Category: Blogs

What is a carnival, meme or synchroblog? I’ve pulled a snippet from Wikipedia to help you understand what each one is so you can decide if you want to participate.

Carnival
“There are many variations, but typically, someone who wants to organize a carnival posts details of the theme or topic to their blog, and asks readers to submit relevant articles for inclusion in an upcoming edition. The host then collects links to these submissions, edits and annotates them (often in very creative ways), and publishes the resulting round-up to his or her blog.” Full definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_Carnival

Blog Meme
“…an Internet meme is simply the propagation of a digital file or hyperlink from one person to others using methods available through the Internet (for example, email, blogs, social networking sites, instant messaging, etc.). The content often consists of a saying or joke, a rumor, an altered or original image, a complete website, a video clip or animation, or an offbeat news story, among many other possibilities. An Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, and parody versions, or even by collecting news accounts about itself.” Full definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_phenomenon

My version a blog meme is where you post links of blogs that you like and then ask others to add them name and five others to the list and then post to their blog. It creates interest and typically works in someways like a chain letter – you take off two from the bottom and add two at the top. Let me know by posting a comment if you’ve seen other uses or definitions of blog memes.

Synchroblogs
“A recent variant is Synchronised Blogging, or synchroblog, where a group of bloggers agree to post on their own blogs on the same broad topic on the same day. The titles are circulated a day or two beforehand, and each blogger includes links to the other blogs.” Wikipedia considers this an extension of a carnival. See the full definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_carnival

The bottom-line on all of these terms is that they are about connecting with others in much the same way as old web rings used to work. That being said they have a special twist, can spice up your blog, and are a fun way to interact with other bloggers in the blogosphere.

Well it’s the new buzz word, is your website Web 2.0 friendly? What it really means is are you creating ways for readers and visitors to interact with you? Is your website using new technology? Are you blogging? Do you have video and commenting capability on your site?

That’s what Web 2.0 is all about, creating a richer media experience for your visitor. Will it kill your traffic if you don’t have it? No, is it something that you should be thinking about? Yes.

I am recommending that if possible video, flash components, and blogs be included in all our new websites. Visitors need more information and more ways to interact with you in today’s world. The age of the static brochure website is gone, with our technology-lust, we have created an environment where we need to enrich the viewing experience, without overkill, for our visitors and readers.

It is not rocket science to start moving in the direction of Web 2.o, but it does take planning and a concerted effort on your part. If you don’t think that it is important, watch what the 20 to 30 something crowd is interested in. They are your growing customer base and you will need to cater to them as their spending power increases in the marketplace. The younger generation is incredibly tuned into to the use of technology and using information on the Web. Your website and new redesign should speak to the future of the use of technology and be forward thinking.

On the record, I can say that we absolutely can not prove that at this point. Off the record, there are many things that a blog does to speak directly to improving search engine organic placement, but we have no statistical proof that blogging improves your organic search engine placement.

This is what we do know about blogging and have been able to back up with statistical proof:

1. Blogging increases site traffic between 25 to 35% over the same exact website that does not blog. (We found this out from a case study on three identical websites.)
2. Blogging increases website stickiness
3. Search engines spider and index your blog posts as unique web pages
4. Custom FTP blog set up will allow blog pages returned on search queries to be shown with your website links in the organic search results. Versus posts for BlogSpot will not show affiliated with your domain in the search results even if you are using a custom domain BlogSpot setting.
5. Typically posts done on BlogSpot even using custom domains will show at a lower PageRank level than if you had posted the same information with a custom FTP blog publishing setting. This is in part due to the fact that a blog set up with custom FTP will be able to piggyback on your domains popularity versus a BlogSpot blog having to stand alone.
6. Sites that blog have more frequent search engine spider traffic.
7. Even after a blog is abandoned website visitors will still read the posts
8. Blog posts are read from between 20 to 45% of website visitors

I am working on a detailed new case study on blogging and will have some very interesting additional findings ready for posting on the Web in September.

I have found that the most engaging style for blogging is in the first person. As we perform ghost blogging services for many clients nationwide, I’ve seen all type of client preferences.

Some clients want purely dry informational blogs, some want how to’s, some want personal information and personal interest stories, and some want no links to their website and talk about their services.

From all the blogs I review and conferences with clients, I think that the best approach is good content with a gentle plus back to the owner’s website once a week. The most engaging posts are the ones that offer something real – a point a view, a real tip and are not a redux of information that is posted somewhere else on the Web.

As a blog reader as well as a blog writer yes, you can over do selling yourself on your blog and turn people off, but you can occasionally point out the services that you provide and link back to your own website. That makes perfect sense.