Ok. People who know me know that I’m the slowest new tech adopter in the Western Hemisphere. I like to let things age, and get tested by the omniscience of time. Seems like Twitter is the real deal. Most of you probably have known it for a long time. I’m slow and lazy.
Anyway, I’d like to follow you on Twitter. So if you Twit(ch) please post your URL in the comment section.
Oh, my Twitter address is:
http://twitter.com/RyanCaldwell
My resolution for 2008 is to focus on quality and branding over quantity. One really good post goes much further than 5 run-of-the-mill posts. So I’m going to make more really good content and less run-of-the-mill content. We’ll see how it goes.
So what’s your main Resolution for 2008?
It’s that time of year when the Internet goes into a virtual slumber. But we here at Performancing wanted to keep things a little spicy (just like that spiced butter rum you’re drinking). So we’re offering you a trivia question to keep your mind active (and free from complete holiday comatose):
Besides getting an explicit notice in Webmaster Tools, or an email from Matt Cutts, what is the clearest sign that your blog is not in the good graces of Google?
I have one specific answer in mind. It’s really obvious and gets at the core of what Google is all about.
Here’s a clue: what’s the most important stat chart that an SEO can look at?
First person to get my answer gets a free submission in the EatonWeb blog directory. I’ve told the answer to Ahmed Bilal, so the answer is locked in.
Any guesses? Post your answers in the comment section. First person to answer correctly wins.
A few days ago, I was able to interview Steven Snell from Vandelay Design. In less than a year, Steven’s blog has become one of the most read blogs in the “blog design and usability” niche. In fact, the Vandelay Design Blog has over 1000 subscribers to its feed, a major milestone.
One of the reasons I picked Steven for an interview is that I believe he’s performing the art of using a business blog to perfection. Unlike so many corporate blogs, that seem to exist just to exist because it’s trendy, Steven’s blog provides useful information, establishes his knowledge and authority, and makes his customers confident in his abilities. Most importantly, it gets him business. I know excellence in execution when I see it…so I present to you an interview with Steven Snell, from Vandelay Design.
1. Tell us a little bit about your design business, how long you’ve been on the web, and the services you provide.
Vandelay Website Design has been in business for about a year. We provide web design, blog customization and website maintenance/updates. The blog has been online online for about 9 months, with the first 3 months being very inactive.
2. I believe that all businesses should use blogs for promoting their business. But so many either don’t, or do a poor job at it. How do you use your blog to promote your business?
Well, first of all, I agree that blogs are a great tool for any business that has the resources to run a blog. The whole purpose for starting the blog for Vandelay Design was to get some additional content on the site that would draw search engine traffic, and ultimately more web design business. There are so many web design companies out there that it’s extremely difficult for a new one to compete well in search engines for popular words and phrases. The blog posts obviously create additional pages on the site that draw some long tail searches. In recent months the blog audience has really grown steadily and the blog itself is now more of an asset then was originally planned. The search traffic is now taking a back seat to additional opportunities that might be possible, like developing new services (such as marketing, consulting, etc.) that could be promoted through the blog. Actually, when I saw the announcement last week that Performancing is offering some new services I thought it was ironic because that is almost exactly what I would like to do at some point.
3. What’s your primary method of monetizing your blog?
Right now the blog creates no revenue except through promoting design services, and also promoting my writing services. I plan to start using a few advertisements in coming months on the blog (not on the rest of the site like the design portfolio).
4. How much time do you spend blogging (and on blogging-related activities) every day?
I would say about 2 hours per day, 7 days a week. Sometimes it’s hard to draw the line between what is blogging-related and what is business-related. That includes time to read other blogs, visit social media sites, check email, and obviously write articles.
5. What are you three favorite blogs (the ones that you visit and read the most)?
That’s a pretty hard question. It changes from time-to-time, but I would have to day Dosh Dosh, Pro Blog Design, and Smashing Magazine. Maki always has very original and useful articles for any online marketer. Michael (Pro Blog Design) has articles that are insightful and informational for blog designers, WordPress in particular. Smashing Magazine is the type of blog that I would like to run sometime in the future. It’s focused on a strong niche and recognized as a leader in the industry.
6. Are there any challenges that are specific to blogging in your niche?
One of the challenges is that it is pretty saturated. Sometimes it’s difficult to be original, and it’s almost always difficult to write about a topic in a way that hasn’t been done before. At the same time there are so many potential blog readers in the target market that getting traffic is easier than in smaller niches, so I think it works both ways.
7. On a scale of 1-10 where 10 is “most important” – how important do you consider visitor statistics to be, and what are some ways that you use your stats to improve the performance of your blog?
I would say 7. Statistics obviously don’t make a blog successful on their own, but I’m kind of a statistics guy, so I like to analyze and learn from the past. Specifically, I use stats to see what topics create the most interest. If I am going to develop a post specifically to target social media users I’m going to focus on some aspect of design rather than something about marketing, SEO, or blogging. Over the past few months I’ve seen repeatedly that design articles produce the best results for me when I want/need big traffic. Readers like the other topics too, but they just don’t do as well with social media for me. I think I also use stats to improve the blog by setting goals and holding myself accountable. I’m a pretty competitive person, so I set specific goals for traffic and I go after it. I know that ultimately stats won’t get me to where I want to be, but if they can help me to improve my blog through motivation, that’s a big step.
8. If there was one niche besides design that you could successfully blog in, what would it be?
I would love to write about sports, specifically football. It’s on my list of things to do once I can achieve my goals with my current projects. Actually, if I answered #5 truthfully, rather than listing blogs that are relevant to the topic of my blog I would have said that my favorite is the University of Miami athletics blog from the Sun Sentinel.
10. Has Performancing helped you? In what ways? Is there anything we could do better?
Performancing has helped me by providing some of the best articles about blogging. I’m only 6 – 9 months into be a blogger, so I’m learning every day. One of the things I really like about Performancing is that readers get several perspectives from different writers. The collective knowledge of the staff is far greater than any one individual. I haven’t really given much thought to what you could do better. I know you guys have great networks, so maybe some type of improvement to the networking opportunities for readers. I know you have the forums, and honestly I haven’t taken advantage of them and definitely should start. So maybe you don’t need improvement, maybe I need to improve how I use the site.
11. Are you a quantity, quality or “somewhere in between” kind of blogger?
I would say I’m somewhere in between. I post about 4 – 6 times per week, so certainly not at the quantity of some bloggers who crank out several posts a day. Quality is definitely crucial, regardless of your niche. I don’t want to take quality so far that I can only produce 1 or 2 posts per week. So far the middle ground has worked pretty well for me.
Let me paint the picture for you. You spent the last 8 hours perfecting a killer linkbait. You’re proud of your work. You think it’s going to do well on Digg, it collects some votes…
…a few hours later, you receive an email from someone claiming that he’ll get your account deleted and your article removed from Digg if you don’t pay him $1000.
Well, not having $1000 to spend, and not believing for a second that this is for real, you ignore it…
…and then bang, your story’s gone, your account has been deleted.
Welcome to the brave new world of Digg blackmail. Where sophisticated online users earn a living by abusing the Digg abuse reporting system. It’ a reality. I’d heard about it, but I’ve now seen it happen…and you should prepare for it to happen to you too.
Here’s how you do it.
Step one, monitor the lower portion of the right hand column of this URL:
http://digg.com/all/upcoming
Step two, for each story, visit the link, and then find a contact e-mail.
Step three, construct and send the message from an account that won’t give away your identity: “Hi. I notice that you have an article that’s doing well at Digg. I have the ability to get your article removed from Digg and would like you to pay me X dollars to help your article make the front page, rather than get it removed. Please let me know if you’re interested.”
Step four, if the person responds within [define your limit, e.g. 1 hour], then good. If not, then A) Put your bury brigade network into action and B) Contact Digg at the following email address: [email protected] with a message like the following: “Hi. The people behind this article are using email spam to get dugg. I received a copy of this spam, which you can see below:”
Digg blackmail works because Digg’s abuse team has it’s finger on the trigger. It’s sort of like the modern prison system, or Guantanamo Bay… penalize as many candidate abusers as possible, and even if you’re accuracy rate is below 10%, you’re still improving the quality of the product (in one case Digg, in the other case society).
Whether you agree with Digg’s abuse policies or not does not matter. What matters is that people are now making money through Digg blackmail. It’s a very interesting phenomenon, and I’ll be interested to see what Digg does about it.
Performancing is all about encouraging bloggers to make good blogs. And this year, we’re going to recognize the best blogs in the business with the first annual Performancing Blog Awards.
Starting today, we’re opening up nominations for the best best blogs or bloggers in each category. You are free to nominate your own blog, but we’d also encourage you to nominate others…blogs and bloggers that you truly believe in.
In addition, why not help spread the word about the Performancing Blog Awards by making a post on your own blog. You are free to hotlink the image and also include the following categories that are up for nomination.
Each category will have a single winner, two runners up, and possibly some honorable mentions. Our goal is to highlight the very best that the blogosphere has to offer, and we appreciate any tips/help that the Performancing community can provide to help us make our decisions:
Official Categories For The 2007 Performancing Blog Awards:
It’s the people’s awards afterall…
The awesome Performancing Blog Awards logos were designed by Randa Clay, the official graphic designer of Performancing Services.
My question is simple:
If someone takes private email correspondence and, without asking permission, posts the other person’s email message to a blog, what is the legal status of that content? Does the person who has not granted permission have a legal case to bring against the person who posted the content of the e-mail message?
Interviews rock because they show us the brilliant people behind the usernames. Today, Performancing is excited to share with you this interview we got with The Gaffer… a guy living in Florida, originally from Wales, who runs the very successful EPL Talk soccer blog, podcast and video show.
1. How’d you get started as a blogger?
I did things a bit backwards really. In 2002, I launched a corporate blog on an intranet where I was the director of internet marketing for a brick and mortar company. Then in 2005 I got the bug to write about my first true love, soccer, and EPL Talk began. I’ve always been a writer so it came naturally to me.
2. What’s the key to being a successful soccer blogger. How do you stand out from the crowd?
Differentiation is key especially with more than one million blogs worldwide on the topic of soccer. With so much competition (both from the international press and blogs), I focus on the world’s most popular sports league which is the English Premier League (aka EPL). I target the readers from around the world who experience the league via their TV sets. As a result, the topics I cover on EPL Talk are quite different such as the quality and quantity of TV coverage, the commentators and TV presenters who the viewers see and hear on a weekly basis and my colorful opinions regarding what happens on and off the pitch.
The key to being a successful soccer blogger is to remain impartial and to keep the content remarkable. It’s easy to say but difficult to do.
[Editor’s Note: The Gaffer also stands out by differentiating his soccer blog with a Podcast and YouTube video show]
3. Do you blog primarily for money or for passion?
It has to be passion. If I blogged for money, I would have quit a long time ago.
4. Tell us about the biggest mistake you’ve made in blogging and what you’ve learned from it.
The biggest mistake I made was deciding to host the blog on the Blogger platform. Blogger’s ease of use was wonderful, but I invested so much dependency on Blogger where I drove a ton of traffic, built a respectable Google PR and generated a ton of links to a site that wasn’t even hosted on my domain. If I had to do things all over again, I would set up a WordPress blog on my epltalk.com domain, which is precisely what I just did and it was something I should have done two years ago.
5. Do you see yourself still blogging in 2 years, 10 years?
I don’t foresee a time where I’ll stop blogging. In the past two years, I’ve launched an EPL Talk podcast and vodcast but both continue to take so much time and energy, and are quite tedious. In contrast, blogging is such a joy to accomplish and a wonderful release. All I need is an Internet connection, a blogging platform, an idea and the words just flow.
6. List your three favorite blogs (the ones that you read the most).
Funnily enough, the blogs I read most often focus on technology rather than soccer. The top three that I read religiously are TechCrunch, Sphinn and Scobelizer. All three of them give me a ton of ideas of how EPL Talk can continue pushing the envelope in its coverage of soccer.
7. What do your family and friends think of you blogging? Do they even know?
Most of my friends and family are aware of my blogging but few of them truly understand what it really is. The biggest thrill I had was finding out that my parents had printed one of my blog posts and read the story with genuine interest even though they both have no interest in soccer.
8. Has Performancing helped you? Do you think that we offer useful information that’s helpful for soccer bloggers? In what ways? And, do you think it will continue to help you?
I was turned on to Performancing after hearing Chris Garrett give a presentation. I’m still a relative newcomer to Performancing so I haven’t had the opportunity to benefit from the site as much as your veteran readers have. But I can see the value for fellow soccer bloggers especially in the tips that Performancing provides. As long as that continues, the site will always be a valuable resource.
9. If you could meet any blogger who would it be and why?
Without a doubt, it has to be Seth Godin. The man has so much clarity. He continually amazes me with his remarkable ideas and has been an inspiration for me since the first day I read his blog in 2002.
10. Which ad networks have been most profitable for you?
I’ve tried several but I keep on coming back to Google AdSense just because it’s the easiest to implement, the most dependable and provides a steady stream of revenue. The other advantage is that they’re pretty efficient at cutting checks and sending the money.
11. How much time do you spend blogging (and on blogging-related activities) every day?
Including research and writing, I typically spend 3 hours a day working on EPL Talk. That doesn’t include time watching soccer, which can easily be 7-10 live matches a week. It ends up being a big investment of time, but it’s something I enjoy doing. For me, it’s the perfect combination of my interests which are writing, internet marketing, coding, search engine optimization and watching the beautiful game. Who could ask for anything more?!