Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 27 of November , 2007 at 2:48 pm
Just when you thought Aaron Wall couldn’t get any more remarkable, he goes and does the unexpectedly ridicumarkable. His free SEO book for bloggers is so short you can read it all in one setting and he’s giving it away because, as he says, “SEO for a blog is different than SEO for most other websites, largely because of the social elements baked into blogging technology.”
The free book covers everything from blog hosting and keyword research to advertising and promotion, which makes it a great book to download. Here’s a free tip from Aaron’s new book: Don’t set your blog up as a subdomain on a free host. I totally agree with that.
The book is chock full of great advice for bloggers and Aaron is right about his basic premise: It is so easy for the search engines to gauge trust for blogs based on a number of factors, including how many RSS subscribers you have, how many inbound links you have, the relevance and reputations of those inbound linking blogs, and a host of other factors too. Probably the most useful tip in the book is this: Don’t overlap your categories and your tags. If you want to know the difference between the two, you’ll just have to read the book.
And while you’re there, don’t forget to buy his SEO book.
For more great information on blogging and SEO for bloggers, read Blog Marketing Journal.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 10 of October , 2007 at 2:40 pm
I’ve written about BlogRush before, here and here. What I didn’t tell you is that I decided to give it a try on a blog or two (you know, just to hedge my bets).
One of the blogs I tried it on was Blog Marketing Journal and today at BMJ we gave an update on the results we’ve received. As a sort of a teaser, I’d like to highlight just a few of the comments that others have made about BlogRush. For a larger list of comments, go to Blog Marketing Journal. Here’s your teaser:
Some people just realize that you cant put cr@p up and expect blogrush to accept it. If you want to get noticed build a big blog with great content, not some piddly lil advertising place full of advertising spam and adsense.
Blog Rush is the best thing thats happened to the blogging world sine it was invented!
Not sure about the strong attitude towards widget-placement. Not only is it too wide for me, but I find it a little garish.
I’ll have to agree with the garish part. John Reese, the creator of BlogRush, wants everyone to place the widget as high up on their blog as possible. Supposedly, this produces better results. It’s likely true, if there are any results at all. Whether you use BlogRush or not is up to you, but I’m not sold yet.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 29 of September , 2007 at 7:46 am
(Source) The frustration came when I found out that what I thought was an incredible idea for a post, and an amazing article written by some blogger, did not get much traffic or attention, while weeks later some ‘well known blogger writes a post about the same topic but much less interesting, and gets a huge amount of traffic, comments, and credit for it.
OK, I kind of like this idea. Zuggu.com is a social bookmarking site for Internet marketers. A lot like Digg, only without the prejudice. Let’s face it, Diggers are elitists and if it rains ….
Well, you understand.
I like this idea because you can actually vote up, or down, those interesting stories on Internet marketing that you find all over the place - from guys that aren’t Aaron Wall or Darren Rowse. The only thing I think that would make this idea even better is to be able to search for all the blog entries on a particular topic. For instance, this mornging, Michael Martine submitted his blog post titled, “10 Things To Do After You Create A Blog.” If I had an interest in seeing who else blogged about that same topic then I’d be relegated to looking for similar blog entries by clicking on one of the category listings on Zuggu’s sidebar. So I’d click on “Blogging.” But then I’d only get results that were actually submitted to Zuggu.
Here’s what I’d like to see: A search box that allows me to type in a key phrase. Let’s say, “after you create a blog.” If I can find any blog entry on the Internet that uses that phrase and be able to vote it up or down using Zuggu’s concept then that would be quite cool. This way, if I’m working on a similar concept then I can see how many other bloggers have done it before me and find blogs that I can trackback to and comment on about my blog post on a related subject.
Still, I like Zuggu concept even without the fantasy feature.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 27 of September , 2007 at 12:35 pm
If you do business online then you need Internet marketing. Whether you run a small business or a large mega-corporation, you need an effective Internet marketing expert who know how to get results. When you hire Nick Stamoulis (that’s me!) to run your Internet marketing campaign, that’s exactly what you get.
I highly recommend the blogging service no matter what kind of business you run. There are several ways you can use a blog.
You can use a blog to drive targeted traffic to your website
You can use your blog as an SEO tool
You can use your blog primarily as a marketing tool and to start the sales process
Some people use their business blog as a sales tool
A blog can also be used to gain permission to contact prospects with future offers
Whatever you use your blog for, you can rest assured that I will manage your blog just like it was my own. I’ll make sure it is crawlable and you get the SEO benefit you deserve - even if you use your blog for other purposes! I will also make sure the content on your blog is written well and closes the deal. Whatever the purpose of your blog may be, I will meet or exceed your expectations. There is no need to delay your decision to start your blog today. So what are you waiting for? Come see me.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 26 of September , 2007 at 3:07 pm
The new version of WordPress is out now. Since I haven’t used it yet I can’t vouch for it. But I sure like the new features, specifically:
Drop down menu for header tags
Underline feature
Paste from Word
Undo
Redo
Tagging
I bolded “paste from Word” because previously this was not possible. If you pasted from Word then your posts were full of extra code that probably caused your posts not to get crawled well. Sometimes it even messed up the template you were working in. No longer.
Again, I haven’t used the new WordPress - WordPress 2.3 - but I can hardly wait. These features will not only make blogging easier, but will make blog posts cleaner and better as well. Yay WordPress!
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Wednesday, 19 of September , 2007 at 1:57 pm
Search Engine Optimization Journal is proud to sponsor a new blog directory and blog host: Today.com.
Today.com offers free hosting for blogs and allows bloggers who currently have a blog hosted elsewhere to submit their blog to this new directory. They have an interesting set up in all its simplicity:
Three tabs - Home, Blogs, Videos. That’s it.
On the Home tab you can create a new blog and start writing in minutes. You can click on the Read Blogs icon and start reading immediately. Or you can view and upload videos. Today.com also allows you to search their site using keywords (the search box is in the top right corner of the web page). Scroll down and you can see the tag cloud and a list of popular searches.
Click on the Blogs tab and you can browse blogs, create a blog, or submit your blog for inclusion in their directory. Today.com even allows you to vote on blogs so you can influence which blogs are most popular. You can browse all the blogs in their system or just those hosted by Today.com.
The Videos tab is perhaps the best of all. Browse videos by popularity according to most views or most votes or you can browse by length of video. Just like with blogs, users can vote on their favorite videos and influence which ones rise to the top of the pile. Just below the tabs in the top left of the screen you choose to see videos by most popular or most viewed or you can select New Videos or upload your own (you know how much I recommend viral video marketing!).
Today.com is just getting started and has a lot to offer. Take a look at this video from the Today.com site and see for yourself:
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 16 of September , 2007 at 3:50 pm
I love getting comments. Comments mean three things for me:
People are reading my stuff. Thanks!
I’m at least making an impact, be it positive or negative, and that’s always a good thing for a blogger
My blog stays active in the search engines
Comments are good for a blog. Even if the majority of comments received are negative, they’re good because it means that the search engines have more content to crawl. More content means more ways I can rank. If I write a blog post on dancing, for instance, and highly optimize it for the keyword “rhumba,” even if none of my commentators use the keyword that I use in my blog post, I could still rank well in the search engines for that keyword. I could also do well for related keywords.
For instance, if I get 15 comments and eight of the commentators mention the polka when I primarily concerned myself with the rhumba then I could rank for “rhumba,” “polka,” and “dancing.”
Of course, all of this is contingent upon what my competition is doing as well as some off page factors, but comments help bloggers with their SEO. Since all of that is true, why do some bloggers insist on making their site visitors sign in before commenting? I rarely will sign in to leave a comment. If I have to sign in to help you with your SEO then I’ve got better things I could be doing. Like nursing my Uma Thurman fetish.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 11 of September , 2007 at 2:46 pm
Let’s recap the benefits of Technorati for bloggers:
Claim your blog
Great fodder for your blog content
Your Profile
Authority
Fave This
Widgets
Watchlist
This morning, I explained how to claim your blog. Now I want to talk about some of these other benefits.
How Technorati Provides Useful Blog Content
When you log into your Technorati account, on the right side of the screen you’ll see the most popular searches of the day. As you can see, today’s top search term on Technorati was Britney Spears. Surprised? Don’t be. She’s on the top spot a lot.
You can also see who else is on the list: Vanessa Hudgens, Ron Paul, YouTube. Further down, you’ll 911. Not a bit surprising considering today is the sixth anniversary of the WTC and Pentagon attacks. What is suprising is that 911 isn’t higher up the list.
If you know what the popular searches are then you can use those search terms to write a blog post, provided that you find one that is appropriate to your blog, of course. Usually that’s not hard.
Another way you can use Technorati to find information to blog on is to simply search your topic using the search feature. Just like Google, or any search engine, Technorati allows you to search for any topic through a search box. A third way, of course, is to go to the Technorati home page and simply see what the latest blog posts are.
Any way you do it, Technorati is a great place to find information you can blog on, from Britney Spears to 911 and everything between.
Your Technorati Profile
Be sure to fill in your profile bio. People do look at that and they will visit your blog based on your bio. It’s a small thing that can deliver a lot of traffic to your website and blog.
How Your Technorati Authority Matters
Technorati has an Authority rating based on the number of comments or responses to your blog. If you get a lot of comments and trackbacks to your blog then you’ll have a higher Authority rating. The higher your Technorati Authority rating, the more likely people are to respect your blog and visit it.
How Fave Is All The Rave
Technorati also provides you with the code for you to put into your blog to allow users to Fave your blog more easily. It’s easy to get this code. When you claim your blog just copy and paste the code into a Notepad document and save it to your hard drive. You can upload it into your template or add it to your blog posts from there.
Technorati Widgets Are Cool
Technorati widgets allow you to do cool things with your blog. Click on Technorati Tools in the footer of your web page. Click on Blog Widgets. These widgets allow you to brag to your blog visitors about your Authority rating, traffic numbers, links, etc. If you have a popular blog then add a widget to it so your visitors will see your success. People like successful people and widgets allow you to show off your badges.
How The Technorati Watchlist Works
If you like to blog about specific topics you can add keywords to your watchlist. Technorati will display individual blog posts that use those keywords on an ongoing basis. When you get ready to blog, check your Watchlist and see if there is anything there that you can blog about. It has been a real time saver for me.
Technorati Topics Allow You To Stay Tuned In
If you blog about popular topics such as entertainment, technology, sports, politics, or business then the Technorati Topics feature allows you to get the latest blog posts on those topics easily. You have to be fast though because these topics are so popular that the moving ticker moves them along pretty quickly. You can see new posts added every second for each tab. To stop it from moving, mouse over one of the links and the ticker pauses long enough for you to click the story and read.
Use Technorati, It’s A Real Lifesaver
I highly recommend Technorati as one of the most essential blogging tools online. If you haven’t started using it yet, you should.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 11 of September , 2007 at 9:57 am
If you have a blog you’d better claim it at Technorati.
Technorati is an essential blogging tool for several reasons. First, if you have a blog your blog will be pinged to Technorati and within a couple of minutes will appear at the top of the listings. It’s a great source of traffic. One of the best.
Here’s how the blogging search engines work: You write a blog post, ping the search engine (there are many of them), and the search engine updates its listings with your blog post. Unlike Google and Yahoo, however, with the blog search engines your post hits the very top of the listings the moment it is pinged. Then it moves down in the listings the older it gets. Therefore, the more you post to your blog the more likely you are to stay near the top of the listings and increase your traffic. Technorati led the market in this innovation and to this day does it better than anyone.
But that’s not the only reason to rely on Technorati. There are other great benefits as well:
Claim your blog
Great fodder for your blog content
Your Profile
Authority
Fave This
Widgets
Watchlist
Claim Your Blog At Technorati
If you claim your blog at Technorati you will be build more trust - both Technorati and with Technorati users. You can claim your blog by first starting an account at Technorati. That involves getting a user name and password and filling out a profile. Then you sign into your account and click on “Edit” in the top right corner of the screen (beside your name). Click on the “Blogs” tab. Scroll down to “Claim a blog” and type in your blog’s URL. Technorati will ask you to choose a claim method. If you use WordPress, I recommend the Post Claim method. Just copy and paste the code they give you and make a post on your blog. Then go back to Techorati and click the “Release the Spiders” button. Technorati will usually add the blog to your profile within seconds. Then you can delete the post. It’s that easy.
But you’ll want to fill in the information about your blog on Techorati so when people find it they know what your blog is about.
In today’s second post I’ll talk about these other benefits to give you an idea how you can use Technorati to increase your blog’s performance.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 10 of September , 2007 at 3:26 pm
I guess I struck a nerve. Yesterday, I teased 45n5 about producing a Top 100 list with only 73 websites on it. So he went and added more websites. Now it’s a Top 131 list.
Actually, 45n5s Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs is a real top 100 list. The additional 31 websites are the “Almost” list - the guys who could made it if they had just a little bit more Technorati mojo, Alexa Appeal, or PageRank chemistry. Some of those who were in the original 73 actually fell to the “Almost” list, like Webmaster Chick, who’s blog I really liked.
Where Money Making Blogs Fall After The Cookie Dance
So the list was updated and I was added. No. 50. But that isn’t all that changed. Some other things changed as well. Here is a short list of changes that matter:
Daily Blog Tips was added to the Top 10
Carl Ocab fell off the Top 10 despite ranking higher yesterday than some others who stayed there (it just doesn’t pay to be 14 years old)
45n5 is ranked higher than Aojon (random arbitrariness rating excluded)
Dirty Little Secrets still isn’t dirty, little, or secretive
Firefox finally found the server for Reality Wired, who fell from 23 to 30
I now outrank Mom Works at Home, Blogging Fingers, Super Blogging Tips, and a bevy of other angels and devils of cyberspace
At the top of the “Almost” list are Blogs For Money, Jonnyq888, and Freedom Ideas (I helped to knock them off the Top 100)
At the bottom of the “Almost” list are Success Passcode, The Writers Manifesto, and Pajama Professional (and with a name like that he should move up about 50 notches)
Oh, and Michael Martine is still in the sandbox (how about adding someone to that sandbox so he’ll have someone to play with?)
Well, we’re getting there. But I still say evaluate the blogs on subjective criteria as well - design, creativity, writing, helpful tips, etc.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 9 of September , 2007 at 4:18 pm
I found 45n5’s list of Top 100 Make Money at Home Blogs very interesting. But why are there only 73 blogs on the list? Did he run out of blogs to analyze or just wanted to publish the list before it was finished? Either way, it’s an interesting list.
Here are some of the most interesting blogs included in the list:
Carl Ocab - This guy is 14 years old. He’s making money. How cool is that?
Blog About Your Blog - I just don’t like the way this one looks. I couldn’t believe it was so high on the list.
Aojon.com - OK, besides being dark and depressing like the movie “The Crow” with Brandon Lee, what does Aojon mean? I couldn’t figure that out.
45n5 - Uh, isn’t he the one who created the list? Why is he on it?
John Cow - Really just making fun of John Chow, though they do offer make money at home tips, mostly by taking potshots and jabs at John Chow. Why?
Reality Wired - Firefox couldn’t find the server. Hmmm.
Vandelay Web Design - How did a blog about website design get on the list?
Dirty Little Secrets - Cool name for a blog, but it leads to miriguy.com.
Egonitron - Makes me think of ghostbusters.
Dazzlin Donna - Cool design and branding job. I was dazzled.
Affiliate Marketing Journal - Uh, say, can I buy that domain name?
Mom Works at Home - Oh, look, a very busy Blospot blog.
Webmaster Chick - Cute. Nice, soft brand, and good design.
Of course, none of this is meant to be disparaging. I found some of these entries interesting for one reason or another. A couple of other observations: I also noticed most of the blogs included on the list are either blogs about blogs or blogs about affiliate marketing and many of them also seem to write about the same topics (a contest run by David Airy, AuctionAds, etc.). Just as interesting is who is not included on the list:
Lorelle on WordPress
I didn’t see any SEOs on the list
Marketing Pilgrim
Seth Godin
Other pioneers of Internet marketing
These observations make me wonder why a more thorough examination couldn’t be made to include criteria such as branding, content, creativity, design, and other such factors rather than merely data such as PageRank, Technorati Authority, and Alexa Ranking. Still, I applaud 45n5 for giving it a try. The list needs a little improvement. Oh, and why is Michael Martine in the sandbox?
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 8 of September , 2007 at 6:03 pm
I often find myself reading something entirely not SEO-related, which is why, I think, I like reading John Chow’s blog. Not every day. But on occasion.
Well, this morning on his blog John Chow talked about going off topic on his blog. It seems that some of his readers don’t like it when he isn’t talking about making money. John points out that his blog is intended to be a personal blog, which gives him liberty to talk about anything he wants to talk about. It just so happens that he likes talking about making money.
I find his post a little bit humorous - and I’m sure he does as well - but it does have a serious element of being true. Here’s he what he had to say in his own words:
To me, none of my posts are off topic. Every posts I make fits one or more of the 12 categories I cover. However, many new readers discovered this blog because it’s known for helping people make money online and find it strange to see a restaurant review or a car post. I would like to think that these kinds of post add variety to the blog and help readers get to know me better. After all, this blog bears my name. When I first checked out Grace Cheng’s Forex blog, the first thing I did was find out more about Grace because the blog bears her name. If it was call ForexTrading.com, then I probably wouldn’t have done that.
I’ll have to say that I agree. Blogs are inherently personal. However, there is a kind of blog that isn’t personal at all and is all about business. I suspect that the readers who want John Chow to stick with making money topics are interested in the second kind of blog - they want it to be all about business. But that isn’t John’s style and it’s not the focus of his blog. This brings to mind the first thing that I think every blogger should do, namely, define a purpose for their blog. Do you want your blog to be “personal” or do you want it to stick to being “all about business?” Only you can decide, but you should give it serious thought.
The name of your blog will dictate a lot on how far and how often you can go off topic. The more specific the name is, the harder it is to go off topic.
Again, I’ll have to agree. Search Engine Optimization Journal is about search engine optimization. You won’t find me talking about working on cars or reviewing restaurants, unless I’m drawing an analogy or using a point to speak about a topic related to SEO. In that regard, I’m a little bit more limited than John Chow is on his blog, maybe somewhat less personal, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Although, if you read my blog on a regular basis you’ll find that I’m not necessarily “all business.” I’d like to think I have a little bit of a sense of humor.
I always feel that a non-updated blog is a dead blog. If you cover a niche that is very narrow, it can be hard to post something new everyday. Given a choice between a reader seeing the same post or a new post when they visit, I take the new post every time. Writing a few off topic posts can not only give you more to write about, it will increase your traffic as well. Some of my highest commented posts have been ramblings posts.
Once again, I agree with John’s insights here. You want to update your blog as often as possible. At least once a day preferably, but as often as you are able. And narrow niches don’t afford you many possibilities. You’ll quickly run out of topics to write about if your focus is too narrow. So really give your purpose some serious thought.
Of course, while I agree with John on his basic premise, I can’t help but wonder if he’d be having the same level of success if he weren’t John Chow. I mean, he can afford a personal blog with liberty to “ramble.” If he were simply some Schmo and no one knew who he was then I doubt the majority of his readers would stick around to hear what he says about Pagani Zonda. Which brings me to back to my original premise and its caveat: Define the purpose of your blog, but don’t make your purpose “musings” or “ramblings,” even if you are writing a personal blog, unless you have a reputation like John Chow to back it up.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 2 of September , 2007 at 6:17 pm
(Source) While you should know it by now, the most successful post title describes the post content using keywords, search terms, and a little attention-getting techniques. As I edit my blog posts, the post title may change before I hit publish.
Leave it to Lorelle to come up with another good one on WordPress blogs. These three elements of good blog post titles are things I’ve been telling people since I started blogging. You’ve got to make sure you get the right title. A good title has these three elements in abundance:
Describes what the blog post is about
Uses your keyword
Sparks an interest
If you don’t do No. 1 then when people read your post they’ll be disappointed. They likely won’t come back and read your blog again because they’ll think you don’t know how to write your blog post titles. Your keyword is very important as it positions your blog post page in the search engines - you do want traffic don’t you? Thirdly, if you don’t do No. 3 then no one will get past the blog post title and read the blog post. Even if you write the best blog post of your life, no one will read it.
The Blog Post Slug And Your Title
Lorrelle goes on to talk about the blog post slug. That’s the publishing world’s word for title. It’s an old newspaper term. I won’t go into the history of how the word came into use (Lorelle does that better than I ever could), but I will reiterate another point Lorelle makes quite well. After you hit Publish it is too late to change your slug.
The slug comes from your blog post title. It will be the title of your blog post with hyphens between each of the words. That is the part of the web page title that comes after the .com/ and it tells search engines and browsers that they are on a specific web page of a specific website. If you change your blog post title after you publish your blog post then the blog post title and the slug won’t match. That’s a problem and the only way to fix it is to go into your htaccess and set up a redirect from the old blog post page to the new one. If you are on a free blog, you are SOL because you likely won’t have access to your htaccess. If you own the domain name on which your blog sits it is a lot easier, but if you don’t know how to do it then you’ll have to hire someone to do it for you or risk messing it all up. That’s a big risk.
Therefore, the best solution is to just leave it alone. If you have a typo in your blog post title and you don’t notice it until after you publish it, ask yourself if that typo is really important. Sometimes you can get traffic for a misspelled word that you would never reach otherwise. For instance, if you misspell “happy” as “hapy” then you could get all the traffic from people who misspell that word in their search query. One blog post over the life of your blog isn’t going to matter with that one misspelled word; you could leave it without missing out on much at all. If you have a bad habit of misspelling words a lot then you should probably hire a ghostwriter or spell check your blog posts before you publish them. Your blogging will go a lot smoother.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, 2 of September , 2007 at 7:51 am
Is it possible to earn a full-time income from blogging. John Chow says he is doing just that.
Total Blog Income For August 2007: $17,828.61
The amazing thing about the income figure - aside from the number itself - is I set it in the heart the summer. The other amazing thing is it will most likely be broken next month as those private ad spots kick in. Here is the income breakdown.
* Affiliate Sales: $7,244.00
* ReviewMe: $4,200.00
* Private Ad Sales: $2,370.00
* Text Link Ads: $2,157.88
* Kontera: $1,000
* Google AdSense: $490.94
* FeedBurner: $131.18
* Buy Me a Beer: $117.99
* TTZ Media: $66.62
* Subscription: $50.00
* Grand Total: $17,828.61
Many a blogger has set out on the road to gold and glory hoping to make a full-time income from their blogging efforts. But most bloggers never get that far. Is it possible if you’re not John Chow?
It’s interesting that John Chow’s income went up a full $5,000 in one month. So what’s his secret?
First, let me say that John himself says don’t do it for the money. John Chow is a personal blog, not a business blog, which makes it even more difficult to make money from. That said, however, he promotes himself like nobody’s business. He is totally shameless when it comes to self-promotion. Is that the secret to his success?
I’d say probably not. You can promote and promote and promote, but if you have nothing significant to say then people won’t read you. Whether you are writing a personal blog or a business blog I’d say the first thing you need to do is be yourself. Write from the heart and keep it real. The second thing is, offer something valuable to keep people coming back. John Chow’s blog is popular because he entertains while he enlightens and shares a little bit about himself without “telling all the details.” In other words, he borrows a technique from the sex kittens - he leaves something to the imagination.
Here are a few tips for helping you become a more successful blogger, no matter what kind of blog you write:
Be yourself
Offer something people want to read
Promote, promote, promote
Diversify your income - look at the list of John Chow’s income streams; he doesn’t get his money all from one source, does he?
Optimize your posts to some degree (I haven’t analyzed John Chow’s posts to see if he does this, but if you aren’t John Chow then you’ll need to get your traffic from somewhere; learn something about SEO)
Become a social media whore
Join some affiliate programs (This is John Chow’s No. 1 income source)
Finally, work tirelessly to increase your traffic; this will be your bread winner
It is hard to make money from blogging. Not impossible, but difficult. You really have to work hard. John Chow obviously has. You can too.
Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 1 of September , 2007 at 1:54 pm
(Lorrelle) 10. Have No Expectations and Silence Is Not An Answer.
Just because you went out of your way to contact the blogger, don’t expect them to respond, react, or do anything. Expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised when you get something.
If the blogger has not responded, do not make crap up in your head about what they are thinking or feeling about your email.
Silence is not an answer. It is merely the sound of nothing. Honor nothing as nothing until you have more information.
I like Lorrelle’s Rule No. 10. Too many times people send an e-mail and get nothing back then think, “Oh, they hate me,” or “I guess that’s a no.” It could be that the person you e-mailed is on vacation or is thinking of a proper response. Maybe they are considering your proposal but haven’t made a decision yet. If you act too soon you could ruin your chances of getting what you want.
This comment was made in the context of e-mailing bloggers. First, I’d say don’t do it unless you know them. People don’t just spend all their time sitting around, thinking up things to put on their blog so you can read it and enjoy their musings. Well, maybe some of them do, but they’re probably making a lot of money from it or they wouldn’t be doing it. Truth is, most bloggers aren’t making money from their blog. Their blog may market their business or it could be a hobby, but it isn’t making them a full-time income. So, at best, a part-time occupation is only going to afford them so much time to respond to e-mails and if they have a popular blog, how many e-mails do you think they get?
I would suggest the first thing you do, before you ever contact a blogger, is to subscribe to their RSS feed. The second thing you should do is comment on some blog posts. It’s real easy for a blogger to see if you’ve done either one of those two things and if you haven’t then you haven’t really given them any sufficient reason to respond to your e-mail - even if you have something good to say. That said, should you ever ask a blogger to help you promote your book, music CD, widget, or what-not? Sure, but do subscribe to their RSS feed and comment on some blog posts before you send that e-mail.
Search Engine Optimization Journal is an SEO Blog that discusses Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Ranking and Positioning for the new and advanced reader. Written daily by expert Nick Stamoulis, SEOJ is owned and operated by the website marketing firm Brick Marketing. Questions about this blog, please call 877-295-0620.
