Blog Talk
« Previous Entries Next Entries »I’ve been making the Internet Marketing Blog Rounds… Here are my findings for today…
Saturday, May 21st, 2005Hi all!
You know what?
I LOVE content!!
GOOD content I should say…
There’s quite a bit of good content floating around that I’ve found, and I wanted to share it with you guys. I found this just by visiting other marketer’s blogs. You’ll be amazed at the high quality content you can find just by keeping up with some of the Internet’s top marketers…
To Mini-Site or Not to Mini-Site
Alice Seba wrote a really good article on the Mini Site Vs. Content Site topic. This article gives you a short explanation on which is best for you… Very good read…
Common Sense Marketing Strategies, Goals, “Secrets” & Methods
Kathy from GuruGazette.com has one of my favorite blogs. In this post, she is “preaching” the same thing I have preached to several of you. Use your common sense marketing skills and you will go farther longer that running after this weeks “secret solution”!
I’ve been throwing around the idea of really getting into Podcasting… What is podcasting?
Basically to my understanding… (I know you guys will correct me if I am wrong 
) It is a way to publish audio/video files using rss. So what? Well, if you don’t know the power of RSS you better learn about it quick. I’d like to use podcasting as a way to get more people to my site and provide great content.
The only draw back I see to podcasting is I have found no way where you can use any seo techniques for it…
With all of that being said, I found a FREE podcasting tutorial and an AWESOME podcasting publishing resource that I know you will love! Just click here to take a look!
How To Blog For Fun and Profit is probably in my Top 5 of favorite blogs. Today I found a VERY useful resource: RSS Promotion - Yahoo Publishers Guide to RSS Publishing
I found a TON more awesome content, but this should be PLENTY to keep you busy.
I myself am in HUGE content creation mode, so be on the look out for more of my “original content”…
Until next time…
Liz
If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or just put your email address in the box to the right and you’ll instantly be notified when this blog is updated!
The Blog And Ping Controversy… Continued…
Friday, May 13th, 2005Hey all!
As of late, I have been talking about the “blog and ping” technique.
The controversy is over HOW people use it, NOT that they DO use it. I blog and ping everytime I post to my blog. Wordpress does it automatically for me.
And I also see nothing wrong with using automated software to do it.
Is where I have a problem is
#1 People who don’t know better are lead to believe that if they pay $197 (more or less) they will have sites all over the Internet.
#2 The thing is, MOST (I DID NOT SAY ALL) of these sites are nothing but “content SPAM” or as I call them… Content PUKE!
Before you try ANY SEO “tricks” FULLY research them to make sure that they wont hurt you in the long run, AND don’t run out and buy a product as your quick fix. You may be able to do all and more that the product you are buying is promising you for FREE!
Check out http://www.BlogandPingForFree.com I haven’t started development on it yet. I am still collecting information, but this weekend, I will start posting content on there about how YOU can blog and ping for free.
This “controversy” is being talked about all over. Here are a few other information resources with opinions from some top bloggers…
http://easybakeweblogs.com/2005/05/12/armand-morin-and-blog-power/trackback/
Until next time…
Liz
Blogging Dangers
Friday, May 13th, 2005The latest buzz word that everyone wants more information about is “BLOG”.
What is a blog?
How do I set up a blog?
What do I write in a blog?
How do I get traffic to my blog?
And the list of questions goes on…
These are all great questions, ones that should be answered before jumping in feet first and setting up your own blog.
However, there appears to be a darkside of blogging sneaking up on us. This darkside has a name - one that every legitimate internet user knows and dreads…. “SPAM”.
While it is true that only people who subscribe to your blog will be notified when you update your content, and it’s also true that if you want to guarantee content delivery, blogging and RSS feeds are the way to go. It is also becoming clear however that spammers will stop at absolutely nothing to spread their garbage throughout the internet - not just to our Inbox’s anymore.
Email spam has been a problem for years now, resulting in spam blockers at the ISP, on website servers, and on everyone’s email accounts.
With the increased interest in blogging and RSS feeds, is it any wonder that spammers worldwide would turn their sights on this technology too?
Just how are spammers aggrevating the growing blog communities?
1. Comment Spam
Bloggers have the ability to allow visitors to interact by leaving comments about blog posts. The comment system is similar to a guestbook on websites.
Spammers are now taking advantage of this opportunity to leave spam comments (ie: Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site) in comments blog-world wide.
Google has created a way for many bloggers to stop search engines from indexing the links left in blog comments. Refer to Googleblog: Preventing Comment Spam, Jan. 18/05. By placing a “NoFollow” attribute in the blog code of the comments section, this will effectively stop everyone that leaves a comment from gaining page rank via inbound links.
This is all great, however it’s also penelizing legitimate commentors. Inbound links are something that every website owner wants to achieve in order to boost their pagerank within the search engines, and with Google and many other major search engines now on board with the new “NoFollow” attribute, this benefit of commenting is no longer present.
2. Blog Bombing
According to Quikonnex founder Jim Gray, Internet Marketing Guru Armand Morin seems to be leading the race by promoting new software that is nothing more than another form of Blog Spam or Blog Bombing as it’s also referred to. Jim has posted his own comments and opinions of Armand and his promotion of Blog Power in his Gray Scales blog. What’s worse is that with Armand’s Guru status, he effectively has a team of Internet Marketing Guru wannabee’s all set to spend the $197 (or more) for this software that will explode their search engine positioning.
What can be done to prevent Blog Spam? There are different options available depending on what blogging software is being utilized and where your blog is hosted, so be sure to read the installation manuals, or support pages and forums for assistance.
There are also blacklist databases online that will provide you with the domain’s of known spammers.
About the Author:
Dianne Fratscher is the founder and owner of www.WahmsUnited.com, a resource and networking website for work at home parents. A full time work at home mother of 2 children, Dianne strives to help other parents find their own success with home based businesses.
This article may be freely reproduced in ezines or on websites providing all links are active. An email to dianne@wahmsunited.com specifying the URL, or a copy of the ezine or newsletter would also be appreciated
Blog and Ping/Content Controversy
Sunday, May 1st, 2005Hi all!
I usually don’t get a “soap box” attitude about anything.
I have a question for you though….
Would you rather search for some something in a search engine, and have REAL informative content come up, or just a bunch of jibberish?
What? Did you say that was a stupid question?
You know, I thought so too.
Then WHY in the world would people be selling software that allows webmasters to automatically post jibberish?
Because they want to help those webmasters get ranked higher in search engines? Maybe…
Because they want to make money off the latest and greatest fad? Now that sounds more likely…
I’ve been trying to figure this all out for the last week. I just don’t understand it….
I’m going to be posting different view on the subject here from different people who are active in many things online. I’d love to hear what all of you think about this, and what might come of it in the future.
Paul Short did a really good job of summing this whole thing up. I am a HUGE fan of Paul. This guy really knows his stuff, and when he speaks, I am all ears. Read his post at:
http://www.ebizreporter.com/arc/2005/04/im_not_mad_at_a.html
T.L. Pakii Pierce from http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog Also has a lot to say about this subject.
http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog/_trackback/612590
Everyone needs to read these two posts if you read nothing else about this subject. These two are the go to guys on seo and blogging. I have learned more from both of them than I have from ANY self proclaimed “guru”.
Here’s a forum post from Andy Henry. It’s a private forum, so I can’t give the link, but I wanted to post it because Andy shows the bad and the good side of these methods.
Posted - 05/01/2005 : 08:31:37
——————————————————————————–Hi Liz,
These tools are really just supplying a demand that there is in the market right now.
As you know, there are lots of benefits to using blogs and they’re becoming increasingly popular.
I’ve always advocated the creation of decent content sites, but I like to stay up on the latest strategies, so I always check out things like this.
Here’s my take on the automated B&P tools.
They’re a tool which like most others are all about speeding things up.
The main purpose they serve is in getting your pages indexed quickly and comprehensively in the search engines.
As you also probably know, there’s a hundred and one ways to get your site indexed and some are free, some you pay for, some are quick, some you have to wait for etc..
Normally, there’s a correlation between expensive and quick - i.e if you want to done quick, you’ll have to pay, or pay more.
For most people the blog and ping technique is not relevant at all and they will go ahead and build their content-rich site, and then start the ongoing process of building inbound links.
For the majority of people, creating useful content in a market they’ve researched, and finding useful products and services to make their visitors aware of, is a sound model. How quickly your pages are found in the search engines is not really a worry, and you know they’ll get found because you’re getting links in to your site and you may even have a site map to ensure all of your pages get found ok by the bots.
That’s fine.
However, for some people - the rules are slightly different and they’re not interested in the visitors for anything other than a source of clicks on Adsense ads.
For these people, they may well be playing with ‘dubious’ strategies which are frowned upon by the search engines. They know that they can quickly and easily create pages that people will find, but they also know that there’s a good chance that the tactics they use will get those sites banned after a few months.
For these people, the speed that their pages get indexed directly relates to how much money (and how quickly they make it) they earn from each site.
They’re not bothered about the site being banned because they’ll have made thousands more by the time it happens.
So, you can easily see why for those people - when faced with the choice of paying for a PR7 or 8 link, or using an automated B&P tool in order to get indexed quickly, the B&P tool suddenly becomes appealing.
For myself, I like to test out any tools that are around, and see what strategies work, if for no other reason than to be able to offer sensible advice based on experience rather than conjecture, so I’ve tried several of these tools.
Since I almost always use a content management system to build sites these days, I occasionally setup a blog and B&P any new sites to make sure that Yahoo, MSN, and Google find the site within the first 24 hours. I don’t normally bother with every page (as I always have a linking campaign strategy and I’m not in a hurry - although I outsource it so that it’s not MY time spent doing it).
As for the ethics/morals of these things - I don’t have any moral objections to people using whatever they feel helps their business and doesn’t directly harm anyone else.
When it comes to the SEs, we’re all playing a gambling game and are totally at their mercy.
I never rely solely on search engines for any site.
When you consider that the whole foundation of search engine profitability is based on using other peoples content and making money from advertising, I can imagine why some people don’t see any problem in using a similar model to make money online.
It’s not where I spend most of my time, but who am I to judge anyone else?
Regards,
AndyH
You can visit Andy’s blog over at www.moneyandmotivation.com/blog
I’ll post more information here as I find it. This is a very hot topic, and in my opinion could make things screwy for a lot of us online.
Liz
The best RSS information so far…
Thursday, April 28th, 2005I visit several blogs, but one of my favorites is Jim Edwards’ I Gotta Tell You blog… Today I found some really INCREDIBLE information on syndicating your content, and how it benefits you.
This is the best information I have found so far. It’s a no fluff straight to the point how to on rss. You can check it out on Jim’s blog by clicking here.
That’s it for the “Blog Talk” tonight… See you next time…
Liz
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