Just Heather
1
Blog Indiana Day #1: The Math Behind Your Blog
Aug 13, 2009 | Filed Under: Making Connections

Live Blogging Session #2

Mike Seidle, Pro Blog Service

Why the Numbers Matter
You cannot manage what you cannot measure.

Three Blog Types:
Ad supported—makes money for selling ads, affiliates or pay per click
Business blog—blog generates leads or sales
Other— everyone else

Numbers Everyone Needs to Know
Visitors—number of people who visit the site.
Uniques or Unique Visitors—does not count repeat visitors
Page Views—number of actual pages viewed
Bounce Rate—Number of people are “one and done”
Top Pages—content that gets the most traffic
Referrers—who sends your site traffic
Keywords—what words are being used to find your website

Knowing your top content helps you know what people are interested in so you can create content they want.

Analytics Tools
Log Analyzers—track requests to your web server
(Analog, AWSats, SmarterStats, Webalyzer, Urchin, WebTrends, Click Tracks, etc)
Script Based—track when script or pixel are accessed *more accurate data*
(Google Analytics, Yahoo Analyitics, Omniture, WebTrends, Click Tracks)

Mike Recommends
If you have mad money, Radian6+Webtrends.
If you don’t:
Yahoo Anaytics + time
Yahoo is real time. Google is not.
Real time matters if you start getting lots of traffic.

It’s important to use something that is screening out bot traffic.

Ad Supported Blogs
What You Need to Know
Page Views—by author, topic, day of week
Impressions—how many ad views your site shows
CTR—ad clickthrough rate
CPM—price per thousand impressions
EPC—what you make on average when someone clicks on an ad
Comparative Rankings
Compete, Alexa, Nielson NetRatings

Use numbers to set prices and make your blog appealing to advertisers.
Advertisers will use comparative ranking sites to

EPC = Advertising Income / Ad Clicks (try calculating by author or topic)
Proj. Income = (Proj PV/1000) (CPM) or Proj. PV x CTR x EPC
ROI = 1 – Cost/(Income-Cost)

Business Blogs
Goal is leads or sales.

What You Need to Know
Top Pages
Conversion Rate—number of people who turn into leads or sales (don’t edit – include everything)
CPA – Cost per action: what it costs to get a lead or sale
ROI – the bottom line is what really matters
*Use a contact form so you know which leads found you through your blog.

What Business Blogs Do Not Need to Know
Conversation Rate
Conversation Depth
Authority
*It’s all about leads generated so the engagement & authority is irrelevant.

The idea of a business’s blog enhancing the brand value is bogus if the leads/sales generated aren’t increased.

Okay, this is the point where I realize that I’m not a business blog and I no longer care. Here is where I started playing on Facebook and Twitter and forgot to take notes. It’s also where my uber late night and early morning caught up with me. I’m eating Milk Duds and trying not to think of lunch. My bad.

Other Blogs
What You Need to Know
The usual: PV, UPV, Bounce Rate, etc
Conversation Rate—how many comments you get per post
Conversation Depth—Do you get big or little comments?
Authority—how important is your blog?

Authority
What makes a blog credible—the people in your audience
The right audience—depends on the blog
Finding your authority
1. Social Media Authority—focus is on influence (values links, conversations and aggregates like Technorati, Radian 6-Style, Google Centric)
2. Traffic—focus is on readers & numbers

Secret to Gaining Influence:
Write blog articles others will blog about
Make friends with other bloggers so you will talk about one another’s posts on your blogs
Use outrage. It works.

There’s no differentiation between good authority or bad authority.

The power of Radian-6: It exposes relationships. It’s expensive but worth it!

This is my first attempt at live blogging. I need to take notes and this seemed like the best idea, given the topic. These are my raw notes as they happen. I’ll come back later to fix obvious typos and errors, but if I decide to expand on anything I heard, it would be in a separate post. To quote my girls, “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”

Read the comments.
4
Blog Indiana Day #1: Productivity & Blogging
Aug 13, 2009 | Filed Under: Making Connections

Live Blogging Session #1

Robby Slaughter, Slaughter Development

Lesson #1: Almost all bloggers quit eventually
95% off all blogs are abandoned.

Lesson #2: Amazing Blogs are Regular
Great blogs are updated frequently.
Patterns create success.

Lesson #3: Quality doesn’t matter (much)
We’ve all owned a car that just gets us from point a to point b.
Bloggers actually debate the value of grammar and spelling.
Every blog has terrible entries. It’s out there and part of the blog’s history.

Lesson #4: The most recent post wins
When you have a baby, you are the most important person in the world for your friends & family. Until another baby is born.
Google loves recent content. ~Doug Karr, Marketing Tech Blog

Lesson #5: We are all vain
Bloggers write because they like being read. Otherwise, you’d keep a private journal under your bed.
Blogs succeed when people talk about them.
Engaged visitors = people who buy.

Applying the lessons
1. Everybody quits:
Pick a day to blog – put it on your calendar.
Pick times to blog – choose 2, one to get it started and another to finish/publish.
Develop a process.

2. Great blogs are regular:
Don’t imply otherwise.
Don’t apologize for not blogging.
“I haven’t posted in a long time is the Web 2.0 version of Under Construction.”

3. Quality doesn’t matter.
Let go of pet peeves. (should be part of your process)
Repetition is more important than creativity.

4. Newest post wins
Bury bad posts with new posts.
Respond to headlines. If something happens, write your own post about it. Commentary on current events puts you in the forefront.
Get the last word. The conversation never ends in the Blogosphere—you can always have the last word.

5. We’re all vain.
Get attention by praising other blogs. Talk about it, write about in your own blog, email it to your friends. Mention posts that you liked and expand on them in your own blog.
Get attention by arguing. Picking a fight/disagreeing with another blogger gets attention.
Promote your blog—tell people it’s great. Go to their website, comment on posts and mention your own posts on similar topics.
We’re all vain—accept it and use it.

Blogging Faster:
Characterize Blog Posts:

  1. Response— to another blog, news article or op-ed content
  2. Summary—of an event we sponsored or attended
  3. Continuation—of a previous post, possibley from months or years ago
  4. Perspective—on a bit of common knowledge or an everyday expression
  5. Announcement—of an upcoming event or proposed action

Schedule & Constrain
At most 1 hour
No more than twice daily
Start with once weekly

Divide by activity
Brainstorming (coming up with an idea)
Writing (putting together the post)
Editing (polishing—grammar, spelling, layout)
*Everyone isn’t good at all 3—find partners that can meet your deficiencies.

Blogging in 600 seconds:
Write your topic into the post title just to keep in mind what you’re writing about. You can change it later. (Tip: write the topic in all lowercase to remind yourself that it isn’t the final title.)

Write something you know. Create a lead.
Include a plug—talk about something else you do well that’s related.

Q&A
Q. How much does the editing process take away from the tone?
A. The balance between being readable and accessible vs. formal depends on the style of the blog. Be careful that your editing doesn’t destroy the tone of your overall blog. Maintain a common style or voice.

Q. Do you typically add images to your posts?
A. It’s pretty tough in 600 seconds, but usually visuals are good. Photos can even become your inspiration. Use them as part of the brainstorming process.

Q. How do you know where to stop?
A. Use a timer. Limit your words. (Slaughter Development has a 500 word max; Robby’s personal blog is long essays and has a min of 1500 words)

Q. How do you use networking to drive productivity?
A. Include networking as part of your process. Twitter the posts; if it’s a response to someone else, comment on their blog and use a quote from your post.

This is my first attempt at live blogging. I need to take notes and this seemed like the best idea, given the topic. These are my raw notes as they happen. I’ll come back later to fix obvious typos and errors, but if I decide to expand on anything I heard, it would be in a separate post. To quote my girls, “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”

Read the comments.
2
Blog Indiana Day #1: Keynote
Aug 13, 2009 | Filed Under: Making Connections

Shawn and Noah have put together a great conference for us. I’m excited to be here to learn about the things I need to be doing to make my blog and Inexpensively what I know it could be. They really know what their doing when it comes to connecting. They’ve been on top of every question I’ve had on the conference—even the ones I didn’t think to ask.

It was a bit disconcerting to walk in and have someone I’ve never met greet me by name. I guess my avatar looks just like me. Who knew? I’m so bad about names and faces that it throws me when others aren’t. It actually happens all the time, though, so I guess I need to get used to it. (Yes, Mom, I’m wearing makeup!)

This is my first attempt at live blogging. I need to take notes and this seemed like the best idea, given the topic. These are my raw notes as they happen. I’ll come back later to fix obvious typos and errors, but if I decide to expand on anything I heard, it would be in a separate post. To quote my girls, “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”

Live Blogging Keynote

Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer: The Rules Are There Are No Rules

“If the rules are there are no rules, what the hell is this guy going to say? I’ll get to that, in about 40 minutes.”

The rules are there for a reason, but sometimes they’re meant to be broken.

Design Matters:
Design doesn’t matter in the tech/social media world because more than 50% of readers are never going to visit your website—they will subscribe to your RSS feeds instead.

Engaging:
The more you engage with people, the more connected you are with your audience.
A blog that does not allow comments is not really a blog. It’s a personal publication platform.

Blog Frequently:
Deb Schultz, Jeremey Pepper, Dave Weiner—Don’t blog frequently, but when they do it is incredibly compelling and engaging.
Keep it short and simple. People want short snacks in today’s attention deficit world.

Play Nice:
Some who don’t can get away with it because they are entertaining, if you get their humor and/or sarcasm.

Provide Value to Your Reader:
Value is relative—any blog will have value to someone, even if it’s just your mom.

Advertising:
Most blogs will never make more than $24.99 (and no one will cut you a check until you make $25)
Monetizing blogs is not about advertising; it is capitalizing on opportunities that your blog provides.

Driving Traffic:
Promote your blog.
The rules say be active on Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon, Propeller, Mixx.
The theory is readers vote for good content. “The theory is bullshit.” None of the front page content on social media sites is actually based on what the community wants to see. It’s based on the back scratching and trading of a few hundred people.

How to Use Social Bookmarking Sites/Breaking the Rules:
Vote for good content when you see it.
Help friends with votes, if I like the content.

Social News/Bookmarking Success:
Spend all day on the site.
Get secret invites to voting circles
Pander to people via IM
“all the damn time!”

There is a lot of great advice, guidelines and “rules” but bottom line is are you happy with your blog? The success of your blog is really determined by how you feel about it.

Jason’s Rules for Blogging:
Be bold. Say something that other people are not. If your blog offers nothing different than what other people in your niche are saying, you’re just a me too. Take a different stance now and then.
Be fair. Let your opposing readers have their say. Letting them have the last word now and then is classy.
Follow the rules…sometimes. Good advice is still good advice.
Be loyal to your audience. Remember what people come there for and stay true to it. See what drives traffic. See what people comment on. Write about what your readers want to talk about.
Write good stuff!

Q&A
Q. What would you call it then, if there are no rules? Aren’t we still in need of rules and guidelines?
A. I would call it Blogging Best Practices.

Q. What about ghost writers?
A. Transparency is key in social media. Ghost writers are the opposite. The biggest problem is getting found out. You run the risk of being disingenuous. It intimates that you have something to hide.

Read the comments.
2
Lovely Locks
Aug 12, 2009 | Filed Under: Growing Kids

Wordless Wednesday: Lorelai had 9 inches cut off in June for Locks of Love. Since I have never gotten around to blogging her 1st haircut, this will have to do. Besides, if a picture is worth a 1000 words, then 27 pictures is almost a whole novel!

Read the comments.
1
Slacker Summer
Aug 07, 2009 | Filed Under: Family Fun, Growing Kids

When the girls created their summer fun list, I knew they were overly ambitious. I was clear that we wouldn’t get to some of it, but I had high hopes that they would have a fun summer anyway. Over the last 2 months, I launched my business nationwide, took a (somewhat) spur of the moment business trip to Chicago and was diagnosed with diverticulitis (don’t look it up—it’s gross). Because I am lazy very busy, we have pretty much neglected the summer fun list in favor of staying home where I can work as well as recuperate. On an up note, my 3-year-old is learning many wizard spells courtesy of our Disney Channel marathons. That has to count for something. (Shutup.)

With less than 3 weeks until school begins, it’s time to dust off the list and have some fun. In true slacker staycation-style, we’re kicking off with PJ Day. I like this because I pretty much stay in pajamas all day anyway it allows for crossing off multiple items with out getting dress minimal effort leaving the house oh, screw it, it’s because I’m lazy. The girls very carefully selected their pajamas tonight since they’ll be wearing them for 24 hours. I grabbed the first only clean set I could find. They’re already planning breakfast—pancakes a la Stacia. Which is fine with me because it teaches her valuable responsibility (it totally does!) and it’s one less meal for me to cook.

We’re throwing in crafts (#31), a movie marathon (#36) and possibly even board games (#39), but I don’t think my idea of calling it our “big sleepover” (#6) is going to fly. I’ve also decided to shoot for crossing off a back-to-school item since I did promise the girls baking. I have blueberries and bananas for muffins, which we’ll freeze (mostly) for breakfasts. Having fast, easy breakfast on hand is pretty much the only way my kids get to eat in the mornings when we’re rushing off to school. I don’t really do mornings. However, I do clean up nice (cue gratuitous photo of me looking fabulous at the Mommy Needs a Cocktail party):

At least I know I’m not alone. Ever.

Read the comments.
2
Wordless Wednesday: If Only…
Aug 05, 2009 | Filed Under: Lovable Critters
If only the human siblings in this house could get along so well.

If only the human siblings in this house could get along so well.

Read the comments.
Newer »