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Increasing Traffic Significantly While Making Things Easier On Myself

September 8, 2011 By 12 Comments

I recently made some big changes to the Bike198 site that not only made my life much easier…but the big changes also drastically increased my search engine traffic. There is something in this story — we’ll call it my big mistake — for all bloggers, so take this ride with me and see how you can use this story to improve your blog.

This story really starts back with the re-branding of Bike198.com. Back then…I had the idea that I wanted to have each of the separate cycling disciplines on their own sub-domain with individual WordPress installs. On paper, it looked like a great idea. I would have individual sites that could carry their own weight and have their own direct advertising campaigns while somewhat benefiting from each others back links. I even made it look cool by the colors switching between mountain, road, commuting and the base domain.

It was a dumb idea.

At least for me. I have always said on this blog that I learn as much from my mistakes…if not more…as my successes and I was learning a big lesson on this setup. What I basically did with that setup was create a HUGE headache for myself in several major areas.

  • Separate installs was like running 4 different blogs at once. A total pain in the ass and ultimately some of the categories/sub domains suffered.
  • You don’t really get the full benefit of back linking to the main domain. The other sites have to hold themselves up in a lot of ways.
  • This setup rendered the core domain Bike198.com literally useless as it had no relevant info. All it ended up being was basically a landing page with post lists.
  • When people linked to my website, 9 times out of 10 they said Bike198.com instead of the respective sub-domains. Who was really going to type mountain.bike198.com anyway?

That really only scratches the surface of the issues I was running into. Basically I created a setup that need a team to run…and I am just one guy with a blog.

So I had to go about fixing this as it was driving me crazy. My great idea on paper was driving me up the wall and hurting my business. So I started looking into a setup that would actually work for me while strengthening the site.

I made the decision…I was going to drop years worth of articles and photos on the main domain…Bike198.com. Mountain.Bike198.com, Road.Bike198.com and Urban.Bike198.com were going to get combined onto Bike198.com. Sounds like a big move and it was.

Luckily, WordPress makes this entire process stupid simple. Export from one into the other and click a simple check box stating you want the images to be downloaded too. It is actually so easy that you think you are doing something wrong. As far as moving the domains so Google and the other search engines wouldn’t get confused, I just hit up an article I wrote on moving domains and I was set.

So everything was on one site. Google and other search engines knew to take the change due to the 301 redirects and I was on my way to having an easier life with my main source of website income. Through the process, I even figured out that I could simulate the separate sites through WordPress 3.0.

  • Conditional menus with WordPress would handle navigation
  • OiOPublisher would actually handle the separate advertising by category for me (huge score for that plugin)
  • Each individual category RSS feed would be my different feeds for road, mountain and urban…so that was an easy switch

So the only thing I lost was my colors…and I can live with that. (Oddly enough, a coding genius friend of mine thinks he can still get that done with a couple of lines of Javascript…)

The Real Result: The next 72 hours…

A crazy thing happened in the next 72 hours. My traffic went through the roof…by a large percentage. It was actually so bad that I thought I had done something wrong. I was already ranking incredibly well for high competition keywords like “mountain bike reviews” so I am used to a surge of traffic especially during the warmer months. But I was not prepared for this…

As I started to research into what was “going wrong”, I found something really interesting. As Google was spidering my content and switching the url from the sub-domain to the main domain thanks to my 301 redirects, my rankings were increasing drastically within it’s rankings. I just started laughing to be honest. I thought it was a mistake and things would go back to normal soon.

It wasn’t a mistake…as things kept going…results kept getting higher and stabilized.

I was now ranking 1 and 2 for positions I was holding in the 4 to 5 territory. Long tail keywords (around 4 words) were always in the top 5. It was as if my site was given instant juice that was getting directly injected via IV into all of my pages.

The goal of this project was to make my life easier…and hopefully that change make my site perform better. If anything, I was expecting a slight drop off in traffic until Google caught up with the inbound links from the other sub-domains. That would have been completely normal…the increase is not when moving domains.

The big difference here is that I was performing actions that was making it like trying to run in lead boots. I had great content, it was getting linked to and I was otherwise making all of the right steps. Where I went wrong was trying to bite off too much at once…which ended up biting me in the ass by making my SEO efforts harder and my general site maintenance harder. Now…my site is getting full advantage of all of my hard work…and it is awesome.

So what should you take away from this?

I know you are probably thinking “Wow…that’s great. But I don’t have multiple sub-domains or the issues you were having…I am just trying to build traffic and subscribers.”

You are right. 99% of bloggers were not in my situation which you would think would make this post completely worthless to most bloggers. But like with most stories, there are things that you can take away that will help you in your blogging.

Getting Credit For All Inbound Links

Make sure you are putting your best foot forward by choosing www or non www in your domain and stick with it. While WordPress handles this by your settings…you need to make sure you are letting Google know exactly how you want to be indexed and linked to by putting a simple bit of code in your .htaccess file .

Redirect www to non-www:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.yourdomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://yourdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Redirect non-www to www:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Think About Your Visitors…Not You

When you are designing your site and handling how your visitors will interact with your content, you absolutely have to think of your visitors first…what you think looks cool second.

If it doesn’t convert…it is not worth having. Drop all of the widgets that 70% readers aren’t going to interact with and make things easy to find. Beyond that it is about converting visitors into readers.

Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

As bloggers, we want to take on the world. Sometimes, this gets us away from what we are good at an in a world that we can not possibly manage. Try to avoid the shiny key syndrome (running after every new idea) and really plan your attack that will fit in your life. You can not possibly manage 10 blogs on your own and be good at it. Do what you do best…and manage your life at the same time.

Blogging is not rocket science…but we try to make it that way.

Blogging at its core is great content and marketing…not complicated site builds and big dreams. It is important to have goals and to see where you want to be in the future. It is detrimental to your success to not stay rooted in reality and plan your moves carefully.

You could be giving up a lot and making things harder on yourself like I did.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , ,

Diversifying Your Blog: Publishing Different Types of Posts

August 24, 2011 By 3 Comments

Editors Note: This is a guest post from Lauren Bailey. I am a firm believer in diversifying the content on your blog to engage your readers on a deeper level. I think far too many times we see people that only write posts that generate revenue or none at all while focusing on only providing one type of article to their audience. Switch it up a little bit and provide some diversity! You will be surprised at the result.

As the saying goes, content is king. Successful blogging requires many things quality web design, strong marketing, clear niche but the most essential aspect is content.

If you want to be a professional blogger, you have to produce content that is well written, engaging, and unique. One of the most difficult aspects of blogging is creating content that is new and exciting enough to surprise our readers and encourage them to want more. It can be easy to lose inspiration and interest when you are writing the same way over and over again for your blog.

Work to diversify the types of articles and posts you publish on your blog. By diversifying your blog in this way, your readers will have several different ways to interact and engage with your blog. Publish articles within these four categories to help spruce up our blog and keep your readers interested.

Pillar Articles

Quality content is what brings readers to your blog in the first place (for the most part). Pillar articles are the posts that you write that make up the “meat” of your blog. Foundational posts like this allow you to thoroughly examine a topic that interests you and suits your blog area. Your readers can read these posts and come away with a solid understanding of the subject matter.

Oftentimes, these posts will be “how to” articles, tutorials, or other informational pieces. These posts help to position you as an expert within your niche area of blogging. With strong pillar articles, readers will come to your blog for the information they seek. Furthermore, quality pillar articles can generate a lot of traffic from search engine results.

 Guest Posts

Diversifying the voice used in your blog can help keep things new and fresh for your audience. Invite guest post bloggers to write for your blog. Readers will appreciate hearing varying viewpoints and opinions on the topics considered in your blog. Guest bloggers can help generate more traffic to your site by linking to their guest post for your blog on their own social media and website. This may attract readers you would not have otherwise reached. Of course, it is important to select the guest posts you publish wisely. Make sure that your guests write quality posts that fall within your blogs general niche.

Mixed Media

Using multimedia within your blog is a great way to change things up. A blog can get weighed down by too many text heavy posts. While text posts are popular for their search engine optimization potential, an occasional multimedia post can attract new readers and bring new life to a dull blog. Try doing a video blog or a podcast every now and again. This can be a great strategy for upping the traffic to your blog. Some visitors may not want to spend the time reading a post, but if they can watch or listen, they may stick around.

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 [at] gmail.com.

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Tutorials/How To

Top 7 Ways To Connect With Your Readers

June 7, 2011 By 7 Comments

This past weekend, I did something really stupid. At the end of BlowWorld, my wife and I stayed in NYC for a couple of days to take a long weekend, mini vacation. On Friday, I came down with something terrible. Cold sweats, high fever, aching body, coughing like crazy…it was all there. For the next 10 days, the symptoms just ran over me like a Mack truck.

In my infinite wisdom, I decided after a week of feeling sick (and not feeling any better) that it would be a great idea to go on a 52 mile road bike ride with my friends. What harm could it do right?! By the end of the ride, I thought I was dead. I could barely hold on to the handlebars, my voice was completely gone and my throat felt like I had swallowed razorblades. What a dumb move…

Ironically enough, like most things in my life…it created inspiration for a blog post on Bike198.com. I wrote an article basically telling on myself and explaining how impatience as cyclists can take us backwards instead of forwards.

After the article went live (you can read it here: Riding Is More Than Just Spinning Wheels), I ended up getting emails from readers and calls from friends in and out of the industry telling me how spot on the article was and thank you for publishing it. Here is an example of one of the emails I received.

Hello Robb.

Thanks for the honesty of your reviews and insights.

It is always nice to read the articles as they genuinely have the human touch.

Keep up the good work

Many thanks

Reader of Bike198 (name removed)
(Brisbane Australia)

When the emails started coming in…I was floored. It completely made my day and energized the thought process for more related articles.

When we write our blog posts, I think it is easy to sometimes forget that we are connecting on a 1:1 basis with our readers. While you might be writing to an audience of thousands, each reader digests your content one at a time. The reason they do this is to connect with you and your thoughts. While they might agree or disagree, that connection is what separates blogging from other traditional forms of content publishing.

It is important…and that connection is what ultimately will grow you blog.

Top 7 Ways To Connect With Your Readers

So how can we, as bloggers, capitalize on this and make a stronger connection with our readers? Let’s take a look at this list and see if you are doing these on your blog.

  1. Tell On Yourself – No one is perfect and showing that you are human by displaying your mistakes along with your successes is a great way to connect with people. I have also always said, sometimes it is more valuable knowing what not to do as much as it is what to do. There is much to be learned in mistakes.
  2. Teach Them Something – Whether it is through one on one coaching or an article on your blog, if you can make your readers better at something in your niche, you are going to start that connection process that can go on for years. I will often times, ask my readers what they want to see covered on the blog, then actually write it! Make their voices heard and deliver.
  3. Answer Emails/Tweets/Comments – That one on one connection with your readers is extremely easy with blogging. By answering tweets, emails and comments, you are able to quickly and efficiently talk one on one with your audience. These are very powerful tools that many bloggers say they don’t have time for. Make the time and you will see the results.
  4. Attend Conferences and Meetups – Face to face interaction is the best way to get in touch with people. Shake your readers hand, meet new potential readers and continue to make that personal interaction.
  5. Be More Than Just A News Source – Your blog needs to be a resource for something other than the news. Your readers can get that from anywhere. Editorials and thought based articles will give your readers insight on what goes on in your head. Make that connection and keep it rolling.
  6. Hold Webinars – You can be everywhere and attend every conference…and neither can your readers. Just like I said with #4, the strongest connection you can make with your readers is face to face. With the widespread adoption of video conferencing, you can now host a webinar on UStream and other services to put the name with a face. The huge benefit to going this route is that you can also do Q&A.
  7. Video Posts – Not all of your readers want to schedule the time it takes to attend a webinar, but they do want to see that interaction with you. By doing video posts, you are able to bring your personal touch, attitude and personality to your content that will connect with your readers far beyond basic text.

The context of blogging was based on that connection between writer and reader that was not possible through conventional content publishing methods. By remembering that core ideal while you also try to increase business, you will be able to grow to new heights and attract raving fans of your blog.

How do you connect with your readers?

 

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , ,

BlogWorld Expo Recap and A Bonus!

May 31, 2011 By 3 Comments

As many of you already know, last week was BlogWorld Expo East in New York City and I was invited to come talk about review blogging and how to capitalize on current buying trends to turn that into blogging profits. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous! I have presented in conferences before in the professional business to business world, but this was my first time jumping into the bloggers trade show arena. I was stoked for the opportunity and at the end of the day…everything went perfectly.

Speakers I Attended At BlogWorld East

Conferences like BlogWorld are a great chance to listen to varying opinions and suggestions of other successful bloggers and marketers throughout the industry. There were a couple on the list that I knew I was going to want to hear and since I arrived in the Big Apple on Monday and my talk wasn’t until Thursday, I had the time to network and hear others.

Lewis Howes – Webinars

For those of you that don’t know Lewis, he has quickly become the king of webinars in the industry (he also happens to know a ton about LinkedIn if you are interested in that as well). You can dig into his content at LewisHowes.com, but his talk was on “How to Turn Your Blogging Passion into a 6 Figure Business with Webinars”…and he isn’t kidding. In the first quarter of this year…he has cleared over $250k by doing webinars. I don’t know about you…but I think that is insane and you can see why I wanted to hear what he had to say.

This ex pro football player took himself from living in his sisters basement to killing it online by doing webinars. His first LinkedIn promotion ended up netting over $8k for an hours worth of work! Those are concrete results showing that the environment is changing for promoting digital and physical products online. My main interest in hearing him talk was to get the nuts and bolts on how to get this going on my end as I have been looking for a way to more personally interact with my online friends/audiences.

Lewis didn’t disappoint and there was a ton of great information included. I’ll be starting something up really soon.

Johnny B Truant – Radical Transparency

Johnny is one of those guys I have been quietly watching for some time. Honestly, I really respect how he presents himself online and how he is able to act like himself and attract raving fans at the same time. When I saw he would be doing a talk on this at BlogWorld, it was on my list of must do’s.

Out of all of the presentations at BlogWorld East this year, Johnny’s was the one that got me thinking the most. The way he brings himself into his content and his relationship with his readers is nothing short of amazing (and a lot of the time…hilarious). I think we find ourselves trying to get too “professional” with our tone and talk online, and Johnny is the in your face reminder that blog readers want to connect with bloggers…not some boring cardboard cutout. The more honest you are with your readers and bring as much of you to the table as you can…the more response you will get and the more success you will see.

Far too often, I try to be Mr. Business on here when I should let go a lot more. I don’t wear a suit to my office…I am sitting in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with my dogs at my feet…and that is a good thing! Radical transparency is just that…being yourself at all cost and letting people connect with who you really are…not who you think they want to connect with. This one hour session will hopefully radically change how I speak online.

You can check out Johnny’s site here: The Internet Made Awesome

Syed Balkhi, John Chow and Zac Johnson

As you saw from an earlier post with David Risley’s intro of these three, there is never a dull moment when you get Syed and Chow together. While their talk was monetizing outside of banner ads, it was basically information that anyone already making a sum of money online knows. Things like why you need a newsletter and setting up a sales funnel were main topics in the conversation. Syed also highlighted the need to teach people how to use tools and complete things in your respective niche to create value and increase affiliate commissions (which I completely agree with). Zac illustrated how diversifying income streams can also open up your possibilities.

Again, all information I implement on my blogs and if you are not doing it now…you need to start today if you actually want to make any money online. It was fun hanging out with the guys over the course of the week and they even made me work “honk if you are horny” into my talk due to some horns they got from the book expo that was upstairs…yes…they literally said “honk if you are horny” on the horns themselves.

Here are the links so you can check them out for yourselves. John Chow (johnchow.com), Syed Balkhi (WPBeginner.com), Zac Johnson (zacjohnson.com) and David Risley (davidrisley.com)

Shane Ketterman – Rapid Success and Google’s Strong Hand

Shane is a newcomer to the block that has made HUGE strides in a very short period of time. After 7 months of blogging on his iPad blog (now sold), we was getting over 12,000 visitors a day and making thousands of dollars by capitalizing on events and teaching people how to use their new tablets.

The story is really a cool one as he went through the process and how he dealt with this rapid success. Unfortunately, he also got hit hard by the Panda update from Google (from what I can guess by what he was saying…the content scrapers are what did him in…not his content. He was writing five 1,000 word posts a day of unique content which is just insane!).

So there are two main things you need to take away from Shane (@rewirebusiness).

  1. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Google traffic and Adsense can go away quickly if that is all you are relying on.
  2. Have a newsletter!! If Shane would have started a newsletter from day 1, he could have kept things rolling much better with a database of people that wanted his content.

When it was all said and done, Shane made out pretty good on the sale. It would have been much better without the Panda hit, but he is onto new things and I am excited to see what comes out of it.

Networking…Networking…Wait…

Outside of hearing some great speakers, BlogWorld was also a great time to put faces with names of people that I talk to online all of the time. I wouldn’t call it networking…I call it solidifying friendships. It was great to be able to hang out with everyone and I am looking forward to doing it again soon.

Unfortunately I will not be making it to LA for BlogWorld West as I will be neck deep in having our first baby around that time. If that isn’t a good excuse to miss…I don’t know what is! Our first child, Daniel Merrill Sutton is due October 25th..so we will be just a little bit busy! ;)

Oh yeah…the Bonus!

Some of you probably scrolled all the way down to the bottom of this page before you read anything above. That’s ok…I do it to! Just make sure you scroll back up at some point. There is some good stuff up there from some great bloggers and internet people.

Anyways, I am going to be annoucing the bonus in my newsletter this week, so if you are not already subscribed, click here…enter your info…claim your free eBook and watch out for a very cool announcement on something I am going to do for you and do it for free this week. I’m stoked and there will be a lot of value to it…so stay on the edge of your chair for this one.

In case you missed it…click here —> Blogging Labs Newsletter and Free Problogging Is Dead eBook! and then watch out for a killer free deal this week.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How To Leverage Twitter To Bring Old Posts Back To Life

March 21, 2011 By 6 Comments

Blogging and WordPress do a lot of great things together. Search engines love the code and regularly updated content, writters find it easy to publish their content and sites are relatively easy to navigate and find what you want. In the web world, that is a pretty strong formula for success.

However, there is one plaguing problem in blogging platforms and structure that frustrates the hell out of bloggers over time.

We spend all of this time putting together articles that are meant to inform, entertain and help people only to find that a year later they are buried in the archives for no one to find. With regularly updated content, our timeless content continues to be pushed down the line making it harder to find by new readers and search engines alike. The easy fix is to remember these articles and link to them within new relevant articles, but how can we start to easily leverage social media to get those same articles in front of the eyes of our followers?

I started searching around to find a tool to do this for me as I do not want to be spending hours of my day scheduling these posts (I have better things to do that generate more income). After looking at the features of several different options, I landed on one that had what I needed and started the testing process.

WordPress Plugin: Tweet Old Post

First, let me start by saying I typically do not like automated systems. They tend to be very impersonal and everyone knows when you are using one even if you think they do not. If something is going to be automated, it needs to be highly configurable and able to integrate into more personal atmospheres easily by providing value.

I uploaded Tweet Old Post to my WordPress install of Blogging Labs and started the configuration process. Luckily, this free plugin allows you to do several essential tasks that make it usable for me in this application.

Timing of Old Post Tweets

You can set the random times that tweets go out to your followers. Part of the reason that Twitter is the perfect testing ground for a system like this is because the timeline moves quick enough that you will not be annoying people and it has a viral aspect to it that you hope your articles start to get retweeted. If you do it too often, people will ignore your links and unfollow you, so setting a random time for these tweets to hit your timeline hours apart does wonders for not looking like spam.

Excluding Categories

One of the biggest things I needed in a plugin such as this one was the ability to exclude entire categories from being tweeted out. Information that was tweeted from my archives needed to be timeless to still be relevant. I did not want old articles that are no longer applicable to today’s environment to get tweeted out because that would look terrible as it has zero value to my followers.

Omit WordPress Categories

By being able to exclude categories, I can remove blocks of archives that should not be tweeted, or I do not feel provide enough value to my timeline. As you can see from my excluded lists, I tried to keep any articles from my archives to blogging tips, tutorials and advice.

Exclude Specific Posts

To fine tune the process even further, there were posts that I didn’t necessarily want retweeted within those categories as well for one reason or another.

Omit Specific WordPress Posts

Tweet Old Post allows you to also omit specific articles from being sent out to your followers automatically. Another great feature that I needed to insure the quality of the tweets would be at their highest.

After you have everything setup, an automated tweet ends up looking like this on your timeline.

Tweet from Tweet Old Post

A Couple Of Things To Keep In Mind…

Before you jump in headfirst and never look back, keep these couple of things in mind.

  • If you are going to set something like this up, you need to have some archives to pull from. As you can see, I really fine tuned my process, but if that came down to a dozen or so post by the time I was done, I would be sending out a very small number of articles over and over again. Talk about annoying for anyone that is following you.
  • You also need to gauge reactions within your Twitter following to see how people are taking the automation. In my @robbsutton account, the change was actually taken in very well and I am now getting traffic and RT’s into my older content…which was the goal. I even started asking around to followers to see what they thought and the overall reaction was positive.
  • I do not think this kind of automation would work with Facebook. The timeline does not move fast enough to keep you from clogging the system and in the end you would end up annoying friends and family at the same time. Saying that…if you have your Facebook account linked to your Twitter account so when you send out a tweet it updates your Facebook page, I would break that link before you start testing this out.

Overall, I have been happy with the result as I am always looking for ways to bring people to content that has been buried down over time. There are not very many efficient ways to get this accomplished, but Tweet Old Post seems to do a really good job by leveraging the fast moving timeline of Twitter. It’s highly configurable backend is the only reason I believe you can really make an automated system like this work.

But…just remember…you need to actually converse with your Twitter followers as well and RT other content. Your entire timeline can not be just automated tweets of your own content if you want to be successful with that online medium.

Download Tweet Old Post for free here.

Filed Under: Content, Plugins, Reviews, Social Media, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Profound Power Of Less Is More

March 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

Often in life and in business, we get stuck on the idea that more is better. In our attempt to accumulate the most stuff, write the longest article, publish the most posts, make the most money…we often forget the power of less is more. To illustrate this…let’s take a look at some two word phrases that carry a huge amount of power without having to add-on meaningless BS…

I do.

F*ck You.

We’re pregnant.

I’m sorry.

You first.

Trust me.

Hell, no.

Yes, m’am.

Why me?

You’re welcome.

Shut up.

It’s a constant struggle. Everything in us wants more but the power comes from less with extreme relevance and direction. When you really want to get your point across…you use less. When you really want try to impress someone you shouldn’t be…you use more.

Creating compelling content is more than just the amount of words in your article. It is about how you shape those words to keep attention and create emotion that connects with readers. If you are always worried about “is this article long enough”, you are going after the wrong goal.

Attack your blogging with passion…say what you need to say…but don’t water it down with bullshit it doesn’t need…

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Lifestyle Design Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Tweak Google Analytics To Output Traffic Generating Article Ideas

March 9, 2011 By 22 Comments

Do you wish you could tap into the minds of your readers and figure out exactly what they want to read on your blog? You can…let’s run through how.

Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools as a blogger. Not only do you watch your traffic metrics and how you are performing, but you can get extreme insight into your visitors. Information about where they are from, what browser they are using and how they click through your site has a profound affect on how you tailor your content and lay out your design.

Today, I want to take a second to show you one of the coolest features of Google Analytics that most bloggers never even bother to setup…and it is information that will make you money over time…

How People Land On Your Pages Is Important

When a new reader searches for some string of terms in Google and lands on your pages, that is important information to have. You can find those keyword strings in Google Analytics to see how you are performing on a keyword basis.

But what happens after that?

If the reader likes your content, they are going to look for more quality content that fits their needs. While they might look at your most recent posts, click on a link in your related articles widget or start browsing through your categories…they are most likely going to do exactly what brought them to your site to begin with…SEARCH.

Within WordPress, there is a pretty robust search feature that every blogger puts on their site. Typically, it is a set and forget feature as you throw the search widget in your sidebar or header and forget about it. It is there and readers will use it…your job is done right? Wrong.

Just like the information you use to see how readers find your site is important, what they are searching for on your site is equally important.

If only there was a way to track this information to improve our blogs…oh wait…there is! And Google makes it incredibly easy to track this information for you within Analytics.

Using Site Search Metrics In Google Analytics

When you search for something on a website, the url of the results are different than any other structure on your site. Google uses this information to track those keyword strings and outputs them for you within your admin…you just have to set it up.

In the left sidebar of Analytics under the “Content” link, there is a link for “Site Search”.  When you first click on it, you will get a screen that looks like this.

Setting Up Site Search In Google Analytics

Since you do not have it setup (it isn’t by default), you have to go tweak some settings within your account profile. Click back to your account list by clicking on the Google Analytics logo and then click on the account you want to setup search tracking on. On this second screen that now shows only that domain, click “edit” to start setting this up.

That should bring you to a screen that looks like this.

Setting Up Site Search In Google Analytics

When you click “edit” in the upper right corner below “Receiving Data”, you come to a new screen to setup your search analytics. When you get to the next screen, put an “s” in the “query parameter” field like you see below. This is how WordPress handles search, so if you are using another blogging platform, you will need to see what character they use for search in the url.

Setting Up Site Search In Google AnalyticsGreat! You are all setup! Now what?

You wait for Analytics to do it its job and for readers to search on your site. As they do, you will start to see a screen that looks like this in your Analytics account.

Site Search Results

Obviously, this is just the top half of the screenshot. There is some basic keyword information when you scroll down, but there is also a ton of in-depth information on how your users interacted with your search feature and what they searched for.

What Do I Do With This Site Search Info?

For my blogging, this site search information is liquid gold. Here is how I use this information to grow my blogs and connect with my audience.

1. Self Generating Article Topic Bank

You have just created a self generating article idea bank. If you are ever stumped on what to write during a given week, this information is automatically spitting out article ideas…and more importantly…it is generating article ideas that your readers want to read. This is not a list that some other blogger told you to write…or a “hit list” of topics on the web…this is what your readers are searching for on your site, and if they are not finding it…you need to write it.

2. Reader Feedback For Product Reviews

If you know me at all, you already know I am a huge fan of product reviews as a way to generate income through blogs. This information has a lot of leverage when you are trying to get in product to review on your site. Think of it this way…

How much more powerful is this than just asking for free stuff. “We are currently tracking search trends on our website and noticed that your brand name is being searched for almost 30 times a month. Our readers want to see your product reviewed on our website. We also have over 13,000 regular subscribers and over 10,000 newsletter subscribers that have come to expect high quality product reviews that help them make purchasing decisions.”

Can you see how much weight site metrics and reader trends can give you when you are trying to line up products to review on your site? That is real-time information and feedback that companies love to see.

3. Expansion Ideas

What are your readers searching for that complements your content? If you started off blogging the right way, you chose a narrower niche that had expansion capabilities over time. By starting off with less competition, you are able to grow a following that can then compete on a larger level. By watching these search metrics, you can find the ares you need to expand into quickly.

Time To Get To Work

As you can see, what your readers are searching for on your blog is extremely useful information as you start to tailor your content and grow your business. This is also one of the most overlooked parts of blogging that most bloggers ignore or never bother to even setup. Get this setup on your blog today and start getting into the mind of your reader.

Have you setup Site Search yet?

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , ,

A Simple, Yet Effective Way To Increase The Uniqueness Of Your Content

March 3, 2011 By 7 Comments

Today I wanted to record this quick video podcast to illustrate one way I have been insuring my content is as unique as it can be on a regular basis across my blogs.

Like it or not…we are greatly influenced by what we take in on a daily basis. As we go about our day, read other websites and blogs and interact with people, we are taking bits of that information everywhere with us as we go. While this is actually a great thing and a source of where I find most of my ideas (life experience is always the best to pull from), we can jump into a trap in our quest to release unique, relevant content the web.

The Routine That Causes Content Blindness

If your morning started out anything like mine did, you probably go up, took a shower, got dressed, had some coffee and then opened up your feed reader to see what was happening on the web that day. Even if you did this routine at night after your regular job, you probably followed a similar routine…maybe minus the coffee.

Like any blogger, you are following numerous blogs within your given niche, so you started digesting content before you started producing it.

Going back to our theory of taking something with you from every experience and information absorption in your day, you can unconsciously start creating content on your blog that…well…looks a lot like your RSS feed. While it is good to stay on top of trends and write relevant content for your readers, it is increasingly important that you continue to produce unique content that does not look like rehashed, reworded articles that are found on other parts of the web.

By staying on top of the latest news and articles in your niche, you can get into this trap of just being another “me too” instead of a unique source. Readers read blogs to connect with that uniqueness and originality. If you become just a mirror of your RSS feed…you lose that draw and that will lead to growth decline.

My Challenge To Bloggers

As we think and reflect back on how our content digestion affects our content production, I have a challenge to you as a blogger. Just like you need to schedule your time with social media, schedule your content digestion time and keep it away from your content production. The goal is to have a clean slate to work with while you are formulating content ideas, writing articles and recording videos.

Personally, I have been scheduling my RSS feed time to about 2 to 3 times a week and then using Hootsuite to schedule RT’s throughout the remaining days. This not only has drastically affecting my efficiency, but it keeps my mind clear of everyone else’s content while I am producing mine. By staying on top of events several times a week, I am also not missing out on any developing trends on the web.

Have you taken a serious look at how your habits affect your content? How much time are you spending a week scouring the web instead of building your content library?

Simple changes like this one in your daily routine can bring swinging positive results in your business.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Will Blog Readers Accept A Paid Subscription Magazine Model?

February 22, 2011 By 29 Comments

An interesting article by David Risley titled, “Is Blogging Broken? Is The Future Of Blogging Paid Access?” stirred up some ideas I have had for a long time and generated some conversation sparked by DR and I on Twitter and Facebook. The reality is that this is not a new idea by any means. Several large bloggers including Gary Vaynerchuk have already said it is coming and there are premium, paid sections of many popular sites that produce exclusive content for a price.

The question becomes…can the blogger use this same model and apply it to blog content?

The Blurred Line: Magazines and Blogs

As we move forward with online publishing, the line between blog and online magazine is continuing to get blurred even more than in the past. Magazines are starting to look towards digital delivery and online publishing as their only way to expand business and bloggers are looking outside of traditional blogging to add more value for their readers. I wouldn’t consider Bike198 a blog in the truest definition of the word…it has really become a free online magazine.

Even my favorite magazine, Bike, is delivered to my iPad via Zinio…so where does the line cross between magazines and blogs these days anyway? One side is getting a fee for their content while the other is giving away everything for free.

Bloggers And The Free Concept

Bloggers learned a long time ago that by giving away the farm for free, you are able to grow your audience faster. With more traffic, pageviews and subscribers…you were able to command more money via direct advertising and generate more money with affiliate sales. It is the simple law of numbers…with more targeted eyes you get more money.

However, this has created one big problem within blogging…everything is free.

With the over saturation of bloggers all trying to compete for the same eyes and the readers looking for quality content but hit with an extreme amount of free content, eBooks and other free online hooks…readers have very little in the way of distinction between quality and quantity in their search for online content. In my opinion, bloggers take the “give away the farm” mentality a little bit too much to heart, so with more bloggers entering the market on a daily basis…there is a massive over saturation of content.

What does this do to the blogger?

You become a hamster in a wheel generating massive amount of content and products for free without seeing any real return. You are told it takes a lot of work and to be patient, but the competition out there is so much harder these days that you could literally spend years giving away everything for nothing. Eventually, you give up and look to other forms of income generation as that one obviously didn’t pan out.

So when do you draw the line and jump ship to a paid content model?

Reactions In and Outside of Blogging

Before we jump straight into what I think…lets take a look at a couple of reactions on the web yesterday when I posted the question to Facebook and David and I hit up Twitter.

My Facebook Comment to People Outside of Blogging:

“There have been some interesting rumblings around the blogging world about going to more “magazine style” formats. ie. subscription models. What do you think about monthly, paid subscription models to online content?”

Some of the better responses:

I’ve been wondering when blogs are going to take on a more magazine look/feel as well. I’d be more than happy to pay for content, if its good and does one of two things. Entertains me or makes me some money! Just my two cents.

Nothing personal, but I don’t think I’d pay for blog content. While many (including yours) are very informative for some things, a lot of the content may not apply to me. I think blogs are less viable as a subscription service, as now they are competing with magazines, books, etc, that have a lot more resources to provide content.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, and I’m not a huge blog reader (only 5-10 that I routinely read).

I’ve never been able to get into blogs- either reading or following. This is just a random thought, but I wonder if that applies to a great percentage of people who went through most of their formative years without internet/email. I was a senior in college before I had an email acct, and it was infrequently used at best. (Maybe we were behind the times, but we’re talking early 90′s.) I still prefer a hard copy, old-school magazine for lots of things. Okay, I’m definitely old. :) More randomness: I subscribe to two photography websites that have everything from forums to mini-blogs. I use them mostly for the interaction with other photogs from all over the world. I doubt I’d continue to pay for them if they went to a strictly blog format with no forums and classifieds and stuff. Maybe future generations will pay for blogs without giving it a second thought…?

if they incorporated rich media and it was well organized and flashy like the magazines I would pay for specific ones

I think there’s already a ton of this out there that is similar. For example ESPN has the Insider and many newspapers have online content that is subscriber only. Almost all major magazines deliver substantial free content and many of them put their printed content online for free after awhile.

I think for it to work, the user would have to feel like they are getting some very exclusive, well developed content. It would have to go far beyond the “expert with an opinion” content that most blogs deliver. Even then, I am skeptical that it would work well. I know that I wouldn’t do it. There is too much free content to choose from and that’s not going to change any time soon.

The magazines don’t seem to be doing a terribly good job at it with falling subscriptions and struggles with finding an online model that works. I don’t see loan bloggers who typically put out less than a magazines worth of content a month can take a broken model and find success with it. Where there is a will there is a way I suppose.

Mine and David’s line on Twitter (inside the blogging world):

“Question: What would your reaction be to a high quality blog that switched from free to paid content? (2 to 3 bucks a month)”

@gracejudson: It completely depend on the *relevance* of the content – not just the quality. If I was consistently using the content – maybe.

@ericabiz: You’re way undervaluing it at $2-3/month. I wouldn’t subscribe because I would assume the info isn’t valuable…(when asked if 9-10 dollars would be enough) At least. I pay $30/mo for Doberman Dan’s. And he stopped blogging to do that, too :)

@Murlu: I think when people quite literally tell you they’d pay for what you just publish – you’re on to something :D

@nhangen: they would be a goner.

@christiantjr: my initial question would be “can I get the same quality elsewhere for free?”

As you can see by the responses, they vary all over the map from basically a “hell no” to you are not even charging enough.

The Law of Numbers and Blogging Income

For a long time, the law of numbers has played a drastic affect on blog income. The more numbers you have, the more money you made. However, what if I were to tell you that you could cut your traffic and subscribers down to a 1/4 of what they are now and you will make 5 times the income? My bet…99% of you would not do it because you are conditioned to the free/high traffic model.

When you are looking at going to a paid subscription model, you are basically doing just that. As much as you would like to think that all of your readers are grasping onto your words like the gospel…that just isn’t the truth. If you were to hit the switch to a paid content model today, my guess is that 10 – 25% of your readership would participate and you would lose the rest, but if your income went up 5 fold…it would be worth it. That is when bloggers think like bloggers and not business owners. They would rather keep the large numbers at lower income than lower numbers at higher income.

The scary part…you have to hit the switch on the whole idea before you will know if it will work or not. It takes that leap of faith and testing.

Your Readers Are Already Paying For Content…Why Not Your Blog?

The reality of your situation when you are looking at moving to a paid subscription format is that you are going to have to compete with bloggers that are still giving away quality content for free. That is not going to change, so how do you battle this fierce competition?

It all comes down to the perceived value of the deliverable.

Readers are already paying for content on a daily basis. From eBooks to members only sections of websites, readers are not only paying for content…but they are paying more than you would charge as a subscription! Why is this? The perceived value of eBook content is higher than that of a blog. Every day, I sell eBooks that contain content not found on my blog that helps my readers achieve their goals. Whether it is becoming a better mountain biker or getting in free stuff to review on your blog, that content sells consistently and provides value to my customers.

Switching to a paid subscription model would be no different…except…you would have to change the delivery method. I do not think…at this time…just access to your blog can be a paid for commodity. You would have to change the deliverable of your content to something that is email driven or a PDF magazine that contains your content plus a better design that online publishing can not provide. This way you are giving more value to your customers outside of just hitting the publish button several times a week.

Just like with ESPN and other newspaper websites, you would still need to provide regular, free content on your blog to attract new readers, but the meat and potatoes would be delivered off site to your paid subscribers.

Blogging for free…even if you enjoy the hell out of it…can not live for forever. Eventually life gets in the way and you will have to cut down on your online time unless it is providing a specific value (in this case…money). As blogging continues to grow and adapt, it will have to find a way to generate income outside of the law of numbers game.

Paid subscription models might be the answer, but we will not know until the switch is hit. At that time, will the paid models be able to withstand the competition of free? My personal opinion is that question really comes down to the quality of branding, content and perceived value.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Biggest Shopping Week Of The Year: Are you cashing in?

November 22, 2010 By 7 Comments

The biggest, most extreme shopping day of the year is upon us…Black Friday. The day of long lines, early openings and crazy deals are all part of the deal as shoppers all over the world are looking to cash in on the busiest day for retails stores of the year. As an affiliate, this day marks the first of a 30 day hammer of trying to cash in on online shopping and pick up your percentage. If you are not preparing for this largest revenue time for bloggers while holiday shoppers look to decrease their stress by buying online, you are behind the 8 ball and are leaving a ton of money on the table.

There is an art to making sure your the one that gets credit for the sale on this ever illustrious day, so let’s take an in depth look at what I am doing and hopefully it will help you out with your blog.

The Black Art Of Black Friday

While this is the biggest shopping day of the year, it does require a bit of planning on the blogger’s end if you want to be the one watching your affiliate sales rise while you lay in bed sleeping when everyone else is shopping. During this week, you are going to need to take a serious look at how you are positioning yourself with the largest online retailers and their cookie recording. For example, Amazon has a 24 hour cookie, so when you send a shopper from your website to Amazon, anything they buy within the next 24 hour period gives you a commission, so after that all bets are off. Other online retailers have 30 day cookies or even as high as 60 days, so know who you are dealing with as you plan your content and affiliate promotions.

On Bike198, my largest black Friday participant is going to be Amazon.com, so I need to make sure that my referrals are recorded within that 24 hour period when purchases are at their highest. Since the cookie period is short, it requires more careful planning than if it was longer.

The Days Leading Up To Black Friday

In the days leading up to Black Friday, I make sure the content on my blog is heavily skewed towards product reviews and articles that lean themselves more towards product based links that I can point towards Amazon.com and other online retailers participating in Black Friday. This way, I can insure that my cookies are getting recorded for the longer duration affiliate programs and it gets me a head start for the push in the hours leading up to the largest shopping day of the year. If you are planning on just spamming links in the final hours without any real planning, do not expect great results.

Some great ideas for articles are:

  • Reviews of hot products for this holiday season.
  • Buying guides related to your niche highlighting different products.
  • Informational articles that are complimented with product links (ex: I do riding tips that include equipment suggestions).
  • Comparison articles.

All of these types of articles are very product based in nature and naturally lead themselves to linking to products, but they are also a source of high-quality content that attracts readers to your blog. By hitting both birds with one stone, you are able to build the confidence and trust in your content while also preparing to cash in on the affiliate revenue.

The Hours Leading Up To Black Friday

With the longer cookie affiliate programs, the work you did on articles leading up to this week will already be reaping benefits, but what do you do for the shorter 24 hour cookies that are going to require immediate action? There is a ace in the hole that you hold as the blogger that is going to exponentially increase your income during this shopping day and you don’t even know it…

Just like with any product launch or affiliate promotion, your newsletter subscriber list is your largest asset you have in blogging (mine is serviced by Aweber). About 12 hours before Black Friday, I send out an email to my list highlighting the best reviews, buying guides and other product related content to my readers. The 12 hour window gives them enough time to open the email, click on the links and get that cookie recorded for the next 12 hours when shopping is going to be the highest online for the entire year. By providing this value in a way that greatly benefits my success rate during this shopping experience, I am able to continue to gain trust, provide quality and do this without my readers thinking I am spamming them in an attempt to make more money online. The reality…I am not spamming them…I am just continuing to deliver what I promised but timing it in a way that increases the bottom line for my blog.

So on Black Friday, I am sleeping in and watching my blogs make money while other people are out shopping. Through the careful planning of content and the release of one email, I am able to cash in on the biggest shopping day of the year. What are you doing to prepare?

Filed Under: Content, Generating Cash
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