Can you still succeed at blogging?
Blogging is tough these days. Its a crowded realm with a staggering amount of people in the game. According to Pingdom, by the end of 2011 there were:
- 70 million WordPress blogs
- 39 million Tumblr blogs
- 555 million total websites
SEVENTY MILLION WordPress blogs.
Sure, some of them might be your link networks or small micro-sites - but let's cut that number in half, and you get 35 million. Even that number means for every 100 people in the US, 8 of them blog. That's crazy.
What's left to do but...
But... NO! Don't give up! Some writers among us has achieved that success - and you can, too! You just need to know how to go about blogging in today's landscape.
You COULD be successful with blogging
You could be. But you've got to get it right. (And you may want to continue reading... *cough*) You've got to create the right mix of elements and put in the time, dedication, passion, and effort. But don't let anyone tell you it can't be done.
There are still bloggers, new bloggers, who start from scratch (in the past 12-24 months) and achieve success that looks like this:
Or this:
Yep - that's 90 linking root domains to one single post and 14,900 facebook shares.
In this post, we're going to look at an exciting case study to show you how to improve your chances for success with blogging.
We're going to break it into a few pieces;
Table of Contents - Seventeen Ways to Improve Your Blog
- Meet the blogger
- Eight past ingredients of success
- Three SEO challenges and solutions
- Six recommendations to take it to the next level
8 + 3 + 6 = 17 Ways :-)
Let's go!
Meet the blogger behind NoahsDad.com
If you've been hanging around the Moz community long enough, you may have noticed a cute little child commenting on posts or asking questions in Q&A:
Smart kid! Ok, ok... I'm playing around of course. Little Noah hasn't learned to type. That's Rick Smith, aka Noah's Dad.
I first came to know Rick through the Moz community. I then noticed this Q&A Discussion (which by the way is the most thumbed up of all time). In it, Rand suggested he do a case study about noahsdad.com. I know Rand's a busy guy, so I offered to do the case study instead. So, here we are :)
Oh, right, back to Rick...
Besides being a welcome member of the Moz community, Rick has been achieving a special kind of success with his blog noahsdad.com. His son Noah was born with Down Syndrome December 15th, 2010 and Rick has been documenting their journey as a family since May 2011.
There have been some particularly interesting SEO challenges for the blog along the way and with his success, there is always an underlying question: what can Rick do (really, what can ANY blogger do) to take this success further?
Eight ingredients of success for NoahsDad.com
In essence, this is a case study for all bloggers who want to grow their blog and achieve more success.
Although Rick is not a professional writer and has only been blogging on noahsdad.com for about 15 months, he's achieved a noteworthy degree of success. They've been featured or mentioned on Time.com, ABC News, The Huffington Post, FOX News, and more. Average monthly visits are now in the 5-digits.
And, how would you like these kinds of metrics for a single post?
What has Rick done so far to achieve this success? What can you do and learn from and apply to your own personal blog?
1. Theme your blog with one concrete topic/have a purpose
I don't think anyone would question what Rick's blog is "about." Its about Noah, Rick's son, who has Down Syndrome. This is concrete. It anchors the purpose and meaning of the blog into something tangible.
I can think of a good example in the SEO world. Jon Cooper didn't just make an SEO blog, he made a link building blog. Specifics matter.
Takeaway: How can you hone in on a more concrete topic for your blog? Or, if you're thinking of starting a new blog, how can you focus your topic more?
2. Use Random Affinities
I completely, 100% took that from Ian Laurie's post (as you can see in the link). However, Rick has basically nailed this instinctively. Just about every time he uses a random affinity in a post, it's wildly successful.
For example, look at the post he wrote about a Target advertisement which discretely uses a child with Down Syndrome. According to Open Site Explorer, it received 90 LRDs and 14,900 facebook shares. It got linked to by the Huffington Post, ABC News, and many more quality sites. Rick combined the topic of Down Syndrome, with the department store Target and its advertising message.
By tying together the theme's of Target, Advertising, Special Needs, and Down Syndrome, Rick tapped into a much larger audience.
Takeaway: Read Ian's post :)
3. Create content the media would be likely to cite
Focus on creating a resource that does the job of a reporter to make their lives easier. Reporters are more likely to use your post to explain a facet of what they're reporting on if they can simply point to your article.
That's exactly what this reporter from the Huffington Post did when he linked to an article on noahsdad.com:
Takeaway: Find news articles in your niche. Study the types of resources they are linking to. Analyze what makes them linkable. Create your own content with the traits you find in mind.
4. Be consistent and post daily
Since day one, Rick has been posting content on almost a daily basis. But honestly, the consistency part of this is most important. Look at the success of Whiteboard Friday!
If finding time to write on a regular basis is a challenge for you, make use of the scheduling feature in WordPress or your CMS.
Takeaway: Choose a publishing schedule that is realistic for your schedule and that fits your audience. It might be once a week, everyday, etc. Whatever you decide, make use of scheduling features in WordPress or your CMS and publish content consistently.
5. Drive traffic with social media
It's analytics time. Tell me Rick's traffic is not tied to social... this is the all traffic segment and social media traffic segment (more on how I made that chart later).
You can see that social media is absolutely driving those peaks and valleys of traffic.
Takeaway: Social media can be overwhelming. I always recommend to choose one or two platforms and do those really well. Don't try to be on all of the social media platforms, at least not right away. Choose the 1-2 where your audience is most likely to be and start engaging.
6. Use personal and intimate images that tell a story
Maybe it's because this piece takes an extra bit of effort, but so many bloggers don't use images well or at all. Rick does, and he does it extremely well. A few examples:
Not only is Noah adorable - you see family. You get the "moment." You feel like you know Rick and his wife. You make a connection.
This is Rick, with baby Noah, finding out about the hole in Noah's heart. If that isn't an intimate and touching photo, I'm not sure what is.
Rick uses these consistently on noahsdad.com. Images make a huge difference in audience interaction.
Takeaway: In a way, you always have to curate your own photos or graphics along the way. Make sure you have personal, engaging photos to go along with your posts.
7. Video! Video! Video!
The guys from Distilled have been recommending video for a while now. Moz arguably built its blogging success in part to the Whiteboard Friday video series. Rick has been posting little short videos of Noah - "A Window Into Their Lives" - and he does them on a very regular basis.
Just check out his YouTube page. 185,958 video views to date!
Takeaway: Similar to photos, you almost have to always be ready to capture something (if your blog is about events). Also, if you're at a loss for something of higher quality than just your iPhone or smartphone - follow Mike King. He's an SEO but as been focusing more on video these days, and he shares good tips about equipment, lighting, etc.
8. Do #RWS - Real WORLD Shit
What's #RWS? A small takeoff on Wil Reynolds #RCS (or Real Company Shit). noahsdad.com isn't a company so I'll call it "Real WORLD Shit" - #RWS.
Many of the topics Rick writes about, by nature, comes from real things that happen in the real world. Bring the offline online. Things that make a difference and matter will help your audience connect.
Like the post "An Update And History On Noah's Heart Conditions." Rick doesn't just write an endless sea of prose after the fact. He brings you there with him. There's photos. There's drawings of Noah's heart. And there's actual medical information.
Takeaway: Want to incorporate more #RCS or #RWS into your blog? Watch Wil's session from Mozcon (which Moz released for free!)
Three SEO challenges and solutions
Rick and I had the chance to speak on the phone a few times, and I got to learn a little bit about some of the challenges he was facing. This case study is a perfect opportunity to share my recommendations with everyone.
Challenge one: how should I categorize the content on my blog?
Even for a seemingly simple blog, site architecture, content categorization, and menu structure can be elusive. That's often because there are different ways to bucket content, depending upon what point of view you're looking from.
For WordPress specific info on how to utilize categories vs tags, check out my post on WordPress.
For the simplicity sake of this post, we're simply going to focus on the menu. We're going to assume the underlying architecture and URL structure makes sense. So, yes, I suppose this is a little bit of UX (Is it really that different from SEO?)
Here's the current structure of noahsdad.com:
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Its pretty good, but Rick asked for some suggestions to make it better. Rather than just show you want my suggestions are, I want to walk through the process.
Step one: List the types of people in priority order of who you most want to find your content.
You simply have to understand the different people who you are trying to attract to your blog.
Step two: Break the list down into its most simple elements. This gives you a basic map for the informational space you're playing with.
These are the four most distinct and simple buckets of content I can think of surrounding a blog about a son who has down syndrome:
I advise all bloggers to do the same. How many categories can you elegantly break down your blog into?
Step three: Using steps one and two, create variations of this simple question: who is looking for what and why?
A few examples;
- A parent of a child with down syndrome (who) is looking for a community (what) for emotional support (why).
- An expectant parent just diagnosed (who) is looking for useful and compelling information (what) to help decide if they should keep the child (why).
- A medical student (who) is looking for medical facts and information (what) to use for a study in school (what).
We could come up with many more variations, but you see how aligning the people with the content and their reasons to search for it starts to give you a vivid picture of how to structure the categories.
This process helps me wrap my head around the topics and give them context. I am understanding the topic at hand as well as the people.
Step four: Structure the menu for people. In this particular instance, I want to help Rick set up his menus to anticipate the needs people will have when they arrive on the site. You can understand the needs by understanding what specific circumstance they're in - which is where steps 1-3 got us.
Arrange the menu in a way that requires the least thinking possible, and makes people think, "Wow, Noah's Dad read my mind and knows where I'm coming from!"
Although Rick might want to change around the particular wording a little or move a few things around, I think this is headed in the right direction. The menu is designed more user-centered rather than perhaps just topic-centered.
Tip: When structuring your content, don't reinvent the wheel! This resource about Down Syndrome was very useful when coming up with the menu.
Challenge two: should I rank for misspellings?
This was another interesting challenge. Although the appropriate spelling of Down Syndrome is "Down" and not "Down's" or "Downs", many people still spell it and search for it improperly. The question than became: should Rick try to rank for "Down's Syndrome?" The problem is, anyone who knows what the proper spelling is, would possibly believe that Rick is being disrespectful or simply incorrect.
The fact is, its not so easily to tell at face value if you should target a misspelling. So I made a little flowchart.
Flowchart - Is it worth targeting that misspelling?
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Let's walk through that process for the keyword "down's syndrome."
Does it get good search volume? I'd say arguably yes, although it gets less than the correct spelling, it still gets enough they are showing it in the AdWords KW Tool
This was odd to me - being curious I wanted to know why... Wikipedia uses both versions.
OK, found it. Apparently the UK will still use Down's
This is getting tricky, and already throwing off our flowchart! One last screencap before we get back on course. Does the UK have search volume for "down's?"
Yes, they do, but still not a significant amount more than the US.
Secondly - are the SERPs much different for Down vs Down's?
As I found out, they are a little different, but Google still seems to treat down's like down, as you can see with the bolding.
At this point (we haven't even gotten to step three), I'm thinking it probably doesn't make sense to try and rank for "down's" on its own. But what about something else?
Rick should create a little resource explaining why its Down in favor of Down's.
Besides Wikipedia, the only other relevant results are out of date. Time to put something new up there, Rick!
So, in this case, we came to an alternative strategy. Don't target just Down's but create a resource explaining the difference between Down and Down's.
Challenge three: what do I write about?
Another challenge Rick brought up to me (which I think any blogger faces trying to create daily content) is how to continuously come up with ideas. Not jus any idea. Topics that people will actually care about. How do you do it? Obviously, you've got tools. We all know about them:
- Ubersuggest
- Soovle
- Google Insights
- AdWords KW Tool
- Your own Analytics / Webmaster Tools Data
- Your brain
- The thesaurus
But you see that one mixed in... your brain? Often forgotten about, we look for tools to do this work for us. It's amazing how can we apply some creative thinking to squeeze more out of the tools we have.
Start Asking Ubersuggest and Soovle Questions - Everyone knows how to use Ubersuggest "normally," but we can still get more creative with it. Wil Reynolds has been talking about this. Like this formula:
[Question words] + keyword.
Question words - try;
- can
- does
- will
- would
- how could
- why does
- when does
- where does
Examples...
Also, we all know to use "vs" - like in eCommerce - "nike vs ...." Try "the difference between [keyword] and.... "
(By the way, this does work for eCommerce - and you may get different ideas, or another set of keywords to target.)
Go nuts with those, but remember that this is only what Google suggests. What about Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, EBay, YouTube, and others? Enter Soovle.
Well said indeed! I want to show you a quick example of how Soovle can generate some different ideas than Google depending on your niche.
Pretty cool, eh?
By now, your brain is startin' to fire up, I hope. Don't just use the examples I gave. What creative ways of using Ubersuggest and Soovle can you come up with?
Let's keep talking about your brain. Highly underrated in SEO.
Now, what I would do is this. Remember the hierarchy of potential visitors? You can call them personas or keyword level demographics. And we don't have to get as intensely technical as Mike's post. The point is to just put yourself in someone else's shoes and brainstorm (keyword: brain. storms work too though) - what's important to them?
Let's cover the two top most potential visitors in our hierarchy: expectant parents or parents of newly born child with Down Syndrome, and they just received the diagnosis. What would you be feeling, thinking, wondering, hoping?
I don't have kids and I don't know about you, but I'd want to know the following:
- What's it like raising a child with down syndrome?
- How does it differ from raising a "normal" child?
- Do they face challenges in life?
- Can it be "cured" or managed?
- Do they go to school? Get married? Get jobs? Have kids of their own?
In a nutshell, I'd be wanting to know two things: what their quality of life going to be, and what's my family's quality of life going to be like.
Start searching Google as if you are that person who just received a diagnosis your child has Down Syndrome.
Don't forget to go to the bottom...
Then, start bucketing your keywords into categories in a spreadsheet. It doesn't have to be super complicated. Just devise a way to remember your ideas but also start to organize them. This chart is not even a far cry from complete, but you can see how I begin the process. I would continue to tag and categorize them, and then start running some metrics like search volume, rankings, impressions, traffic etc.
Keep a curation of keywords and ideas going like this for each persona and you'll never run out of topics (and never forget them too, I hope).
The best part, of course, is that now you know these ideas are going to help people because they are actually searching for these things.
Six ideas and recommendations
OK... we're just getting started! Above there were eight things noahsdad.com is doing well, three ways to overcome some challenges, and now we've got six recommendations for Rick to take his blog further. Remember? Seventeen ways to improve your blog.
And again, these are things that can help all bloggers.
1. Set blogging goals
Rick's site obviously doesn't sell anything, and he's not focused on selling advertising as a primary goal, either. But for every site (yes, even your blog about cooking or running or music production), you can still come up with something to measure.
Rick and I spoke about this, and came up with a few key goals he wanted to measure;
- RSS Signups
- RSS Email Signups
- Social Sharing
- Increase in Social Followers
- Commenting / Engagement
- Traffic For Specific Keywords, especially related to new parents or expecting parents
- Brand vs Non-Brand Traffic (I added this one in myself Rick, in case you were wondering)
Perfect, now we know what to measure... let's get to the how!
2. Measuring goals
In the scope of this case study, we can't cover every detail of measuring these goals. But I will show you a few in particular which I set up for Rick, and you should do the same for your blog.
Events: Are there links on your site, which send a person somewhere externally, but fulfill a goal? Like an RSS button or a link to your Twitter Profile? You should track as many of those as you can with events.
Choose the link or button you want to track.
Add the event tracking code to the <a> tag:
I can't cover this in detail here, but the code I used was:
onClick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'RSS','Click','Feed'])
Just do this search and you'll be set.
Add these to all links you feel it would be worthwhile to track - like an RSS email subscription at the top of the page:
Fortunately, the widget Rick is using has the analytics tracking option built in:
Goals - Then, turn your events into goals.
Here's what I did for his social media profile clicks:
Again, more here in this search if you need it.
Custom Reports: Now that your events are being tracked as goals, you can create a super useful custom report.
Here's what the final report will look like:
Brand vs Non-Brand Search Traffic: This is huge! If you guys aren't doing this, you are really missing out. Brand traffic can often be a challenge to segment because of misspellings. But I've got a pretty good method for you.
This assumes you have a list of all the possible spelling/variations of your brand. But basically, it comes down to a simple RegEx:
(^noah|^www.noah|^noha|^www.noha)
FYI - ^ means "begins with" and | means "or"
Remember to create a segment for Non-brand search traffic (so you're filtering out brand terms):
Social Media Advanced Segment: Google Analytics currently gives you a Social Media section, but I don't find it all that useful. That's why we're going to create an advanced segment to measure social media traffic better.
Plus, analytics includes WordPress as social...yeah, ok maybe. Creating your own segment gives you absolute control over the sources you want to include.
In this case I'm choosing sources I know Rick is most actively promoting.
Yes, yes, yes... you can do that with RegEx as well. This post shows you how if you want to do that. Although a little outdated, Avinash has a superb post on advanced segments, including one for social media.
3. Building your community? Start a forum!
When Rick and I spoke, he mentioned wanting to somehow connect his audience. In other words, he's looking to grow a platform for his community.
Start a forum!
He might know something I don't, but all the ones I could find were either outdated, low traffic, or poor quality.
There is definitely an opportunity in the space here. And he already has a crowd of followers to help seed content and get it going. Plus, long-tail traffic and building your domain authority by maintaining control of the content on noahsdad.com
Just a fair warning though: forums require close moderation. But I feel, in this case, a forum may provide more benefit than negatives.
You have some options for software:
- vBulletin - The standard one everyone knows
- Xenforo - A client of mine just started trying this. We're not out of testing, but it looks very promising.
- Mingle WordPress Plugin - this looks like a good plugin for WordPress. Haven't tried it myself though.
How about anyone else? Does anyone have recommendations for forum software for Rick?
4. Host Google Hangouts
Rick also mentioned wanting to bring more of his audience to Google Plus. The demographics of visitors to noahsdad.com fit mommy bloggers more than anything else. And they are not on Google Plus.
So you need a unique selling proposition for why they should be on Google Plus.
What can Google Plus do no other network can? Hangouts. Try it! It may take a few tries, but I bet you'll start pulling some momentum if that idea sounds exciting to you.
Schedule it. Send invitations. Bring your audience there and show them how fun it can be. Try it at least 4-5 times on a regular schedule and see if it can get you some traction in G+.
5. Start a podcast
OK. So this may take more time. And more resources. And just more work. But it could bring you to an entirely new level.
There's one small catch. I was looking around for existing Down Syndrome podcasts.
Most of them were really old... like this...
This was the only current one I could find. Just got started this past summer. However, the audio quality is shaky, they seem to run very long, and the engagement on their website is low.
In other words: I think Rick could do better. Just speaking with him on the phone and I think he would make a perfect host. He's personable, speaks well, and is very engaging to interact with.
He might even know this person. Who knows? So if he pursues it, he should obviously not "step on anyone's toes" but I think there's a fantastic opportunity here if done right.
I see some good resources on this search to start...
6. Create An App
Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income created an app for his blog. It does nothing more than allow people to:
- Read his latest posts
- Listen to his latest Podcasts
- Read his latest tweets
- Share his content
- Find his facebook page
That's it! But he knows people are increasingly mobile. You can get all that stuff on your mobile device, but now with his app they're all in one place. And...he's discoverable in the iTunes Store.
Here's a sample of what it looks like:
There's obviously more you can do with Apps, but this shows you even a simple app could be worthwhile to get you in front of a new audience and allow people to consume and share your content more easily.
To conclude
Yes - to conclude. Where do we finish? Rick's obviously doing a lot right on his blog - and I hope this gave him and you some ideas for taking your blogs further.
There may be 70 million WordPress blogs out there, but out of those 70 million - I'd like to know how many people keep going. I'd like to know how many of those use vivid and intimate images, how many use video, how many of them talk about something real? Real World Shit. #RWS!
I'd be willing to bet the answer to those questions are "not many." There's always going to be a high noise ratio of content on the web, and it's only going to increase. But Rick proves to us that if you're passionate, dedicated, personal, take risks, and be real, you still can achieve success.
And time... time is the ultimate filter of signal vs noise. Five years from now, I'll remember Rick and Noah and their blog. What blogs or content will you remember 5, 10, 20 years from now?
Let's help each other out
With all this blog talk, I'm up for a discussion...open to anything, of course. But let's help each other out.
- Where are you at with your blog?
- Is it a company blog?
- A personal blog?
- What tips in this post do you find challenging?
- What do you struggle with? Coming up with content? Making it "quality?" Getting traffic? Getting comments?
I'll start. But in the comments as soon as this posts tomorrow... see you in the discussion!!
-Dan
Dan,
Thanks so much for great case study and all of the work you put into this post, I really appreciate it. This is an excellent post for anyone blogging (or creating content) on any subject matter. You've given us (and everyone else) some very actionable tips and I can't wait to put them into practice.
I think the key to "good blogging" (whatever that is) is finding a topic to write about that is at the intersection of your passions and interests. That is the "blogging sweet spot" as I like to say.
I've heard it said that sometimes you find your passion, and other times your passion finds you. Ours differently found us when Noah was born.
I want to always say thanks to everyone on the SEOmoz team as well. To say that this company has been supportive, encouraging, and helpful would be an epic understatement. I don't know of another company whose CEO would reply back to someone over email to help them with trivial questions, but Rand has done that...multiple times.
What a great community this is!
This post came out blazing and is still smoking.
I'm wondering if Rick hosts any 'meetups' involving expecting or other parents? Also, if he does any volunteer work involving Down Syndrome? I would think his passion would make both opportunities to meet more people enjoyable; and, from a 'reporter's' perspective, he may learn a lot about the thoughts and immediate concerns of others in associated situations, but not exact to his.
Video implementation is a great idea; and, is something I've been meaning to experiment with and encourage peers to do as well. Perhaps rather than the podcasts, Rick could think of personalities he would like to interview for his blog. Or, perhaps interview other moms and dads. Who knows? Maybe one day, when older, Noah would like to share his own thoughts on the blog :)
If I was a parent, I would really appreciate living as vicariously as possible through parents in similar situations. (Are my feelings shared or just mine? How do other people cope, embrace, celebrate?) I'm sure Rick has already shared many thoughts and feelings in prose; however, in addition to the very 'people oriented' topic, I am a huge believer that media transcends the page, making more of a 'tangible' connection. For instance, James Agate did a post last week, infusing his voice. I thought it was a great way for James to 'share' more of himself with his readers.
Also, guest blogging gets somewhat mixed reviews in the search space due to the intentions of guest authors. I don't think there is any speculation in Rick's case. In addition to inviting mommy bloggers to G hangouts, Rick may also benefit from seeing if any bloggers would be interested in having him on their blog or vice versa to gain more attention/traction on the Web.
Additionally, this is more of a PR person approach, but perhaps there are high-profile news sources that would appreciate weekly/monthly posts/perspectives from Rick, his family, and peers. We see many of our peers (AJ Kohn, Chris Winfield) posting monthly on SE Land or Marketing Land for instance. In the vein of RWS, if I was searching for information, I would rather hear from Rick than (or at least in addition to) something purely theoretical or scientific (ie WebMD).
I wish Rick and his family the best in life and with the blog. Some incredible insights in this post; it's in my content folder. Good work, Shure.
Thanks for the kind words, we're actually doing (or have though about doing) many of these things. Not to sound spammy, but here's a link to the monthly get togethers we started doing in our area. They have been awesome and a great way for families to connect.
I've also done some guest blogging as well, and try to do a few posts a month on other sites. As you can impinge trying to do a daily post with videos, images, and over 500 words of text takes a ton of time so I don't have time to guest post as often as I'd like, but I want to do even more.
Also we have been thinking about how to do a monthly meet a new family type post on our site. Our Facebook page has over 21,000 families on there and one thing I hear over and over is how they would like to have a chance to share their story, hopefully our site can be a place for them to do that.
Thanks again for the kind words and the useful tips! :)
WHAT A BLAST!!!
This is a gorgeous post!
I Agree! :)
First the Yoast/Wordpress article and now this. If there was a post of the month, you would | deserve to win :)
Noahsdad.com is a very touching blog. Emotional content will always go further, we are beings of emotions and feelings it is the best possible way to get to people.
Humor is another great emotion to get to people with, just ask Will Reynolds.
If you're ever up late watching comedy central you might notice that the commercials can be very depressing (suffering children or animals), these ads are coming up while you are laughing. This is a great example of RWS.
"Let's keep talking about your brain. Highly underrated in SEO. " So true, in the SEOmoz FAQ and other forums one can quickly see where "SEO" people's heads are at, very robotic (So all I have to do is this?), looking for a solution to a problem that does not exist. The key is creativity, and the more boring the niche the more challenging it is... However, it is that challenging for your competition as well. If you can tap into the readers/consumers emotions you will most likely win.
I Cannot really answer the questions liste above because we work on many blogs. However, I can shed a bit of light of my opinions...
I work with an SEO company and every one of our clients have a different niche that they need to broadcast to their audience. If the client is not passionate about what they do, as an SEO company we need to find someone who is passionate for that niche. Content was king, not anymore, social media is the new king... I said it!
I can write a masterpiece vs. someone's terrible article, if no one sees it, it's as if it was never created. (if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?)
And yes a terrible article that gets shared by the right people can achieve great results over a masterpiece that does not. Search engines can not determine the quality of an article without social media and social media is all networking. Not only for the share but also for creative ideas, involvement.
In real life we tend to believe anything a reliable source says, and nothing an unreliable source says. Before there is trust there is nothing, so how can one trust you in a niche you are new to? Do you trust someone you've just met? in most cases I think not.
Great content evolving, perfect way to improve our blogging skill. Your seventeen ways are really incredible to promote our blog and make it popular as Noah's dad blog. Your case study is brilliant i will definitely share this blog post. .
Dude, freaking epic article. Honestly, how long did it take you craft this piece of art? Thanks for taking the time. I've come across Noahs Dad's blog referenced in other other articles (plus I used to work with special needs kids and still volunteer from time to time at events and have seen it then too), but what a great way to raise awareness and show a touching real world example of SEO at work. Can't sing enough praise for this post. I bookmarked it. Hard.
Thank you... yes this was a really fascinating and absorbing post to do. The challenge, to me, was making it about noahsdad.com but meaningful and actionable for everyone. Really appreciate your kind words :)
This is amazing, I will definitely be book marking this page for future reference.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that this page could make a good starting base to it's own blog about starting blogs!
Just one word, Dan: terrific! I'm without words. Great post... better stop or I will start sound spammish :D
Amazing case study. To think that NoahsDad.com could have been lost in the interwebs and never read if it wasn't done right, It's a perfect example for any blogger.
Thanks Frank,
When we first started out blog one thing I didn't want to do is write a blog just for my friends and family to read. Who has time for that? I really wanted to be intentional in helping others find and follow along with the story we were telling via one minute videos.
When Noah was born I had a hard time finding videos of children living with Down syndrome and I wanted to see some #RWS I guess you could say of what life was like raising a child with Down syndrome. Since I couldn't find that, I decided to fill the gap and be that sort of site for others who may find themselves where I was. And the responsive has been overwhelming. We get people all over the world finding our site and following our story.
Some of the emails we get are pretty heartbreaking (learning how people are treated in 3rd world countries, how good we have it in the USA, etc..) but that's another post, for another day. :)
Just an epic post.
I think it boils down essentially to being passionate and organised. Passion will keep you regularly creating and sharing awesome content in new ways that helps and reaches people that are just as passionate as you.
Then the organisation keeps you in check and stops it being just a big jumble.
Love it Dan.
And Rick, you're the perfect example of someone with a drive to achieve an objective and for a good cause too. I wish you and little Noah all the best and hope your blog continues to reach people in this way. You're doing a great thing and Noah seems a wonderful child :)
Thanks so much for the kind words...and yah, Noah is pretty epic!
The SEOmoz crew sent him some fun swag for his birthday (see, I told you they were epic.) I need to post a picture of him wearing his SEOmoz baby shirt! :)
Wooo i would love to see that!!
Wow - what a comprehensive guide!
Great tips on the mispellings & general variations - thanks :)
Great post. It really comprises so many stages of evolution that the regular blogger commonly cares about. Be that in UX as well as site structure and even IM as well.
Having a blog, I stumbled across many of these myself and, in all honesty, never made the most out of more of them. Be that as it may, I still recognize the importance for the most part. And that's a great start I'd like to think.
I especially enjoy how you analytically dissect things as seemingly simple as navigational bars. And all of the sudden the importance of it becomes apparent. In terms of UX, it's a sort of rebirth for most of the blogs out there. I recently added a new category, and these steps of yours offer a model which, when applied, sorts the problem I come up with in terms of UX regarding the new category (who would search for what, and ultimately why). And this is broader than just knowing your potential audience, mostly in the sense of predicting UX, and improving it even before hand. If you ask me, that's a jewel all by itself.
I also like how as we scroll down the post, we see more advanced stages of blog evolution. Podcast, App, chasing the misspellings (I came up with the same conclusion in terms of whether or not this can be time rewarding, but I love your method), and measuring goals.
A word or two about my story. Or the story behind my blog. We (cause there is two of us behind it) have a lifestyle blog, that mainly focuses on improving ones lifestyle both in health, reaching the potential, improving the overall quality of our lifestyle and the way we enjoy it. And so far so good. Traffic is decent, when compared to the schedule we maintain in adding new content (two times per week), as well as when considered that we use only inbound marketing as a means of promotion.
It is interesting now as I connect the dots looking backwards, as how this blog gradually developed and evolved. It started as a place where the content was mainly "how to", and then gradually focused more upon providing interesting content in the sub-niche of personal growth. Then along with us learning more about IM and thinking about UX in a broader sense, it again shifted, this time putting the stress more on lifestyle related content, as well as aspects of it that speak improvement (such is fitness, different hobbies, and things of the like). It now holds the position of being a place that resembles those magazines long gone that you read passionately, or maybe just when sitting and waiting in a barber shop. In my eyes at least.
Speaking about evolution, we are thinking about writing a book, and starting with couple of other projects that now seem a little bit over our head.
The first is about creating an interview series that would go live two times per month, and would mainly focus on people who attained interesting lifestyles, the types we dream about having, and got there intentionally, more than anything else.
The second would be creating a magazine that will be delivered into subscribers mail boxes once or two times per month, containing one of those interviews, post from each category (lifestyle, fitness and sports, healthy diet, personal growth)
The hardest project would be creating an app, that would be tightly connected with the theme of the blog, as well as fun and interesting to use and interact with (not telling more, call me paranoid if you like :) We already came up with the idea, but are still short on the execution part.
If I go back and read what I already wrote, I would probably realize that the most important part of all this was persistence and being open for new possibilities and opportunities; adapting, evolving. When we started first, we focused on things like article directories, commenting ( in the wrong sense of it), guest posting as the only SEO and link building strategy (we are still for the most part using this technique), other things only less dogmatic people would understand. However, we evolved, sort of speak, and tried to learn appropriately. Like what your post is about. Wait a second, wasn't it about ways to improve your blog? No for me it wasn't. For me it was about learning how to adapt, evolve, appreciate new ideas and be open for possibilities.
Great post once again! It gave me tons of ideas.
PS. Rick's site looks great, and is something that comes to mind when saying things like adding value and creating something extraordinary.
Hey Slavko! Sorry it's taken so long for me to respond! I love your ideas - did the book or magazine etc ever come to fruition! Would love to hear how things have progressed for you.
WOW! Just great case study with excellent tips here. Especially enjoyed your way to gather semanthical kernel ;) +1 from me
Way #18. Write an awesome Case Study on SEOmoz about your blog's success :)
This is an amazing post so full of great stuff. The strategies to have a better blog are all great and can help people getting into the game.
Also, the case study is really great and shows the point that Rick made here in the comments, "finding an intersection between your passions and interests is the blogging sweet spot". This case study is also pretty heartwarming and I can see how Rick has carved out a very nice spot on the internet that is obviously close to his heart
I have wanted to really get on my blogging game for a while now and this is pretty inspiring. We shall see how that goes lol
Thats a pretty kickass post dan.. thanks !
Not only is this post extremely awesome and insightful its very inspirational well done to both NoahsDad and Dan.
Thanks!
Dan did a great job of really capturing what we try to do with our site and our story. And really gave some great tips that anyone can use no matter the "industry."
Dan,
Great case study and analysis.
Look forward to meeting you at https://mozcationportsmouth.com/.
Be sure to come say hello. We're all very excited!
Great post, Dan, and some very good suggestions. Admittedly, I have tried my hand at several blogs, but what kept me from pursuing them was exactly what Rick nailed - the passion. If we aren't writing about topics that we are genuinely interested in, things that move us and make us want to scream them to the world, then we will surely give up on them.
I am a HUGE Jordan guy (in addition to the music) and I always wanted to stay on top of the latest news. I also wanted to keep track of all the release dates, which isn't always easy. So, I created a blog on the topic and I update it with the information that I enjoy. It turns out that others feel the same way. I'm just getting started (about 2-3 weeks) but I no longer have the challenge of scheduling time to create content. It comes naturally because I am researching the heck out of the latest news everyday. My biggest challenge is only that I can't stay connected to the news as often as I would like (client work takes precedence) so other sites may break news on the latest releases before I even hear about them. There is a big advantage in being the first to announce a significant release.
Anyhow, thanks for the ideas. I will be sure to use this as a reference moving forward.
Hey thanks for the comment! I'd love to see that blog when you're ready to share it. You hit such an important point: write about something you do anyway on a daily basis. More about uncovering and curating than trying to bring on something from the outside.
Outstanding. A remarkable example of real world and actionable ideas. But then Noah and his story deserve no less.
I would love to hear more about Noah's Dad as time permits.
Hey thanks!
Wow. Hit it out of the park: applicable, simple steps -- runs you through exactly how to create a leading blog. Now it's just up to us to do it.
One thing i must say your baby is one of the luckiest child, and the post insights are JUST AWESOME, great piece of work that should be admire.
Hey thanks. We think we're pretty lucky as well! :-)
Wow Dan, great post!
I made it as far as "8. Do #RWS - Real WORLD Shit" and need to head to work. Great stuff for everyone. I think even more so because you're telling the story. Storytelling is very effective. Anyways, nice post and I'll read the rest later. Two thumbs up!
Thanks!
Amazing study on Noah's dad blog Dan, Definitely this way will improve our blogging skill.
Well done as usual Dan, love the level of detail!
Haven't seen this blog, though the story is worth reading on noahsdad, liked the blog.
Hey thanks! :)
Thanks for a truly inspiring post. Someone asked just the other day on a LinkedIn discussion group how other people got ideas for blog posts. Am I the last person on the planet to have heard of the Ubersuggest tool? Quite likely! I'm off to have a play right now. I'll also implement some of the Analytics reports. Cheers!
Thanks Mandy. That's good feedback! I think being sort of stuck among the SEO "crowd" I tend to think everyone has heard of the tools we use. But its good to know brining them to a different/bigger audience still has some value!
Excellent article. The ubersuggest technique is priceless, I've implemented it into my strategies, it's a goldmine for content ideas.
Thanks Dan for another epic post. I really like the tip about including engaging images. I think it encourages people to share and link to you if you use great images. When I see a blog post with only text, it seems less trustworthy.
This is incredibly informative and inspirational. I am not planning, I am preparing to begin using 1-2 of your concepts today. Thank you immensely for sharing.
Good post.You have mentioned very useful processes to increase the traffic.But we all are forgetting to talk about the host.
When you get a huge traffic, do you think that you can manage it using a Shared Hosting?
No, shared hosting is limited. We should go for a better solutions (hosting) like VPS or Dedicated Server. I had this issue few months a go and bought VPS and test. It worked and I didn’t drop even a single visitor.You also can test your site installing on a VPS. But it is difficult to find a VPS Hosting Provider for a month or two. I bought a VPS from VPSWEBSERVER and they have monthly plans. But you better have a small research and find the best.
We all talk about SEO and Traffic but never think about this. So I thought to add this too.Thank you for your great post.Shaikh Zafar
Excellent post! Guess I don't have any more excuses.Cheers!
Really good post, I think not all suggestions can fit to all kinds of blog (I found some I can't use in mine), but I think I will develop some of them.
Thank you
Interesting post and a great list for the beginner blogger. The main important tip is to start a blog based on something you love and enjoy. That way you will be motivated to carry on.
Its incredible post and really wan appreciate for the special portion of keyword research and measuring of goals at Google Analytics. We really wan thanks for the blog of avinash kaushik for social media regular exp.
In this case study Rick know how to write his content (About Noah). How about if the blogger do not know how to write about their topic? The blogger choose the topic because they like it but they don't how to write about some keywords that they choose.
On many other sites I read only theory about how to write blogs & how to do blogging. SEOmoz blog is the place where I see things implemented & explained with examples.
As always this is one more excellent post on blogging. Many easy to apply points on blogging, and eye opener.
Noah's story & his Dad's blog is also amazing.
Thanks a lot for such a nice post.
Oh gosh, I'm a bit late to this post, but boy that was useful, entertaining and well organised. Just very, very helpful and much appreciated Dan!
Thanks James! (I'm a little late getting back to some comments too) ;)
I would like to add that in the first 5-7 blog posts could be useful not to put any follow link in the text. Another important stuff that I think helped that blog to get that type of results is the they type of story in its pages, engaging in an emotional way.
Please help me i have a big problem am a new blogger but right now am very confused that i don't which way to go, please i will like you to check out my blog www.kiodyworld.blogspots to help me improve and make the necessary corrections. Eagerly waiting for your response
Our Beginner's Guide to SEO is a great place to start!
Great Article.
Awesome Post!! That is really very helpful for me ...
This is a badass post! Definitely need to bookmark this page. Anyone have tips on promoting a podcast?
Thanks Andrew! I'd definitely check out some of Pat Flynn's resources, like this: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/podcasting-exposure-leads-money/
Really nice points to cover. Well formed seo tips and blogging strategy are useful. Thank you so much for your views. It will surely help all the bloggers to help them in a competitive world of blogging. This inspiring post will lead the blogger's to build a beautiful and seo optimized blog on their websites. We want more from you to improve our blogs. Once again thank you so much.
Excellent Post! Very detailed, practical information.
amazing case study. love stuff like this.
Thanks! Appreciate it.
Here is what I have done right and wrong:
My site has a Domain Authority of 95, a Domain MozRank of 8.87, a Domain MozTrust of 8.87, and has 816,544,623 External Followed Links, 3,004,514 Followed Lining Root Domains. Yet, my Blogger All-Time Pageviews is just under 40,000 Pageviews, my Google Analytic All-Tinm Pageviews is 26,255, while my Google Map Mapview count is 96,790. Since the Google algorthyum change my SERP bounce daily from 748 to 2,150 (this morning), and from 30 to 48 pages of SERPs. I have a 65% search, 22% referral, and 12% Direct Traffic, with 90% new visitor blog rate. Of the 100 Google Maps: 53% had new visitors last week, while 99% had activity last week. With a 1-Week increase in map activity of 2,461 Mapviews, or 2.54%. And, I have a 42% Query-to-Click ratio, and a 1.2% Impression-to-Click ratio based on 170,000 impressions and 4,800 queries per month.
About my site: https://myreadingmapped.blogspot.com has 100 interactive Google Maps of Historic Events such as explorer expeditions, ancient ruins, the Civil War, WWII, American Revolution, sunken ships, airplane crashes, and oceanic trenches and other undersea phenomena, etc. It has a highly specialized audience that Google Insight indicates has been falling dramatically since 2005.
1) I have an Atom feed I use as a site map.
2) I created my own category directories in the right side bar and a non-Google-Analytic -functioning site map for readers.
3) I created maps based on various lists I found on Wikipedia.
4) I created articles about creating maps of historic events and instructions on how you can do it.
5) I created articles on the contradictions in history I discovered online when creating these maps.
6) I images for search engines to find of maps showing push pins identifying sunken ships viewable in the water, images showing weather in regard to sunken ships, explorations, undersea phenomena, etc.
7) I have both a Google+ page and a Facebook page, both of which perform miserably.
8) I place links to my maps in responses to articles in forums like Historium and social networking sites like the Huffington Post, Cracked, Wired, etc.
9) I wrote 80 travel agents I found email address to in a Conde Nast article, and I recommended using my ruins and explorer maps in planning vacations. One of these maps had 975 mapviews in a single week from 1,800 visitors.
10) I formed a partnership with a teacher and education technology expert to create MyReadingMapped-For-Schools that offers a select group of my maps complete with classroom lessons.
What have I done wrong?
1) I don’t like doing social networking on Facebook and Google+
2) I made mistakes in setting up the site that I later had to change as the number of maps grew.
We are all very proud of Rick and what he has accomplished with Noah's Dad. Ever since our Emilia was born with Down syndrome, four years ago, my wife and I have been trying to show how wonderful "Our" children are. We are also trying to shore up support for families, who are trying to adopt (save) the children with Down syndrome from 3rd world countries.
Congrats Rick on doing good job spreading the the good message regarding Down syndrome.
Peter & Stephanie Kaczmarzyk
[links removed]
Interesting post, I learned a lot! I founded Movie Fail Reviews almost a year ago (January 2012) and while it's been slow-going, I've really enjoyed myself. I'm looking to kick the site into high gear, but it's difficult to do so. I try and post at least once a week, but I only just learned about Soovle and Ubersuggest - what fantastic tools!
Anyway, I don't really know what else to do other than continue what I'm doing. I'm on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and StumbleUpon, and I'm always posting links and other content. I have a wide base of contributors, but our readership has remained in the low thousands per month. Hopefully this article will give me the boost I need!
Wow this is such an awesome post!
I've bookmarked it, because there is SO much value and information in this post that I know I will need to re-read this about 20 times!
I've immediately given myself a few ideas i want to roll out on my own blog, and i know there is a lot more to come as a result of this EXCELLENT post!
Thanks SEOmoz :)
Hello! Fantastic post. Really altruistic to spend time helping others find success. So here are my answers to your questions.
1) Where are you at with your blog? Our blog is brand new(ish) as it just launched 3 weeks ago. It's about Fashion, Food, and Sex (already broke the first rule about specializing...ruh ro).
2) Is it a company blog? Nope, this is something we've started because we love the three F's, and wanted to share beautiful photos and articles, so to answer the
3) third question, it's a personal blog.
4) Tips I find challenging. What is often tough for me in these types of posts is that I am not tech savvy, and have to learn how to do each task from scratch. So, for example, adding code to things makes me nervous because I don't want to mess up the site!
5) What do I struggle with? Finding content has actually been the easiest (and most fun) part. I think getting traffic, Facebook likes and Twitter followers has been the tough part (although I know we're new and have more work to do).
Any insights about what we can do as non-tech savvy people would be just lovely. Thank you so much!
I hear you, its certainly tough when you are learning multiple things as you go, the tech side being one of them. I would see if you can connect with someone who is a little more tech oriented but a little less content/creative oriented and exchange knowledge. Search followerwonk or meetups for people near you who you can meet in person.
Attend an event where people with different skills and backgrounds are.I learned technical stuff from a few books and tutorials online, but the fastest way by far is just to sit down with someone for an hour or two and have them show you the most important things to know.
Then, the cool part is, you're actually doing the social networking all at the same time because its part of the same process!
Thank you so much! I will definitely do just that.
I really like the idea of structuring your menu / categories based on the type of vistors that come to your site vs the old school method of topics. It really makes a lot of sense and helps people find what they are looking for! However I think I'm getting a bit lost sine when I look at the suggested menu structure it still seems to be grouped by topic instead of user. I may be missing something.
I want to implement some of these changes but want to be sure I don't blow my site up when I go in and start changing all the categories, etc. :) So hopefully you guys don't mind if I ask a few questions to make sure I do things correctly.
1. My first question is in regard to category / sub-categories / parent / child and how that works. For instance would Parenting be the main category then under that I would have some sub categories (I'm assuming therapy would be one of those sub-categories...more on this in a bit.) Now I have a new parent landing page so I'm assuming that would just be a child link under the main category of parenting. I'm not sure if that makes sense or not, so feel fre to ask me to clarify anything.
2. We go to therapy 20 times a month with NOah so it's a big part of our life (Thankfully we have great insurance!) This is a very popular section of our site which is I currently have it as it's own category...again I was thinking about topic, not user. It looks like your suggesting putting therapy as be a sub-category under the main category of parenting. Now the tricky part is he goes to Occupational therapy / physical therapy / speech therapy so I wanted to find a way to separate those as well so people can better find what they are looking for. So would that be a sub-sub-category Or perhaps something else?
3. Also I have two types of people really interested in the therapy category. Parents looking for tips on what to do with their own child, and therapy students who come to our site to see a parents perceptive of childhood development. (Our site is required reading / watching for several early childhood development programs at major universities. One of which is Penn State.) I'm assuming I wouldn't want to put the therapy sub-category in under both parenting and resources....any thoughts on this?
4. Is it important to make the categories key words I want to rank for, or is google smart enough to know what the site is about with out me doing that. (Plus I don't even know how I could do it with out it sounding clunky.) For instance instead of parenting I really want "Down Syndrome Parenting" instead of Resources, I really want "Down Syndrome Resources." If that makes sense. In fact I think I have a main category now that is Down Syndrome Resources (and I also have a post with the same title.) So it seems like my page and my category are both trying to rank for "Down syndrome resources"...so I may need to change that up a bit.
5. Site wide footer links. Some people say they are bad. Some say they are ok. What are your thoughts about putting some top posts / links in the footer site wide. Is this a bad idea? I think it would help the user, but I don't want to devalue the pages by having a ton of links. (I was thinking 10 or so.) By the way right now I have some important pages in the main menu simply because I want people to be able to find them. I'm assuming there is a better way to do this instead of taking up valuable main menu space.
Ok, I think that's the major things I'm thinking about right now. I'm trying to digest all of this very valuable info that Dan gave me, and apply it on our site. I think it will really help us help more people since they will be able to actually find our content. (Right now we have so much content and people have a hard time digging their way through categories trying to find it.)
Feel free to chime in and let me know what you think and how best to proceed. Again, I want to be sure I don't blow things up when I go in and start changing all of my menus / categories around.
Thanks everyone!
1. Theme your blog with one concrete topic/have a purpose
This is what I can't do on a personal blog. It makes sense for businesses, but I don't want to be "that guy with asthma" or "the dude who watches too much television". Since my blog is a reflection of me, I want it to be a collection of posts on all topics that are relevant to me. I want to be able to post whenever and whatever.
I guess the tradeoff is that success isn't guaranteed since I'm ignoring the formula. It's like movies. If you want a blockbuster, you should follow the proven formula. But some independent films are good and even succeed. I want that.
I think you can still keep things centered one a main topic / purpose without being as narrow at "the guy with asthma."
If you check out our site you'll notice we talk about a variety of topics. A recent trip to New York, our favorite ipad cases, a cute baby dancing, etc. Sure, in some way it's all tied back to our son (he uses the ipad) but it's much more vertical than you'd think. The blog isn't about "the kid with Down syndrome" if that makes sense.
I think about Rand's wife's blog as well. Sure, it's a "travel blog" but she covers a wide variety of topics that appeal to a broad audience. I think the key is the same here, as with anything; are you writing content that people want to share and link to? Sure, you could write a blog about what you ate for lunch, but let's be honest, not many people care about that (other than maybe your parents.)
I bet if you think about the topics that are "relevant" to you, and group them into buckets (as Dan mentioned in this post) you'll see some themes that develop. Do you like things that are high-tech, or out-doorsy, or do you have children you like to write about? Then you could have a tech blog, or an out door blog, or a dad blog. You see what I mean?
Think vertical and use those Random Affinities that Dan talked about in the post. I could list about 10 posts like that on our blog that really did great. Sure, it takes time to think through topics, and even longer to write them (It easily takes me over 2 hours to write a post / find images, videos, etc.) But the time put in to good content comes back to me in spades because so many people crank something out in 5 minutes and say they are "publishing daily."
What happens is people stop reading, sharing, etc, then you just waste your time (unless your just wanting to write an online diary that no one will read.)
I'd encourage you to start writing out some of the topics you like and seeing what sort of theme develops, then putting those topics into large buckets. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
Wow, this post is awesome!
I think you could write several extensive individual blog posts on many of the topics covered in this one post.
I particularly liked the section about how to catergorize your blog. I thought of how that principle can also be applied to a regular website as well. It got me thinking.
Brilliant Post Dan! So much to take away and action.
Cheers
Great post going to follow up on these tips
my blog is about the human genome
https://www.completegenomics.net
also need some feed back on what iam doing wrong
thank you
SEOMOZ
Hi - just a few quick ideas which could make a big difference for you.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
What an awesome case study and post. I actually clicked through to view the blog post about Target and its ad, and enjoyed reading it very much. I wish Noah and his father continued success and thank him for sharing his insight.
Hi thank you so much for sharing.
I'm having trouble with blogging now and the time seems so right that this post comes on time. I try to answer some of these questions, I love to hear feedbacks from all of you.
What do you all suggest?
I was thinking of maintaining 2 blogs.
my wordpress.com continue to focus on starting up & triathlon
while tumblr will do random sharing like music, sometimes tech or startup posts.
love to hear from you all :D
Bryan
lost between wp & tumblr
Thanks for reading! And happy to try and help a little.
I'd start by clearly defining your goals. What are you looking to accomplish? Do you want lots of readers? Some readers? Are you trying to monetize? Where you want to end up will have a lot to do with where you begin. Tumblr is great (I find) if its not as serious - just for fun - like you just want I quick and easy place to pot content, but building a huge audience or traffic is not as important. WordPress.org is second-to-none if you want to grow something, perhaps monetize, and build a community or audience.
From a technical standpoint, having your own site, on your own domain, in which you control as much as the content and technical stuff as possible - that's going to give you the best SEO benefit long haul! So in that regard, WordPress.org is the way to go.
Its great to start with an objective of "sharing experiences with everyone" and I might suggest trying to get more concrete with your objective. Do that and I think you'll find tumblr vs. wordpress decisions much easier :)
That was a truly informative and well thought out post. I intend to implement all of it...
Cheers,
Michael
I've always been curious about RSS feeds. I know all the guides and blogs stress the importance of integrating them into your strategy but I don't know a single person who uses one. However your analytics suggest otherwise. Am I missing something? Who is using these?
Hey... do you mean who uses them as a user to consume content? LOTS of people! There's so many RSS readers [google query] out there. I like Google Reader personally. I typically use RSS readers for blogs I really want to follow, but I am not following them in social media. Plus, so many 3rd party apps like FlipBoard depend upon RSS feeds to curate their content.
I also use RSS to follow all the blogs of my clients in one place (and also check up on if they are appearing correctly.)
And let's not forget https://screencast.com/t/OENgM2gPGJN Moz has 107,000 RSS subscribers!
As a consumer of content, you can choose to use them or not. But as a blog owner you should absolutely pay attention to RSS because when someone subsribes it's like signing up to an email list. They're saying "I WANT to hear from you!"
And so in the post, by measuring clicks to his RSS feed he can get a good sense of how well his efforts are at getting subscribers.
Yes, I meant to consume content. I always make sure that there is a feed button on my sites and that it gets into the RSS directories, I just personally don't know anyone who uses them. But then again, my neck of the woods isn't as up to date on tech trends as other metropolitan cities. I can see using it to keep an eye on your clients' blogs, that's a very good idea.
Hey Dan,
Great post and advice. Thanks for sharing with us. :-) And I like the way, Noah's Dad is getting help/attention from the Moz community. Thumbs up for that. BTW, speaking of community and its support, this might be something to write about for "Blog Action Day 2012", which is themed with The Power of We.
"I like the way, Noah's Dad is getting help/attention from the Moz community."
Absolutely agree, and one thing about Rick I just want to point out. He may ask a ton of questions and seek advise from the community - but make no mistake, he's a smart dude. Kind of the guy you talk to about SEO and blogging; and you say to yourself "He GETS it"
Thanks Dan! :)
I try to learn as much as I can, and this site (and community) has been a great place to learn.
"timeis the ultimate filter of signal vs noise"
You are absolutely right! And the only way you can fight time is to have a point of view and stick with it. Like you said, consistency makes all the difference. People respond to passion and the longer you stick with your niche, no matter what it is, sooner or later people will notice and respect that.
Really great post! Thanks for sharing!
Really informative and extensive article. Thanks a lot for this Dan!
Great post and great study. One thing important to me stood out was "#RWS", taking the offline world to the real world. I think that we often get so wrapped up in marketing to the SERPs that we forgot, that we can just as easily market our stuff offline.
I appreciate this brilliant case study putting together very delightful knowledge here... Loved it to be found at SEOmoz... Noah'sDad.com is just an awesome blog... Thanks for this all... I was surprised to see sites linking to it, it's a great achievement.
Information overload. Holy ... wow. FANTASTIC post with tons of helpful info and ideas. Some stuff I hadn't seen before as well. Just WOW. I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow and evernote me some ideas. Thanks!
Excellent post! The blog of Noah's Dad is really helpful. Noah is very lucky to have a Dad like him.
If possible, someone please answer my question, are we allowed to alter the image alt attribute of creative common images? So we can insert keywords in the images? Thanks
These posts are really helping me and my new site get up to speed on SEO ... my take away from this post ... SOOVLE !!! Never heard of it but i can tell im gonna be using it tons now! Thanks!
Fantastic post here! I'm going to be coming back to this one for months - some really inspiring and smart analysis that I'll be sharing with anyone who will listen. Thanks!
What an incredibly detailed and deep post. I'm going to have to read this over a few times before it all really sinks in. Thanks for the detailed thoughts and actions. Now back to re-reading the post ... again.
Great Article. I really like the idea of Random Affinities.
A blog can become dull and boring if all posts are about one specific topic, such as "Semi Trailer FAQ" "Semi-Trailer Tips"... As you can see I am currently working with a Semi Trailer business!
Any ideas for Random Affinities? "What is the fascination of Truck Spotting"
Thoughtful post. for Improve Blog, all way are very important to improve blog visibility and get hung traffic,
Searches related and Google keyword suggestions are most beneficial to get more traffic also use news for more trending topics ideas, Ubersuggest is very use full for find best topics and blog title
All way are very beneficial most instant traffic way is always Social media,
Thank for great Ideas
Our problem is that we let the "boring" nature of our industry infiltrate too many of our blog posts, which tend to be purely informational in nature. After reading this, I definitely want to inject some RWS into our posts in the near future. Our other two major problems are 1) attracting an audience (repeating the "boring" nature of our blog) and 2) updating consistency (because we have sooooo many other online marketing projects going on). Blogging can easily fall to the bottom of the priority list.
Thanks for the comment... yes, I hear your challenges!
If you're in a "boring" industry, you best bet hands down is to hop into Ubersuggest, Soovle or even Quora and see what people are searching for about your industry. Its hard to pull ideas out of thin air, and even harder to know if anyone will care. Search suggest data and Q&A data can be invaluable!! Try things and iterate like mad, taking note of what works and what doesn't. If it works, repeat it - if not, throw it out :)
This was an awesome post. I have a blog that is linked to my main site. It's my opinion that it depends on what you're blogging about. My topic is Real Estate and I tend to post about the latest Real Estate News and tips & Advice. I push my blog heavily on Social Media and that is where and how I generate traction.
Fantastic post Dan, some great ideas there.
I'd also like to wish Rick, Noah and the rest of their family (as well as the Down Syndrome community as a whole) the best of luck in the future. What you are doing is remarkable Rick, keep it up!
Great post. I have it bookmarked and will be using some of the advice.
John.
Awesome post.. Thanks
My site is https://www.techfoogle.com