Entries from July 2008 ↓

Readers Question: What strategies can we use to increase traffic for our established site. It has many inbound links and good content, but, not as much traffic as we would like.

The hard part of building a website, is creating good quality content and getting natural inbound links. With this already in place, there are quite a few things that you can do to easily increase Traffic.

Three Main Sources of Potential Traffic

1. Google Search – Choose the right keywords and you will get much more traffic
2. Social Media – If your content gets picked up on social media there is chance for getting tons of traffic.
3. Building of Loyal Readership through RSS subscriber base

Keyword Analysis.

The title of pages is very important for determining how much search engine referral traffic you get. The key is to use keywords that people search for.

• One example: I had a page if you have a page ‘Yorkshire Dales’ you will get little traffic because that is a very competitive keyword. However, by adding one word ‘Cycling Yorkshire dales’. I got a reasonable amount of traffic from the post. Sometimes I go through sites adding certain words to titles and this can lead to more traffic.
• Look at exisiting traffic statistics. work on keywords that are working. For example, if people come to your site searching ‘new bikes’ try pages like ‘new road bikes’ ‘new time trial bikes’ e.t.c.

Creating New Pages – Top 10s, Best of

Often we don’t need to create new content but merely make better use of existing content. Suppose, we have 1,000s of good photos on our site. We need to organise these photos into targeted, irresistible pages. For example, with 1,000s of photos related to cycling, I would create pages like:

1. Top 10 Cycling Photos
2. Unusual cycling photos
3. Unique Bikes of Oxford
4. How Not to Cycle Through Town
5. Best Photos of Yorkshire Dales

• Here, we are trying to think of titles that people may search, and also create really excellent pages, which will inspire people on social bookmarking sites, forums and hopefully get links to.
• Note, it is good to focus on a particular theme, e.g. the unique and unusual do well. Beautiful nature scenes will appeal to different people.
• Make these pages really stand out then try promote them. Even if they don’t work on social media, you can get steady traffic from google and other search referrals.

Continue reading →

There is no doubt technology can help vastly increase our productivity, but, many are now realising that as well as being a help, modern technology can be a hindrance.

How Technology has Harmed Our Productivity

• Text messages going off distract us from work. It estimated text messages took 0.5% off GDP in the US.
• Writing text messages can reduce your IQ more than smoking cannabis. [link]
• Always on call. Mobile phone, instant chat.
• Multitasking. Modern technology means we try to do several things at once. Two computers open at once.
• Emails create a proliferation of messages – additional problems.
• Reduced attention span. The internet has given us quantity rather than quality. The analogy is a getting a glass of water from Niagara falls. Because there is so much more information, we try to skim through 100s of pages, rather than read 1 carefully – See Has Google made us stupid? article in Atlantic about reduced attention spans of the modern reader.

Of course, this ignores how technology has improved our productivity. It is as unbalanced view. But, the important thing is that just because modern technology can improve productivity doesn’t mean it always will. We have to manage modern technology so we control it, rather than the other way round.

Continue reading →

When writing emails or letters it is good to avoid negative writing, which only serves to create a bad impression. These are some strategies for avoiding negative writing.

1. Ignore stupid ideas.

If somebody suggests an unworkable idea, there is no need to criticise it saying things like ‘That’s a complete waste of time’. If things are a waste of time they will fail of their own accord.

2. Use Positive Phrases

Compare these words:

• activity, evolving, good question, helpful, join us, develop potential, productive, solve, together, useful.

• I can’t, I won’t, forget it, impossible, never, stupid, unavailable, waste, too busy.

The words reflect your attitude to life; they also reflect your attitude to the person you are writing to.

3. Encourage Good Qualities

If you are writing to someone, try to encourage their good aspects. Don’t focuses on all their weaknesses. You will not be able to change their bad qualities; but, you can encourage their good qualities.

Compare these sentences

• To be honest, I think it’s a stupid idea. It would be a complete waste of time to try and build your wiggly widgets and anyway we have the much more important project of the frogly widget.
• Thanks for your suggestion about the wiggly widgets. At the moment, we are focusing our attention on building the frogly widgets. Perhaps, we can use some of your ideas for wiggly widgets to develop the jolly widgets to its full potential.

Related

• Avoid the Double Negative

Since it’s the weekend, a few choice quotes from George W. Bush for no other reason than sometimes it’s good to have a laugh.

“Let’s make sure that there is certainty during uncertain times in our economy.” — George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 2, 2008

“The best thing about my family is my wife. She is a great first lady. I know that sounds not very objective, but that’s how I feel. And she’s also patient. Putting up with me requires a lot of patience.” –George W. Bush, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007

“Let me start off by saying that in 2000 I said, ‘Vote for me. I’m an agent of change.’ In 2004, I said, ‘I’m not interested in change –I want to continue as president.’ Every candidate has got to say ‘change.’ That’s what the American people expect.” –George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 5, 2008

“Hey, I accessed the internets using the Google this weekend”

I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe – I believe what I believe is right.
George W. Bush

If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier – so long as I’m the dictator.
George W. Bush

I’ve coined new words, like, misunderstanding and Hispanically.
George W. Bush
Speaking at Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner, March 2001

“And my concern, David, is several.” –George W. Bush, to NBC’s David Gregory, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2007

“The solution to Iraq — an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself — is more than a military mission. Precisely the reason why I sent more troops into Baghdad.” –George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2007

“That’s why we are inconveniencing air traffickers, to make sure nobody is carrying weapons on airplanes.” –George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2007

“They’re innocent, they were doing nothing, and they were summarily plucked out of water.” –George W. Bush, on British sailors who were detained by Iran while on patrol in the Persian Gulf, Camp David, March 31, 2007

“Some call this civil war; others call it emergency — I call it pure evil.” –George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 28, 2007

“I’m a strong proponent of the restoration of the wetlands, for a lot of reasons. There’s a practical reason, though, when it comes to hurricanes: The stronger the wetlands, the more likely the damage of the hurricane.” –George W. Bush, New Orleans, March 1, 2007

George Bushisms

“How can you possibly have an international agreement that’s effective unless countries like China and India are not full participants?”

–George W. Bush,

“One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be.”

–George W. Bush, on military benefits, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007

IF you look through many quotes of George Bush, you will see a variety of double negatives; they suggest a confused and simple mind. Don’t come across like the President of the US. Choose instead clarity – say what you mean.

Don’t not say a complicated way of creating confusion when things could, in all honesty, be less complicated than you have failed to put across.

Examples of Double Negatives and Better Alternatives

• It’s Not a Bad Idea
• It’s a promising idea

• I couldn’t agree less
• I disagree

• It’s not completely useless.
• It has some potential.

• I’m not particularly happy with the progress that has not occured in the past few weeks.
• The lack of progress, in the past few weeks has been dissapointing.

How Do you Spell school Again?

It is happened many times that when people correct errors, they create additional errors. One thinks of Winston Churchill’s famous

“That is the kind of English, up with which I will not put”

Or George W. Bush

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”

Amusingly, Stephen Dubner of Freakonomics, pointed out an error in the Economist. He argued the Economist had unwittingly dropped an r from pastries. He pointed out that the Economist had misspelt it pasties. He blogged about it here

Unfortunately, for Stephen, he didn’t realise there is actually a foodstuff called Cornish pasties; so the Economist was right and he had a bit of egg on his face. Just to finish off the joke, the Economist sent him a chicken and vegetable pasty through the post. – Pasties, Pasties everywhere

I have seen many people point out errors, only to make more errors themselves. It’s certainly happened to me; although, conveniently I can’t remember the specific examples.

For any blogger, getting links to your blog is essential to success.

I have previously suggested some tips for building links here – Tips for getting more links

In recent months, I have been working hard in building up links on my blogs. One my favourite strategies at the moment is becoming a regular commentator on other blogs.

I don’t target the very successful blogs, but look for blogs which are relatively new and blogging on a similar theme. Becoming a regular commentator helps to build up a friendship, which often leads to mutual links as well. If it doesn’t no harm; but, on quite a few occasions it has led to blogroll links and links in posts. Don’t be tight about linking to other blogs either.

Note: a while back I said I had stopped commenting on other blogs (for Net Writing’s niche) I found it wasn’t working for this particular niche. However, in the cycling and to a lesser extent economics niche, comments have been very effective. Either I was

1. Wrong,
2. Commenting in the wrong place or
3. Maybe it just depends on the niche.

How To find Good Blogs for Developing Contacts.

1. I use google blog search to search blogs on my niche e.g. search ‘cycling’
2. If the blog is very good I add it to my RSS feed and give it relevant category.
3. Once or twice a week I go through my feed and comment on my favourite blogs
4. Alternatively, look at popular blogs and click on the people who leave good comments.
5. It is a mix between finding new blogs and establishing relationships with the blogs you like. Don’t just be a hit and run commentator

Useful Tool for checking backlinks – backlink watch

“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

- Oscar Wilde

I have long wanted to work from home, but, having spent the past couple of weeks working from home, I realise their are quite a few difficulties as well as the undoubted benefits. Whilst many would like the idea of working from home; it is worth being aware of the potential drawbacks.

No Structure.

Working for yourself gives a tremendous freedom; you can choose the hours of when and indeed if you work. There is no 9 to 5. But, this means you need to be quite disciplined in setting aside time to concentrate on work.

No Finish Time.

If you work in an office, you at least know, when your work day is over. But, working from home means that you can be working until late at night. Sometimes, it is important to set a time to completely switch off and not touch any more work.

Mixing Work And Pleasure.

Sometimes your not sure whether your working or just pursuing a hobby. In a way this is a great thing. But, it means your work can sometimes lack focus. For example, I have a blog on cycling; but, I’m not sure how productive it is to watch highlights of the Tour. True, I could blog about it, but, it is not really effective work. Similarly, I spent a lot of time looking at photos from a cycling trip. I did get a blog post out of it but, it took a long time.

Continue reading →

Since entering the RSS competition at Daily Blog Tips, I have been trying a few strategies to get more subscribers to my Economics Blog. This is what I have been doing so far:

Blog Carnival.

I have set up a Carnival of the Economists, encouraging people to submit articles on economics. The hope is that people up submit to carnivals will be interested in subscribing. I think it is also important to make the most of a blog carnival, e.g. encouraging submitters to subscribe.

Posting

Frequent posting, once or twice a day. I could post more, but, I doubt this would help. There is always a danger of putting people off through overposting.

Commenting on Top Blogs.

I found a list of the top 100 economic blogs. I went through the blogs, and subscribed to those who allow comments with links to your homepage. I have been leaving thoughtful comments, in the hope some will click through and subscribe. The traffic from this has been low, but, hopefully it is good quality traffic.

Things Which would be good to Do

• Write Guest Posts on Popular Blogs. Unfortunately, most of the top economic blogs aren’t interested in accepting guest posts; it’s different to the self improvement and blogging niche. Continue reading →

Recently, I have been helping a few people start blogging, who previously didn’t have any experience.

The first thing I realised is that it is easy to forget how much knowledge which may seem ‘obvious’ to an experienced blogger, is actually a complete mystery to the newcomer.

There is also a lack of information at the absolute basics of blogging, because we take certain things for granted.

First Steps in Blogging

What is a Blog?

A blog is a way of generating a website; it is a way of generating online content. A blog can be many things, but usually it is updated on a fairly regular basis. Netwriting is a blog. You can look at my other blogs here

What Do I need to be able to Blog?

1. Buy a domain name. If you look at the top of the screen, you will see the domain name of this blog is www.netwriting.co.uk/

2. You need to host your blog with a hosting company. You will need to sign upto a hosting company. I strongly recommend choosing a hosting company which offer one click install (i.e. easy) for a blog software. I Recommend – Hostican prices range from $6 a month to $11 a month.

3. Linking Domain Name to Hosting Company.

It is easier if you buy a domain name, with your hosting company. But, there can be reasons to buy it separately. If you buy a domain name from a separate company you need to point the nameservers from the domain company to the hosting company. e.g. ns1.hostican.com. This effectively links the domain name with your hosting account so that the domain name will work on your hosting company.

By the way, it can take time for the domain name to ‘propagate’ and become active.

4. Install a Blog

Once you have a website such as www.netwriting.co.uk, you can install a blog. The blog is a piece of software which makes it easy to add content. Note, you don’t need to buy or download any software, it is hosted online.

I recommend Wordpress. If you goto your control panel. You will see a function called ‘Fantastico’. This is because it is fantastic in saving time and effort. Then you choose to install wordpress. You can install at /blog or install at the root just leave / blank. It doesn’t matter too much, whether you install at /blog like www.cyclinginfo.co.uk/blog. or at the ‘root’ like netwriting.co.uk/

Continue reading →