Greg Hartnett

If you happened to catch my presentation at PubCon, hopefully you were able to walk away with some useful information. For those of you that didn’t attend, or were in another session, I have provided the accompanying text below. Is is a pretty long post, so I’ll end the preface here.

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So the Big Question - How can I get the most out of the blogosphere?

My short answer to you - the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. The more active you are, and the more you contribute to the Whole, you more you will flourish. You will find a direct correlation between what you put in and what you get out.

Now, it’s not an easy undertaking, and any successful blogger will tell you that it takes a LOT of work. Probably more than they had expected.

So assuming that you have the fortitude, let’s discuss the first step in the journey - Laying Your Foundation.

Your readers are going to judge you by the quality of your writing. So… brush up on your writing skills. You don’t need to be William Shakespeare, but if you want to be taken seriously, you should have a pretty firm grasp of the language. Pay attention to grammar and spelling and don’t be afraid to use the dictionary and thesaurus. You are bound to lose credibility with consistent misspellings and other grammatical errors. Two books on writing that I have recently read, and would recommend, The Book on Writing and The Dictionary of Concise Writing.

Now for step two of laying your foundation - Optimizing for Performance

As is the case with managing any online marketing campaign, you need to optimize your blog for peak performance. Pay attention to proper title and descriptions for the blog, making sure that they will help you pull for the terms you are targeting. I would recommend that you do a URL rewrite to remove the script, and replace it with title of the post - all things being equal, it will help. Categories and archives should be created - the more the better. Both from a usability standpoint, as well as for the engines. Bill Hartzer wrote an article for Search Engine Guide last month covering blog SEO tactics - some useful nuggets in there. Mare sure that you set up your pings - Setting up your ping services is a quick and easy way to mass distribute your blog.

The Corporate Website Marketing Blog has a nice list of ping services for WP blogs, and Elliott Back has a pretty comprehensive list as well.

Now that you have your blog optimized, and ready for action, it’s time to Get on the Map.

Start by submitting to Blog directories and search engines. Yahoo and DMOZ both have blog specific categories where you can submit for free (those links will take you to the appropriate categories). BOTW has an entire directory for blogs, and there are other smaller and niche directories that you should consider as well. Top Rank Results has a great list of places to submit your blog. Make sure to head over to Technorati to claim your blog, and set up your blog to ping them each time you update. Getting your blog into Technorati is a great way to drive some initial inertia, and get on the radar - there is a good read at Technology Evangelist of some “lesser known tips” on how to optimize for Technorati.

Don’t forget to submit your RSS feeds - it is becoming more and more adopted by the general public, and will only continue to do so. There is a pretty comprehensive list of places to submit your RSS feeds at RSS Specifications.

Now that you are on the map, and you have good content that others would surely enjoy, it’s time to spread the word.

Immerse yourself in your area and read voraciously - get your feed on. Subscribe to as many feeds as you can manage. Find out what other bloggers in your area are saying. When you come across good resources blogroll them - the benefits are twofold. First, your users will benefit from, and appreciate exposure to other valuable resources. And secondly, it helps to get you in front of those bloggers. Bloggers tend to be a vain group - frequently performing ego searches, and checking their backlinks. Blogrolling them, or posting about them, is a sure way to get them to check you out. It is a nice, unobtrusive way, to show up on their radar.

I know of one instance in particular, where this strategy worked wonders. Shimon Sandler posted about a bunch of high profile bloggers, who in turn came to check out what he had said. Shimon provides some good SEO related content on his blog, so these readers tuned back in. Shimon followed up with a killer post a couple of days later on the latest Google app, got mentioned by a handful of said A-listers, and his traffic has skyrocketed. Without the quality content though, the post would have been for naught.

Another important aspect of being social is Participating in the Conversation.

Comment on other people’s blogs - that’s what the comment section is there for. By commenting on other’s people’s blogs, you are able to piggyback on their distribution. Commenting on some quality, high traffic blogs, will expose you to thousands of potential visitors daily. Now I am sure that some would disagree with this, but I will assert that nowhere else is what you say more important than in other people’s comments. A comment is typically a sentence or two, so you have a small window to grab the reader’s attention. Additionally, your comment is bound to be one of many, so you need to say something that not only contributes to the conversation, but is insightful, witty, or compelling enough to grab the reader’s interest, and prompt her to see what else you have to say. By participating in the conversation in a productive manner, you are, in essence, beckoning the reader to come to your blog.

I am not inferring that you need to agree with what the author has to say. Feel free to present a dissenting point of view - they are often the most interesting. However, keep your insults to yourself, and ensure that what you have to say propels the conversation in a constructive manner. If you don’t have something smart to say, keep your thought to yourself.

Now that you are part of the community, it’s time to tap into the power of the Community Sites.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have undoubtedly heard of these community-driven sites. Tapping into the power of these community sites will bring your blog to the next level. Social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us are a great way for you to share your blog with others that have similar interests.

If you haven’t yet developed a strategy to exploit the traffic available at MySpace, I would highly recommend it. They are currently doing 1.5 billion pages views daily. That’s a lot of traffic - some of it could be yours. For free. Roger Monti, Martinibuster, recently wrote an excellent article on the MySpace land grab.

I had never really bought into the power of Digg, until I got dugg. It drove thousands of visitors to my blog in a matter of hours, and I didn’t even make it to the front page. While Digg tends to favor geeky, tech, or science related news, you don’t need to have a masters from MIT to write for the Digg crowd. The Wolf Howl blog has two very interesting posts on Digg - one about the Digg userbase representing the perfect storm of mavens and connectors, and another with some tips on how to write to help get your non-tech blog dugg. Another tip for Digg - there is a feature that let’s you “blog this story” onto your blog. Doing so places a link to your blog in the right hand column of the Digg story. Doing this alone will help to bring hundreds of visitors to your blog. As long as you are providing valuable content, some of those visitors will grab your feed, bookmark your blog, or make a mental note to return. Incremental steps like this over a period of time equate to thousands of visitors daily.

Next let’s discuss some multimedia - The Power of Pictures

The beauty of pictures is that they appeal to a user’s emotions. An emotion that you are trying to convey make take paragraphs of text to transmit, but can be easily captured with a snapshot. Additionally, pictures cross cultural and language barriers, exposing your content to users that may be otherwise inaccessible. Flickr is a fantastic social tool. Huh - you may be asking yourself. How can uploading some pics of my kids bring be traffic?? Flickr allows you to insert hotspots, notes, and links within your picture and descriptions of the picture. So by joining a couple of groups within Flickr that you are interested in, and making sure that you place your links into the picture or description (I recommend a note in the pic with a link, and a link in the desc) you will drive additional visitors to your site. Once you get involved with the community, you will learn how to tell which types of pictures drive eyeballs.

YouTube and Google Video take it to the next level. Nothing will attract eyeballs more than some video. With the proliferation of digital video, and the advances in technology and broadband, the current climate is a multimedia marketers dream. With some creativity, and a little bit of time you can reach tens, or hundreds of thousands of visitors. While neither of them allow for hyperlinks within the video, with a basic multimedia editor, you can enter your url or any other credits you’d like to add, directly into the video. Also, of course, include your blog url in the description. Once again, this should provide some incremental traffic, and will help to grow your userbase.

I recently had a great experience with my video camera, one that has brought me tens of thousands of visitors. I was able to take my son to hockey parctice, and capture some hilarious video of him brawling with some of the other four year olds. I brought it home, threw in some System of a Down fight music, added my url and credits at the end, and submitted the clip JR Hockey Brawl to YouTube and Google Video. Since doing so, I have attracted tens of thousands of visitors via those channels.

In closing, follow the steps I prescribed here, mix in some time and persistence, and you are bound to get heavy volume to your blog. Ensure that you are providing valuable content, and now you are not only poised to get a ton of traffic, but you have positioned yourself to retain those visitors once you reel ‘em in. And that’s really what it’s all about.

So hopefully, you have seen that if you give to the blogosphere, she will repay you, tenfold.

However….be careful what you wish for. With all that traffic comes a ton of comment spam. But that’s another conversation…

That is a copy of the sign I plan on carrying this Saturday. The team at ActForChange have put together a peace demonstration in NYC this weekend, in an effort to remind our leaders that some of us are still opposed to the war. From what I have heard, they are expecting a crowd of approximately 100,000 to march down Broadway, carrying signs of protest.

Hopefully, I will be amongst them. I have reserved my sign in hopes that I don’t have conflicting plans. My wife will be out of town (another trip to CA), and I am afraid that parental obligations may keep me from participating. I can’t ask my kids to miss birthday parties so that daddy can fight the man. Hopefully, schedules will permit - I’d love to take my kids in for their first peace rally.

Whether you buy into the Bush administration doctrine or not, I am sure that you would agree that more than enough blood has been shed, and it is time that we fast-track an end to this debacle. The war in Iraq has cost Americans thousands of lives, and billions of dollars. It has cost Iraqis much more. The time has come.

If I am able to make it, I will follow up with details and pictures. If you’d like more information on the event, and how you could get involved, check out the follwing:

I spent the better part of my evening loading up some new pictures. I have taken a lot of pictures the last couple of weeks, and they were beginning to fill up my camera. I imagine that my picture taking will grow more fervent in the months to come - I am in the market for a new digital camera.

To view the latest photosets, see:

Additionally, I know that Brian loaded some PubCon pictures. See them here - BOTW Media PubCon Boston. I noticed that there are a handful of other pictures tagged “PubCon” - if you have a Flickr account, amke sure to tag your photos so that they get into the photostream. I even saw some in there from Vegas ‘05. Should prove to be a pretty cool collection of photos. At somepoint, I’ll tag all search conference pictures accordingly - that way we’ll be able to see pics from every show.

Postscript - I modified the permissions on the PubCon pictures to allow for anybody with a Flickr account to leave a note. Feel free to hop in and mash it up. Remember to play nice…

I returned from Boston yesterday afternoon, after attending PubCon Boston. As a presenter, this conference was a bit different for me, and I learned some different things. I typically try to sit in on as many of the sessions as I can, picking up tidbits of info here and there. This time, I spent the first day preparing, and the second day recovering, so my session attendance was minimal. Each opportunity presents different chances for learning. Some of what I brought home this time:

Additionally, I met a lot of interesting people, most of whom operate blogs. I added a bunch of new feeds to my reader, so I look forward to seeing what all these people have to say. In the days to come, I will be uploading the contents of my presentation for anybody that wasn’t able to attend my session. It turned out to be a very cool session, with Matt Cutts and Jeremy Zawodny hopping up on the panel at the end to participate in some Q&A.

I am definitely happy to be home - these conferences are tough on the body and mind. It’s nice to sleep in my own bed, wake up to the sound of my kids playing, and spend time with the family. I’m looking forward to being off the conference junket for a few months - next stop, SES San Jose in August.

After arriving at the Sheraton (not too bad of a trip, even accounting for marathon traffic), we successfully deposited all our shirts, and assorted materials at the booth. Brian and I spent a couple of hours unwinding, and talking shop.

Earlier, I was lucky enough to be able to go through my presentation a couple of times in front of a small, and hospitable audience. Brian and Rob were able to give me some very good feedback, and I feel even more comfortable about my speaking engagement tomorrow. Maybe that is the magnum of Jordan cabernet that we drank during dinner at Morton’s.

Regardless, I am confident that my preparation, and knowledge of the subject mater will be enough to keep me from getting booed off the stage. At a minimum, I have been able to learn a lot about public speaking, and I am happy to have the opportunity to expand my personal achievements.

I am really looking forward to meeting some new people at this conference - expand my horizons a bit. If you happen to see me here, and we have never met before, please take the opportunity to introduce yourself. I am anxious to meet as many new people at this conference as I can, so please don’t be shy.

If you happen to sit in on my session tomorrow, please let me know what you thought. I’d love to hear some feedback to make future engagements better. I’ll do a follow up post with more of what I have learned through this experience. Maybe better suited after less vino.

Google Video launched a new feature today, the Google Video Top 100. While I don’t normally try to report on breaking news, and I loathe the idea of regurgitating information, I will make an exception here. This instance is actually a bit self-serving.

The video of my son’s hockey fight debuted on the list at #27. When I shot it, I definitely thought it was funny. After inserting the music, I thought it was even better. I had no idea that so many people would agree. I knew something was up this morning after a pretty big spike in traffic, and upon investigation I learned that not only has the clip been added to the G Top 100, but somebody seems to have embedded the clip from YouTube, and it has been viewed a ton of times today.

The power of pictures…

StoptheNRA.com, a project of the Brady Campaign, recently launched their Campaign Against Illegal Guns. In short, it is a multiyear effort to curb the illegal trafficking of guns in America.

The three main goals of the project are:

1. Strengthen law enforcement tools to crack down on corrupt gun dealers.
2. Extend Brady background checks to all gun sales.
3. Stop large-volume gun sales that supply traffickers.

To get involved, there are a few things you can do.

A. Donate a minute or two - simply fill out an quick form, or add your own personal message, and you can send an email to your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative pressuring them to support the Campaign.
B. Donate some scratch - as little as $25 helps to spread the word via advertisements, community forums, and internet advocacy.
C. Spread the word - in the modern era, there are many ways to help spread a message. Telling a friend or two definitely helps provide support for the Campaign.

The Brady Campaign has a track record of measures that help in the reduction of gun violence in the US. They have spearheaded hundreds of initiatives, and their grassroots mentality, and community outreach services really help to change America.

If you care about gun violence, or want to help in a solution to halt the illegal gun trade, please take a moment to read more, and possibly help with the campaign.

My wife is out of town, so I was fortunate enough to be able to take my son to hockey practice yesterday. One of the kids on the ice was pestering him nonstop. Wherever JR would go, this kid would be right behind him, pushing and bumping. After enduring it for awhile, he got pissed.

I used this opportunity to start a YouTube account, and get involved there. Check out my directorial debut

I had to switch it over to a Google video, because the YouTube feed made the whole blog look whacky in IE. Damn browser compatability issues… If you are a fan of YouTube, and would like to see it there, see here.

Fell free to Digg it here.

All of us now spend so much time online. At times it is difficult to remember that there is a person attached to the other end of that email, forum post, or blog comment. In our world of near anonymity it is so easy to flame. When you don’t have to see the expression of pain, frustration, or anger on the other person’s face, it almost isn’t real. It is important to remember that there are real people “out there”.

Nowhere is this more important than when dealing with customers. Lose your cool with a customer and it could cost you. A lot.

But there is more to it than just not pissing off your customers. In today’s marketplace, you need to protect your customers. Protect their data, protect their privacy, protect their secrets. And often, protect them from themselves. This can prove the most difficult of tasks, because you are usually trying to convince them to do something that is contrary to their established beliefs.

Most business owners are impatient, scared, and less than experts in your field. They make decisions based upon fear. They wants results yesterday. They heard someone say at a cocktail party this is the way that it needs to be done.

It is your job - dare I say your duty - to steer your client down the proper path. Do all that you can to help your client recognize your wisdom, and proceed accordingly. If you are unable to effectively persuade your client to take the right course of action, then walk away. Politely inform the client that you would rather lose the account than be associated with a practice or action that you know will harm him.

Chances are once he hears your conviction, he will come around. If not, then let him go down on his own. When it comes to doing it the right way, there should be no compromise. After all, it’s for their own good.

Looks like Alexa has added some additional information to their charting. Now offering a “Max” amount of time, that seems to go back to late 2001.

I love site metrics - can’t get enough of ‘em! BOTW’s rank chart, since late 2001 - pretty cool. Slow and steady trend, for sure.

Update: Things seem to be a little whack over at Alexa currently. I can’t find the Max tab anymore, and their stats seem to be way off. Check our weekly average - 1,202,534. WTF??

Shimon Sandler, blogger and search engine marketer, interviewed me this morning about my experience with web directories. I really enjoy these types of interviews, as they get me thinking about the business at a macro level. Finding out what your users have questions about really helps to refine your product or service.

This most recent interview was more compelling than most. Shimon threw me a couple of questions that I wasn’t thrilled about - too much talk about Google and PageRank. But I guess that is what’s on people’s minds…

I like the preface, but…

(a) I haven’t been in the search industry since the beginning. I meandered my way into an existing space, saw a void in the market, and made use of some real estate.

(b) I don’t want anybody to be confused about the backrub thing - reading the preface might cause one to think that we actually had some involvement in the thesis or something. We didn’t. We were just fortunate enough to be cited by Page and Brin in their paper. Period.

(c) There are definitely other people that could be interviewed about web directories that would provide as much, if not more, insight into the model. Though I appreciate the kind words, I am not fully comfortable with the praise.

The rest of the conversation was pretty thorough - a good job by Shimon. He did some homework before the interview, and his questions reflect the fact. Thanks for the opportunity.