Blogging & The Blogosphere Harnessing the Power of the Blog

Some Valuable Data on Blogging Statistics

Blogs Worldwide

Blog Readership Worldwide

Blog Readers Take Action

How Readers Use Blogs

Finding & Reading Blogs

Bloggers Create Influence Effects

Keys to Blog Optimization

It's ALL About the Content

Keyword Research Step 1: Decide on a Topic Step 2: Write a Title Step 3: Run KW Research (at Overture/Wordtracker/KWDiscovery)‏ Step 4: Consider Re-writing title based on research Step 5: Write content to fit the title and your intenet NOTE: Sometimes it pays to write catchy titles and ignore KW research – it's not necessary for every post

Title & Meta Tags Bad Title Tags & Meta Description Tags Equal Poor CTR

Leveraging Comments & User Feedback On New Blogs, Don't Enable Comments Right Away Reward Frequent Commenters - Offer Incentives

Trackbacks, Links & RSS Feeds

Suggestions for Blog Content Strategies

Claiming a Unique Niche

Valuable Content Angles News – reporting something new Analysis/Opinion – providing your insight on events Exploration – theorizing or predicting Exposing – sharing experience or facts Educating – presenting a variety of themed content Personalizing – relating your point of view Disagreeing – Creating arguments for/against Entertaining – Humor or other emotional switches

Embedding More than Text A few of the images recently on the SEOmoz blog Additional Content to include in blog posts  Screenshots  Photos  Cartoons  Logos  Charts/Graphs

Guest Bloggers & Interviews  Choose candidates who are likely to bring readers with them – other bloggers, journalists and well- connected industry mavens  The more famous and well- known, the better – don't be discouraged by folks who turn you down; you've got nothing to lose.

MultiMedia Content Multimedia Content:  Videos (Youtube, Metacafe)‏  Interactive Elements (tools, search boxes, polls)‏  Audio Podcasts  Flash Animations

Branding Your Blog Title + Catchy Description/Tagline Req'd Use your brand wherever your blog is mentioned Create a voice/personality that you carry throughout your online experiences Don't shill on your blog, and likewise – don't attach your brand/blog's name to anything you wouldn't want associated with it

Writing with a Human Voice Avoid “PR” speak Use a Personal Tone Connect with your audience through empathy, shared experience and passion for your topic Don't write an “article” - blog posts are short-form, opinionated and easy to consume – like the “soundbites” of the web

Leveraging Viral Blog Posts Only 1 post in 20+ should be “linkbait” Submit your posts at Digg/Del.icio.us/ Reddit before others or your title+description could be compromised Use social bookmarking links to encourage sharing Follow Up on High Traffic Posts

Creating & Fulfilling Expectations Post Frequency & Timing The Subject Matter of Posts News Events that Will be Covered Other Blogs Users Should Read Boundaries for Comments Frequency of Off-Topic Posts Level of Discourse & Language

Growing an Audience via Blog Marketing

Blog & Feed Directories List -

Tags & Social Bookmarking Use tags & social bookmarking sites to build links and control your brand's message Don't spam trackbacks or social sites – the communities watching remember who has spammed them and won't deal with/link to you in the future Not this kind of tagging... the other kind.

Getting Involved in the Blog Community Some blog communties are highly structured Others... not so much

Podcasts, Events & Media Coverage (outside the blogosphere)‏ Even the inanimate have podcasts...

Promoting A Blog Offline

How SEOmoz Succeeded From‏ 5 to 15,000 Readers in 24 months

A Unique Niche at the Right Time

Content Quality

Community Participation (on & offline)‏

Consistently Encouraging & Rewarding Participation & Interaction

Building the Most Advanced Platform in the Blogosphere

Leveraging Viral Content at Every Turn

Getting Obsessed with Stats

Q+A Day to Day (Blogging)‏