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My favorite social website is StumbleUpon. I like it because it is so easy to use, especially if you have the SU toolbar. I can save a website that I like with one click and share it with a handful of friends very seamlessly. Plus, it’s fun to see what others are bookmarking too. Unfortunately, StumbleUpon has limited its users to only 200 friends. If you want more, you can’t have them so you’d better choose your friends selectively. This policy favors those who are less popular at the expense of those who are most popular. Is it fair?

Well, that’s a question for others to answer, but I’m happy to see that StumbleUpon has changed its policy. StumbleUpon is nixing its 200-friend limit.

Other changes are occuring at SU as well. I like the fact that StumbleUpon is deleting useless friends, known as “ghosts.” I blasted Propeller last week for making changes to its site and dropping half of my friends. In this case, if I lose a few friends at StumbleUpon, I’ll be quite glad. There are some users of SU who are just there to promote themselves and it’s really annoying. But it’s a time consuming process to go through all of your friends and delete the undesirables. So SU has offered to do that for me.

I’m anxious to see how the new changes at StumbleUpon will affect my experience there. I have high hopes and big expectations. Here’s to hoping StumbleUpon doesn’t let me down.

I still talk to people who are sold on Blogger.com being a great place to host a blog. Just because it’s free. I hate to be the party spoiler (actually, I quite like spiking the punch, thank you!), but the reason Blogger.com is not a good place to host your blog is precisely because it is free.

Human error has a way of killing good grass. Sure, you can pull out the weeds one by one, but the more “free” something is the more weeds you can expect to see. And pulling out all those weeds takes time. So to make it go easier and more quickly, you have to create something to automate the process - something like an algorithm, which is a fancy word for a mathematical equation that is supposed to search out and find the weeds in a big field of grass. In this case, it’s the free blog host Blogger.com and the weeds are spam blogs.

Big problem. Google’s algorithm actually flagged legitimate blogs as spam blogs. Thousands of them. And some of them were rather high profile blogs that had been hosted at Blogger.com for a long time. If it could happen them, do you think it could happen to you?

For every day that your blog is down that could potentially be thousands of dollars slipping through a hole in your pocket. It may be just a few pennies a day, but if you don’t sew up that hole then you could lose thousands over time. That thousand dollars over the course of one year represents hundreds of thousands over time. When you consider what you could have that $1,000 do for you, earning you more in an interest-bearing account, for instance, the problem is a lot bigger than it at first seems. You can’t afford to lose even a dime to someone else’s error.

It’s better, if you can, to own the property. And since you can purchase a web domain for as little as $10 per year, why not do so? Imagine opening up a storefront on the busiest street in your town for $10/year. Would you do that? Or would you opt for the empty warehouse across the railroad tracks that gets graffiti spray painted on its face once a month just because it’s free?

Sorry for the graphic image, but that’s how serious this is. Don’t use a free host. You’re much better off paying $25-$30 per month for a secure host and $10 per year than you are using a free host that could flake out on you at any time. It’s a business blog, man. Run it like one.

Chris McElroy made a plug for BrowseRank on yesterday’s SEO Service Provider blog. Like many people in the search business, I believe that search is ready for a major innovation, but I’m not altogether sure that BrowseRank is the answer. At least, not the complete answer.

In the early days, before the Web went commercial, web pages were ranked according to how many academics thought the page was important. It made sense to do it this way because the Internet was largely a research tool for universities and the military-industrial complex. Since the majority of users were academics, more weight was placed on what academics considered weighty or important.

The second wave of what search engines considered trustworthy came when Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page invented BackRub, a tool that analyzed backlinks and use that information to rank web pages. This was a huge innovation. It was based on the previous incarnation mentioned above, but expanded on that to include links from non-academic websites. Shortly after, the Web was Google-ized and that algorithmic innovation became the norm for most search engines. New innovations that have been tried since then have tried to counter the importance of backlinks, but those innovations - every one of them - have failed to catch on popularly.

The State Of Search Today
The problem today is that many webmasters have learned to manipulate search results through uncanny backlink practices. Plus, the more-than-10-year-old algorithmic interpretation of results has made the Web a bit of a wild west due to an unprecedented increase in the number of web pages to be ranked, and a huge volume of link data to analyze, as well as a wide variety of types of websites and intent with regard to user interaction. Google’s algorithms tend to favor older sites with a lot of backlinks. That’s a problem because many newer sites are worthy of trust and recognition, but there is something to be said for longevity. So where is the balance?

The answer is, there isn’t any. Blogs and other temporal information can achieve high rankings on a short-term basis, but to achieve long-term success you’ll need to optimize your blog completely, not just each individual post. Still, there is a huge difference between the nature of a blog and the nature of a static website. So too there are huge differences between the nature of social sites like Facebook and MySpace and sites like Amazon and eBay where users may just show up, make a purchase, and leave.

Why BrowseRank Will Hurt Blogs
On the surface, BrowseRank seems like a good idea. The problem is it will tilt the weight of trust and reliability to sites where users are encouraged to remain for a long time. That doesn’t include blogs.

It is a statistical conclusion that blog readers typically read one post then they are gone. The bounce rate for blogs is very high. Many social bookmarking sites have the same problem as many bookmarkers will show up just to submit a story then leave. That this wasn’t the original purpose for bookmarking sites is irrelevant. The point is, that’s what users do. Should the sites be penalized because users don’t stick around long enough to make them more credible and “trustworthy”?

This phenomenon, of course, wouldn’t apply to Facebook or MySpace since users of those sites tend to stick around longer and use the tools available - creating applications, making friends, approving friends requests, etc. But what about auction sites and consumer sites where users just show up and buy something then leave? With BrowseRank, those sites might penalized and consumer review sites could end up ranking higher than consumer purchase sites for the same search term. Consumer blog sites would fall to the bottom.

While PageRank has its problems, I can see that BrowseRank will also have its issues. Those issues include, but are not limited to, favoritism of one type of site over another, the ease of gaming the results, and lack of human analysis since algorithms will do most of the work. Those are the same issues we have now with PageRank, but the difference will be that the problems will tilt the balance of favor from one type of site to another. Instead of older sites being favored as with PageRank, sites with lower bounce rates would be favored, but a low bounce rate is not always a bad thing.

Is There A Middle Ground Between
PageRank And BrowseRank?
I favor a combination of backlink analysis with on-site user behavior analysis. I do not necessarily mean the length of time that users remain on a site. There are other factors that are important for judging user behavior. For instance, do users tend to click internal site links or site exit links such as AdSense and display ads? If an algorithm favored the former then that might kill all those Made For AdSense sites that showcase useless keyword-stuffed content. On the other hand, it would also kill legitimate sites where the owners did a poor job of optimizing the content to encourage users to stick around longer instead of clicking the sidebar AdSense ads. That might be a good way to encourage better content.

What it necessary, I think, is a way to analyze the intended nature of a site and give weight to factors that are important to that nature. For instance, what is important for a successful blog is completely different than what is important for a successful static website. Perhaps one could be judged by the number of backlinks while the other is judged by the length of time users remain on the site. But if that static website is a consumer site where users are likely to show up and buy something then leave then perhaps it would be judged by another set of criteria entirely. This is somewhat what Google already does. Since Google analyzes over 150 search factors for any website on any given day, there is always a chance that a particular site is judged by what it does successfully AND by what it does half-heartedly or not successfully at all. It is the aggregate of the algorithmic analysis that is important, not the specific criteria.

I think we can all give kudos to MSN for attempting to take search in a new direction. MSN is certainly in a better position to challenge Google’s dominance than a new startup. The problem is that BrowseRank, in it’s current form, is incomplete. MSN could be on the right track, but before they commit to BrowseRank, they’ll need to put more thought into the nature of websites and the purpose for interaction in the first place.

From time to time we get a contact form from somebody who just wants us to consult with them. We’re always happy to help someone who wants to learn how to blog, even if it’s just on a short-term basis. If If you have a small budget and can’t afford the monthly blogging service or you’ve tried the monthly blogging service and found that your sales cycle is longer than you’d expected or your ROI isn’t what you thought it would be then we can consult with you to help you write better blog posts. Here’s what a consultation will cover:

• Setting up a blog - If you want to set up your own blog then we’ll spend some time going over the set up process with you to help you get a good start.
• Choosing a template - Choosing a template involves more than just going through the list of what is available and selecting one you like. You aren’t picking curtains for your living room. A good template must be optimized. We’ll teach you how to go about discovering whether you’ve got the right template or not and how you can fix it if you don’t.
• Setting up your link structure - The link structure between your blog and your business website is very important. We’ll show you how to set up your link structure properly for the maximum SEO benefits.
• Optimizing your blog post - Properly optimizing a blog post is more than tossing in a few keywords here and there. We’ll show you the elements to look for and how to incorporate them.
• Writing effective blog post titles - It’s an art. Anyone can write a blog post title, but not just anyone can write one that gets attention. We’ll show you how to write blog post headlines that get people to read.
• Social bookmarking - Social bookmarking is a new social tool that bloggers can take advantage of to spread the word about their blog and business. We’ll show you to get the most from your bookmarking efforts.

There’s a lot more we could teach you too. There is so much to learn about effective blogging that it would be hard to put it all into one blog post.

When it comes to blogging for business, expectations can get the best of you. I’ve talked to business owners who thought that after two months of blogging they should be getting more business than they can handle. Would you have the same attitude if you opened up a hardware store on the busiest street corner in your neighborhood? If so then you may not understand business. There is more to it than simply throwing up a sign and opening the doors. There are certain things that have to take place and many of them require time to fully germinate.

For a blog consultation, call 786-317-8774 or visit Blog Content Provider.

Earlier this week I blasted Propeller for its new look. It clearly was a step down. Today I’ve got another social bookmarking service as my target. And this time I’m going to praise them for their new look.

Delicious did things the right way. We heard about Delicious planning a new look last year. And it took every bit of the entire year to tinker, test, and roll it out. It is evident that AOL didn’t go through that trouble to introduce the new version of Propeller. But here’s what I like about the new Delicious:

• It’s beautiful - The new design is a huge improvement over the old the design. Bravo!
• It’s not a drastic change - Yes, Delicious looks different, but it’s not a drastic change. The format is still basically the same as it was before. It just looks a little bit more Web 2.0, or 21st century.
• The bookmarking process was streamlined - Propeller gets kudos on this, but unlike Propeller, Delicious didn’t drop any essential features. They kept all the same features as before, but now they’re prettier and work better.
• A new domain name - If you type in the old URL - del.icio.us - you’ll be redirected to the new one at http://delicious.com. That may seem insignificant, but it isn’t. Delicious is popular enough that people will hear about it from a friend and try to type it into their web browser. What will they type? No one will intuitively figure out del.icio.us, but almost everyone will automatically go for delicious.com. It’s intuitive and it was a brilliant move.
• I didn’t lose any friends from my network in the process - Propeller killed my friends. Delicious saved them. Do I really need to elaborate?
• Figuring out subscriptions is easier - I couldn’t figure out how to start a subscription with the old Delicious. I’ve already started two with the new Delicious. Great going guys!
• The tag cloud is cool - I’m not a big fan of tag clouds, but when I click on the “Tags” link in my profile, I see a big tag cloud with all of my tags and it looks cool. At a glance, I can see what my most popular tags are. I can do the same with my network of friends. Awesome!
• Saving bookmarks from my network of friends is just like it used to be - Wow! Can you do that? Propeller didn’t. They made it more cumbersome even while they made other aspects of their service less cumbersome.

I like the new Delicious. I will likely use it more often now. I will definitely use it more often than Propeller. Before Propeller’s remake, I liked it better than Delicious but not as much as StumbleUpon or Mixx. Now, Delicious has moved into my No. 3 spot and Propeller is dropping. Aren’t facelifts fun?

Is there a trick to using your blog for business? Basically, no. You can develop relationships with your customers and use your blog as a tool for building business. There are two ways to go about it.

Many people try to keep their blog focused on developing relationships and providing quality content. The reasoning is that as people learn to trust you more they will feel more comfortable doing business with you. That’s a good strategy.

Another useful way to do it to use your blog as an SEO tool. Links and search engine saturation are two important measures of SEO success. By using your blog to build these two measures of SEO and therefore improve your search engine rankings you increase your chances of attracting business through organic searches.

Of course, there are no guarantees. There are risks associated with choosing one of these strategies and ignoring the other. If you use both strategies simultaneously then you increase your chances of attracting new business through your blog. Learn more about how this works at Blog Content Provider.

Here are a few tips to help you turn those social bookmarking visitors into loyal readers:

• Make your RSS subscription icon highly visible - Don’t put your RSS button at the bottom of your blog. Put it at the top where people will look first and make it big enough to see.
• Allow subscriptions by e-mail - If you use Feedburner, you can add a subscribe by e-mail button in addition to your RSS by feed reader button. This will allow new Internet users who are not familiar with RSS to subscribe to your news feed and read your blog in their e-mail.
• Add a bookmark button to every post - Whether you use ShareThis, AddThis, or one of the other umpteen bookmarking buttons available, use one. This will encourage people to bookmark your posts and share with their friends. As an added bonus, allow your readers to send your posts to their friends via e-mail.
• Reply to comments - Quickly.
• Encourage comments - Allow readers to comment on your blog and make it easy for them to do so.
• Don’t talk down to your readers - Make your blog posts interesting and easy to read. People will stick around longer.

Need someone to manage your blog?

Who is your blog about? If you write a lot about yourself then you will likely lose readership. That’s one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make. You need to make your blog about your customer or potential customer. How do you do that?

No. 1, you want to discuss the benefits of your business without making it appear as if you are selling. People don’t like to feel that they are being sold to. So don’t do it. But you want to appeal to their emotions in some way and get them to take action. There are a number of ways you can do that:

• Tell them a story - People love stories. Especially if the stories make them laugh. Pull on those heartstrings and people will love you
• Talk about the benefits - What are people looking for? What problem are they trying solve? Solve their problem for them and they’ll buy from you.
• Make yourself human - People only trust other people. Humanize yourself and build trust.
• Stick to the 7 basic emotions - Fear, greed, envy, lust, pride, laziness, vanity. People are people and if you want to snag their interest you have to present them with something that pulls on one of these 7 emotions.
• Paint a picture - Make people see what you see. Get them on your side and they will want to please you.

People are selfish. They want to know what’s in it for them. So tell them. When you do that then they will buy from you, but first they have to trust you. Use your blog to build trust.

One overlooked aspect of blogging by many new bloggers is promoting previous posts. You can actually drive traffic to your previous posts by linking to them from current posts. It’s called cross linking.

Don’t go crazy with it though. One or two cross links per post is enough and you don’t want to do it in every post. Just every once in awhile. When you find yourself blogging on a topic you’ve covered before you might allude to that previous post with a link back to it for reference. Your new blog readers will go back to look at that other post and older blog readers who have forgotten the older post will check it out again.

Just a useful tip if you’re writing your own blog.

A lot of people have high hopes for their AdSense blogs. Too high, actually. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make money on AdSense with your blog. I have one blog that only gets about 1/10th the clicks as other properties I own, but the income is double. How is that, you say?

No. 1, you have to choose a keyword niche that is profitable. Do your research. Find out what topics are clicked on the most and what keywords offer the highest payouts on AdSense.

But there is one other thing that you can do to increase your AdSense blog’s ROI and click through rate, no matter what the payout is on the clicks. This one thing can increase your CTR by 100%. It’s just a simple tweak and all you have to do is make this one change to your template’s CSS or php file and you’re in business.

What’s the tweak? The color of your in-text links. I’m not talking about your AdSense links. I’m assuming you know how to optimize your AdSense ads. I’m talking about your blog post links. If you don’t use links in your blog posts, that’s even better. Why tempt your readers to click a link that won’t make you money? But what if you do use links in your blog? Make sure those links don’t show up in blue like normal links. That will tempt people to click those links and they won’t click your ads. Instead, change your CSS file to make links appear the same color as your other text. That will make internal post links indistinguishable from surrounding text and you’ll get more clicks on your AdSense ads.

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