Friday Weekly Link Roundup!
Aug 28th
So I know its been a while since I did these but I came across some new blogs so if you don’t see your blog mentioned then thats because I had found around 9 links and since I usually only give out 5 links at a time, I’m saving yours for next time. Anyway, had some great posts in the past week or so and so lets get the ball rolling with the links for this week.
1. Rajaie Talks – Rajaie talked about 11 tips on how to run a killer blog contest. Considering I’m almost done with my little surprise and am ready to start my contest, I liked this post a lot. Its a good resource for anyone that wants to run a blog contest in the near future or is planning on running one shortly.
2. SlyVisions – The Sly Guy over at SlyVisions mentioned not 10, not 20 but 30 tips to help you increase traffic. Thats a lot of great tips all combined into one great post. I think everyone in the blogosphere likes a little traffic and this post definitely pulls out some great tips. I really liked that there were so many tips that were quick to grasp considering they were all short and to the point.
3. DesmondBlog – Desmond has talked about whether backlinks come first or traffic and has done a really nice post about backlinks vs. traffic. I think that backlinks and traffic are equally important however backlink leads to traffic and incoming traffic can lead to backlinks so its a cyclical process in my opinion. He has brought up a great topic here.
4. Balkhis – Syed has done it again and this time has written a post based on my suggestion about how to implement an email subscription box on your blog. He obviously knows a lot about design and on his last tutorial I asked if he would write a tutorial about email subscription boxes and he did. Now I’ll finally be able to implement my email subscription box this weekend thanks to Syed.
5. NetStrife – Lucas over at NetStrife has a great post about how you can increase your affiliate sign ups. I mean, theres nothing like checking in your accounts and seeing passive income coming in on a daily basis and Lucas has some great tips to help you keep that income coming in. Affiliate sign ups earn some bloggers anywhere from $1500-$2000 a month and thats definitely not chunk change.
Hope you guys enjoyed this weeks Friday Weekly Link Round up. Hopefully if things work out well this weekend and no storm comes over Texas, then I’ll have my contest ready to go by Monday or so. I hope you guys are looking forward to that. Have a great Friday!
Should I Accept The Review?
Aug 27th
I know that many of you don’t offer paid reviews or haven’t had the chance to do any paid reviews yet. Paid reviews are quite common in the blogosphere and can lead to several leads for the advertiser. The issue that comes to my mind is what happens when you come across a review that you’re not sure whether you should accept or not. I’ve had it happen twice already and I’ve had to say no. Heres how you can decide:
1. Niche Relevance – Sometimes you get review offers that are for credit card offers or airline tickets and you just can’t accept those types of offers. I know that its hard to resist the temptation of money but you really don’t want to lose your readers for the price of a review. Your readers want to see reviews that are in your niche and are relevant to the topic of your blog so accept review offers that match your blog topic.
2. Unique Concept - If you find that the review is for a website that is relevant to your niche then you should think about whether the concept is unique enough. I would dislike reading a review about a product that already exists or has no new upgraded features. Its like reading about Comment Relish being “modified” and sold for an exorbitant amount.
3. Reader Benefit – If the review has no benefit to the reader then its not a useful review to begin with. To write a review for the sake of writing a review is not a good idea. You should only write a review if you feel that the service or product being offered is genuine and can truly help your readers. This should specially be considered if readers have to pay a certain price for the service or product.
So there are my tips regarding whether you should accept a review offer or not. The point is that lots of times I see bloggers that are reviewing a product that will cost more than usual (typically $100-200) and the product being offered is already available for free and isn’t any different from the free product. Sometimes, there have been issues of advertisers not being genuine and the product being a scam. I always check the domain registrar and get a whois report on the websites that I review to ensure that they weren’t created just for the review in order to scam my readers.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my tips about reviews. i’m sure that this topic strikes close to home for some of you specially after having to deal with some odd reviews on blogs so I’d like to hear your side of the issue on it. Have you rejected a review before? Also, have you come across a review thinking that it was a waste of your time or that the product offered is a duplicate of a free product?
Blogging In Your Schedule
Aug 26th
As many of you are aware, school and college started in some parts of the US today and that means that its time for me to go back to school. Considering I’m at the university everyday from 8:30am to 4pm, I tried coming up with ways to stay in touch with my blog. I know that my schedule is not as constricted as some of yours and I wanted to share a few ways that I try to check up on my blog and write posts and I’d like to hear what your schedules look like as well.
1. Wake Up Early – I usually wake up 20 minutes before I actually need to wake up so that I can quickly check email and comments and respond. This helps me not seem like a slacker and means that individuals that are located in different time zones get replies within 2 hours. Waking up early means that I lose out on 20 minutes of sleep but it also means that I dont have to worry about coming home to an inbox full of emails from the night before.
2. Blog During The Day – I know that if you’re at work, it gets hard to blog until you return home however, since I go to university, I sometimes do get 30 minutes to an hours break in between classes and that means that I’m able to login to my WordPress dashboard and partially write out my posts. I usually write them out in outline format and when I get back home I complete them. This allows me to not throw away good ideas that come to me during the day.
3. Weekend Blog Readup – What I’ve planned on doing is visit my favorite blogs during the weekend if I am unable to get to them through the week so that I can read up on them and write comments. So, if you haven’t seen me around just yet, dont worry. I’ll be there this weekend making my rounds as usual and leaving comments and suggestions.
4. Multi-Tasking - I dont know if this is true for you guys but I’m learning to multi-task. I have the feeling that most guys don’t know how to multi-task but most females do. I mean that in the best possible way, by the way! I’m learning to have to be able to read emails as I reply to them and be able to proofread my blog posts while checking comments and such. I’m a newbie at multi-tasking so its difficult but im catching up quickly.
Anyway, I’d really like to see how you guys balance out your schedule. I know that some of you go back to school and long days of classes while most of you are working the entire day. How does blogging fit into your schedule?
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Aug 26th
Sometimes I receive comments that say things like, “How did you come up with this” or others of that sort and I figured I’d do a post about it. Its not too uncommon to be sitting there and wondering what to blog about but its much easier when its a topic that comes to you when you’re not focusing on it. So, lets talk about some of the ways you can derive your blog post ideas.
1. Reading Other Blogs - This is one of the ways that I am influenced when it comes to writing my posts. I see what someone else has said and I think about whether I agree or disagree and if I think that I can add to it or explain it further then I find it a good post. If you read a post and you feel the need to respond strongly, then it can most probably be an influence for a blog post as long as the subject matter is interesting.
2. News – Sometimes news stories come around from Tech websites or the main page of Yahoo or MSN that really catch my eye. If the article pertains to the topic of my blog then I definitely use it to derive my blog post from. It helps me talk about a current issue topic and therefore it also displays in the searches better. Its a good way to discuss something that is more current and one that you can relate to your readers with.
3. Comments On Your Blog / Other Blogs - I’d say about 30-50% of my posts are derived from comments I see on my blog and other blogs out there. Some comments really turn the light bulb on, in my head. Its about how you view the comment too. See what the commentator is really trying to say and go from there. It will help you not only shed some light on them but allow you to help explain their concern which may be the concern of many others too.
4. Curiosity – I think curiosity plays a big part in some of my posts. If I see a new blog or a blog post I usually read up on the blogger and try to look into the details of the author of the post as well as the blog. Sometimes my curiosity has led to me discovering some interesting facts that I was able to compile into a post. Its not necessarily bad or sneaky things but it can be and those are the ones that usually make for good link bait posts resulting in increased traffic.
5. Experience & Time – This sounds like the weakest but this is the only one thing on here that will take time for you to develop if you’re a new blogger. Over time you naturally become used to the blogging schedule and know what sounds interesting and what isn’t. It also makes it easier for you to come up with post ideas as you have more background knowledge and can help showcase other blogs, plugins, tutorials or things of that sort.
So I hope you liked my post. I’d like to know where you get your ideas from. I’d really like to hear from all of you!
Lets Spin The Publicity Wheel!
Aug 24th
I was recently requested by Mark Schumann to review PublicityWheel.com and after having heard of it already from a few of the other blogs, I was delighted to do so. If you haven’t heard of Publicity Wheel let me give you a quick introduction as to what it is.
How Does It Work?
The basic concept of Publicity Wheel is that you can gain an instant boost of traffic with the help of the wheel. Didn’t quite get it? Well, when the Publicity wheel is spun, it picks on website from each category and gives it full exposure for a certain length of time. Here is a diagram that can help explain it a bit further if you’re more visual like I am.
The way this works is that users include a small 125×125 banner on their website and when a website is picked, it is played on that banner automatically. So, lets say that your website was picked, then you’d be displayed on hundreds and thousands of blogs for several days in a row. This gives you a great boost in traffic and gets you the exposure you need. Best of all, its FREE!
Is It Worth It?
Think about it, it doesn’t cost you anything and all you need to do is add a small banner. A banner that is quite a bit smaller than EntreCard. Now you must be thinking, how do I increase my chances of getting picked? Well, thats quite simple too. Everytime someone clicks on the banner thats on your website you get a publicity point. Each publicity point is like a ticket in a large lucky draw like system. The more points you have, the more like you will be picked. Once you win, your points are reset to zero so that the same sites don’t get picked over and over again. As for those who don’t get picked, your points carry over to the next draw, to help you. So even if you don’t have as many clicks, you’ll still have a chance at getting picked.
Mark Schumann is the man behind this idea and when I learned about this concept I really liked it. I mean, think about it, its free and most bloggers are using Entrecard which has a bigger banner size. Why not switch to something that has a smaller banner size and brings in about the same amount of traffic?
How Much Exposure Can I Get?
Furthermore, each blog is separated into categories and so when you win, your 125×125 ad will only be displayed on websites in your category. This way, you’ll get exposure on blogs that have similar readers. Its an excellent idea and you can get as many as 12000+ views if you are part of the Internet category or around 6500+ views for Entertainment. Be sure to pick the right category in order to gain traffic that will be most interested in sticking around. Have a look at the Exposure Table to see how many views you can generate depending on the category you fall into.
Publicity Wheel Blog & Sneak Peak At The Dashboard
Publicity Wheel also has a blog that helps you stay informed with the new updates and changes that are taking place. I noticed a blog post at the end of June that said the dashboard was newly transformed and I have to say that the dashboard is very well designed. Here is what the dashboard looks like:
The dashboard is separated into 4 panels so that you can easily see what ad design you have selected, how many points you currently have, when the next spin will take place and the stats of the ad currently displaying on your website. All these features have really made it simple for a user at any experience level to login and instantly understand the way Publicity Wheel works. I was very impressed with the design considering Im a ex-webdesigner and the simplicity and choice of colors really won me over.
Conclusion
In Conlusion, there really isn’t much I can suggest to Mark. I think hes done an excellent job in marketing the website as I had already heard about it and visited before. I would recommend all of you to sign up because there are no disadvantages of doing so. There is no cost related to using Publicity Wheel and the ad is smaller than Entrecard so if you currently have that, then space shouldn’t be an issue either.
The wheel was spun just yesterday so if you sign up today, then your chances of being picked by the time the wheel is spun again are good. Go ahead and sign up and I will definitely keep you updated once I get picked! Let me know what your thoughts are about this concept considering I really like the idea. Also, I would like to know if you signed up or are currently a member.
