 specific tips for writing the perfect blog post. These tips are simple yet are designed to maximize the effort that each writer puts into his or her writing. The goal of each tip: to increase the number of people who read and engage the material.

7 Easy Tips To Maximize The Effect Of Each Blog Post

1. Wherever natural, eliminate pronouns and replace with descriptive nouns.

The idea with this tip is to help the search engines identify the semantics of your article. Nouns help specify your article and also reduce the noise-to-signal ratio. For the most part, think of pronouns in the same way as clunky, excessive HTML code -> they keep your article from reaching it’s highest potential.

2. Choose Highly Descriptive Titles For Your Articles

This is not news to most of you, as it is the most heavily emphasized optimization strategy around. However, I usually add a few pointers such as the fact that in my experience an ideal title length is usually 4-7 words long. The title should accurately reflect the content of the article, but also hone in on the most important keyword phrases.

Instead of “She’s Hot Like That…” you might choose “Scarlett Johansson Looks Hot As A Blond”

3. Reinforce Your Headline Keywords In The First Paragraph

So you’ve chosen a rock solid headline. Well, you shouldn’t stop there. In the first paragraph of your article, you should supplement your title with:

A) an exact phrase match of a portion of your title (Every guy in the world thinks Scarlett Johansson looks hot.)
B) an additional sprinkling of keywords (But as a blond, Scarlett isn’t just hot…she’s smokin’)

4. Aim For Articles That Are At Least 150 Words

The thin content penalty can hurt. But having too many diluted words can hurt too. For newsy items I generally recommend 150-250 high keyword density, low-pronoun words. For how-to and reference articles, I generally recommend 500+ words. With 500+ words, it’s easy to overdue the keyword optimization, so to avoid unnatural pattern penalties I usually keyword load in every 3rd paragraph. Everyone has a different opinion on these items, but the important thing is to be mindful of the importance of article length. By trying different techniques out, you’ll eventually find your sweet spot.

5. Promote Your Article With Keyword Anchor Text

I’ve been doing some tests lately and I can’t overstate the difference it makes to acquire even just one link to your article. So the most important thing is get links. But almost as important is to get links with anchor text that matches the keywords in your article title.

The good news is that social media networks provide a quick and powerful way to start your promotional campaigns off. A link from Digg or Propeller can do wonders to push your article up in the SERPS. And the more people who vote for your article, the stronger the backlink ends up being.

But the work doesn’t stop there. Encourage others in your blogging community to use your post as a springboard for commentary. Every blogger is looking for writing topics, so a well written article is often well accepted. Over at College Startup, if someone sends me a good, well written article, more often than not I comment on it. My number one struggle is coming up with things to write on…so when someone else gives me the framework within which to write, I’m very appreciative.

6. Encourage Conversation

Every article you write is an opportunity to engage in conversation with your readers. There are many ways to encourage conversation, but the most important method is to explicitly request comments. Make it clear that you value your readers’ opinions. Ask them what they think. A provocative question at the end of a post can spur on some fantastic dialogs.

7. Make it easy to subscribe

You may not know it, but you really do want to build a base of feed subscribers. A feed subscriber is much more likely to return to your blog in the future. If you really want to get fancy, you might also consider starting up a monthly newsletter by building up a base of opt-in email subscribers. In either case, each of your posts is an opportunity to encourage people to subscribe. Whether at the top or bottom of your posts, a big bold call to action is in order.

Ok. So those are my 7 tips for maximizing the effect of your blog post.

Better writing: Pronouns are evil (NEW: Now with examples!)

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Don’t use pronouns – Use nouns

Better writing by avoiding pronouns.

1. The part of speech that substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and designates persons or things asked for, previously specified, or understood from the context.
2. Any of the words within this part of speech, such as he or whom.

Source: pronouns

Cryptic rule

1. Wherever natural, eliminate pronouns and replace with descriptive nouns.

The idea with this tip is to help the search engines identify the semantics of your article. Nouns help specify your article and also reduce the noise-to-signal ratio. For the most part, think of pronouns in the same way as clunky, excessive HTML code -> they keep your article from reaching it’s highest potential.

Source: 7 Easy Tips To Maximize Your Blog Posts

You ask for examples? Here they come:

Examples

It was a sunny day.
The last day in October was a sunny day.

As I said before he is a great guy.
As I said before Markus Merz is a great guy. Read his (oops?) articles and sometimes he (oops!) is doing it (oops!) right. Catchy example, isn’t it (oops?)?

I tested it and it is a really useful product.
I tested that toaster and it is a really useful product.

Got it?
Got the semantic argument?