Yes, Another Blog Rush Post.

Written by Pablo Palatnik on September 17, 2007

This…yes is a post about Blog Rush. If you’re a blog reader, specially in this industry, than you’ve heard of Blog Rush by now…especially if you’re a blogger yourself. I know most have already blogged about this and it’s new nothing new, but lets face it…it’s exciting.

What happens from the launch we don’t know, but I’m sure most of us bloggers are eager to see what kind of traffic this can deliver once it’s in full swing. I personally think it’s a great tool not only for bloggers, but readers as well. A blog reader is always interested in similar or related stories…even for us bloggers it’s cool to find cool stories feeding from our blogs.

What a great widget and idea. I really love it. Very wise of them to take you to the story the reader clicks on through pop-up windows and having the user never exiting your page.

This new widget can mean to things…Traffic and Monetization. No one can report on the impact of traffic yet since it’s pretty much the new buzz and hasn’t been around long enough. Traffic=Money. That has always been the case so hopefully these new visitors could turn into ad clicks.

Optimizing Your New Blog For Search Engine Rankings

Written by Pablo Palatnik on August 14, 2007

Over the last two years or so, search engines have favored blogs in a big way. Blogs provide pure content (at least before the made-for-adsense blogs exploded in the scene) and content is king. Haven’t heard that one before have you? Ok, maybe you have.

Matt Cutts, one of the Google gods, shared some tips to optimize your blog. You can literally start a blog and get traffic within HOURS thanks to social media websites such as Digg, Stumbleupon, etc. But let me tell you, there is no better feeling than taking a look at your analytics and starting to see natural organic traffic from keywords your blog starts ranking for, and it’s not a question of IT if it ranks, but a matter of when if you optimize right. A great source for optimizing and monetizing your blog is Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger.net.

The skill that is required most to optimize is persistence…be on top of your SEO efforts and you will start to rank.

Blog Post Keywords- I particularly don’t really go into keyword research for this blog at all, but write content based on the latest news, ideas I come up with, and basically anything I think people should be informed about or can entertain. I make sure to add keywords I want to rank for in my TITLE and always try to have keyword density in your content. You aren’t going to rank for a keyword you only use once unless the keyword has no competition…and these days…good luck with that. ALT TAGS are also key in your content. DO NOT go posting images all over your blog without using ALT TAGS. You want the engines to crawl your blog and be able to read everything and it’s a great way to include some of that keyword density that you may need to help the strength of the keyword in the blog post. The key factor that has helped my blog is the keywords in the URL. In a few months, maybe even weeks, you will start ranking eventually as you acquire links and so fourth.

Social Media Strategy- If you create a good social media strategy for your blog, it can really go a long way. Social media websites can get you backlinks faster than you think…especially if you can hit the homepage of Digg, Netscape, etc. ONE story can really make a difference.

Comment with Content- The engines value links from coming from relevant websites so that’s where you want most of your links coming from. Comments on a blog can help not only drive a few visitors here and there but it is a link. More people read blog post comments than some may think. A good interesting blog post comment can get the attention of many if the topic is a hot one.

Widget/Unique Tool: You want serious links…? Create a widget/tool other blogs/websites will link to for others to use. If it can help others, believe me, word will spread and get you LINK and TRAFFIC instantly.

Blog Karma- I think this one is huge and might not make sense in a way to many, but basically WRITE FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT FOR THE ENGINES. The only way you will get link love from other bloggers, news sites, etc is through informative, good content blog post. With so many blogs now made for pure monetizing purposes (pay-per-post articles, made-for-adsense blogs) it is more and more evident to web/blogmasters the intention behind the article.

Paying Your Way To The Top – Google Adwords Change In PPC

Written by Pablo Palatnik on August 12, 2007

INSIDE ADWORDS ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK a change in formulating top ad spots in paid search. PAY YOUR WAY TO THE TOP. Of course Google doesn’t come out and say that but that seems to be the change. Quality score will still apply in terms of relevancy, etc.

“The key change to the formula will be how we consider price. Today’s formula considers an ad’s Quality Score and actual cost-per-click (CPC). The improved formula will still heavily weight Quality Score, but instead of actual CPC, it will consider an ad’s maximum CPC. Here’s why:

Actual CPC is determined, in part, by the bidding behavior of the advertisers below you. This means that your ad’s chance of being promoted to a top spot could be constrained by a factor you cannot influence. By considering your ad’s maximum CPC, a value you set, you will have more control over achieving top ad placement.”

More control to the advertiser…that’s how it should always be. The changes should be implemented in the next coming weeks and you will see changes occurring to your ad positions if you are in the top spots for certain keywords.

“Your actual CPC will continue to be determined by the auction, but subject to a minimum price for top spots. The minimum price is based on the quality of your ad and is the minimum amount required for your ad to achieve top placement above Google search results. As always, the higher your ad’s quality, the less you will pay. And you will never be charged more than your maximum CPC bid.
How might this affect me?
We anticipate that most of your ads will continue to perform as they have in the past. In some cases, you may see that ads previously shown alongside search results are now shown in top spots, and vice versa. As a result, you may see a change in the average number of clicks and average CPCs for impacted ads.
Be sure to check your stats regularly and adapt your campaigns as you see fit. Here are some quick tips:
• If you don’t want ads that usually appear in high positions alongside search results to appear above search results, check that their maximum CPCs are not dramatically higher than the actual CPCs you normally pay.
• Continue to make routine quality optimizations to keep your costs down and your performance high.”

New York Times Acquires A Blog

Written by Pablo Palatnik on August 9, 2007

And who said blogs are just a phase? This is just proof that the blogosphere is here to stay. The New York Times has just acquired Freakonomics.com. Freakonomics is a blog which began as a continuation to the book, which was released in 2005.

A blog purchased by a big media player is a great sign for the blogosphere and will spark attention from other media sources as well.