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Written on 12/28/2006 at 7:29 pm by

PayPerPost buys Performancing (or part of it)

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

Techcrunch is reporting that PayPerPost is buying Performancing and will make the announcement today sometime.

They say that the reason for the purchase is to give PPP access to Performancing’s 28,000 users.

I will be interested to read the official announcements later today as I’d heard previously that a sale was imminent but that it wouldn’t include the full Performancing portfolio of services (ie they have their advertising service, their firefox service, their blog and their metrics package. Time will tell which parts were included in the sale.

Written on 12/27/2006 at 7:36 pm by

How to Build a ‘Digg Culture’ on your Blog

Filed Under: Social Media

200612091300How do you build a ‘Digg Culture’ and get repeatedly on the front page of Digg over time?

In this post I’ll share 10 ways that top bloggers do it.

Last week on a post that Tony wrote about Digg Fraud one of those who left a comment wrote:

“I think it’s been pretty much proven that any traffic a site gets from digg is fleeting and doesn’t translate into long-term traffic.”

Many don’t believe that getting on Digg is worth much because the traffic is so fleeting however I think there is much more value for smart publishers than just the initial burst of traffic.

Such benefits to getting on the front page of Digg include:

1. Fresh RSS subscribers

Every time I get dugg I notice a leap in my RSS subscriber count. The first few times a site gets on Digg this is often bigger than subsequent diggings (after a few times I guess those who are interested in your topic will have already been subscribed) but there is a noticeable bump in subscribers each time.

2. Newsletter subscribers

Similarly newsletter subscribers (if you have one) will generally get a bump when you’re dugg. I generally add a link to subscribe to my newsletter on any post that gets on digg to leverage the traffic in this way. In this way (and with RSS subscribers) you are not only getting that first wave of traffic but are building ongoing waves of traffic each time you post or send a newsletter.

3. Secondary link ups

Digg has a ‘blog this’ feature and while it’s not used by every Digger it is used. I find that each time I’m dugg that there is a secondary wave of incoming links to your post via this feature but also other diggers blogging about you. I also find that when featured prominently on digg that you quite often get linked to on other social bookmarking sites (delicious, reddit etc) and get further waves of traffic and incoming links from their users. The secondary link ups don’t generally send a lot of traffic (although on occasion they can be from larger sites) but have the added benefit of helping the site’s Search Engine ranking (Google Juice) which over time helps build a site’s traffic.

4. A Digging Culture Emerges

If you are able to convert your incoming readers from Digg into regular readers you then have a unique opportunity to get repeat appearances on Digg again. I’ve found that with each appearance on digg that I seem to gather more and more readers to my site who will naturally submit my posts to Digg in future. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I guess the type of reader that is now subscribing to the blogs is now familiar with Digg and is even actively looking for things to bookmark. Once you develop this type of ‘culture’ the cycle outlined above can continue.

The Impact of Digg Culture over time:
Once this ‘digg culture’ kicks in a site can experience a series of ‘diggings’ which on each occasion will see the site receive a sudden and short burst of traffic followed by a return to lower traffic that is actually higher than pre-digg levels.

The actual traffic from digg is a nice (but short lived) thing – but the real benefit of being dugg regularly is the increase in traffic from loyal readers (RSS, bookmarks and newsletters) as well as the SEO benefits of new incoming links.

I’ve attempted to graph this below (this is not from any actual site’s traffic but is typical of a blog that enjoys the benefits of ‘digg culture’:

200612091300

While each blog is different (and the graph won’t apply to everyone) I’ve witnessed this ‘digg effect’ on a number of blogs now.

Can you Encourage a Digg Culture on Your Blog?

So how does one build a ‘Digg Culture’ on their blog? I’m sure this is a question that many of us would like ‘the answer’ to.

I’m afraid I don’t have a definitive answer and while many articles have been written on how to be successful on Digg I’m not sure anyone has really got it completely worked out because it can be a reasonably unpredictable and whimsical beast.

Having said that – here are 10 tips that come to mind on how to build a ‘digg culture’ on your blog. They come both from my own experience of having my blogs regularly featured on Digg but also by watching what other successful sites do.

[Read more...]

Written on 12/24/2006 at 1:15 am by

Five Things you May Not Know about this little ProBlogger

Filed Under: ProBlogger Site News

Well the five things meme has circulated backwards and forwards through the blogosphere and I thought I’d escaped it as it does seem to be whimpering out – however Chris Garrett posted today that I was the only slack one in his list of tagees not to respond which alerted me to the fact that I had in fact been tagged. Doh!

Ok – so let me see what I can come up with.

Five things not commonly known about me:

  1. I used to be a goth (you know – black everything, hair, nail polish, lipstick….).
  2. I’ve done quite a variation of jobs over the past decade including – office furniture buyer and sales, youth work, in-flight catering kitchen work, laborer, warehousing, tour manager for a band, stationary sales, minister/church planter… blogger.
  3. I started my first business when I was 11 – selling pictures of Brooke Shields from my mothers magazines to my male classmates to stick on their books. I started my second business at 13, selling pens, paper, folders and other stationary to my classmates out of the spare locker next to mine. Bother operations were eventually shut down by teachers – but not before making me some nice coin (well nice for a kid).
  4. I used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.
  5. When studying my Bachelor of Business in Marketing I failed Business Statistics 101 three times before passing it on my fourth attempt.

Ok – so who to tag with this? Is there any blogger out there that hasn’t done it yet? Leave a comment and I’ll tag the first 5.

Tag Update
Here are my ‘tags’ to the first five who asked – Josh, Alan, Rich, Vincent and Tim.

Go to it Fellas!

Written on 12/23/2006 at 1:05 am by

From the ProBlogger Christmas Party

Filed Under: ProBlogger Site News

Well today’s the last working day before Christmas here and while a lot of my friends are out at office parties this work at home single person business guy is kicking back having my own little ProBlogger office party.

I’m toying with the idea of photocopying my bum and/or making a move on the boss – but all in all it’s one of the tamer office parties I’ve been to.

Perhaps next year a few Melbourne ProBlogging types should get together for drinks and a face to face party.

Christmas-Problogger

What’s happening at Problogger over the Holidays?

A few readers have asked whether this blog will take a break over the holiday period so I thought I should share my plans.

Between now and the start of the New Year I’ll continue to blog here at ProBlogger (although it will be lighter than normal). I’ll cover any breaking news and have a few posts already written that I’ll post at some point – but I figure a few light days with the family are probably what I need at the moment after a pretty heavy year.

Then in the second week of January we’re heading down the coast for a few days break and I’ve arranged for a special guest blogger to take my place for the week. Tony Hung from Deep Jive Interests is going to to take over the blog that week which I’m really looking forward to as Tony has become one of my daily reads in the last month or two.

I’m also looking forward to the break as I’m feeling very tired at the moment after such a huge year.

My other blogs will similarly be light posting for the coming week. A Digital Photography School I’ve just posted a Christmas Photography Tips post and will take a week off.

Speaking of that blog – I’m going to post a case study update of it in the coming week as a few readers have been asking how it’s been going and there have been a few interesting developments I’m looking forward to sharing.

Christmas Wishes

While I’ll probably post between now and Christmas I thought I’d take this opportunity to wish you all a happy time over the coming week or so.

Those of you that are able to get away for a few days – I hope you have safe travels. Those of you who are working through – I hope you can find a little time to relax and enjoy the season with someone special.

Thank you to everyone for another great year of blogging. While there have been challenges this year it’s been one that has been full of wonderful experiences and moments. I don’t say it enough, but I do value your readership and support.

The community at ProBlogger has been very rich. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve received encouraging emails and comments from readers on days when it all seemed to get too much – you spur me on to keep blogging and finding new ways to improve what I do and for that I thank you all.

I hope the next couple of weeks is a fun and relaxing time for everyone!

Written on 12/22/2006 at 9:11 pm by

Group Writing Project Winners

Filed Under: ProBlogger Site News

200612181504Now that the final submissions are all in for the Reviews and Predictions Group Writing Project it’s time to announce the prizes from our wonderful and generous sponsors who in total gave $2500 USD in gifts as incentives to participate.

The following 10 winners were selected randomly (using a random number generator) to win the prizes. Congratulations to each of them and better luck next time to the 282 participants who didn’t come away with a prize this time around.

While there’s no formal judging in this project to determine a winner the true judging now happens from you the reader of these posts as you surf through the list of participants searching for your favorite to link up to. Post your top 10 and share some link love.

Thanks for everyone who participated.

Here are the 10 winners.

Winners have been notified via the email addresses that they submitted with their entries and sponsors will be in touch with them shortly.

Thanks again everyone.

Written on 12/22/2006 at 8:27 pm by

Reviews and Predictions Project – Final Reader Submissions

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

200612181504The final day of the Reviews and Predictions Group Writing Project has arrived and as with each of the previous times we’ve done it I find myself with a mixture of feelings including being over stimulated (when you read 292 blog posts on such a wide array of topics it tends to leave you slightly numb), excited (I’ve discovered some great new bloggers) and slightly exhausted (I really need to find a way to automate the process of uploading all the submissions).

Once again – a big thank you to our sponsors – Thrive Web Marketing, Information for Her Australia for Australian Women, The Blogging Times, eMoms at Home, Dave Taylor, Poker on a Mac, bloglinkr, 451 Press and Rob Schaumer, DeveloperCube.

Now that all the submissions are in (it’s no longer Thursday anywhere) I won’t be accepting any more and I’ll now begin the task of randomly selecting this round’s winners of the 10 great prizes (see below for details of what they are). I’ll post the results of this soon.

In the mean time – here are the last submissions of the project for you to surf through. Please surf and link up to those you enjoy the most. As there is no real ‘judging process’ for this project the real judging happens as you link up to your favorites. The full list of submissions from all days is here. Here are todays:

[Read more...]

Written on 12/22/2006 at 12:35 pm by

Printbaiting – How to Get Your Blog Mentioned in the Papers

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Blog Tips

Penelope Trunk has a helpful post on how to get your blog mentioned in Print.

She writes some good tips in each of the following areas:

  1. Don’t pitch yourself, pitch an idea.
  2. Pitch an idea with the print audience in mind.
  3. Tailor the idea to the journalist.
  4. Sign up for Profnet.
  5. Answer questions strategically.
  6. Be available.

It’s a useful list and a lot of it could be applied to getting mentioned on other blogs also.

I’ve had moderate success in getting into mainsteam media articles over the last few years – however I find a lot of it either comes out of the blue (through journalists approaching me after finding me in Google for a term they are writing about) or through relationships that I’ve already established with journalists.

Once you do get an approach from a journalist it’s worth giving some careful consideration to what you want to get out of the interaction. You’ll find that journalists will have their own agendas and ideas on where they want their article to head but it’s worth giving some careful thought to what sort of message you want to convey. Pick one particular message that you want to get across and keep saying it throughout the interview.

Also ask (politely) if they could please give a URL for the article. For example I generally respond to them by calling my blog here ‘ProBlogger.net’ instead of just ‘ProBlogger’.

Lastly – getting mentioned in the press is not everything. In fact the times I’ve been written about in major papers I’ve had very little noticeable increase in traffic and limited opportunities have arisen from it. In many cases it would be more beneficial for a large blog or website to link up than a paper to do it – still, it’s fun to see your name in print and it can legitimize what you do in the eyes of some (ie – parents love seeing their kids in the papers!).

Written on 12/22/2006 at 2:13 am by

Amazon Associates Move to Monthly Payments for 2007!

Filed Under: Affiliate Programs

The Amazon associates program is changing it’s payment system to be every month instead of once a quarter. So instead of getting 4 cheques (or gift certificates) per year you’ll get 12.

The payment terms will be 60 days (ie you get your cheque or certificate 60 days after the month ends) but this aspect of things isn’t really that much different to present as the quarterly payments are over 30 days (usually around 45 days from memory) after the end of the quarter anyway.

There will be new tiers to reflect this change as follows:

Us Q107 Pricingtiers 3

I’m yet to analyze these tiers and see how they compare to the current ones.

Full details at The Official Amazon Associates Blog.

via 901am

PS: In other Amazon Associate news not posted on their blog but at the bottom of an email sent to publishers was this:

“Lastly, effective January 1, 2007, we are increasing the Check Processing Fee for US-based Associates from $8 to $15. The minimum check amount is still $100. We encourage all US-based Associates to choose direct deposit (EFT) or Amazon.com Gift Certificates as their payment method to avoid this fee. The minimum amount for these payment types is $10. Visit Associates Central to change your payment method.”

Written on 12/21/2006 at 10:01 pm by

Reviews and Predictions Project – Day 3

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

200612181504Day 3 of the Reviews and Predictions Group Writing Project has seen yet another solid round of submissions – 74 in all today (which brings the total so far to 208 – see them all here). While numbers are slightly down on last time I’m excited by the quality of many of the submissions and that many are from first time participants (welcome all).

Please visit our sponsors of this project who have donated a total of $2500 USD in prizes. They are Thrive Web Marketing, Information for Her Australia for Australian Women, The Blogging Times, eMoms at Home, Dave Taylor, Poker on a Mac, bloglinkr, 451 Press and Rob Schaumer, DeveloperCube (see below for the full list of prizes).

There’s now under 24 hours left to get your submission in to be in the running for a prize. Simply follow the procedure in this post to be involved.

Here are today’s submissions. Please surf the list and link up to any that resonate with you.

[Read more...]