Want to Increase Traffic To Your Blog?

Search engine optimization (sometimes called search engine marketing) is a key component to generating new and increased traffic to your blog.  Plus, you‘re reaching your audience when they’re most thirsty for information – when they’re searching.  Quite ideal!

Some tips to get started:

• Think about which keywords are the most relevant to your blog, as your search engine rank is based on relevance (well, technically a Google algorithm).
• Try out different terms and see which generate the most traffic and then optimize accordingly. 
• Put yourself in the shoes of the searcher.  Which search terms would someone who is less familiar with your subject or issues use? 
• Use tools like Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find popular words or phrases that relate to your topic

What about search engine ads?

If you really want to kick-start traffic to your blog, consider purchasing some “sponsored links” on Google.  Also known as AdWords, these prime search engine results are pretty inexpensive when it comes to getting a return on your investment.  And you only pay when people actually click through.  I got some interesting factoids from Google’s Adwords Evangelist Frederick Vallaeys (yes, that’s his real title) at the session he presented yesterday at NTEN:
• The keyword phrase sweet spot for Adwords is 2-5 words.  Less is too general and more is too specific.
• One key to picking an effective ad headline (after all, you want that click through!) is to make sure the headline matches the search terms.
• Use multiple ads to test messages and optimize

Oh, and NTEN membership has its privileges -- the latest of which is a new partnership with Google to give priority processing of Google Grants applications for NTEN organizations to run ads on Google. 

New ad campaign for the United Church of Christ

IDI has created a series of new ads for the United Church of Christ's new “pro-science/pro-faith” ad campaign targeting the scientific community. The ad campaign launched today and will run on a couple dozen science and religion blogs for the next month (see an example here.) 

From the UCC:

"The advertising effort is being propelled by the release of a meaty Pastoral Letter on Science and Technology — authored by Rev. John H. Thomas and a nine-member working group of scientists and theologians — that calls the church to 'open ourselves and our theology to the momentous conceptual changes of our times.'"

The UCC will also be blogging about the campaign on The United Church News Blog. 

- Kevin

Interview with Henry Copland of Blogads

Starting today, we begin a new series of short interviews with bloggers, podcasters, and others in the social media realm. We are very pleased to kickoff this series with Henry Copland of Blogads.com.  Enjoy!

How did you first learn about blogging?

Henry Copland: It was a series of small awakenings.  If memory serves, Nick Denton told me about ObscureStore.com sometime in 2001 and I became hooked.  I was living in France and started reading a couple of LA friends' blogs.  I became convinced that blogging was the best way for our small business, Pressflex.com, to communicate its vision with customers and staff and started a company blog in early September 2001. Then 9/11 happened and I found that the only meaningful way, for me at least, to get news and keep in touch with the volcano of news and emotions was through blogs, rather than through polished and packaged media.

Do you blog yourself?

Henry: I blog every week or two, with more frequent personal updates on my twitter page.  (Twitter is a platform that lets you push snippets of info -- no more than 140 characters -- to a select list of friends.)

What do you think about Twitter? Is it here to stay?

Henry: I like the Twitter guys, but have no idea whether their particular service, per se, is the ultimate expression of the idea.  But the idea of short bursts of information sent to select networked people IS very cool, and we'll likely see lots more in that vein.

Getting back to blogs, which are your favorites?

Henry: I still love ObscureStore.com.  I read Buzzmachine daily.  Other than that, I'll check in on a bunch of political blogs on both sides when I hear something is happening.

What makes a good blog ad?

Henry: You've got to think of an ad as content.  Does it pack an intellectual punch, or convey some novel news or view, challenge a reader's expectation, or pique her curiosity?  Ideally, the text will have multiple links to separate landing pages and the image won't look over-produced.  Remember, this is a P2P medium and readers don't want stuff that's slick and super-packaged.  Designers hate this, but they have to throw their skills out the window and "go blog."

What is the most successful blog ad campaign you have ever seen?

Henry:  Hmm, well, I can't talk about anybody's specific clickthrus.  But if you measure success by sales of an idea AND an physical object, it's probably a blogad for an  DVD that ran on blogs in 2005, "The God Who Wasn't There."  The film maker made dozens of different ads, playing with various images and text.  He ended up selling tens of thousands of DVDs, and from a polemical point of view I know the campaign provoked a lot of discussion.  I still run into people who remember his ads and bought the DVD.

Any recent innovations at Blogads that you would like people to know about?

Henry:  We're seeing lots of success for clients putting their blog or site's headlines into blogads.  Thanks to RSS, the ads update automatically, so blog readers get what they crave most: fresh, very detailed information. We're also working on providing more results granularity for buyers and easy access to data.  Finally, at an organizational level, we're focused on staff training and internal processes refinement to allow us to continue to grow efficiently.

Note: See Henry's collection of "great blogads" to get an idea of what works. 

- Kevin

Blogger Chic Series #1: EFF Makes Bloggers' Rights Fashionable

So what are bloggers wearing?  Pretty much anything they want.  What are bloggers selling?  T-shirts!

T-shirts are a favored way for bloggers to promote their blogs, raise money, and make a bold statement all simultaneously.  And with that, IDI staffers have come across quite a few of them in the course of our blogger relations work.  Mondays being notorious for a return to the mundane, I look forward sharing some of the better ones with you each Monday.

Take a look at this T-shirt by the Electronic Frontier Foundation Blog...

EFF has added “Bloggers’ Rights” to their already extensive list of digital rights areas of expertise.  Go to the site to read about bloggers’ rights, including legal citations, and for a full Legal Guide for Bloggers. Going a large step beyond the basic marketing and journalism “do’s and don’ts” of blogging, this organization provides the essential legal reassurance a blogger needs to blog freely and “keep on blogging!”

Since I plan for this to be a weekly series, I welcome and encourage you to post comments below about any T-shirts (including your own!) that you would like to see posted here.

- Shana

Blog, Podcast and RSS Ads Predicted to Grow in 2006

PQ Media has released the first of five reports analyzing the "alternative media sector." This initial study, Blog, Podcast and RSS Advertising Outlook, shows that the combined spending on advertising  in these three markets exceeded $20 million in 2005, and is expected to grow to about $50 million in 2006.

In 2005, ad spending was broken down as follows:

• Blog advertising accounted for slightly more than $16 million
• Podcast advertising was $3 million
• RSS advertising reached $650,000 in 2005.

A number of marketing publications picked up this story this week.  Among them, Brand Week interviewed Patrick Quinn, PQ president.

The numbers are yet more evidence of the growing promise that user-generated media holds for marketers, Quinn said yesterday, as the perception that traditional forms of advertising no longer work takes hold.

“They’re willing to take some risks and spend some money on new medias that are not as tested or measured,” he said of marketers. “It’s obvious to them that they need to employ new strategies.”

The appeal of user-generated media to advertisers is, in part, the demographic it reaches—coveted 18- to 34-year-olds—but also the fact that the ROI is easier to determine, Quinn said.

Interestingly, PQ Media predicts that Podcast advertising will be a larger market than blog advertising by 2010.

- Kevin