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Dofollow is a great way to get GREAT comments: Vapid videos attract smegma.

Lucia — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:57:44 +0000

Recently, Shoemoney blogger Pamcakes recorded a video in which she says the dofollow movement a “became a blogroll circle jerk” of brandnew or low quality blogs “dragging on for months”, announced that Greg Bozer is setting up a dofollow list for ‘quality’ blogs, and then tells us she’s “looking forward to the follow on blogposts where people tell us how much more time people have spent moderating after removing nofollow from their comments”.

What is Pam’s evidence that the dofollow movement is a blogroll circle jerk? Or that the dofollow blogs will have trouble with spam? Eyerolls.

Still many bloggers read Shoemoney; many might ask: Are dofollow blogs poor quality? Brandnew? Full of spammy comments?

If so, why is the dofollow movement gaining popularity? And, more importantly, why do I run across so many good dofollow blogs?!

Obviously, just as there are poor “dofollow” blogs; there are also loads of poor “nofollow” blogs. There are brand new dofollow blogs; there are tons of brand new “nofollow” blogs. What of it?

But the insinuation that dofollow disproportionately attracts spam is just flat out, wrong.

The reality is Dofollow often raises the level of comments.

How does dofollow raise the level of comments?

(more…)

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“The Tampon Blog” MEETS Blogrush Quality Standards?!

Lucia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:59:28 +0000

Evidently, John Reese announced he’s purged all the bad blogs from Blogrush: Banned bloggers were sent email that began:

We regret to inform you that your BlogRush Account Is Currently INACTIVE. Your blog(s) did not pass our Quality Review criteria. You will find instructions below for making your account active again. You will notice that the widget no longer loads on your pages — please remove the BlogRush code from your blog for now.

Having discovered “The Tampon Blog” through BlogRush, I was curious to see if it got banned.

Behold! “The Tampon Blog” appears to meet the Blogrush Quality guidelines. Here’s a screen shot of The Blogrush Widget which still displays and functions!

What type of blogs got banned? Blogs like Tamar Weinberg’s blog (for not displaying the widget), SEO Pedia, John Cow, Steve Olson, Ramblings of an Affiliate Marketer, Ryan Parker.net, Geology Joe, Dawn and Jimmy, Just a Girl in Short Shorts Talkin’ and SEO Cog who had previously tried, but failed, to quit Blogrush.

Hmmm…..

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Dear John Reese: Are Tampon Samples “Hobbies”?

Lucia — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:13:19 +0000

Dear John Reese,
I enrolled “The Knitting Fiend” in the “hobby” category of Blogrush after reading your twin promises to:

to drive tons of targetted traffic to my knitting blog and
help me introduce my readers to quality blogs in my niche.

Now, I’m a bit surprised by what Blogrush considers a “hobby”. Take a look what that widget that displayed today! Does Free Playtex Gentle Glide mean what I think it means? !

Why yes, it does!

John, tampons are not a hobby. Neither are “Free COTTONELLE FRESH® Flushable Moist Wipes Walmart Sample”; that was the topic of the most recent blog post.

But, I bet that’s just a fluke, right? So, I clicked Jergen’s Product Samples.

If I scroll down, I find links to obtain free samples of various hand lotions. Yes, this is a “blog” that is nothing but affiliate links to get free samples.

Other Entries

The other three listed blogs were about a) scrapbooking, b) magic tricks c) some sort of creative writing. These are hobbies and probably interest someone, but probably not knitters.

Frankly John, the “Tampon Blog” and the “HandLotion” blog are businesses that should be paying for advertising through some program like PPP, ReviewMe, PayU2Blog, TLA or what not. They are not “interesting” content any blogger hopes to find through Blogrush.

I know you plan to improve things. In the meanwhile, my answer to Josh, who asks How is BlogRush Going For You? is, “not so great!”

The Blogrush widget has been removed from my knitting blog. I don’t even want that in my footer; not even if I can use Steve’s plugin to handle slow loading widgets. I may, however, test out BlogRush Click Maximizer here at Big Bucks Blogger. ( Hat tip to RT Cunningham for finding this. )

As for my knitting blog: I’m perfectly willing to give Blogrush another chance after your programmers actually add the new, more relevant categories and remove the splogs and remove “The Tampon Blog” from the Blogrush hobbies category.

Let me know when you’ve got this working.

Sincerely,
Lucia

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Six Ways to Get More Links: Tips for a Niche Blog.

Lucia — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:29:15 +0000

Helio of Goteborg’s History wrote asking me how to get more links for his Swedish history page. I’ll admit I’m not an expert, but my last name sounds scandinavian, so I’m motivated to give a nice Swede the few tips I know. The first tips applies to non-English language bloggers, but read generally, the other five apply to everyone.

Here goes:

Provide content in English. Blogging in Swedish limits your readership and linkage; English is much more widely spoken and understood.
A number of translation plugins exist for Wordpress. I haven’t tried them; maybe I should. You definitely should!

Polyglot is a Wordpress plugin can help you provide content in a variety of languages, but you need to supply the content in both languages. Unfortunately, writing copy in both English and Swedish is work. Try robo-translation using Word Translation Plugin; it’s free. If free doesn’t work, you can pay for Angsumans’ Översättare Plugg Pro 4.0 Befriaren also known as “Angsuman’s Translator Plugin Pro 4.0 Released”.

Help me Stumble YOU: Add your URL to your profile.

Lucia — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:24:55 +0000

Dear New StumbleUpon Friend:
You “discovered” my post. Thanks!

Now, I want to read and Stumble your blog posts. But I need to find your blog first, and you don’t make it easy for me to find your blog. Please plaster your blog url in as many places as possible in your Stumble profile so I can find you even if it’s 6 am and I’m brain dead.

How to make it easy for anyone to find your blog on your Stumble Profile.

Visit your Stumble Upon Home page. Select the “Home” tab, then scan the top bar and click “Preferences”. Your preference page will appear.
Fill out your personal information. Ok, you did that already. Who forgets that?
Don’t forget to click your “public profile.” I circled the link in the image below. Click that link; it’s the most useful bit.
Add your blogs’ urls to “Introduce Yourself”. Find these two boxes:
Add content that describes yourself and — this is important– include the links to your blogs both in the “introduce yourself” box and the “your blog” box.
Click “View your plog as others see It” on the right column. You’ll now see that your blog url’s are on your “favorites” page (which everyone sees). The links are also on the “About” page.

Now, even a hurried, brain dead blogger who likes to visit blogs of people who “discovered” her posts can find your blog. (And she likes to Stumble. So, you’ll get traffic. )

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Blogrush Spam. . . Sigh. . .

Lucia — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:56:43 +0000

I know everyone is sick of reading about Blogrush. I know Jill is going to puke if she reads one more story. Heck, I’m sick of reading about it

Still, I’ve got the widget up during the early periods because I’m curious about how Blogrush is panning out. I’ve decided that I’m going to click at least one link on the widget every day for a period of time. That way I can learn whether the blogs are generally targeted, good, bad, indifferent, sploggish or what - not.

So, naturally, if I see something odd or interesting, I’m writing about it. And today, I saw something “flavors” didn’t fix.

Likely through the magic of redirect, I learned about an “exciting” new ebook I can buy for $6.97. Buying it will also earn me the right to sell unlimited quantities for $6.97, earning 100% commission.

I guess Blogrush Spam was inevitable. Sigh. . .

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Want a thumbsdown from a Stumbler? Create a blinking banner demanding a thumbs up!

Lucia — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:03:06 +0000

Muhammad Saleem recently gave seven reasons for giving a thumbs-down at stumbleupon.
I thought his list was thorough until I came across this: A page that included a large blinking banner asking Stumblers for a thumbs up! Yes, that big red banner blink, blink, blink, blinks, blinks!

OMG! Talk about giving me a reason to vote thumbsdown!

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StumbleUpon: Powerful Pulse!

Lucia — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:13:50 +0000

Friday, I wrote Five Tips for Getting Traffic From Stumble and then experienced the powerful pulse of traffic that comes when a blog post gets Stumbled. (If you look carefully, you’ll also notice several other posts got stumble traffic.)

It was a bit odd, because, though I wrote a post on how to use Stumble Upon to get traffic, I didn’t actually expect to get over 1700 visits to that specific post over the course of the next two days. That’s quite a lot for this blog, which, while growing, still has a relatively small readership.

Did the StumbleUpon readers stay?

As you can see below, the visitors lingered a bit, averaging 1.71 pages, and having a bounce rate of 41%. That’s pretty good for visitors who have never heard of me or my blog. Oh, and guess what else? If you look at chart above, you’ll see that some of the Stumblers who visited Friday’s post went on to Stumble other older posts including Block Spammers From Your Trackbacks.

How does StumbleUpon compare to other traffic sources?

If you examine the figure to the right, you’ll see for sheer volume of traffic, StumbleUpon rocks. Once the initial Stumble began, and other people found and stumbled the post, my traffic zoomed.

In my case, the time spent on site and number of pages view beats Google search engine traffic.

However, I should point out two traffic sources that have longer times on site and lower bounce rates than Stumble: Sitemeter referals and Bumbzee referrals. Sitemeter referrals are visitors who I liked: Clearly, they want to read the post. Bumpzee referrals are very targeted, and I encourage you to join a community there.

(I also got some traffic from a long-winded comment I left at TechCrunch. At least some of people were clearly curious, and stayed for four minutes on average. That said, many just bounced out.)

Will using my five tips work for you?

It will, but probably not instantly.

My intention, (and my advice to others) was, and still is to apply the five steps regularly for a period of time.

Why did it happen immediately for me? Well, the truth is, it wasn’t immediate. I’d used two of the tips before posting my advice. It turned out that my audience already had two or three readers who do Stumble, and I got Stumbled — and by Sunday, that article had 17 Stumbles. Many from people I had never, ever heard of, but many from faces I recognize. (I’m reading everyone’s blogs blogs now– and many are great. I may soon write a post on reflecting on thought provoking things they said).

So was the Stumble Success really due to the tips?

Well… who knows? But I’ll make the case that it was!

Tip #4 was to thank people who have Stumbled you. When I checked who discovered the post, I found it was discovered by “Autorave”, aka Maki of DoshDosh. (I’m under the impression that Maki first became aware of my blog through Technorati, and have explained why I think this. )

Tip #1 was to Stumble people who link you. My reason wasn’t to get them to stumble you (at least not immediately). My reasoning was that some of the people Stumble sends to their blog will visit yours! (Which works!)

But, it turned out that Slevi, happened to like Lucia’s Linky Love, the plugin, had mentioned it in an article about Top 15 wordpress plugins.

Well, it turned out Slevi also liked my article on getting Stumble traffic! I don’t know if he had “remembered” my blog because of my previous Stumble– but it couldn’t have hurt.

Some of the stumbles were from people I linked!
Mind you, I didn’t suggest you should link people hoping for a Stumble. But it stands to reason that if I come up with the idea to Stumble people who link me, they might do the same. So, this is sort of the correllary of tip 1.

What about the other three tips? Well, I don’t have data to show that stumbling people’s post after they stumble mine helps my stumble success. I also can’t prove stumbling my friends and commenter’s posts helps, and I can’t prove linking people who stumble me helps.

I probably never will be able to prove these things because the data will be indirect. But, what do I know? Josh Spaulding of Make Money Blog, Stumbled me, and also said he plans to remember to click the thumbs up button when he reads a good post anywhere.

Since he visits my blog, his decision to be active rather than inactive with Stumble will tend to help me and all blogs he visits.

Will I follow my own advice?

You bet! (Unless it works so well it becomes impossible.)

I did take the time to visit the 17 people who stumbled my Friday post (as of Sunday), looked a their blogs long enough to find a post I thought excellent and either stumbled one of their posts, or stumbled a post they had previously stumbled or discovered. I also made them friends and thanked them, when I could. (Some had setting adjusted to prevent that.)

Heck, in some cases, I even left comments at their blog. For example, I enjoyed Tinu’s article Social Media Traffic - Is It About Titans Reciprocating? Or Vote Whoring? Or… and left a comment. But, oddly enough, I forgot to stumble it Sunday. (But I just did. )

I plan to link some of the Stumblers, not only because they stumbled me, but because I find many of their posts interesting and thought provoking. With luck, when I link them, my posts will interest them. Since they know where the Stumble button is, I may get a Stumble.

All with no spamming!

Will I be stumbling my friends and commenters posts? You bet! I’ve been reading their posts– and enjoying them. But until now I didn’t Stumble. In future, I will be liberal with that Stumble button!

Does it sound like I’m claiming to be give-give-giving?

Well… sort of. Except you know what? I find I share common interests with people who Stumbled me. So, the reality is I and finding interesting blogs!

I’ll be linking and stumbling things I like. What could be better?

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Five Tips for Getting Traffic From Stumble

Lucia — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:59:40 +0000

StumbleUpon drives a lot of traffic, and the traffic, and as DoshDosh reports, StumbleUpon traffic is generally focused and of great quality. So, it’s worth trying to discover how to generate plenty of traffic without spamming the site and getting banned.

Naturally, I’ve been reading a large number of “to do” tips and I’ve hit on five I’m going to try over the next month. I’ve selected these because they are easy, and not too time consuming.

I encourage you to try them too.

All require you to join StumbleUpon and to make things easy, you should install the StumbleUpon toolbar which you can download at StumbleUpon’s main page — look in the right sidebar. After you install, you will see an bar whose left edge looks like this:

Ok, so now what am I going to do? Here’s my list, I encourage you to give it a try too:

Stumble people who link you! Do this by regularly visiting your dashboard, visiting their blog, and then clicking the “thumbs up” icon in the Stumble toolbar. If you are the first to Stumble, you will have a brief form to fill out. It’s quick– just do it.
Why do this? When you Stumble someone else, they get traffic. If they linked you, some of those visitors will click the link to your post. (I tried this: it worked.)
Link and befriend bloggers who Stumble your posts! Why? Because bloggers tend to read posts that appear in their trackbacks. You can’t make them like your post or Stumble you. But remember, these are people who do Stumble what they like. So, it’s worth a shot!
(If you want to read more about gaining visibility with the “right” Stumblers, read My StumbleUpon Friend.
Stumble your friend’s and commenter’s blog & Stumble posts you link. Do watch for your friends’ best posts– because other Stumblers will trust you more and your Stumble profile will improve more if you give a thumbs up to good posts.
Why do this? Well, your friends and commentors visit your blog, right? Showing them the power of Stumble will make them want to join and get Stumbling too.
When they do, encourage them to install the toolbar. Make them your “Stumble” friend. (You tell me your profile in comments, I’ll befriend you. )

Give them your Stumble profile link. Hopefully, they will make you their StumbleUpon friend and will Stumble your best posts (especially when you link them.) Then, you will both increase your reputations with Stumble and get more traffic. (To read more about how Stumble rates stumblers, visit Stumble Upon Mathematics.
Thank people who stumble you. This tip comes from Liz of Successful Bloggers. How? Find the white conversation balloon in the Stumble toolbar; (it’s on the right in the image I show.) Click that– you’ll see who stumbled you. Next, find the “meet so-and-so” link. Click to open their profile.
Now, look at the right sidebar. See the “Send a message?” Click that. Then send a message and thank them!

Why? People who stumble tend to stumble a lot. Thanking them is gracious. It also may make them remember to visit your blog again and Stumble you again.
After someone Stumbles you, go stumble a post they stumbled! How? Once again, visit the Stumbler’s profile and look at the right sidebar. See “Stumble his favorites?” Click that.
Read a few posts– use the “stumble” icon on the far left of your Stumble toolbar to scan past the ones you don’t like. Within 5 posts, you’ll probably find one you like. So, give it a thumbs up! You are done.

Why do this? Because a person’s stumble profile is strengthened when they posts they Stumble are given thumbs up by others — including you. So, if people who like your posts develop good reputations, you get more traffic when they stumble you.

Those are the tips!

How about adding friends and fans?

Of course I’m going to add friends and fans etc. But right now, I don’t know everyone’s Stumble profile name. So, I’m going to concentrate on doing things that will make others discover my profile and want to become my fan.

To do that, I need to Stumble others, attract the attention of people who already Stumble, then cross my fingers and hope they like my posts.)

Will I be reading more tips? Absolutely. This is just a start– but it’s easy. With luck, I’ll accumilate stumbles, friends and fans as I learn how to better use StumbleUpon. (And you will too.) Maybe we’ll both soon find ourselves reciting An Ode to StumbleUpon.

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Dear Jason, About “News” Scraper Sites. . .

Lucia — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:04:46 +0000

Dear Jason Calacanis,

I was thrilled to see referrers from Google Mail’s Mahalo email area indicating that people were visiting my post “Dear Jason, You Have a Problem with Link Rot NOW.” I was even more thrilled to check the revision history for climate change and discove, soon after those hits to my article, Sara removed the link rot that Lon missed during his early morning revisions!

Responsiveness does encourage feedback.

You predicted, the ability of total outsiders to comment on the pesky little problems at Mahalo would encourage us to give you more feedback. So it has!

So about news scarper sites. . .

I will tell you that this morning, I was saddened to see that Mahalo Press Coverage for August 22, 2007 currently includes a link to what appears to be a scraper blog. You know, the sort of blog that just copies the contents of other blog posts?

If you visit Technology News Blog: Jason Calacanis: Fast Company profile raises more questions than it asks, you will find that “news” story seems to simply regurgitate ValleyWags August 21, 2007 story with the somewhat similar title “Technology News Blog: Jason Calacanis: Fast Company profile raises more questions than it asks”.

Might I suggest the duplicate story be removed? Might I also suggest you train the Mahalo guides to compare the titles and content of “new” stories to already posted stories. That habit would help them avoid this sort of embarrassing duplication of content in the results of your human powered - reviewed - massaged or whatever search engine.

Why not replace that slot with Jason Calacanis - Mahalo?

I know deleting the link to that duplicate content article might make it seem the blog-o-sphere is not simply abuzz about Mahalo. So, might I suggest you replace the link to that scraper site with Jason Calacanis - Mahalo?

CyberCelt included a screen shot that shows the absolutely splendid results returned for “advertising”.

Now, I know that because Mahalo is only in ~~beta~~ alpha, the sort of results Cyber Celt shows might not be considered news. But don’t you think the VC’s might want to gauge public reaction to what you’ve released for public perusal? Especially by people outside the Techcrunch 50,000? Even if they just don’t seem to “get it” about Mahalo?

Or maybe the VC’s should be shielded from that story?

Of course, this is just unsolicited advice from a knitter. I’m sure you’ll use your judgment on including these links to these sorts of negative reactions. After all, maybe the Venture Capitalists aren’t sophisticated enough to understand Cyber Celt’s complex story told using screen shots of the results pages.

Alas, my news article is missing too.

Naturally, I would never question why Dear Jason, You Have a Problem with Link Rot NOW was not included in the August 22 news stories. I’m sure the guides got busy responding to emails and making all the changes I suggested, and just forgot to add the story.

Wishing you well!

As always, I admire your gumption in trying to make this thing work. Dealing with enthusiastic underpaid guides and the flurry of volunteers in the Greenhouse must be a bit like herding cats. Still, I’m sure that by 2040, you will manage to put Google out of business.

I hope my feedback helps!

Sincerely, Lucia

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