Blog To Great

PR to Bloggers, How to Pitch Your Content, Ideas

    BLOG TIPS-In addition to new & established bloggers reading Blog To Great, I've noticed a number of PR folks, publicists and brand marketers checking in to see what's happening in the Blog World !  Most don't run their own blogs and are unfamiliar what it's like to be a blogger and how bloggers think.  If you've spent much time on Blog to Great, you know that bloggers are a diverse group and vary widely in how they operate.  But, in response to a recent question from a publicist on how to pitch content & ideas on behalf to bloggers. 

My advice for all publicists, PR firms and brand managers is to be honest, upbeat and direct !  First, know the blog/blogger you want to pitch to make sure s/he's reputable and make sure your product/idea/content is appropriate for the blog.  Offer a new slant or a better product with direct access to the creator is a great idea.  And, if you're able to give an exclusive, even better.  As are review samples, contest prizes and the like.   But don't over-promise and expect the blogger to do all the work or try to buy off the blogger.  Instead, recipricate by helping promote the blog.  Be respectful and work towards building a long term relationship with the blogger for mutual success.

Comments, or questions ??? We love to hear from you....

Adsense Tips For Increasing Blog Revenue

     BLOG TIPS - Despite the interest in newer ad networks (Performancing Ads, AffilliateFuture, Widget Bucks, etc)   for blogs and in selling your own ads, most bloggers still seem to devote some space to Adsense.  It's easy to use and any revenue gained is from very little effort.  So, if you still have Adsense ads on your block, try this simple tips to get as much ad money as possible-

1. Ad Positioning- Many AdSense publishers use the heat map that AdSense has produced.  It will show where ads work best on your blog.  It works well and is a great starting point for your Adsense experience.  Just make sure you test new positions for ads to see what works best for your blog.

2. Number of Ads- More ads earn more than less ads. Right?  Well, not necessarily it isn't always the case.   Test different combos and numbers of ad units on your blog. There's usually a maximum number where you hit a max amount of how many ads your readers will interact with; go beyond that and you lose readers/viewers, reduce traffic, and cause you earners to decline.

3. Ad Design- Readers are sophisticated and aware of all types of ads.  Don't alienate your blog readers with crazy colors.  Make sure the overall look of your blog is engaging, wild colors make blogs look cheap and in existence only to publish ads.  Instead,  test different colors and designs of ads to see which work best and use the Adsense rotating ad tool to rotate different designs to fight "ad blindness".

4. Ad Sizes - AdSense offers us a range of different ad sizes, so experiment  to see which works best. And don't fall into the "bigger the ad, the better it performs" syndrome.  It's not always true, and depends on the blog.

5. Ad Formats- The right choice in image and text ads performs better than choosing text ads alone.  AdSense allows you to run link units, AdSense for search, etc.  These different formats adds to the readers' experience and may work differently depending on the blog.  Find what's best for your blog/s by experimenting!

6. What Content Converts? - AdSense use without integrating with Google Analytics is a missed opportunity by bloggers. Get into and learn about metrics to know your blog and it's revenue potentional and activitity better.  The knowledge that it will give you has the potential to increase earnings.

What are your advertising and Adsense success stories?  Comment below and share with other Blog to Great readers!  Thanks!

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How Important is a Logo for Your Blog ? Five Great Reasons...

     BLOG TIPS -   Previously, logos were considered more of a luxury than a business necessity. Blogs attracted readers / subscribers (and customers) the blog was the only one of its type "in town", so to speak. No longer the case. Today's highly competitive marketplace and down economy and visually oriented consumers have catapulted the logo to prominence. Now, your logo is one of the most critical components of your bog's brand. So how can something so little make such a big difference?

1. Your blog's branding effort not only start with your logo, they are dictated by it. Your blog's logo appears on all of your sales tools, from your ads, business cards to your email communication. As a result, your logo design influences the design of all your sales tools, for better or worse. A professional-looking logo can be leveraged to create professional-looking materials. A poorly designed logo cannot. In other words, you need a "brandable" logo one that you can make use of when designing other materials to brand your company.

   "Brandable" logos are scalable, memorable and meaningful. If people can't remember what your logo looks like, they won't remember your blog, or you. Think of the logos of some popular brands today. Perhaps M-shaped arches, a shell, and a swoosh come to mind. All are simple concepts, effectively employed by McDonalds, Shell and Nike. If you can't look at a logo for less than 10 seconds and re-draw it with decent accuracy, it's probably too complex to be easily remembered. (Besides being difficult to remember, most complex logos cannot be effectively reduced in size or rendered in black and white, as required for materials like fax cover sheets and other business forms.)

2. Your logo is a quick visual cue that conveys the essence of your blog in an age when image is everything and time is short. Perhaps you've heard the blogger's lament that "nobody reads     anymore." In today's blogosphere, not only do you face ever-increasing competition, you also face an audience accustomed to visually stimulating media, convenience and instant gratification. Sure, a few people may read all of your post or ad, more may read some of it but everyone will SEE it. The overwhelming amount of choices faced by time-crunched consumers forces them to identify shortcuts. Your logo is such a shortcut: it instantly conveys your brand message and emotional appeal.

SHARETHIS Announces New Widget Plans

     BLOG TIPS - We know that many bloggers in the Performancing crowd use the Sharethis widget on your blog to make it as easy to share content across a wide range of sites, networks  and services.  The ShareThis widget, like other widgets can help earn you more revenue, by increasing awareness of your blog, and blog posts.  So, if you haven't heard, ShareThis has announced plans to release a new updated ShareThis widget. This week, bloggers will see a new design and some new features that should increase sharing on your blog.

Here's what ShareThis plans :

• No tabs!  A redesigned widget that will be tab-free.  It will merge merge the Social Web and Post tabs into one section, making the experience more intuitive and manageable for the user.

• Smarter Widget.  When registered ShareThis users share content to their contacts, ShareThis will display the last three addresses used.  This will reduce time searching for most used contacts and encourage your users to share more frequently.

• ShareBox v2.0.  Users will be able to save content directly to their ShareBox through a link in the widget. 
• Contact Manager. ShareThis users will now be able to access and import  contacts from within the widget.  This will allow your users to gain access to their address books without leaving your site.

And if you don't yet use ShareThis, now's a good time to start.  For more information, contact ShareThis to learn more.  When the new Widget is up and running, let us know what you think.

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Five (5) Link Building Ideas for New Bloggers

     BLOG TIPS- I ike this reminder, just finished reading Dara Larson's post at TopRanklog.  She offers up some great link tips as a reminder, or advice for new bloggers.  Even though search engines are always evolving, and ranking methods "tweaked",  it remains that inbound links have a great on your blog's rankings. As we know the better the link you get, the higher the authority is that the link passes on your blog.  A result is that blogs that have been live and active on the web for many years end up getting quite a large number of the best links  (if the blogs have been well promoted).  Fine, if you're a new bloggers, what chance do you have to get traction for your blog?  Don't give up hope...  Besides being active, and posting good content as often as you can (daily is best) there are other ways to obtain good links for your new blog.  See full post at toprankblog.

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New California Sales Tax Law Could Impact Blogs

    BLOG NEWS- You may be aware that there are proposed California bills that could require collection of sales tax for online purchases.  This is similar to bills proposed in other states and could be similar to the law that recently passed in New York State.  Currently, a hearing date for AB 178 is scheduled for April 13, 2009. If passed, these laws may possibly impact your blog and your revenue stream, but are mainly focused on big internet operations, like Amazon.com.

Bloggers and ad networks are generally opposed to the legislation and several are working with lobbyists and other groups in hopes to get bills rejected.  This is a big deal bloggers, as passage will have great impact on the internet sales and revenue based blog industry.  As a blogger, you should learn the details of the bill and how it might impact your blog /  business. See links to some good info on the bills, and, if you reside in California, contact your state representatives to voice your concern!


More info?  View democrats.assembly.ca.gov  and  leginfo.ca.gov .

Improvements Bloggers Can Use at Alltop

     BLOG TIPS - Alltop has announced their version 3.0 of Alltop today (Tuesday, 3/17).   Version 3.0 features the ability for people to create custom collections of Alltop feeds; they're calling it MyAlltop.  If you don't know the year-old company, Alltop, they  offer curated news aggregation pages onr around 500 topics (and growing), with each page sorted by publication.  Now, custom MyAlltop collection is a public page that can be shared. It's a great way for blogs and bloggers to keep up with news on their niche and get post / content ideas!  One interesting change with this is that people will grab "vanity" accounts like their names, companies, and products.  Get your blog name in there!! 

To create your MyAlltop page, go to this page and click on "create an account": my.alltop.com .   You can create as many accounts as you like, such as, one for personal use and one for your blog. If you create a MyAlltop page, make sure to share it with your blog readers. 

 

Good News for Bloggers. Restrictive UT Web Ad Bill Dies

    Blog News -  After it narrowly passed in the the Utah House, Utah bill HB 450, their 3rd try at legislation to regulate keyword advertising, died quietly last night after the Utah Senate failed to take action on the bill before the Utah Legislature adjourned for the year. It's reported that 1-800 Contacts, the bill's main advocate, stopped pushing the bill in the Senate earlier in the week after it was obvious that it wouldn't be able to get enough votes.  The law would have banned companies from using rivals' trademarks as triggers for Web ads, including ads on search engines. Note, the state is home to 1-800-Contacts and Overstock.com, both of which have filed trademark infringement suits when their names were used by rivals to trigger online ads.  For bloggers and all web advertisers, the bill's failure is good news. The bill was less dangerous than Utah's past two anti-keyword advertising laws, but still an anti-competitive measure that was designed mainly to protect the interests of a local Utah company. Regardless of interet issues or not, laws like this should be rejected.  See more at Eric Goldman blog .

Veri.com Out of Beta Test Stage, Good Way to Submit Your Content

     Blog Tips -  The new contact aggregator, Veri.com (Veritocracy) will not only help great content find you - you vote up the articles you like, and down the ones you don't as Veri's personalization technology learns to deliver the topics and news stories that interest you most.  But, you can also submit content for other readers to view and vote on.   For each story you read about, Veritocracy finds the best articles from the blogosphere, mainstream media, and readers, just for you.  Instead of only getting a piece of info, you get a full and personalized picture of each topic.  But, even better for you (and your blog), you can submit your perspective on any topic. Veri.com will  help you build traffic and get connected with people interested in your niche and content.  Check out- Veri.com

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Domain Name Scams, Bloggers Beware

   Blog Tips - All electronic scams are more active in times of economic downturns, in hopes of catching desperate people in need of money.  Domain name scams are no different and also are more active these days. You've worked hard to grow your blog, make sure to protect your domain name/s.  Sometimes, bloggers get caught up in monetizing a blog, simple precautions are ignored.  Take a look at an email I received yesterday -

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Hi,

my name is Brandon Birdwell and I would be interested in buying your domain ____.COM from you. Are you interested in selling it? If yes, how much would you want for it? What payment method would you prefer?

And just in case you are wondering how I got your email, anyone can get that info at whois.net

Regards,

Brandon Birdwell

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At first glance, it seemed legitimate, but since I'm always cautious, I checked the name and found nothing unusual (a TN dentist, indie rock band musician).  When I Googled the name again with 'domain' I found Lisa's Blog, a blogger who received the same email .  As she did, I also felt it odd that the domain name is all in caps, as if the email was created by a bot that grabbed domain names in capital letters from WHOIS records. It did seem odd that the letter made a point to explain how he got my contact info and that he asked about payment method.  Curious,I Googled "I would be interested in buying your domain" and found others with similar emails, word for word, with different names.  Funny thing is, the domain he inquired about from me is "parked" at Sedo, who provides full info on my domain's web page on how to contact them to buy.   It seems this person is looking for people wanting to sell via Paypal and would likely reverse payment after they have the domain name.

So bloggers, be careful with your domain names!  Be cautious before giving out info or responding.