How NOT To Be A Blogging Snob

Here's my two-penny thought. I'd like to get it off my chest. Sometimes you might wonder what makes bloggers do what they do? You know, like blowing your own horn, paying lip service to big-time bloggers, sucking up to some famous names, professing organic chemistry in blogging (whatever that is), pumping up the numbers, confining themselves into cliques, and yada, yada.

We have a phrase in journalism for someone who seems to think that he or she is way above all the others in terms of skills and ability and so on. Such a person is dubbed as God's gift to journalism. So can we dub some bloggers as God's gifts to blogging?

These are very interesting observations but I guess without these show-stoppers, the blogosphere would be so much duller.

A few hours back I had received my latest email newsletter from Yaro Starak and he was lamenting the fact that there are also "cowboys" who blog wild with rage and have no compunction in shooting anyone down "with highly charged emotional accusations."

Well, Yaro had been on the receiving end of such negative comments in his blogging career, but he has learned how to deal with these cowboys. If your blog comes under attack he suggests you respond in a cool manner "without anger, with no negative emotion..." This will show your maturity and demonstrate your credibility.

Now, we all know the blogging experience for most of us is to practise "openness" and try to accomodate friends we encounter online and other readers who come a-visiting. Put it this way: We always like to leave the door open.

But wait a minute, have you ever come across this?

If you would like to exchange links and be listed here, kindly use this contact me form and provide me your blog details."

Gosh, that's not leaving the door open for visitors. Why are some individual bloggers so snotty? They want you to fill up some silly forms plus your blog details before you can get to know them.
Hey, just let me leave a comment and you can drop by my blog and say hello, too. It's that easy and no hassle. Who knows...we can become friends and swap links!

They want links and yet they put up all kinds of barriers. In my opinion, this is a turn-off. By and large, I would think they are usually self-centered, snobbish, and they think other bloggers owe them a living.

Who needs these red-tape bloggers? Perhaps, they can go fly a kite!

Google Dance: Is Your Blog Jiving Now?

Much as we would like to get a life instead of being a blogging junkie, most of us bloggers just can't get over this Google Dance thing. Some are just getting freaked out as they wait and wait...to know their fate. Website directories are feeling the heat, too.

According to a WebProNews Insider Reports, as many as 60 directories have suddenly dropped in rank. Could this be algorithmic flux or selective penalties?

It seems nobody is talking at the moment as paid link directories started going south in Google search results. Could this be a sign of an impending Google slapfest on so-called "errant sites"?

Since late July up till today, there have been a number of false sightings that this crazy Google dance was about to go on stage. But to the disappointment of those dying to see how their blogs would fare in the PageRank, it must have been a frustrating wait - a rather long one this time around.

Some bloggers have reported noticing erratic movements on the green PageRank toolbar but that must be an illusion or their imagination must be running wild. The advice: Don't get paranoid and uppity about it all. Looks like the little green thingy is in hibernation.

Are we seeing something new on the horizon?

Perhaps, as some blogging pundits are suggesting, the PageRank updates may no longer take place. Maybe it's because Google are cooking up something else instead of looking at links to evaluate your page rank. Before we proceed further, for the benefits of newbies, here's a brief take from Bill Platt's article "The Roller Coaster of Link Popularity" about why blogs do links...

Links are the roadways that keep Internet users moving from one website to another. Before the search engines became the all-powerful providers of Internet traffic, the role of Internet promotion was to establish links on pages where a website's target audience is already going. The goal, of course, is to get the person reading the page to click the link to the target website. With every visitor to a website being a potential customer, it makes good sense to get as many visitors to the website as possible, and that requires getting as many links as possible pointing to a website."
Are you still making dollar and sense out of blogging?

Obviously, if you're a webmaster you need to take actions to boost your incoming links in order to move up in the SERPs especially Google PageRank. Now is the time to reflect on what you have been doing as far as link-traffic building is concerned in the past three or four months. And also ask the following questions:

• Are you still into meme projects to gain more links?
  
• Are you still doing that Alexa redirect train scheme?
  
• Are you still planning to run more linkbait contests?
  
• Are you still handing out various types of blogging awards for obvious reasons?
  
• Are you still buying or selling links?
  
• Are you still charging people to make comments on your blog?

One cannot deny that, for most bloggers, the major drive factor is making dollar and sense out of blogging. It's the number one reason. Numero Uno. Period. That's why we have top 100 lists of money-making blogs to whet the appetite of bloggers who are just getting into the act or still struggling to do so.

The evolution of blogging

I don't see this trend changing because blogging is evolving, and with that comes more sophisticated methods and ideas to make more money and more converts to the blogging world.
Bloggers are becoming multi-platform users and, therefore, their online presence will become even more dispersed with social media playing a prominent role in this changing blogging landscape.

Back to the linking issue, Jason Lee Miller at WebProNews wrote an interesting but foreboding article about the impending death of link authority. He's saying that, according to Edelman's Steve Rubel, link authority was good while it lasted, but now "there are so many places where people can publish and connect with peers."

Jason, who has covered the Internet scene expansively, also mentioned a Social Media Index article by David Brain, president and CEO of Edelman Europe, who is working on a formula for this social index which we may see embraced by Google and other search engines in the future.

If these are any indications of the future, will we be seeing the death of link authority? I'm not qualified to give an answer, but I would like to ask another question:

Are we bound by links from here to eternity?


Of related interests:
Link popularity: How, why and what to do about it?
Social networking: Tailing the Long Tail
The hots on linkbaiting
Why this PR is doing the shadow dance
Is Google PageRank still a valid marketing tool?

Are you one of those "bad apples"?

Bloggers who write paid reviews, especially those who signed up with Sponsored Reviews, will have to "clean up their act" soon. Sponsored Reviews will be on the lookout for "bad apples" because their advertisers are not too happy with a number of reviews submitted by bloggers.

They are planning to introduce a new rating system for bloggers so that they can weed out those who deliver poor quality reviews.According to Sponsored Reviews, the new rating system will allow advertisers to provide feedback on completed reviews and rate their favorite reviewers.

Obviously, paid reviews have reached a point where sponsors have found that some poor quality reviews had slipped through, got posted and payment made to the bloggers. Moreover, there were discrepancies in the bidding price among bloggers which just don't make sense anymore.

What are the reasons advertisers are not happy with some reviews?

Here's Sponsored Revews' list of bad vibes that advertisers dislike:

• Poor grammar and spelling
• Requirements like word count, links, etc. were not followed
• Bloggers made non-factual statements
• Duplicated content
• Over-pricing based on quality of post
• Showing a price higher on site than what was the bid.

It's surprising it took them a while before they realized that remedial action has to be taken.

What do you say to all this?

Well, if you're an advertiser you surely would like to see that any review of your product is of high quality. Paying for links is one thing but the writing must be up to standard as well. You don't want to see poor grammar or any slipshod spelling that reflect badly on your product or company.

Let's get real. This is business. Your image is at stake!

Look at advertisements in newspapers or magazines - and do you think the advertisers can afford to be slipshod with their copywriting or artwork? They are paying big bucks to get their advertisements in print.

Do they know that there's this breed of people known as editors or copyeditors? They are the ones who take care of the language and the writing style. Do the sponsoring sites have editors or copyeditors to do the job?

In fact, Sponsored Reviews are not the only one facing this problem. The competition like PayPerPost, ReviewMe, Loudlaunch, Blogsvertise and others are probably facing the same issue. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this point.

I know of one blog that had complained about a poor review and I had the same experience earlier on, too. There are probably many others, mainly advertisers, who have also seen poor reviews. That begs the question: How did those reviews get approved? No doubt, the reviewers got paid, too.

Hopefully, paid-post programs will evolve, fine-tuning themselves to provide better qualified services and greater values to advertisers by accepting only quality posts that can only do justice to their products.
Of related interests:
Shocking quality of blog reviews revealed
Can you do ReviewMe?
Blogsvertise are doing some cleaning up
Sponsored Reviews open the doors

Newsline: Aussie-Based Zookoda Joins PayPerPost

Well, this is the news that many bloggers, especially PayPerPost posties, are keen to hear...the acquisition of Australia-based Zookoda on Tuesday.

Zookoda who? If you're still hopping around with kangaroos in the Australian Outback, then it's time you get to know that Zookoda is a technology company that pioneers blog broadcasting services.

Unlike FeedBurner and FeedBlitz, Zookoda don't just provide FREE "rss-to-email" delivery services but also offers bloggers a total solution to email marketing.

Launched on March 13 last year, Zookoda has reported "great success" with more than 10,000 users around the world adopting its technology as their blog marketing tool of choice.

According to Alexa, the Zookoda site is ranked in the top one per cent of URLs across the Internet with a rolling three month average ranking of around 21,000.


















PayPerPost CEO Ted Murphy says in a PPP blog post:

Zookoda has developed a powerful suite of services to help bloggers increase their online visibility. The huge success Zookoda has had in its short history proves its value to the blogosphere. We're confident Zookoda's capabilities will be of great help to our family of PayPerPost bloggers."

Zookoda may be targetted at the blogging fraternity, but content providers can also reap benefits from it with rss and atom feeds.

If you're thinking of pushing content and drawing visitors to your site, Zookoda seems to have what it takes to do the job. Its technology fits into the plethora of wish-lists that many bloggers want such as...

• ability to creat eye-catching templates
  
• real-time, open, bounce, click and unsubscribe reporting
  
• mobile email capability
  
• automatic subscription forms, incorporating validation and verification functions
  
• allow readers to easily opt-in to a blogger's email newsletter

According to PPP, present Zookoda users will see no disruption in their service. The acquisition is complete and the platform has been transferred to PPP infrastructure.

With this acquisition, what's the next big thing coming from PPP?

For starter, it's obvious that PPP are taking their products and services review operation to the next level. Posties who are eagerly rubbing their hands to see better-paying assignments will just have to wait a while and see what explodes next.

Meantime, play that didgeridoo!

How To Shoot Yourself In The Foot!

It's good to know that there's a growing list of personal blogs that have shown wisdom and great insights in the ways of blogging. These are blogs that understand the ethical aspects of good blogging.

Short of touching on the "code of conduct" that's being debated elsewhere, blogging conduct in a social networking community like MyBlogLog has been highlighted recently.

For example, there's this good news that animated avatars are going to be history soon in MBL.

Now John at Finding The Money blog has come up with a brilliant list of things that a blogger can do if he or she has great intention to shoot himself or herself in the foot!

Kudos to John's post for highlighting "How To Annoy The Blogosphere."

SponsoredReviews Open The Doors

The buzz is on. SponsoredReviews finally launched - officially on Monday, March 12.

With the backing of 360 Enterprises, Inc., which has a large base of advertisers, the team at SponsoredReviews are banking on a flood of ads to come their way.

At first glance, SponsoredReviews appear ready to give the competition a run for their money. They first announced their intention in mid-January and had called on bloggers to register early.

I'm sure many who had done that had been notified by email to sign up immediately.

Here are their carrots for advertisers:

• They'll be the first paid-blogging system to allow advertisers and bloggers to be both passive and proactive.
  
  
• Advertisers can post opportunities to attract bids from bloggers
  
  
• They can search through bloggers' profiles and purchase reviews directly.
  
  
• They are charging lower fees - at a flat 35% (with no per-transaction fee) - than their two largest competitors. According to SponsoredReviews, this is the lowest on the market.
  
  And for bloggers:
  
  
• You'll get paid on a bi-weekly basis. You don't have to wait 30 days. That's pronto!
  
  
• Manual pricing for bloggers. That means you set your own price and their system will make recommendations based on their automated ratings system.
  
  
• Their bidding system allows publishers and advertisers to negotiate pricing.
  
  
• Oh yes, bloggers are required to provide full disclosure.
  
  
• To insure that only quality blogs are allowed into their system, SponsoredReviews have set minimum standards for blogs.

Could This Be The Blogger's Bomb?

Just came across this little tip-off as yours truly scour cyberspace. It seems one of the "majors" has unveiled a killer new and innovative little program for bloggers.

It appears to be a real cool little number that can allow you to write blog posts in your browser and publish them straight to a blog-hosting service. Cool, man!

Alas, it's a Beta version and it's free.

Does it work without a hitch? You can find out here...>>