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We move in different networks to create our own network. But, why do we want to create networks?

There may be a lot of reasons to create a network. But if you think closely and eliminate all those unnecessary points; you will end up with three bullets.

Bullet 1: To let others know about my blog.

Bullet 2: To eventually get a link from their blogs so that you get better ranking and PR love along with some love from more visitors.

Bullet 3: Other reasons that you are yet to discover.

And now look at your own blog:

How many of us have been able to write at least 30 substantial posts in our blog in last 30 days!

I am not talking about those who have just begun blogging or those who are running a group blog. I am talking about lonely bloggers like you me and Adam who depend on themselves after living a hectic schedule (OMG, I need a break from my day’s job) to write a post.

Why don’t you invite other bloggers in your niche to write a guest post in your blog?

Why not?

1. You get quality content without writing even a single word! If the content is duplicate, do not publish it (normally guest posters do not write duplicate content - they must live up to their reputation.)
2. Linking out is never an issue - and if you think the linked site is not worth it, just do not publish the post or turn them no-follow. But please, do not make a link no-follow without asking the author - this is unethical.
3. You get another blogger to promote your blog - if you publish my guest post, I would love to promote that post in my blog and other social networks. And this, in turn would promote your blog in its totality.
4. You actually create a long lasting relationship with another blogger - no social network can help you to create such bonds.
5. Your readers get the taste of a fresh blood (yummy).
6. Come on, your readers are not going anywhere - they read this post because it was published in your blog.

So why not ask for guest posts?

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Do you think that SEO is into the same track too - like SEO 2.0?

Yes - advanced SEO had always been there - the SEO 2.0.

So, what does SEO 2.0 look like - goldfish in the wild or a zebra in an aquarium?

In traditional SEO, the main focus had been to improve search engine ranking for targeted keywords and getting as many visitors as possible. That’s it - traditional SEO stopped working there. And in traditional SEO, the main focus had been linking in and linking out and fixing keywords in the Meta Description and H1s.

But in SEO 2.0, the whole scenario is changing.

Now, the main focus is on visitors and their needs and overall experience in a website. It is about creating an environment and a platform for social communication. Webmasters are confident about one thing, if they can satisfy the visitors, search engines (read Google) would be bound to send them more traffic.  And thus, advanced SEOs are not writing title tag for search engines; they are just defining the page and writing the content to satisfy the visitors. Now SEO is visitor-centric.

And another most important aspect of SEO 2.0 is that people do not fully depend on search engines to get traffic. The concentration has shifted to traffic long tail. And the traffic long tail generated from social networks is getting more importance. However, there had been lots of debates on the issue whether those visitors are convertible into business or not. And it solely depends on the environment you provide in your website. Some people are successfully using them to increase sales and some people are just wasting their bandwidth.

Going local to be a global player! That’s the best part of SEO 2.0 where the webmasters focus on local visitors.

Being human from machine: “Who are you” is as important as the product you offer - communicate - convince - sell. Web is no more just an information source. Yu got to give it a human touch.

Some SEOs do that.

What else? Write a comment and get a link…

Popularity: 9% [?]

Popularity: 9% [?]

In my last post I was talking about commenting habits of visitors and other fellow bloggers. This post is not an extension to that post but somewhere they are closely related to each other.

Let us break the blogosphere into a few tiers - for example first tier bloggers, second tier bloggers and so on. It would be easier for us to understand if we say, top 100 blogs, 101-200 blogs and so on and associate them with each tier.

Now go to Technorati to find out blogs in a chronological order in your niche. For example, if you deal with Web 2.0, just visit this page in Technorati to get a list. (Where do you find yourself there?)

The “tier one” blogs are naturally very popular - people talk about them, people link to their blogs naturally and more importantly comment on their blog to get some sort of unknown exposure.

But does your comment really matter to them? Don’t you think that you would get a better exposure by commenting on another blog in your own tier! Those blogs have already grown huge and you will be left in an obscure corner as those blogs are updated multiple times a day. (I often wonder, why do we call them blogs - they are managed by multiple authors and act more like news sources for other blogs!!)

Ok, so let’s try this game for a month - if you do not find any improvement in your blog’s overall performance - go back to wherever you want.

• Step: 1. Count your back links
• Step: 2. Select 15 to 25 blogs in your tier and 15 blogs in one tier above.
• Step: 3. Subscribe to their feeds so that you get notified whenever they make a post.
• Step: 4. Take a few minutes to read those posts and write your comment (substantial comment of course and try to engage them).
• Step: 5. Take the initiative to develop a healthy relationship with those bloggers.

After 1 month count your back links again to be sure about your improvement.

End note: It would give you much more than back links.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Popularity: 4% [?]

That may seem a very silly question but if you want to create a dedicated reader base for your blog - you must know the answer. If you can guess what the other person is thinking or why the other person is taking a step, you may have a chance to get into it.

Why I am asking this question?

For last couple of months, there had been lots of talks on “Do Follow” comments. A lot of bloggers made their comment links ‘do follow’ to attract more comments. Some of them are still running the model and some have gone back to good old days.

They thought that it would attract more comments as the commenter would get a free link. And they actually got some comments.

But, what do you want - quality comment or just the number of comments?

You must have seen that, a lot of people make unnecessary comments in high traffic or well established blogs. And the most common text is - “interesting post” or may be “great article” although the blogger had written a crap. Ok, to the most, I would count only 5% of them as genuine appreciation - others are just a comment for comment’s sake.

Do these comments help your blog at all!

I agree that numbers matter - if a post gets 50 comments within an hour, you got to be happy and more people would be interested to write a comment (bees attract bees).

However, my experience and my web behavior say that the real people do not comment for links - they comment because they have something to say. And people normally do not want to comment because they do not have time to comment or they hesitate to comment.

In any classroom, teachers need to do a very important job - they need to make the students aware that, they can ask whatever they want. Did you try it? Did you leave any place for your readers to ask something; to fight with you; to hit you in your face!

Did you give them the space to agree or disagree!

If they agree, they may not write a comment but if they disagree, the chances of their writing a comment go higher (time is not a big constraint anymore).

Being too good is not good enough - people may not like to “talk to” you and “talk about” you for being too good - they would only appreciate you from a distance.

So, what are you plans for the day!

Did you read this post! Why don’t you leave your signature in the comment section?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Popularity: 5% [?]

We often say that being simple is not so simple unless you are simple by nature or by chance. And look at this sentence - to define simplicity and to be politically correct, I have made the whole sentence and the idea more complex.

Anyways, as it is not simple to be simple, so it is not at all simple to write for general people.

What was the last time you discussed with your content writer about your target market - what they do, how they live, what they eat, blab, blab, blab!

Whenever, we say “general people”, the very first thing that comes to our mind is a crowd and a unified entity; something like - a lot of people coming out of a tube - or a group of cowboys running on horses in Wild Wild West.

And more importantly - they are faceless.

Things do not happen like this when you deal with your customers in your business outlet. You can guess a lot about the person from his or her approach, dress, accent etc. when you interact with them directly. And good salesmen offer a customized solution to each prospective client and eventually close the deal.

Do they really utter the same sentences every time (I would like to exclude the opening speech of a telesales)? They don’t - though they have a similar line of action or a pattern.

And this approach outlines the success story of a good salesman.

Now, it is not possible to cater to each and every prospective customer of your website with unique and custom made content. Even dynamic websites can only change content depending on some “not so social” data. And raw data are not good enough to offer any customized solution.

How do you deal with this problem? How do you prepare your content when you are directly selling a tangible product!

One of the best ways is to talk to the direct market representatives or telesales people. They know the market better than the marketing manager as they deal with the clients directly and they are close to the problem. The manager can only provide you some raw data and fact sheets. But those people know what the target audience really wants and what satisfies them.

If you are not ready to go through this process, just prepare your content like a newspaper report and let the visitors do what ever they wish. Or follow the pattern of speech of those direct marketers of that product.

And you thought content writing is all about playing with Keywords.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Popularity: 5% [?]

Move on to any social media or networking website and you would surely find that some people are always available there and some of them are hyper active. In fact, you would surely meet some social media optimizers or marketers out there.

Is it really worth hiring a social media optimizer or marketer to promote your site or blog out there?

Does it sound like a silly question? I understand - today, it is like asking if you should hire a SEO expert to optimize your site or not!

But the answer may not be so simple. Let’s take a look:

Would you hire just any public relation company or executive to manage or sustain your brand name or identity? If your answer is no, why do you think that any social media marketer would be good enough to promote your business!

A public relation group is hyperactive when your brand is in big soup - the same thing does not happen with a social media marketer. As a part of their responsibility, most of them represent your website in different social networks throughout the year.

They actually become your company’s face to the public. Are you keeping any track of their activity? Did you consider the point if that person is qualified enough in your domain? If he or she is just a marketer, they might not be able to properly communicate with other people in your niche. It is like employing a literature student to answer forum questions on Google’s Algorithm (search - find - rephrase - answer = cool model and good money!!).

What to look for in a social media marketer and optimizer?

1. Domain expertise: he or she must know about the product and the industry.
2. Name as an expert: If he or she has a name in your niche as a resource person, he would just be a great marketer. I think he has got some marketing skill.
3. Overall web presence: A blogger in your niche can be the best social media marketer (provided, he has enough experience in social media). You can also find out if he or she participates in different forums in your niche or not. Take advantage of his or her social presence - that’s why you are paying him.
4. Social media optimization does not mean adding a few bookmarking buttons in each page. What else do they offer?
5. DIY - yes - you can do it yourself. If things seem too much time consuming, just select one or two niche networks and spend at least half an hour everyday. But don’t forget to learn the art and science of better communication.
6. Experience: Do I really need to write anything on this point!

Did I miss something? Why don’t you write a comment?

Popularity: 8% [?]

Popularity: 8% [?]

People and mostly blogging Gurus often say that to be popular and to improve your reader’s base, you must write quality content. There is nothing wrong in this sentence. But people often exaggerate this statement in his or her process of understanding. They often try to overload their content with data, facts and figures. It is good, but if your personal blog is full of them, it may create some problems.

Why should people read a blog if it is full of data and theory that they can also get in Wikipedia - why should not they visit Wikipedia? Ooops, here I would like to exclude Compete or other similar blogs as Wikipedia is not smart enough to provide you the latest updates. Here I am talking about blogs that want to develop into a business for example a blog on blogging or how to earn money online.

If you take a closer look, most successful blogs in this section are those that concentrate on adding a personal flavor. Those are like living beings talking to you about their experiences. However, this trait is visible since they are in their growing stages. I knew that you would contradict to this point. A running blog is always in the growing stages - there is no end to it unless the domain has expired and the blogger did not bother about it.

What I am saying here is simple - until you develop into a brand, you should continue to interact with your audience in a personal ground. And at the same time maintain a distance - something that you normally do in a party or in a social gathering.

However, once you board into the ‘Brand’ wagon, you would not need to worry much about these things. Because, by the time you have already developed a style (personality of your blog) and people have started accepting you (the most crucial part of online identity development and branding).

The end note: if you are writing a corporate blog, make sure that your readers are ready to accept your writing style. In such situation, people might accept something more professional. If the reaction is not warm, something must be wrong with your writing style.

A successful blogger knows his visitors and writes to satisfy them - do you follow this rule?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Popularity: 4% [?]

Is there any difference between journalism and blogging?

Ok, journalists would not like to share their traditional position with a blogger unless they are into it. However, by nature blogging is nothing but social journalism and thus for the same reason, it is different from traditional journalism. There is another difference between traditional journalism and blogging - a blogger does not have a press pass to step into any or every event.

Things are changing in some fronts. For example, some business organizations do not hesitate to call bloggers in their traditional press conferences. And if the business organization has web presence and wants to create some buzz in the online market, they directly approach the bloggers - it is very common. And more importantly, if the business organization’s size is not very big or if they do not have a news worthy event that could interest the traditional journalists, they often move towards blogs (didn’t you try it!!).

But why traditional journalism holds such a place?

The main reason is that people trust them. It is in human nature to believe anything written and if the document is a published material, there is nothing like that. People would love to use them as reference. However, if you tell the same story, they are less likely to believe your words and might even ask “where did you read it” unless you are already an established authority on the topic.

Is this one of the reasons of the popularity of blogging! Yes; and there should not be any doubt about it.

What else?

1.    The most common and widely published reason is that Blogs allow a general person the opportunity to publish their thoughts. But that’s not all. A blog actually offers you the opportunity to challenge (no more explanations - think about it).

2.    Self publications - what can be more satisfactory but the reason that people from different parts of the world are reading your blog and communicating via comments. You are actually becoming a world citizen in no time.

3.    Expression of power - I would like to call it power of expression that a blogger enjoys - knowingly or unknowingly.

4.    Being social in another community: What else should I say about it?

I would not like to add “earning money” or “networking” or other similar terms to this list. The main reason is that, these are not primary or core reasons for someone to start his or her first blog. To the most these are secondary stages.

Do you have anything else to add to this list?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Popularity: 5% [?]

Everybody knows there is money in the web. If a newbie searches the web on how to earn money online (it may be the keyword - I guess or whatever) the new things he would learn within a few minutes is affiliate marketing, AdSense, Paid post and freelancing and etc.

But is it so easy to earn money online?

I don’t really think so. Unless you are seasoned in web and web industry, it is tough (if not impossible) to start earning from day one or even month one. Internet is still a goldmine but you must be a good digger and experienced enough to identify the cash spots to become rich.

To start earning money from day one, you must be a famous person online or have the capability to publicize your website in offline media to get visitors. Because, ultimately it is your visitors whom you would need to convert into real cash. And for a newbie, it is almost impossible to start getting visitors from day one (I would keep friends and relatives apart from visitor’s list for some obvious reasons).

I am not trying to discourage anyone who is planning to earn from internet (If I can earn, so can everyone). It is possible - but if you think you would become a millionaire on day one or if you think that people would start visiting your blog or website from day one and they would start commenting and participating, things would frustrate you soon.

It needs hard work and lots and lots of patience; especially if you are selling something that does not have direct monitory value. For example, if you are selling some products on eBay, you may start earning from day one; but if you are selling information in the form of a blog post or in a website, it would definitely take some time.

If you are a newbie in the web (I mean, if you are yet to start a website or a blog to taste the real world), I would recommend you to use the platforms that are already established apart from developing your own platform.

For example, start creating content in Squidoo or Hubpages or Associated Content - there are so many other similar revenue sharing websites that can offer you some income and a lot of experience on what people really want from you and how do deal with them. They already have an established platform and visitors would not be a big problem.

Shortcuts are often the longest roads - in case of web, the harder way lasts long.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Do you use Google AdSense to monetize your blog?

Than you have already got a mail from The Google AdSense Team regarding the retirement of Google AdSense’s Referral program. Though Google had acquired DoubleClick (and DoubleClick acquired Performics - the original company in 2004) months back, the integration took some time.

And now we have a new platform ConnectCommerce.com - “the reporting and tracking platform that powers Google Affiliate Network“. (BTW, now you have another Google blog to follow). And, this platform would soon be integrated into Google accounts.

Somehow, the way, Google is advancing by acquiring smaller brands, perhaps after someday, you would not need to move beyond Google for any service you want. Perhaps, someday Google would start selling domains directly. Perhaps someday you would sign into internet via Google and after living the Socio-virtual life with Google, you would go back to the table to have dinner supplied by Google while watching the Galaxy as shown by Google. Google = one click stop

Google is growing faster than you can think - it is growing its roots in every vertical. And if you think carefully, Google knows much more about you than you would have ever imagined or I should better say even your lawyer or personal secretary never knew. And more importantly, it knows your habit - your search pattern and your needs.

And who can be a better middleman after having so much of personal information!

But, who is growing on the other end to challenge Google? Is there really any competition? How can followers be competitors!

However, there is one spot where Google is yet to step in - direct content generation. Google is still dependent on you and me to develop content. (Though Google is already into crowdsourcing with Google Code, it is yet to try its hands to develop something like Wikipedia.) But still you need to depend on Google to offer you the best information in the web and thus obliquely it is very much into content production.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]