A web host has conducted research on how many wordpress blogs they host and what are the most popular plugins are. The top most used are not surprising, but it’s always useful to see what people are using to see if a certain plugin can solve a specific problem.
Source, webhost Dreamhost
Categories: Blogging
Maybe this post should read, “Digg for sale”.
A few thoughts on what is happening on digg.
First, I’m not following the current convo regarding the latest changes at digg closely as there will be a period of flux where nothing of worth really settles. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great, geeky, soap opera and if you have the time it beats having to watch the coffee dribbles on your wall harden in the warm sun.
Most of the people I follow about the subject are the professional diggers who have made a career out of pushing stories to the top. I of course push my own stories to the top and over the years have realised how much most of the social bookmarking sites are quite easily gamed. Mostly in an ambiguous nod from the owners of the sites.
Whilst the owners of these site publicly castigate such practices, they actually need professional social bookmarkers as they provide them with quality content. If it’s an infographic it’s usually been created by professionals. Which I think reveals the extent of the operation.
So, why is this important.
Well, if you are not getting a piece of the action, then you are missing out on a big chunk of online marketing. It’s a relatively small group who control 80% of social bookmarking action. It’s really no different than getting stories in newspapers which are sympathetic to a specific brand or product.
But right now, digg is in turmoil in the sense it is not yet clear how to promote. Which is why I think it’s not worth following the story. In a few weeks it will be clear which wheels need to be greased, but right now, I’m off on holiday and hopefully when I come back it will be sorted.
However, digg only represents one entity and there are many others to promote your website at.
Categories: digg
In a recent post I mentioned that “some bloggers only have to fart softly into a leather sofa to get links”. This wasn’t an attempt to get links to a leather sofa site, although now I think about it…..
It was to highlight that some people got it and some people aint got it.
So the questions that are important are.
The zen part of this post is that even if you have the answers to all these questions you will be no closer to getting what they have got.
Which makes me wonder about the efficacy of all these, “Give me $1,000 a week and I will show you how you can charge $1,000 a week showing people how to make $1,000 a week from showing people how to make $1,000 a week” type sites.
Before you spend the $1,000 a week to find out if you got what they have got , spend £12.99 and £16.99 and book your self 2 weeks in that Scottish Highland croft.
I know I’m mixing currencies here, but I live in multi currency world. And no I am not trying to rank for “multi currency”.
The £12.99 is for, Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.
The £16.99 is for the hard cover of Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell.
The 2 weeks in the Scottish croft is to give you time to read and let the information sink in without you being distracted by wanting to tweet that you just ate a corned beef bagel with dijon mustard.
The point is….
What I hope will happen is you come to a realisation that you don’t really have the desire to do what it takes to get what those have got and to spend your cash and time on something more useful like making a model of Hugo Chavez out of the sticks you get from Starbucks to stir your liquid caffeine delivery product.
In conclusion….
Those bloggers who get links are those types of people who get it. Most of the time they don’t even understand why they “get it”, they just get on with it.
And if you are thinking right now that, “I don’t get it.” Then you are probably right.
Categories: link building
Make yourself so useful, when you are not around people notice.
Categories: Social Networking
It’s a bitter moment when your peers tell you to f**k off. But this is what happened to a big cheese in the game publising industry called Mark Rein of Epic games.
Go read it, if you like to see the Indie kid take down the big business behemoth you will love it.
I love these stories of bloggers whipping off the bed clothes of the previously untouchable executive types and letting everyone see them in the raw.
Cliff Harris makes the game industry sound fun.
Categories: Blogging
Some people over complicate things.
Blogging is simply a communications tool.
Once the piece of information you want to communicate is acheived, its purpose is done. Therefore the length of the blog is merely something for the aesthetic.
Of course it could be argued that a blog is also an “emotional delivery machine”, or an “action encourager”. But these still use communication to happen.
So when a blog post is written in a terse fashion, being economical with words, as long as it acheives its purpose it matters little that verbosity is ignored.
Writing less, means writing better.
Categories: Blogging
Is it better to be the consumer?
Or the creator of the consumed?
Are truly successful bloggers both?
Categories: Blogging
General Baron Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord said
“I divide officers into four classes — the clever, the lazy, the stupid and the industrious. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the high staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy is fit for the very highest commands. He has the temperament and the requisite nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be removed immediately.”
If you are lazy you look for the short cut, you break the rules and you work damn hard to get that short cut.
When found, you then relax.
Thus is the nature of those who use Search Engines to their advantage.
Categories: SEO Creativity
For one reason or another I stopped blogging, stopped writing.
Which is a shame as I really like the process and it’s something I do well (haven’t the time to be modest this morning).
Most of the problem is simple distraction, too much going on, too many possibilities, even too much success.
Sometimes you have to reduce. Simplify. Not use the, “but it has to be perfect before I publish” excuse.
So, to get the Mojo back I’m just going to blog. Post a blog every day for 14 days.
It may not be linkable, but from a creative point of view it helps crank up the engine.
And you never know, something juicy may come of it.
Categories: Blogging
I was watching a Dan Raine presentation in the wee small hours of the morning. And I realised what seo agencies are about.
Or rather what they are not about.
It’s something that has been niggling me for a while and I probably haven’t raised it because a lot of my clients are seo agencies.
SEO agencies don’t do cutting edge.
I think I’ve been to all the seo conferences in the UK and you hardly ever get a presentation that is cutting edge from an agency.
Which is fine.
They are about delivering what is mainstream, stuff like buing links from newspaper websites and the like.
They are also about managing the client, which obviously is an important part of the equation.
But the client will get in the way of implementing cutting edge techniques as most are new and highly experimental and there are little or no case studies around.
Also, most clients have not the time nor the industry knowledge to be taught about these cutting edge techniques, let alone being sold them and so the seo agency falls back on the tried and tested.
And there is nothing wrong with the tried and tested.
This is not a criticism of seo agencies, it’s merely a realisation of their place in the Internet Marketing food chain.
A lot of businesses need the tried and tested and have deep pockets to pay for it.
But people like Dan Raine are a couple of jumps ahead on the evolutionary scale of Internet Marketing.
If you are in the industry, when he speaks, you should listen.
But you probably wont.
You don’t have time.
What you do right now works for you.
You have to tweet about your new iPhone 4 (and how best to hold it)
But I will be listening and applying a few of his cutting edge techniques.
They certainly work for linkbaiting.
Categories: Internet marketing