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Commenting on blogs for online marketing.

| No Comments | Posted in online marketing |Pali

Commenting on popular blog’s posts is increasingly being used as a online marketing tool. If you leave a comment on a popular blog post it would be read by many people and what’s more it will remain there till the blog post is online giving you exposure on a long term basis. Blog readers see comments as a good representation of the commenter or their business.

Blog comments Doshdosh blog has a post (Rethinking Blog Comments: Much More Than Just A Quick Way to Get Web Traffic) on comments where he advises blog readers to comment on posts on popular blogs to build a network. He also points out that one should not comment for the sake of link building because it might serve a short term benefit of increasing your website’s page rank but in the long term it would not be an advantage.

Comments and links in the comments should be relevant to the content of the post to generate more click throughs. Bloggers and blog readers usually do read comments and if your comments are relevant more readers are likely to follow the links, if there are any, in your comments. All bloggers would tell you that they like comments on their posts as the main purpose of posting on a blog is to generate a discussion amongst it’s readers. What’s more developing a network with people of similar interest will be beneficial in the long run.

Doshdosh mentions in his post how he caught a known Internet marketer leaving same comments on number of blogs and posts! Doshdosh promptly marked his comments as spam. The loss for the marketer was that he lost an opportunity to build a network. This is a great example how commenting for the sake of commenting might not be beneficial or might lead to negative publicity.

Therefore, one should comment on blogs for developing relationships and one’s network and not to reap short term benefits.

Update (June 2, 2008)

Since I posted here I was confused about whether one should insert a link to one’s website or blog in the main comments itself because I had seen some of the commentators doing that. I found the answer at a post on Search Engine Journal blog in the post named SEO & Link Building Via Blog Comments. In this post it is clearly mentioned NOT to add links in the comment body unless required. To quote “But do not place a signature link in the comment body itself except for critical circumstances. Linking to your own site in the comment body is not only spammy in nature, but can also get your name, site, email and IP flagged by ’social’ blog spam software like SpamKarma, and get your comments automatically deleted from dozens of blogs which use the application.” Since the author of the blog is Loren Baker who is the editor of the blog and also an authority in the arena of Search Engine Marketing I believe what he says is correct.

DMiracle has a post which discusses the advantages of branding your blog comments. You can get it here Do You Brand Yourself in Your Blog Comments?

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Best web applications of 2007

| No Comments | Posted in web 2.0 |Pali

As the year comes to an end one is tempted to find out the top web apps for the year. This is not easy to do so because of the number of applications that are being released every day. Once you have your list of top web apps then you want to compare the results what others are saying.

I decided to list the top 5-8 web applications which have been the most useful to me in 2007. I knew that the biggest problem was that there were web applications which are great but I have not tried them even though I signed up for them but never got to test them for the want of time. Nevertheless here is my list

  1. Google apps for your domain and Google web apps Google web apps for your domain
    I have been using Google for your domain for my office and it has been a big time saver and has made management of email accounts, documents, chat and scheduling much easier. Google apps include Google docs, Gmail, start page for your domain, Google calendar and the API’s of Google for your domain include Gmail, start page, The biggest advantage is there is a small learning curve as the Google web applications work similar to the offline applications.
  2. Opera for my MobileOpera mobile - Mobile browser
    I have a Sony Erricson W700i and the web browser Opera has been a boon for me as now I can check emails, information and also chat using Opera on my mobile. The interface of Opera is very easy to use and their latest version is a big improvement.
  3. Delicious
    I started using Del.icio.us at the end of 2006 though I was not using (or abusing it!) till February 2007 because that was the time I discovered the extensions for Firefox. Bookmarking has become Delicious online bookmarks interesting and doable because delicious stores the bookmarks online. The fact that everyone shares the bookmarks helps in finding useful sites which you might not find otherwise through regular search engines or browsing. At times instead of searching on the search engines I conduct searches on delicious and invariabily, though the results are far less, the results have some good and interesting links.
  4. Wordpress and blogging 
    Wordpress exposed me to the world of blogging and I find sharing of thoughts on a blog very wordpress_logo001 satisfying and fun. Now I’m not restricted to wordpress as now I have 5 regular blogs - one of them on Tumblr (http://www.palimadra.tunblr.com), two of them on blogger, then my personal journal at http://www.afterthe.net/journal and the last one on my business’s official site. While blogging one learns a lot about the nuances of web designing and how the Internet works while keeping in touch with your points of Interest. Once you have the blog up and running one has understand how to market it and that exposes you to the real time challenges of Internet marketing.
  5. Lifehacker and Personal ProductivityLifehacker - Personal productivity blog
    Lifehacker (http://www.lifehacker.com and http://lifehack.org) has enabled me to see personal productivity from a different perspective. It is satisfying to know that other people in the world have similar problems as you and some of them are able to tackle it. Lifehacker has helped me understand myself better and also has assisted in developing different perspectives to everything in life and I’m sure would continue to do so for the rest of my life.
  6. Box Box.net - Free Online File Storage, Internet File Sharing, Online Storage, Access Documents and Files Anywhere, Backup Data, Send Files
    Online backup of documents had a new meaning for me. Thanks to the team at Box.net for giving me  a free account on their site where I could store my documents online. With the improved integration with Microsoft Office storing documents has become easier and the obvious thing to do.
  7. Youtube
    I know a lot of people would frown on inclusion of YouTube to my list of favorites. I feel the vertical YouTube - Broadcast Yourself has not developed fully and it is still evolving. However, I’m sure in the years to come this would take the shape of TV on demand. Everyone, I feel, would agree changed the way video was used in one’s life and has made video format more shareable.
  8. Google Analyticsgoogle_analytics001
    Though I’m still learning the tricks of the trade Google Analytics has added a whole new dimension  to  the areas of SEO, SEM and Internet marketing and exciting as one can measure the results from the intuitive interface of Google Analytics.

Once I had prepared a list of my best web applications I looked up to see what others were saying. There were analysis done by some of the industry observers and authorities in certain verticals. As I had expected they were very different from those on my list. Some of the links I studied were

  1. http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-new-and-improved-apps-of-2007-332617.php
  2. http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/11-top-new-web-apps-of-2007.html
  3. http://www.investintech.com/resources/blog/archives/78-Popular-Desktop-Apps-And-Their-Online-Alternatives.html : A must read for those who have not viewed the post. Some great alternatives to offline applications.
  4. http://socialmediatrader.com/115-social-news-and-bookmark-sites-rated-by-page-rank-inbound-links-and-value/

Please share your list and help people to discover services or web applications you use as this would be a good reward to those who have developed them.

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Maximizing the exposure of your website or your blog

| No Comments | Posted in Internet Marketing |Pali

If you are designing a new website/blog, own a website/blog or launching a new website you would want maximum number of visitors. For that Maximise exposure of your website you would need to advertise your website. Of course you business links are the first target and the best way to advertise is to add your website URL to your signatures to your email and other business communication formats. It might involve printing some new stationary but it is worth it.

 

Email signature can be incorporated using different methods. The idea is to be unique and eye catching. Pimp your work has a good post that gives you options and best practices for email signature development. If you have a blog that is associated with your website then blogsis is an excellent service. You need to download the software (which is a freeware) and once installed and configured it blogsis would add a signature to all the mail you send with

a link to the latest post on your blog. BlogSigs works with Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail. Blogsis also has a Firefox extension. Do not overdo your email signatures or your website address on your stationary to the extent that they become obtrusive and do not look esthetically good.

 

The second option for popularizing your website or the blog, which is not practiced by users, is to write press releases to be submitted to different services. The reason why people do not tend to do the press releases is because it is time consuming but then they miss out on a great opportunity. If you have not written a press release before then it is best to read two great resources on the Internet to write press releases. The first is Wikipedia. A detailed page on press releases breaks a press release into different areas making it very easy to write one for the first time users. Another article on Wikipedia contains information on Electronic Press Kit which can be used in case you are inclined to do a detailed press release. The second resource is at the Press Release Writing website which contains 10 essentials of a press release.

Tomorrow I will touch on how and where to submit your press releases for the blog or a website.

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links for 2007-09-01

| No Comments | Posted in web 2.0 |Pali
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links for 2007-08-28

| 1 Comment | Posted in delicious |Pali
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SEO optimized Blog - Listpipe.com

| No Comments | Posted in web 2.0 |Pali

ListPipe is a search engine optimization service and a blog website service that provides Powerful Custom Get a free blog from ListPipe and improve your SEO with regular, fresh, and Powerful Custom Content.Content™ into a provided blog website each week. ListPipe provides regular and frequent content that is researched, optimized and customized for your local search terms and since the content generated is relevant over a period the search engine optimization is automatic. Listpipe pulls in content from Google, Yahoo, MSN and the others each week which is fresh and relevant. Subscribers get a blog, hosting, and Powerful Custom Content each week, posted directly into their blog. ListPipe web technology helps improve your rank in the search engines by establishing your Web presences with regular, fresh, and Powerful Custom Content™.

Listpipe has built powerful tools that allow them to deliver powerful custom content on a regular schedule. When someone signs up for the service they are required to provide to Listpipe keywords, business type, and location of the business. This is done via an interactive survey questions which Get a free blog from ListPipe and improve your SEO with regular, fresh, and Powerful Custom Content.one has to take.

Only a selected group of verticals.which helps them to remain current with the latest trends, news, and happenings. We research and develop content with three objectives in mind and they are Relevance to your industry, optimization for keywords and search results and interesting for your consumers.

Once the content is pulled out the user has to approve the content before it is published. Tools like videos and newsletter are there to help users in blogging. Overall it is a great service for beginners to blogging or for those who do not have the time to post regularly to their blogs

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links for 2007-08-21

| No Comments | Posted in delicious |Pali
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links for 2007-08-17

| No Comments | Posted in delicious |Pali
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