My First #1 Google Ranking

I was building my first serious websites back in 1996/97 though I have been online extensively since 1993, I no longer have $400 per month internet bills.

In those days search engines didn’t matter for me in the slightest, I was looking for coverage from major websites in my niche (computer games), being interviewed on websites many of which no longer exist, having my latest promotional screenshots listed, and gaining mentions on various geeky places such as the OpenGL mailing list.

It actually took 2 or 3 years to capitalise of the media attention I was gaining for various products with an extremely limited budget. Representing a team of inexperienced (but highly talented) programmers and trying to sign publisher deals was certainly an uphill struggle, and the deals we did eventually land were plagued with payment, legal and technical difficulties that certainly didn’t allow the products to be released in the manner we expected.

Some of the titles were initially slated for a 1998 release, so you can imagine the kind of reviews they received in the press in 2000/2001 when they finally received coverage as a budget release – our publisher really didn’t put any effort into promoting them.

It is highly likely that when Google launched their first search engine, that as well as product names the sites I created ranked for things like “S3 Virge OpenGL Driver” or “Matrox OpenGL Driver” because we released a lot of free OpenGL “wrappers” for various graphics cards as a way of promoting our games. It only took 24 hours to build up a mailing list of 5000 gamers, and a press mailing list of over 100 editors.

Some of those wrappers actually allowed us to get some additional paid work with graphics card manufacturers which provided some nice “small change” to feed the development coffers.

In some ways we also were the first to coin the phrase “3D Music” in regards to music mixing software that allowed you to animate the location of instruments in 3D space.

Niche Website ?

Since I started niche marketing, which is probably when I first started taking a notice of search engine rankings, I suppose my first Google #1 was niche website, although I am only #3 currently.

I don’t generally talk about #1 rankings for my niche sites, and most of those I keep under wraps.

As I gradually make improvements to the optimization of this blog, hopefully it will start to rank for a few more competitive terms, though I generally rank extremely well for product reviews for anything I decide to write about.

So what became of my old game company?

Techland went on to finally release Chrome which was well regarded despite being developed on a much lower budget than competing products, and this week they are launching Call of Juarez with Ubisoft for Xbox360 and PC internationally, including in the US. It has previously been released in Europe.

Now if I was really looking to dominate the Google SERPs for this game (which will likely be quite a hit), then what I would do is pick up my video camera, make a 2 minute phone call, and go and quickly do a 30 minute exclusive interview with the development team, including an in-depth look at their development tools which I am sure would be appreciated by a Digg audience.

I don’t have any niche websites in computer games though, mainly because I made a concious decision to move in other directions.

I wonder how much such a video would be worth as linkbait?

(I stuck an advert in for the game as I decided I needed at least one picture)

I can’t compare to Lyndon going on holiday due to Ally McBeal and he really knows his stuff about linkbait (a very good read with great examples)

I would like to thank Kevin for tagging me on this Google #1 Ranking meme

The meme was started over at SEO Refugee by Skitzoo, and I have been tagged by Marc at My Credit Group, and Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim who notes that a link from his previously mothballed personal blog wouldn’t be very charitable.

The rules are simple, copy the list of charities and links (grab it from whomever tags you) and add your 5 favorite charities or non-profit organizations to the end (link to their sites with anchor text of the causes they champion). Of course finish things off by tagging 5 other webmasters/bloggers and then publishing the post or the webpage.

Here is a list of the ones that have been before

• American Red Cross – disaster relief
• Raleigh Rescue Mission – homeless raleigh
• SOS Children’s Villages – sponsor a child
• Samaritan’s Purse – emergency relief programs
• St. Jude Children’s Hospital – cancer research
• Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders – Humanitarian Relief
• American Red Cross – Emergency Preparedness
• AMREF – African Medical & Research Foundation – African Health Development
• DOROT – Programs for Elderly
• Feed the Children – Protect Children
• Service International – Disaster Relief
• Pujols Family Foundation – Children with Down Syndrome
• National Alliance to End Homelessness – Homelessness
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research – Parkinson’s Research
• Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program – Child Healthcare
• Aids Research Alliance – Aids Research
• Wildlife Conservation Society – Wildlife Protection
• Cancer Research Institute – Cancer Research
• Second Harvest – End Hunger
• AARP Foundation – Helping Senior Citizens

I am only going to pick one charity organisation, but they cover a number of diverse topics and thus I am going to give them a few deep links. Whilst they are the largest and most popular Polish charity organisation, they only rank at the bottom of the 2nd page in Google for Polish charity.

• The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity – Polish Charity
• CPR For Schools Across Poland – CPR Training
• Program of Insulin Pumps in Diabetic Children Therapy – Insulin Pumps For Children
• Non-invasive Neonatal Breathing Support – Infant Flow
• Program of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screenings – Neonatal Hearing

In many ways each year they set up a separate charity fund, and it works in many ways much like the TV show for kids “Blue Peter” and their appeals, and more recent things like Live Aid and Comic Relief.
Specific causes are chosen each year, and all the money raised goes to those causes, so each year it is effectively like a separate charity.

I now have to tag people, and I am going to pick (on) some Europeans to get this branching out nicely.

Stefan Juhl
Gavin
Fraser
Keith
Shaun

I will make it easy for you guys to pass on the list

<ul>
<li>The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity - <a href="http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/fundation/">Polish Charity</a></li>
<li> CPR For Schools Across Poland - <a href="http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/schools/">CPR Training</a></li>
<li>Program of Insulin Pumps in Diabetic Children Therapy - <a href="http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/medic/index.php/32/2">Insulin Pumps For Children</a></li>
<li>Non-invasive Neonatal Breathing Support - <a href="http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/medic/index.php/34/2">Infant Flow</a></li>
Program of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screenings - <a href="http://www.en.wosp.org.pl/medic/index.php/31/2">Neonatal Hearing</a>
<li>American Red Cross - <a href="http://www.redcross.org/">disaster relief</a></li>
<li>Raleigh Rescue Mission - <a href="http://www.raleigh-rescue.org/index.shtml">homeless raleigh</a></li>
<li>SOS Children’s Villages - <a href="http://www.sos-usa.org">sponsor a child</a></li>
<li>Samaritan’s Purse - <a href="http://www.samaritanspurse.org">emergency relief programs</a></li>
<li>St. Jude Children’s Hospital - <a href="http://www.stjude.org/aboutus">cancer research</a></li>
<li>Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders - <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/">Humanitarian Relief</a></li>
<li>American Red Cross - <a href="http://www.redcross.org/">Emergency Preparedness</a></li>
<li>AMREF - African Medical &amp; Research Foundation - <a href="http://www.amref.org/">African Health Development</a></li>
<li>DOROT - <a href="http://www.dorotusa.org/">Programs for Elderly</a></li>
<li>Feed the Children - <a href="http://www.feedthechildren.org">Protect Children</a></li>
<li>Service International - <a href="http://www.serviceinternational.org/home/index.shtml" target="_blank">Disaster Relief</a> </li>
<li>Pujols Family Foundation - <a href="http://www.pujolsfamilyfoundation.org/foundation.htm" target="_blank">Children with Down Syndrome</a> </li>
<li>National Alliance to End Homelessness - <a href="http://www.endhomelessness.org/" target="_blank">Homelessness</a> </li>
<li>The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research - <a href="http://www.michaeljfox.org/" target="_blank">Parkinson’s Research</a> </li>
<li>Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program - <a href="http://www.rmhc.org/rmhc/index/programs/ronald_mcdonald_care.html" target="_blank">Child Healthcare</a> </li>
<li>Aids Research Alliance - <a href="http://www.aidsresearch.org/">Aids Research</a> </li>
<li>Wildlife Conservation Society - <a href="http://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Protection</a> </li>
<li>Cancer Research Institute - <a href="http://www.cancerresearch.org/">Cancer Research</a> </li>
<li>Second Harvest - <a href="http://www.secondharvest.org/">End Hunger</a> </li>
<li>AARP Foundation - <a href="http://www.aarp.org/about_aarp/aarp_foundation/about_foundation/">Helping Senior Citizens</a> </li>
</ul>

I can’t claim to be an active member of her blog community either, even though I have been subscribed to her feed for a while. There is a limit to how many conversations you can keep running at the same time, and whilst you might read someone’s blog, there is that time restraint barrier.

I also tend not to comment on blogs unless I can offer some level of expertise in helping solve a problem, or give a different perspective.

I Almost Missed It!

I am serious about this, and I am not sure of the solution – In Technorati every day I currently wade through about 6 to 10 pages of links. I have not idea how the more busy blogs cope.
I do try to follow up on every trackback, but that doesn’t help with links to my TLD (Top Level Domain).

Yep, I am a S.O.B

Now the hardest thing for me to decide was which colour badge I wanted to use.

I almost went for the aqua or purple

I was a little cheeky and asked Liz if she has one in Black & White, and she emailed one to me.

It will add a little bit more social proof to the sidebar

Meme Overload | Meme Efficiency

Even someone as highly organised as Liz seems to struggle keeping up with the memes she is tagged with, and being so popular I am sure she is tagged a lot more often than I am.

I am well behind on the memes I am tagged with, probably enough for the next month.

Something Liz has come up with is a bit of a time saver, it is just a standard way to link back to the person who tagged you and to show that a post is part of a meme.

It saves you making your own graphic.

Introducing Bloggy Tag

Well it might be a bit of a late introduction if you have already read about Bloggy tag.

That logo works for me, I can stick it on a post and just pump out answers rather than a long winded intro and just quickly tag people at the end.

As this is very much a Lizzy post, I suppose I should also mention that SOBcon07 is little over a week away for anyone interested in attending who needs a gentle reminder.
I will not be attending, but I knows a fair number of my regular readers are going to be speaking there.

For French Speakers

People Linking Through

The following 100 sites most recently linked through to http://www.onedayblogsilence.com

!inlineRSS:silence

DoshDosh has a fair number of Technorati favorites, currently just over 440

Now in Technorati they provide an OPML file of your favorites

Here is mine for instance

http://feeds.technorati.com/faves/AndyBeard?format=opml

Hmm Maki’s would be

http://feeds.technorati.com/faves/kawaiikuma?format=opml

OPML Can Be Imported Into Your Own Technorati Favorites

Hattip to Douglas Karr for this, also via Engtech even though I am subscribed, but I am sure he didn’t think of my evil/lazy/smart intentions. I knew about it, but reading his post clicked some brain cells back into position.

So anyway first stop was to download DoshDosh’s OPML, then import it into my Technorati Favorites.

Here is a quite interesting statistic, of the 400+ favorites I added from Maki, only 46 were already in my favorites.

356 Blogs were new additions, and 26 Technorati told me were not blogs, though they obviously were.

But I already had 276 blogs in my favorites to start with – that isn’t bloggers, but actual blogs. With some people I kindly added multiple blogs to my favorites.

I am not sure whether the maths above works out, but I now have 647 Technorati Favorites.

OPML (Right Click and Save to your HD)

Click This Link To Import To Technorati

Not everyone will hear about this much faster method, so make sure you share this with your readers. I really want to save people lots of time in checking their Technorati Favorites all the time.
Also not everyone will reciprocate a Favorite – that is one of the reasons I have added an RSS feed of my favorites in the sidebar. People get picked up as the occasional link from me, and come visiting, and sometimes add me back – not always but it certainly helps.
There are lots of RSS plugins and widgets, I know they also work well on Blogspot.

It is not something I suggest everyone includes on a professional blog.

Once you get lots of favorites, it is hard work managing them, so this solution for those interested is much much faster.

It is quite possible I have missed a few people out, so make sure you favorite me, and I will post a new list in one week’s time.

Also make sure you subscribe so you can get the update when published.

There is a purpose to this, I needed an OPML file of like minded people to do some additional testing of Blogrovr. An OPML of around 200 sites just wasn’t enough, and I wanted interesting sites on varied topics, not just the search and internet marketing feeds I have in my feedreader.

You can also give Blogrovr a try using my OPML file.

One Problem I Noted

Certainly not everyone who has exchanged favorites with DoshDosh linked through to the original, post, or lots of people are not being indexed correctly by Technorati.

The list below is updated every 30 minutes, and shows the most recent 100 people who linked through to DoshDosh as far as Google are concerned. Technorati did show a lot more, but even then it was certainly 200 – 300 people short, depending on how many duplicate listings were in Technorati.

If you are not in the list below, check how your blog pings are configured, or you may have to start manually pinging using a service like Pingomatic.

!inlineRSS:doshdosh

Memes do help people build up links, but the best way to build up links is to write quality content that other people will link to… like this.

There are multiple subjects I discuss that could potentially benefit my readers, and lots of them I potentially have some kind of future commercial interest in, whether it be blogging topics such as WordPress and tagging, monetization, reviews and affiliate programs, SEO, and the latest and greatest Web 2.0 applications for building traffic to your blogs, or ways to find other blogs in your niche with whom you can build relationships.

• I am not a tech blogger
• I am not a programming geek
• I am not a corporate marketing professional or copywriter
• I am not a super affiliate
• I am not a SEO or SEM consultant
• I don’t yet own my own Web 2.0 startup, just a bunch of niche websites

I am some weird mixed up combination of things with a jack-of-all-trades skillset, or pseudo-skillset. I say pseudo because some of the things I discuss are hard or time-consuming to give hard clinical proof for. If someone wants to give me a huge research grant to study the benefit of tagging, I will be more than happy to take their money.
Having such a wide pseudo-skillset does help me analyse things from different perspectives, look at products and services from a birds eye view then swoop in to pin-point positive and negative features.

RT Cunningham from Untwisted Vortex(feed) has been reading my blog for a while, and tagged me in the blogs that make you think meme started by Ilker(feed)

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

One of the reasons I decided to take part in this meme isn’t that RT had nice things to say about me, but because he decided to take some action based on what I discuss.

That is one of the things that make it worthwhile writing a blog.

Even better is that he didn’t just make changes, he stated he was going to test things. It is smart to test things for yourself.

So here is my list of blogs that make me think in no specific order, and this is by no means an exclusive list as I would love to include 20+ blogs where I participate regularly:-

• Ben over at Instigator Blog has some amazing content, and almost every post I read conjures up ideas for various aspects of my online business.(feed)
• Paula because she is so down-to-earth and enthusiastic on her blog, and enthusiastic for affiliate marketing. Reading Paula’s blog really helps me touch bases with a lot of what is happening in the world outside of business circles, and it is fascinating how it evolves.(feed)
• Mike Sansone because he is a genius in crafting networking ideas between bloggers, and is enthusiastic about linking and sharing.(feed)
• Paul because he challenges me to rethink so often and to justify my views or actions.(feed)
• Finally… Robert Scoble – I don’t always agree with him, and he certainly doesn’t always agree with me, but he always makes me think. Also because he links through to people not because he agrees with them, but because they also make him think, or his readers think. (feed)

It should be noted that this meme isn’t intended to game search engine for everyone involved, and Ilker even suggests linking the badge through to your own post, and not to him as a way of highlighting those who make you think.

p.s One of these days Robert is going to allow someone to fix his sidebar to be more useful for his readers, and not link to multiple variations of the same thing.

Update: – Lorelle Just Nominated Me For This Award

I am humbled and honoured to have been nominated twice and by people I have such a great deal of respect for.

I have also been tagged by Engtech, who stresses that just because someone makes you think, doesn’t mean that they agree with everything you write.

Stung by Cord on this one – he doesn’t agree with my perspective on Pay Per Post which is fine. Read what I have mentioned in his comments because the Pay Per Post situation in many ways is deja vu for me.

Chris nominated me for this, making that 5, in a post all of its own. He describes my blog as essential reading, and essential thinking.

A few days ago Dawud tagged me in the “Gotta get goals” meme.

Here is a quick answer that fits the meme

1. Family
2. Home
3. Security
4. Happiness
5. Sharing
6. Success

A long answer on any of those question might be repeating myself, or potentially too revealing, and I like to be subtle about longer term business goals, though I do drop quite a few hints to add a little mystique.

I think at the end of the day the meme is aimed at revealing a little about yourself that others might not know, and to be honest there is a huge amount already that I have written, but most of my readers might not have seen.

Lets delve back into the distant past…. in blogging terms over the last 3 months is pretty distant.

I took part in the 5 Things About Me meme, and that had some mention of family goals.
I also mentioned Michel Fortin’s New year resolution “Earn more. Work less. Enjoy better.” and suggested I would add “share more”.

Hmm, I am currently working more and earning less.. but at least they are aimed at a long-term goal or earning a lot more, and not having to work because I need money.

I think I am doing fairly well on the “Share more”.

Michel tagged me in the “Why Do I Blog” meme – I shared a lot of inner motivation and business goals in that post, and I doubt most of my subscribers have read it.

I wasn’t too revealing in the 5 questions meme, but continued the business thread.

My about page mentions the house we are building – one of these days I will post some photos but there is a good chance we will be moving in later this year.

Short Term Blogging Goals

I did set one attainable blogging goal some time ago, to get in the Technorati Top 100 (favorited sites)

I said at the time

I was just browsing Technorati.
It would only take 67 favorites to get in their top 100 favorites
Top 50 – currently only 115 favorites
327 Favorites to get in their Top 10 !
Those are realistic targets for any blogger (not just me)
Much more realistic than the most linked to blogs. You would need links from 3000+ blogs

As is the nature of the internet, goals such as this have ever receding horizons, thus the number of Technorati favorites needed to get in the top 100 has increased somewhat.

But…

If I doubled the number of people who joined my Technorati Favorites, I would currently be ranked 37 – a very achievable target.
If every one of my subscribers added me to their favorites, I would actually be in the Top10

I can’t tell you whether being in the Top100 sends any traffic, or the Top10, or whether it helps with Technorati relevance. I do know that Technorati visit my blog and feeds a lot looking for updates, far more often than I ping them.
There is also the potential benefit (speculation) that it might help ranking in Google BlogSearch.
Technorati visiting me frequently does have some advantages. All those links to my favorites that show on the sidebar get seen as incoming links, and I have seen quite a few visits by people checking their Technorati for what I have written about them. A sneaky way to get more traffic, but also share the love.

It would be nice if a few more reciprocated

Feedburner for as long as I remember have provided a daily updated feed counter that you can display on your blog. The way the feed count is updated is actually fairly complex as they mentioned in an announcement yesterday that some publishers might notice an increase due to algorithm change.

Maki decided to pose a number of tough questions to a number of bloggers about why they choose to use a feed counter or not.

Dosh Dosh’s Feed Count Meme

Here is the main question for the meme:

“Why do you display (or not display) the Feed Count for your blog?“.

Short Answer: Social Proof

Long answer: Social proof – but in a multitude of ways, not just to gain additional subscribers

• Subscribers – Here is what I wrote on my Bumpzee profile and in a few other places – “90% of the world’s human population are herd animals, not far removed from sheep and cattle” – just think about the effect branding has on people’s perception of quality. I chose not to display my feed count until I readed what I determined to be a reasonable number – 300 subscribers
• Advertisers – The ratings systems at many monetization services are a little crude, often relying on Bloglines subscriber counts. It is my belief that new users of RSS tend to choose Google Reader or Email subscriptions over Bloglines. Growth in Bloglines subscribers is an uphill struggle.
  When an advertiser comes to look at a blog, it is good to show that a blog has “reach”.
• Links – whilst it could be stated that the number of links a blog receives is at least partially related to the number of subscribers who might be inclined to link through, it is my belief that many people in a situation where they have to choose which site they should link to from multiple sources, would partially determine their choice based upon visible popularity. Often links come from people researching a subject on Technorati or Google Blog Search – in many cases they would want to link to authorities.
• Authority – Does this guy know what he is talking about? This affects both subscribers and links, but possibly also might affect other metrics.
  • Time on page (did they actually read the content)
  • Page views per visit
  • Return visits (without subscribing, such as following links on other sites)
  • Votes on Social Media Sites

  Social Media Marketing is all the rage currently, but visitors from social media sites are extremely fickle thus any indication of trust or authority you can display may have positive results. I don’t write my content specifically for social media sites, and there are certainly aspects of my site design I plan to change for andybeard.eu 2.0 to possibly improve conversion.

• Sex – If you want chicklets to say how big yours is, it is easy to copy and paste the HTML

Further Questions

How long did it take you to reach the current feed count? Was the growth gradual? Any notable external factors that had a positive or negative effect?

This domain was launched October 17th 2006, though 80% of my subscribers have been gained in the past 2 months.

For me it has been gradual growth, but the more popular your blog becomes, the more people reference what you write with links, the more direct and organic search traffic you receive, and your subscription rate tends to increase. For me it is typically 1% to 2% new subscribers per day. With a number of algorithm changes making stats jump around, plus the fact you can subscribe to a feed using autodiscovery without even clicking something on a site that can be tracked, it is very hard to determine precise growth numbers.

MyBlogLog has a very positive effect on this blogs growth, as do the occasional mentions on a popular blogs. I haven’t had any massive amount of social media traffic above a few 500 visitor Stumbles.
I should really delete half this post and make it more palatable for a mainstream audience.

Apart from displaying subscription buttons, what other ways (if any) do you use to encourage your readers to subscribe to your blog feed?

It is possible that visitors to my blog notice the subscription options at the top of the page, in the primary position normally reserved for advertising.
That section is going to be tweaked soon, but it will still be highly prominent.

In your opinion, what is the most effective way to increase your feed subscription?

Top 10 Ways to A Massive Subscriber List

• Take your existing mailing list of 1000s and import it into Feedburner as I discussed previously.
• Create a squeeze page that is primarily for email subscriptions to your blog, and use pay per click advertising to gain traffic.
• Create content aimed at being popular with users of specific social media sites (linkbait), and get involved on the sites to create peer groups, or find someone to help you.
• Write about newsworthy topics with your own spin / angle – Jason Calacanis has suggested that all you have to do is write about the top posts on Techmeme for a month and you could become an A-list blogger
• Networking – get friendly with A-list bloggers in your niche so they are more inclined to read your content and link to you.
• Get listed as a default feed option in a major RSS Reader or Ajax Desktop
• Optimize your site to maximise the percentage of visitors who subscribe
• Have content or services (maybe WordPress Plugins), that are continually updated with great features, such that users wait for updates with anticipation
• Become the external PR or Support Blog for a major corporation
• Target a popular niche with high adoption of RSS Readers

Size Isn’t Everything

Email marketers would much prefer a small list of highly targeted proven buyers than a massive list of tire kickers.

The same is true of blog subscribers.

• You are more likely to get links from top bloggers in your niche if they subscribe to your blog
• If angel investors and VCs subscribe to your blog, you might have a higher chance of raising capital for a new startup.
• You are more likely to be offered contract work by people who read your blog.
• For a company blog, the ideal subscriber is someone looking for your solution, who has a fat wallet.

I have always aimed my content specifically at very targeted groups.

The Meme

Rather than nudging people to take part in this meme, feel free to pick it up and answer the questions on your own blog. I believe Maki is linking through to everyone who links through to the meme, and anyone who pings me gets a followable link by default due to using dofollow, but I will add links manually to the post as well.

Chris Garret has already given his answers.
Daniel responded and pointed out that a low count might discourage people to subscribe.
Engtech puts a different perspective on things because he is hosting on WordPress.com – His feeds are split due to the lack of support by WordPress.com of adding a different autodiscovery feed.

Michel Fortin tagged me for this meme.
He was tagged by Ryan Healy who had actually just picked up the meme without being tagged by my friend Mike Sansone.

I actually have to split my reasons into two sections, because I “blog” in a variety of different ways although this blog is perhaps the most visible as my personal blog.

Practical Reasons

1. Content Management – blogging platforms are simple content management systems. I own lots of custom built content management scripts, but most of my sites run at least partially on blogging platforms because they allow me to manage content so easily, either using their built in interface, or by using various professional blogging tools
2. Extensibility – you can do almost anything with WordPress, there are so many plugins and themes available and if something doesn’t exist, you can always get something hacked together fairly cheaply, or even learn to do it yourself.
3. SEO – Blogging platforms generally have very good SEO characteristics – it isn’t a guarantee because many can be set up in such a way as to hide your older content and devalue it. Some of the “worst offenders” or most prominent mistakes are made by SEO blogs and “blogging tips” blogs. I should be thankful – it has provided me with another “niche”
4. Syndication – it is easy for people to subscribe to what I write for easy delivery to their RSS Reader, email box or aggregator. I don’t try to place controls on my content, and it spreads virally in many directions that ultimately will be of benefit.
5. Communication – blogs provide multiple way to communicate with your audience

I was going to add “Free” to the list above, but ultimately nothing is ever free – what I regard as the best blogging platform, WordPress, is free to use and future proof due to its licensing, but that doesn’t always make it the best choice for everyone.
As an example Google’s Blogger now offers a “better than perfect” redirect to a domain. I mentioned “deepest secrets” at the start of this post. I will leave out why it is better than perfect for another blog post.
Mike Sansone frequently recommends Typepad and Moveable Type, and it is used by many top flight blogs, even newly launched ones, but I haven’t honestly worked out the advantages other than the availability of many experts to help you with the platform.

Part 2 of my list is going to concentrate on various motivations for blogging, and specifically for this blog and those sites I acknowledge in public.

Blogging Motivations

First of all some screenshots:-

My Technorati Rank Improves Daily:-

Yes I know Technorati can be gamed, just look at blog networks – however a huge number of the links I am receiving are editorial choices from quality blogs.

Quality Links From Experts:-

Michel Fortin

Mike Sansone

Ben Yoskovitz blog tipping me at Instigator Blog

1. Demonstration of Expertise – blogging by far is the most powerful way to demonstrate your expertise, which has always been one of the primary reasons people should undertake article marketing. Blogging allows you to share your knowledge in a similar but more powerful way.
2. Comments allow feedback – sometimes positive, possibly negative and how you handle both kinds of feedback is critical not only to your public image, but also to your own thought process. Other people’s ideas might well be better than your own. A blog is a platform for discussion.
3. Aggregation of Ideas – putting thoughts on paper has always been the best way to remember something, and solidify the thought process. If you can’t put an idea on paper and present it constructively, it might not be such a good idea. Blogging takes that to the next level – each blog post can be looked on as a presentation to a wider audience, as a sounding block, or as an attempt to gain mind share on a particular subject.
4. Trust – this is an interesting concept, because I can’t prove it. By “laying it open” on your blog, at least as much as your business will allow, adding a layer of transparency, you can gain an additional layer of respectability and empathy. You are also providing a massive amount of information for anyone doing “due diligence” for a potential future investment. People trust the opinion of Michael Arrington because he is quite open in his disclosure. The same is true of Darren Rouse, Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, Dan Rua etc etc

This might be one of the many reasons I have become such a strong advocate for disclosure

5. Community – bloggers talk about community and building relationships, internet marketers might talk about how large their mailing list is, or finding “joint venture” partners.

When I was in the games industry at Techland I could have given myself any title other than something that suggested I owned the company (CEO or MD were off limits). I actually started off calling myself the sales and purchasing manager. Later on I progressed to using “Business Development Director”. Whilst I was still buying and selling products, I chose the new title because it emphasised, or at least hinted at the relationship process. I was no longer looking to buy a single title, or sell a single title. I was looking to create all kinds of partnerships, sometimes financial, very often promotional, or with a promotional component. I was also undertaking deals to help with access to technology with processor and graphics card vendors.

In blogging there are huge benefits in joining the “community”, linking out to others and sharing your audience, but there is more benefit in joining the conversation, and expressing your opinion when you link through to others.

There is a definite line between constructive criticism of a product or service, and criticism for linkbait. I think Jason Calacanis steps over that line maybe a bit too often, but then he has always been slightly in competition for mind share and audience with Nick Denton. I don’t believe in doing only enough research to prove a point or justify a statement.

Enhanced Disclosure About Why I Blog

I have always strongly believed that the size of your contact list is less important than the quality. A mailing list of 10,000+ newbies to internet marketing, or wannabe investors or entrepreneurs can be achieved fairly easily.
A subscriber base of a few hundred influencers can be much more powerful.

Here are some very powerful quotes from Think and Grow Rich:-

Chapter One: THE MAN WHO “THOUGHT” HIS WAY INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH THOMAS A. EDISON

I had learned, from years of experience with men, that when a man really DESIRES a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win.

Chapter Two: DESIRE

But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.

Chapter Three: FAITH

RICHES begin in the form of THOUGHT!
The amount is limited only by the person in whose mind the THOUGHT is put into motion.

Chapter Five: SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.

Chapter Six: IMAGINATION – THE WORKSHOP OF THE MIND – HOW TO MAKE PRACTICAL USE OF IMAGINATION

There are a number of example stories in this chapter and they all heavily relate to the reasons why I blog.

The Enchanted Kettle refers to the Coca Cola story, and how investing $500 in a magic formula, life savings, grew to become the Coca Cola Corporation.

What I would do if I had a million dollars is inspiring, but in many ways unrealistic unless you already have some level of mind share, trust, and demonstrated expertise.

The story of the bookseller changing the title of a book to make it sell is exactly what various copywriter makeovers do.

Even the discussion on the film industry is interesting – the people who made money “had the imagination to recognize ideas when they saw them.” – that sounds like modern day venture capitalists.

Finally, here is an absolute diamond:-

successful radio programmes of the future will give more attention to creating “buyer” audiences

Chapter Ten: POWER OF THE MASTER MIND – THE DRIVING FORCE

No quote, no discussion

Where Does This Lead

In this day and age, the chances of Coca Cola having the same success it had many moons ago are less likely. A lot of the success has been in the protection of the secret formula in the early days, and then legal IP protection. There was time to establish a market.

On the internet it seems, the companies that succeed are those that achieve rapid viral growth before potential competitors take notice, or those that have some form of protected intellectual property. That isn’t strictly true of open source projects, but then if you accounted for the total time invested in most open source projects before they become successful, it would be a much less attractive investment proposition.
One of the tricks currently seems to be to create a business with no obvious profit potential until is has sufficient subscribers.

I have mentioned my own plans a little here a couple of times, and something though certainly not everything can also be deduced from the many topics I cover on this blog.

As an example combine “buyer audiences” with my definition of a Google Banquet. I also know my limitations.

Some of the topics are specifically related to the project I want to undertake, other topics are related to showing some level of knowledge or expertise in a particular area, community and mind share building. I rarely write about anything just because it is topical.

I am constantly faced with a dilemma of multiple options:-

1. Develop my project without outside funding
2. Seek Angel funding
3. Find multiple partners and develop a joint project
4. Work on other projects to raise the money to launch my major project better.

In some ways this blog allows me to explore these options, raising subjects for discussion to see if they are challenged, or grow into a discussion that is somehow more significant.

I had better stop now otherwise I will start discussing other topics such as the law of attraction or how widgets in many ways offer “social proof”.

The Power of Blogging

The people who I highlighted as linking to me were not in my “social sphere” when I launched this domain October 17th 2006 – I had linked at least once to Michel’s blog from my blogspot address maybe a year or so before, and have spent a fair amount of time on various internet marketing forums, but not Michel’s Copywriting Forum, though I do know a number of people who are regulars there.
Most of my current readership however are totally fresh, and most of the relationships have been built over the last 2 months. There is no JV partnership, we just read each others blogs, and link through to things that might be of specific interest. Links just happen when opportunity arises, with some kind of cross-over in the topics.
I also covered my blogging strategy over 2 months ago, when this blog was just 1 month old.

For those who say that blogging is coming to it’s peak, I would like to stress

The Full Power of Blogging Hasn’t Been Realised

I am not going to tag anyone specifically. Instead I am going to encourage my readers to pick up this meme in the same way Ryan Healy did when he read Mike Sansone’s post.

Updates: Vlad just tagged me on this meme that seems to be running on for a while, so linking though to him.
Lord Matt just tagged me like the exhibitionist geek that he is.
SoloSEO are tracking this meme, and you can add your own details to the list
Rob tagged me on this one as well – sometimes memes go on for months
Amy also tagged me for this meme

So was my answer longer than anyone elses for this meme, and did you learn anything from it?

If your blog doesn’t trackback, I am less inclined to link to you and join your conversation. I might just comment, but that doesn’t send my readers to see what you wrote either.

I know you will make the excuse that you have a busy blog, and get lots of trackback spam, but an aweful lot of those trackbacks are part of the conversation, and your own readers are missing out.

If you are using Spam Karma on WordPress, the majority of trackbacks that get through are real comments, and a few might be people using your content – you can always delete the trackback and block the site if they are abusing the facility.

Hiding the autodiscovery for trackback away is just an insular approach. It is honestly a pain to have to copy and paste a second URL, or remember to stick /trackback/ on the end of the URLs on some WordPress sites.

Oh, and talking of trackback, I need to link to Irish in Denmark – this is actually part of an experiment with Google Bombing, and something else to prove a point that is highly valid and deserves some attention. I know exactly what is going on, and encourage others to link through to Paul using the same anchor text “Irish in Denmark”.

It should be noted that Paul doesn’t use nofollow on his trackbacks, so you receive a live link probably from another DNS C-Block. If you write a post about trackbacks as I have done, it is even a link that is LSI related.

I put this in the memes category, it isn’t really a meme as such, but it effectively works in the same way as a meme.

I am going to test the nobumpzee flag with this post as well