B³H³ Blog Network

In case you hadn’t noticed … CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

Hopefully you’re already seeing an increase in AdSense revenue driven by people who are looking for gifts and who generally feel in the mood to spend money (being in the mood to spend money puts them in the mood to click on relevant ads). 

You can make your ads more “Holiday themed” and thus increase the likelihood that they are noticed and clicked on by choosing Holiday themes.

Here’s how:

• Login to your AdSense account
• Click on “My Account”
• Scroll to ”Ad Type Preference” and click “Edit”
• Now check the box “Enable themed ad units when available”

You should start to see Christmas related ads appearing on your site.  At other times of year you’ll see different themed ads (Halloween and so on).  The themes are usually subtle and just help draw the eye to the ad that little bit more.

If you make the change, then keep an eye on your earnings.  If you see a decline in CTR (Click Through Rate) then the themes might be having a negative effect instead of the desired positive one - that’s a sign that it might be a good idea to switch back to normal ads.

Philipp Lenssen puts this SEO urban legend to rest.

I had a lil’ bet going with Googler Matt Cutts. The premise? I figured that once you installed the Google Toolbar, every URL you’d visit would slowly be added to the Google web search index… even otherwise unlinked URLs, as long as they’re public (and not excluded via robots.txt).

…

Well, it turns out my suspicion was dead-wrong.

I never seriously believed that this was the case anyway - it would have been a privacy violation if nothing else.

Problogger Darren Rowse (a guy that I admire greatly for his experience, wisdom and level-headedness) lists his 10 favorite blogging books.

• The Story Factor
• Ogilvy on Advertising
• Advertising Secrets of the Written Word
• The E-Myth Revisited
• Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands
• Unleashing the Idea Virus
• Tipping Point
• Join Me
• Don’t Make Me Think
• 1000 Most Important Words

These are all good books - and Darren is giving you a chance to win them all.  All you need to do to have a chance of wining is post a comment (not a spammy comment) on his blog between now and Dec 25th!

What are you waiting for!

Here’s a popular question from bloggers both old and new:

How long should a typical post be?

I think that what bloggers who ask this question would really like is a firm number - for example, “the best length for a blog post is 336 words.”  Unfortunately, there isn’t a firm number that I can give you.  However, I can give you some guidelines for the ideal blog post length.

• Make it as long as it needs to be and no more!
  Sounds like one of those sarcastic replies, but it’s true.  Make the post as long as it needs to be to say what you want it to say and no longer.  If you can say that you want to say in a couple of sentences, then that’s how long it needs to be.  Don’t feel the need to pad it out.
• Give your post a title - and stick to it!
  If your post is called “How to do XYZ with ABC” then make sure that you post tells the reader how to do XYZ with ABC.  Be careful about wandering off on tangents and asides - this can bulk out your post unnecessarily and make your reader lose interest.
• Maintain your reader’s interest
  If your post looks like it’s entering “heavy reading” territory then think of ways to make is more interesting - add images, break up the text into bullet points, etc.
• Part 1, Part 2 …
  If your post looks like it’s going to become a monster, consider breaking it up into multiple parts over a few days.  This way you don’t overload your readers.
• What are your readers used to?
  What kind of post length are your readers used to?  If you normally write one or two paragraph posts and you dump in a War and Peace you are apt to upset readers (same goes in reverse).  Give your readers what they are used to!

And by the way, this post is 336 words long.

Dave Taylor asks - Is WordPress the fabled Blog Police after all?

The more I think about it, the more that I’m bothered by what Matt Mullenweg and his team at Wordpress.com are imposing upon the thousands of bloggers using this hosted version of the splendid Wordpress software. As came to light through a posting from blogger Colleen on her weblog, they’ve sent out a letter to their customers warning that any sponsored or paid blog entries are grounds for immediately deletion of their blog and a permanent ban from using the service in the future.

I’m not going to enter into this particular battle - the folks at WordPress have contributed greatly to the blogging community with both a free blogging platform and a free hosted service.  What I am going to say is that if you are planning a commercial venture (even a small one) then you should find web space and host the blog on web space that you pay for.  That way it’s your blog and your rules (web hosts have policies on what’s acceptable on their servers but most only cover things like warez and adult content).  Don’t make a free service the backbone of any online venture you have planned.

Remember, with a free service you get what you pay for. 

Robert Scoble (of Scobleizer fame) made a post earlier today on how Wordpress.com doesn’t allow PayPerPost and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) gaming tricks to be used on their blogs.  Fair point.  However, a visitor calling themselves Remarkable posted the following comment:

“Also, if you want to put lots of ads and things on your blog, why are you using a free service? Pay for a host and put that stuff somewhere else.”

Says Robert, advertising his book (twice) on his free Wordpress.com blog Not saying you shouldn’t. But, it’s not that different from a sidebar of Google Ads.

To which Robert replies:

Remarkable: good point, but stuff on the sidebar isn’t treated as SEO the way that stuff in the content area is.

Now, partly I’m confused as to what Robert is trying to say here.  Taken literally the sentence doesn’t make any sense  but what I believe he’s trying to say is that the sidebar on a WordPress blog doesn’t influence SEO - Wrong.  Wrong big style. 

First off, the commenter wasn’t talking about SEO, they were talking about putting ads on a free WordPress account.  Secondly, whatever is on the sidebar can heavily influence SEO on a blog - After all, the sidebar appears on every single blog page!  Robert, Robert, Robert, as VP of Media Dev at PodTech.net you really should know that already.  Or is Robert skirting around the issue.  After all, he has probably one of the most commercial blogs on WordPress.com that he used to drive traffic to a number of third-party commercial sites on a regular basis.

If you think getting people to your site is tricky, you want to try getting them to sign up to newsletters.  Now that’s what I call tricky!

There are a number of reasons as to why this is the case.  The first reason is simple - people just have to do more work.  You can’t make a newsletter sign-up process so simple that all someone has to do is click on a link.  At the very least they have to put their email address into a form, and if you have an opt-in system going, they have to confirm their desire to join the list by clicking on a link in the conformation email they receive.  That may not sound like a lot of work for a go-getting Internet entrepreneur, but for your average user, it’s a lot of work.

On top of that you have to appreciate that people don’t want more spam and junk coming to their inbox.  They have enough to deal with as it is and don’t want more.

So how do you overcome these resistance factors and get people to sign up for your newsletter?  Here are a few tips:

• Make the sign-up process as easy as possible
  Ask the minimum of questions - this isn’t the time to survey your audience.  If they have to jump through too many hoops, they won’t bother signing up.
• Give them a reason to sign up!
  Explain what your newsletter has to offer in terms of benefits to the recipient.  You gotta make them WANT your content!
• Offer a freebie
  The offer of a free gift of some description is a great way to get people to sign up!  Even just using the word “free”, as in “free newsletter” will increase take-up!
• Free sample
  Make available a sample of your newsletter.  This way people know in advance what to expect. If you don’t make or sell a product, this could be a free download, PDF or white paper for example.
• No spam!
  Guarantee, on your mother’s life, that you’re not going to spam your subscribers.  Also pledge that you’re not going to sell their email address to someone else who will spam them. Ever!  Period. (And make 100% certain that you never go back on this promise!)
• Offer the subscriber a way out
  The last thing that you want on your email list are people who want out - make sure that you offer a simple unsubscribe system for those that no longer want your newsletter.

There are a number of ways that you can leverage a popular website to generate cash.  The two most popular methods are CPC (cost per click, like AdSense) and affiliate schemes. 

But there is a key difference between CPC and affiliate schemes - with CPC you get paid when someone clicks on an ad, whereas with a affiliate scheme the person clicking on the link actually has to buy something for you to get paid.  That’s a huge difference.

Here are the top 7 affiliate mistakes that web entrepreneurs make:

1. Think that tricks that work for CPC work for affiliate schemes
   They are completely different (think chalk and cheese or apples and oranges).  Tricks that work for increasing CPC revenues rarely work for affiliate schemes.
2. Your content is what attracts visitors!
   You need content that’s relevant and specific to the products that you are offering via affiliate schemes.  If you are trying to sell pet food, then make sure that your articles relate to pets and pet food.
3. Never rely on the sales copy that the affiliates provide
   Most of the sales copy that I’ve seen offered for use to affiliates is, well, pretty awful.  Plan on rewriting the copy or coming up with original copy (if you aren’t allowed to do this then the copy is either very good or the company selling the product or service is naive).
4. Use images!
   Images attract the eye.  Make sure that you use images wherever possible as this will draw the visitor’s eye to what you are trying to sell without you having to make the ad too obvious.
5. Be careful about pitching two or more products against each other
   If you offer people a choice of two or more things you are also introducing another unwanted choice into their minds - the choice not to buy.  Let’s go back to the pet food example.  If you’ve written an article on what to look for in the best pet food and you then offer purchase options, you’re giving the reader too much to think about.  Rather than trusting you to list the best pet food possible, you’re causing them to think and ask the question “well, which one of these products on offer IS the best?”  This will cost you sales!
6. All ads, no content!
   There are some people who still think that you can make money with no real content.  While some people do manage to pull off this trick, it’s far from guaranteed and you are far more likely to fail than succeed.  Remember that it is content that attracts visitors and this then leads them to the ads.  Ad copy is not, as a rule, content and you will have a harder time convincing visitors that they have a need in their life that requires filling.
7. Offer honest advice and good products
   Don’t sell shoddy products.  Don’t lie or cheat or try to be deceptive.  What is almost as important as making a sale is getting your visitors to trust you.  If they don’t trust you, you’ve lost a potential future sale. Build trust and rapport with your visitors and there’s a chance that they’ll revisit or tell their friends about you.  If they feel that you are trying to cheat them or swindle, at best they’re not going to come back.  At worse, they tell their friends …

Many people who have popular forums that they’ve tried to monetize with AdSense have probably discovered that their return is nowhere near as high as they expect, even when they do everything right.

Why?

There are two reasons why this is the case.

1. Forums are generally diverse and because of this it’s hard to target ads.  Poorly targeted ads convert badly.  Period.
2. A forum is a place where people come together to talk.  This doesn’t put them in any mood to click on an ad and move away from the discussion to hand.  They want to talk to other like minded humans, not be sold to.

Don’t despair!  The truth is that if you want to monetize a web forum, even a popular one, you need different ways to encourage users to click on ads.  Here are some ideas:

• Review pages
• Articles
• News pages
• “How to’s”

If you have a high traffic forum, then what you need to do is to direct some of your traffic to pages that are geared to getting your visitors to click on the ads!

The world was saddened to hear about the untimely death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. 

Darren Rowse, proud Australian and ProBlogger, offers a few lessons that bloggers could learn from Steve’s approach to life and his subject:

• Passion
  You gotta love what you do, and you need to project this in your blog.
• Focused on Others
  “Me” blogs (blogs where people talk about themselves) are on the decline in terms of visitors and interest.  Visitors want information important and applicable to them.  A blog that’s focused on the visitor will be a LOT more successful than a blog that’s “me” centric.
• Individuality
  Steve had worked on a personal image that was unique and instantly noticeable.  Stand out from the crowd!
• Optimism
  Optimism is catching.  Take advantage of this.

I’ll end with a quote of Steve’s that Darren posted because I think that it applies to all successful blogs:

“I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.”