Desty Online -- Online and Offline Businesses, Online Marketing » Meta Blogging

How to Build Internet Traffic to Your Blog - Blog Mastermind Video Case Study

Desty — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 05:06:49 +0000

This internet traffic related video is just one of the 10+ video case studies of real student blogs inside Blog Mastermind. If you join the program you can nominate your own blog for a review in a video case study.

As a member of Blog Mastermind you get:

A six month, step-by-step training program delivered in weekly lessons
Action steps at the end of every lesson for you to complete each week - there is no guesswork
A series of audio interviews with professional bloggers like Darren Rowse, Brian Clark and Andy Wibbels
Plus more videos, audios and resources

You will learn how to grow a blog that earns between $1,000 and $10,000 per month and only requires you to work two hours per day to maintain.

Blog Mastermind will close itself to new members effective December 10th 2007, so join now while you can.

Join Blog Mastermind

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Give With the One Hand, Take With the Other

Desty — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:38:30 +0000

I’ve been a busy person over the weekend. I solicited some feedback about Desty Online’s theme and design over last week and got the results. I also made some changes in my incentive for comments, removing the DoFollow being the major change.

The Results Are In

I had been concerned with the look and appeal of the site; face it, the blue on off-yellow colors were just nasty! I made it known that I was in the mood for a theme change and wanted to know what was thought about making too many theme changes.

It turns out that nobody, beyond me, likes change too much. Sue C, who uses that exact same theme, suggested that the theme itself is great, just need to make some changes in color to make it atlittle easier on the eyes. She gave her blog on lighthouse news as an example.

Life is Change

I’ve taken the suggestions to heart and have changed the background to plain white. Also, to break up the blocky text vibe I was getting, I added a picture to the header as well as a video explaining RSS with the subscribe buttons. The video, in my view, does a better job in explaining what RSS is and how to use it, than any written article I’ve read.

Good Bye DoFollow, Welcome Back Top Commentators

I’ve been thinking about this change for weeks. Those of you who use DoFollow know the amounts of spam that we go through. I can see creative spam that is somewhat related to the article, but then again there’s the page scrolling comments about adult porn or RX drugs.

I still wanted to reward comments and encourage comments. I had used the Top Commentator plugin earlier in the year, but I removed it to save PR leakage and went with DoFollow instead. Now I figure that the leakage from the main index for 5 sites would be less than the 200+ comments on have through the entire site.

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Get Excited About Your Blog!

Desty — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:12:20 +0000

A few weeks ago I mentioned about a maturing of your blog, where you look at your articles and how you organize them. I’ve slowly been creating new categories for new articles. Today has been the first day that I’ve been able to go back and reorganize older articles into the new format.

As I get deeper and deeper into my archives, I’m rereading some great articles. That and working on new categories has gotten me really excited not only about writing for my blog, but also updating and maintaining the actual structure. Categories not only serve the purpose of organizing your articles, well thought out and worded categories should draw readers’ attention and direct them to articles that they normally wouldn’t find.

Take a look at your own category list. Is there anything in that list of words that makes you want to see what’s behind that link?

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Good News, Bad News on New Blog Project

Desty — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:29:34 +0000

As I mentioned before, I’m working on a new blog in what I consider an untouched niche. The actual blog is up and running, but only on a very basic level. I found a temporary wordpress theme, but I hate it. I’ve done zero theme modifications, as I’m still working on finding a good theme to base everything on. Over the past 2-3 weeks I’ve only posted 3 articles, 2 of which were lists.

I admit that I really haven’t spent much time working on the blog. I have searched and found a few blogs in the niche and have been commenting on their articles. It’s from those comments that I’ve been getting a very small sliver of traffic. Using Google’s Analytics to track my traffic, I have noticed that the biggest view on the blog, beyond the main page, has been the About Me page.

It shouldn’t be a big surprise. Desty Online’s About Me page gets quite abit of clicks as well. I have written articles about About Me pages in the past, and when I do, more people read the page. Also, the main draw that I’ve created for the blog is the Brand. It wasn’t until I created a brand that I was able to witness, first hand, the power of a brand. I use it when I comment, it’s the title of my blog, it’s the background of the blog itself!

This is where I’ve been bad. Bad, not in a naughty way, but in that I haven’t been capitalizing on my brand. If you were to actually visit my new blog and checked out my About Me page, you would see this.

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.

You guessed it, I haven’t WRITTEN an about me page!

The simple reason I haven’t written one is that, I guess, I still see the blog in the alpha phase of development. The “physical” structure of the blog isn’t set in stone yet. I’m kinda promoting it on the other related blogs, and the brand itself is powerful enough to bring the curious in, but I’m doing ZERO to keep them.

Yes, I’m bad. I need to get my butt in gear and make things happen.

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Go For Quality, not a Forced Deadline

Desty — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:04:12 +0000

Read a dozen blogs and you’ll hear the same thing

Create a posting schedule and stick to it

That’s well and good for the professional blogger who has nothing but time to crank out the articles, time stamp them to later publication, or to save them as drafts for a day when they don’t feel like writing.

For those of us who treat blogging as a business beyond our job, we strive to create quality articles. Articles that we would like to read. Writing an article just to say “I made my quota for today of 1 article” doesn’t do your site justice, and it cheats your readers.

For example, I wrote two days ago an article I had been forming for a few weeks, How to Make Money Online from Your Dorm Room — Introduction. It would be so easy to just slap together an article about blogging, yada yada yada. Problem with that is, readers expect better. When you write an article, you are being judged, especially in this day of Blogrush, where someone might be interested in your title, read the subpar article, and never visit again.

Every article should be a grade A for quality and effort. To do anything less, it would have been better to say nothing at all.

Make Money Online from Your Dorm Room by Blogging should be ready tomorrow, I promise!!!

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What Does Your Blog Say?

Desty — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:41:24 +0000

Imagine that you are a relative newcomer to the Internet. You can email, surf the web, but for the most part that’s it. To you, a blog is something they talk about on the nightly news when referring to the 2008 presidential race. Talk of WordPress and Plugins make no sense what so ever.

What articles do you have on your front page? I got some traffic today from local sources who, for the most part, are probably not interested at all in the fine details of blogging. What do you have to offer them?

In times like this, it’s best to be prepared. A great idea is to have a ‘first time readers’ page setup and have your links head there; if you don’t want to do that, redesign your about me page into something more reader friendly (my new project for the weekend).

While it’s most likely not a great idea from a SEO and page rank perspective to funnel your readers to a welcome portal instead of your home page, it would give 1st time readers an excellent idea as to what you are about and hopefully turn some 1st time readers into long term readers.

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Guest Writers, Friend or Foe?

Desty — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:38:55 +0000

Guest posting has started to become a big hit on blogs these days. It’s been described as a win-win for the blog owner and the guest writer, but some writers have brought in a third element: readers.

Exposed! But in a Good Way…

Guest writers have the most to gain in that they get exposure to a new and larger audience of readers by taking the opportunity to post on a more main stream blog. These writers believe (some rightly so, some not so much) that the reason they’re own blog isn’t popular or exploded on the scene is that they haven’t had the opportunity and that given exposure they would be popular, have thousands of readers daily, etc etc…

Hit the Snooze Button, Roll Over, and Go Back to Sleep

The gain for the blog owner is not even close to being so dramatic. A guest written article means that it’s one less article he has to post. He can add the regularly scheduled post to his cache of save articles, time stamped for a future day.

Risk? What Risk??

There are risks involved with guest writers. As ShoeMoney discovered, guest posts can be ripped off and copied by writers who hope that no one would know where their material came from. I don’t believe that Jeremy took so much a hit to his rep, but the guest writer was flamed BIG TIME in the comments. What made it worse was that the guest writer continued to try and defend himself in the comments.

What About Me??

The third party that no one really talks about are the readers themselves. We go to a blog to read what that individual writer has to say. We enjoy or get value from their articles. Some say that they hate guest posts because they’re at that blog to read the owner’s article, not someone else’s.

From my point of view, if the guest post is well written on a subject I enjoy, that person’s mission has been accomplished! They’ve gained a new reader.

How about you? What do you think about guest writers?

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Be Flexible When It Comes to Your Business Plan

Desty — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:02:36 +0000

As I mentioned in my business planning article, every serious business needs to have a overall strategy for the business, from beginning to end. Business planning is done not only on a strategic level, but the plan itself should also go into some detail as to what tactics will be employed to reach the plan’s objectives.

A change of tactics is a simple enough task. Normally, a set period of time passes before a change in tactics however; any tactic must have time to run its course to see if it is a valid way towards the strategic objective.

A change in strategy, however, is a more serious task. Depending on the change, it could totally destroy any progress made thus-far with the previous strategy.

I’ll use the example of Desty Online for the differences in the business plan’s tactical and strategic planning.

The strategic goal of Desty Online is to expand the concept of treating and running of all online businesses (be it a blog or a PPC business) with sound business practices. The tactics to make this possible break down into several areas:

Content — the creation of interesting and valuable content is a basic tactic. If the content isn’t useful, there will be no repeat visitors. If the content isn’t interesting, it won’t be read in the first place. A reason, or need as it were, must be shown or created for the reader to see Desty Online as a essential resource for their business.
Promotion — Nobel Prize level articles are worthless without readers. The existence of Desty Online and its mission must be spread far and wide. As the site itself is still fairly young (almost 3 months old) promotion will be done by low cost / free means, such as commenting on related blogs, membership and participation on related forums, and guest blogging opportunities. As the blog matures, more intensive promotional avenues will be explored, such as PPC campaigns, paid reviews (through individual bloggers and through paid post companies).
Revenue Generation — Desty Online must be self sustaining. During its younth, with low traffic volumes, the cost of maintaining the site is negligible. As the site grows in content and traffic volume, additional resources will have to come into play to keep the same level of service currently enjoyed by readers. Also, paid marketing will be required.

As part of my restructuring plan a few weeks ago I was determined to attempt stay away from the alure of writing sponsored posts beyond commissioned business reviews. The tactic in mind to make up for this exclusion of a revenue source was to sell advertising on Desty Online directly instead of through 3rd parties. A blogger I respect had said it was a great source of income and highly recommended it. Something he didn’t mention and I didn’t think about until I got involved on the Digital Point forums was his blog was over 5 years old and had MUCH more traffic than Desty Online. What is a great source of income for him currently has no chance at Desty Online.

So, in order to keep Desty Online self sustaining and to start some minor paid marketing, I’m bringing back the tactic of doing paid posts. I’m still not comfortable beyond reviews I think my readers would appreciate, so I will have to be picky. Hopefully as other forms of revenue reveal themselves over time, paid posts will be used less and less.

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Who Do You Trust?

Desty — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:07:20 +0000

I’ve been brainstorming over the past week as to how to bring Desty Online to the next level. The theme change was the first project I came up with; hopefully it will happen tonight. Once you start a theme change, you really need to keep the upgrade going until it looks decent.

My second project is to go back to upgrade my posts and add relevant images where I’m able. Images add so much to an article. Instead of writing about something, you can show your readers. Also, using an image means that you don’t have to use a link to an outside source. There have been two times when I’ve linked to Yahoo’s Finance pages to show stock price histories. If the reader doesn’t follow those links, then part of the story is missing.

Finally, I was on my way towards a meeting this morning for work and thinking about what else I can add to increase my readers’ experience. Then it came to me:

PODCASTING

I had an idea on how to use pod-casting to not only enhance the reader experience, but also as a marketing tool. As this giddy feeling of a great idea was washing over me, a wave of cold reality hit me square in the face.

I know nothing about how to create a podcast.
I haven’t seen it done anywhere, so who do I ask how to do it without giving away a great idea too early?

It may or may not be a good idea, but I want to be the one who does it first. If it were to catch on, then I’m the innovator, otherwise I’m just one in a line of followers.

One of the first rules of blogging is be unique. Offer something to your readers that no one else has. Being creative and coming up with new ideas is something every businessperson looking to expand needs to work towards. The problem occurs when your ideas outstrip your means or knowledge. Going to outside sources is the key to progressing, but when your source of experience is also possible competition, you have to rely on their discretion and honesty.

Back to me. I’m going to research more and see what I can do on my own before I start asking for help. I know something as simple as pod-casting makes me seem paranoid for thinking all this. It’s part of my business plan and could become not only a great marketing tool, but a nice revenue stream.

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How Do You Surf the Web?

Desty — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 18:56:47 +0000

Sunny at Desinotes.com wrote a whole article about being Careful with Links. Sunny writes about limiting the amount of ways a reader can exit your blog through links and advises others to limit the amount of doors that the reader can go through to leave your blog.

Desinotes is one of my favorite blogs, but I totally disagree with Sunny on this. I view blogging as creating value for the readers who grace the blog with their readership. I write my articles with an eye for creating an enjoyable experience and also help to give information to the readers that is of some value. Now, if that means linking to an excellent blog article by someone else, I will.

As such, when I do create links, I create them in such a way that a second web browser window is created. The reason I do this is simple. It’s the way I surf the web. When I see a link I might be interested in, I open the link in another tab, and continue to read what I was in the first place. I don’t want to be interrupted. When I’m done with the 1st article, I go to the link I opened and see what that is.

How do you surf the web? Do you consider it rude to force a creation of a second browser window?

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