Bending the Web: Become Popular in 2 Months
February 18, 2008
This is a guest post by Robojiannis. Robojiannis (also known as Jiannis Sotiropoulos) is a cyberspace student, lover and inhabitant. He expects anytime now, to see his keyboard becoming an extension of his fingers. He constantly explores the real and cyberworld, believing in the free flow of data and the power of the user.
On October 1st and for two months (until December 11th) I started writing a theoretical approach on the attention economy of social networks. The research did not concentrate on a specific social network, it just investigated the fundamental structure variables of social network in general. After finishing, I noticed that a practical study concentrating on a particular group was required to check the validity of my theoretical model.
So on December 11th I started a brand new blog, without any prior active experience in any social networks. My purpose was to see to what extend could my theory be applied to the blogosphere.
This article summarizes the results of my research. It is divided in three sections:
- Experimentation, where I explain how approached the promotion of the blog.
- Statistics, where I list the statistics of the blog.
- Analysis, where I analyze the statistical results according to my experimental approaches.
- Conclusion, where I point out my remarks on content promotion and the blogosphere in general.
There are many guides out there showing ways to promote your content online. You may ask yourself what makes this study any better than the other ones. The reason is twofold:
- It probably summarizes all the other articles about the attention economy of the blogosphere. Apart from that, it is followed with statistical results, which prove the assumptions stated.
- It is based on an extensive theoretical model; a model, which studies many different disciplines: social psychology, mass psychology, network theory, emergence, authorship. If you are willing to invest time to read the theory, it will certainly assist you in understanding the function and structure of social networks. The theory is free to download and also available in wiki format, open for your suggestions and improvements.
I. Experimentation
This part explains the way I put my theoretical study into use, by mainly concentrating on 4 different aspects.
1. Linkage
[Shortly: With comments and pingbacks I tried to establish a connection with the Connectors and the Salesmen of the blogosphere. I established not only weak ties but also paid attention to the strong ones.]
Linkage plays a fundamental role in the development of a network in the social web.
When I started my blog, I had already been following the work of about eighty blogs (a number, which significantly increased while blogging). So the first step of promoting my content, was leaving commentaries in all these blogs, whenever the subject was of interest or suited to my personal publications. In average I submitted 4.2 comments each day.
As already said, incoming links from other blogs are not only a good way to increase popularity, but also highly appreciated. I knew that at this stage of my blog, getting incoming links would be very improbable. Bloggers did not know the existence of my blog and they actually did not even know me as a reader/writer either.
In order to change that, I incorporated in every article I posted at least two links pointing to the work of another blogger. These references, with the help of the trackback technology, were notifying the bloggers that I was writing about them or their content. The fact that most blogs show their trackbacks in the form of a comment under the linked post, brought not only directed attention to my blog (meaning the blogger I referenced) but also undirected (meaning readers who were reading the original article and were interested in another opinion).
But simply writing comments and linking to other blogs is certainly inadequate. It must be an organized, targeted effort. According to Malcolm Gladwell, on the social web (and actually in most social networks) there are three types of personalities, which play a fundamental role on starting a word of mouth ‘epidemic’, which can increase the popularity of a node.
1. the Connectors; individuals with an above average number of friends and acquaintances, who act as the hubs of the network. In blogosphere terms, connectors are the bloggers who enjoy a large amount of readers and subscribers.
2. the Mavens; individuals, who have access to new information and are willing to share it. They are the data banks of the social network.
3. the Salesmen; people who have the ability to persuade the unconvinced public and are therefore considered very trustworthy.
When I started commenting and linking to other blogs, I mostly targeted the big hubs (the connectors and the salesmen), meaning the blogs which have thousands of visitors and a high reputation for their quality content. This gave me the opportunity to get noticed by many viewers (as a commentator or a trackbacking blog).
I also tried to apply Mark Granovetter’s assumptions, by developing a circle of weak ties (the hubs, which probably would not pay much attention to me, as a commentator among many) and additionally a circle of strong ties with smaller blogs (which would probably be more open to interaction).
These strong ties, would probably not bring so much attention to my work (since they also have just a few viewers) but they would constitute the basis of my blogging community. Finally, in order to stay on top of the current news, I was subscribed to a number of ‘Maven’ blogs. This gave me a considerable advantage, since I had the opportunity to be one of the first to comment on and write about the latest events.
2. New Content
[Shortly: I concentrated on daily updating my content, while experimenting with its form, structure and frequency]
Content production in the social web has similar attributes to mass media production. To draw attention one should constantly provide new content, which will be discussing current news and will be accompanied by an eye-catching headline.
But online, one should write content quite differently as on print. Several studies have proven, that web users do not really read an online text but mostly scan it. This means, that web content should be written in such way, that would help readers extract information easily and effectively.
When I started the research, the asset of following that many blogs was, that I had a wide variety of sources to draw information and inspiration from. Topics like free software, wisdom of crowds, copyright, data safety and upcoming social networks drew my interest and stimulated me to write about. Although, I had the tendency to get the best out of every post, I knew this would not help my research. So I tried several different approaches of writing and posting content.
I posted articles, using intriguing but also unexciting titles to see how my readership would react. I tried out different text structures, sometimes following basic usability principles and sometimes doing exactly the opposite. Occasionally, I also wrote articles commenting the current news, to see if they have more impact in comparison to posts of general interest, which weren’t following the current trends. My intention was to see how the structure, headline, content and subject of the writing could influence the traffic of the blog.
I did not only concentrate on the formation of the posts, but also on the posting frequency. My inquiry was concentrated on the number of weekly readers and if it would stay stable when I wouldn’t write any new articles.
On average, I wrote 1.7 articles a day and was wondering how would my readership react, if I stopped posting for a week. I experimented on this subject during the last week of January. To that time I had an adequate number of posts and content to keep visitors occupied; they could simply read the posts of the archive. So during that week, I just posted two articles (on Monday and Tuesday) and then observed the visitation and participation on the blog. Would commentators, visitors and subscribers continue coming without my constant publications?
3. Participation
[Shortly: I actively participated in a variety of forums and social networks in order to expand the value of my network and increase interaction]
One of the great advantages of the blogosphere, as far as promotion is concerned, is that it expands in a variety of social platforms, software and services. Participation in the blogosphere does not only entail commenting on and interacting with other blogs; bloggers can participate in several communities and forums, which may help them promote their content.
These communities can be understood as attention aggregators, since they promote highly rated and usually quality content. While observing these communities some interesting characteristics came to my attention.
Most of them were missing a key trait of emergent behavior and correct aggregation of information: diversity. If an article was submitted by a well-known user of the community, it would be significantly promoted. On the contrary, less active users had less chances of seeing their submissions get popular, usually regardless of the quality of the submission. Direct consequence of the lack of diversity is, that each community is specialized to a specific kind of content. If the top users are interested in technology news, most posts reaching the front page will be about technology. So I had to carefully choose, where I would submit my writings.
Secondly, I noticed that these communities acknowledge and support interaction; they have developed their own social web, which follows the same rules as any other social network. Having a vast number of friends can increase the chances for a submission to become popular, since your friends will probably vote for your submission (lack of independence; one more trait missing for correct aggregation of information). So logically, popular users, who have a large network manage to bring their submission forward. Finally, some of these networks do not appreciate self-submitted posts.
This means, that if I submitted my own writings, it was likely that my submission would get ‘buried’. Taking these points into consideration, I started on the 3rd of January participating more actively in a number of these communities (StumbleUpon, Mixx, DigitalPoint Forums, etc.). I created a network of friends in each of these communities, submitted content and interacted with the users.
These communities were accepting self-submitted content and were – to a degree – constituted of a diverse group. Popular users where not the absolute rulers of these communities. My interest, was to see how these communities could influence not only the daily traffic of my blog, but also the number of subscriptions.
4. Perfection
[Shortly: I studied the relation of high quality content and blog traffic, following the thesis that imperfect content promotes interaction]
Perfection in the blogosphere can be defined by 2 parameters:
- writing style, meaning how formal one writes and the
- quality of the content, meaning how well researched and well-argumented an article is.
My assumption on the theoretical part of this study was, that submitting informal and imperfect content could promote the participation in the blog. Naturally, I don’t mean using that as a standard practice, but occasionally posting a controversial thought could bring more attention and participation to the content.
So, I started experimenting with the quality of content. I was curious to see if readers would pose their objection to a controversial or badly researched post. Would they participate more or would they simply disregard the content and move on?
II. The Numbers
Following I will present the statistics of the blog. It is difficult to determine which specific practice brought which results, since I constantly examined several approaches. Nonetheless, I will try to identify the particular activities, which – in my opinion – played a significant role for the establishment of the following outcomes.
Traffic.
Below is a graph of the weekly traffic of the blog. It does not depict the number of unique visitors, but the number of pageviews. It is obvious, that during these eight weeks the blog exhibited a considerable traffic increase (apart from the 52nd week of 2007, which shows a logical decline, since it was the Christmas period).
But relying explicitly on the number of pageviews to rate the traffic of the blog would be an inaccurate approach. It is possible, that just a small number of users clicked on many pages on the site and therefore increased the pageviews of the whole blog. From the 1st of January, I started observing the number of unique visitors to be able to control and analyze the statistics more thoroughly.
A comparison of the unique visitors to the total number of pageviews shows, that each user read approximately two pages during each visit, so the wordpress graph depicts an accurate representation of the weekly traffic of the blog.
Subscriptions.
In order to study the popularity of the blog to its full extent, I had to additionally follow the number of subscribers. Although pageviews and unique visitors are a certain way to measure the visitation of a blog, the subscribers are the core units, which enhance the interaction and participation of the blog.
Naturally, getting subscribers is much more difficult than getting visitors. Firstly, because you have to convince them to subscribe using simply the quality of your content and secondly because a large part of the total population of the web is not using RSS aggregators. A study conducted by Yahoo! on 2005 [pdf] showed, that “…only 12% of users are aware of RSS, and 4% have knowingly used RSS”. Surely these numbers have increased since 2005, but I presume they still remain relatively low.
The feedburner graph below visualizes the growth of subscribers in the blog. Although the subject of my writings was addressing readers with a certain degree of technological affinity, the site never had more than 59 subscribers.
Interaction.
The last aspect I wanted to study with this blog was the degree of interactivity and participation it would reach. Although my original plans included creating a real-time, user customizable design, contests and other collaborative features, I finally decided to leave them aside until I had a respectable community, namely a noteworthy list of subscribers. So I mostly concentrated on the discussions, which took place in form of comments to my posts.
The statistics show, that each post had approximately 1.3 comments. But one should take into account, that I often replied to the comments of my readers and therefore my contributions are also included in these 113 comments. I assess that my comments were around 25% of the total submissions. This means, that on average each post of mine received 1 comment. A rate, which is, of course, very low for a participatory project. Although the average comment rate is not encouraging, a more detailed analysis on the commenting rate, provided more reassuring results. For every thirty posts the number of total comments (including my comments) showed a significant increase.
| Time Period | Number of Posts | Number of Comments |
| 11.12.07 - 20.12.07 | 27 | 12 |
| 20.12.07 - 08.01.08 | 30 | 41 |
| 09.01.08 - 05.02.08 | 30 | 68 |
Technorati.
A last aspect I was observing was my rank in technorati. When I started the blog, it had a rank of 8.911.336. Two months later the blog had a rank of 238.665 and 62 blog reactions.
However, I find technorati’s ranking system not so trustworthy, because it compares every submitted blog regardless of its content. A ranking system, that examines the popularity of the blogs without regarding the niche they are studying cannot bring reliable results. It should instead divide blogs into categories and develop this ranking system for each category separately. I will not therefore, analyze the information collected from this source since I don’t find them representative of the situation in the blogosphere.
III. The Analysis
On Traffic.
Even the most superficial look at the statistics regarding pageviews and unique visitors of the blog could observe, that from the first week of January, the blog displayed a constant traffic increase. This can be certainly ascribed to my active participation in other social networks. Indeed a look at the referring sites of three random days, proves that most visitors came from these communities and not from references from other blogs. The quality of the post submitted and the number of users, who voted for the submission, determined the number of views. For example on the 30th of January a submission in the StumbleUpon community received 306 views, while on the 31st another submission only 24.
On Subscriptions.
Similar conclusions can be drawn with the number of subscribers (Illustration 11). The more visitors a blog has, the higher the chances to receive more subscribers. During the first five weeks of the blog’s existence, the subscribers ranged between 10-20 people. From the sixth week (January 17th) the number of subscribers started increasing and eventually doubled.
But, I believe it cannot be a coincidence, that on the 16th of January I changed the design of the blog. A design, which concentrated on simplicity, bright colors and a large, distinct subscription (RSS feed) button. In comparison to the previous design I was using (a free theme provided by the wordpress community), the subscriptions button was much more obvious and easier to use; one could subscribe via email with just one click, while the old design required three clicks. Although this assumption cannot be proven, I believe that the new design and the large RSS button played a significant role in the increase of subscribers.
On Content.
The other point, that I studied was the importance of new content in the blogosphere. As already noted, I wrote on a daily average 1.7 posts. But in the fifth week of January, I posted only two normal, extensive posts and two very short ones. I wanted to investigate, how the frequency of publishing could influence the traffic of the blog. In the end of the week - I noticed to my surprise - the total pageviews and unique visitors were higher than ever before (Illustrations 9, 10). I wanted to investigate the reason behind this unexpected increase, so I took a look at the pageviews of each individual 
post and observed, that one of these two extended post (“International Privacy Day: protect your privacy online”) had actually received 1591 clicks. This means, that out of the total 2641 pageviews that week, this post had received more than the half. So if the post remained to a usual number of pageviews - the next top post of the month (“Control over social networks: users vs. administrators”) had received 540 views - then the total views of the week would be significantly lower. This was a certain indication, that providing new content is indeed important in the blogosphere and the number of visitors also depends on the number of posts.
On Perfection.
The participation degree in the blog remained relatively low. Approximately one comment per blog post, surely is not adequate enough to support an online community or to argue that the techniques followed succeeded in putting the foundations for a collaborative project. I tried posting imperfect posts, controversial thoughts and even posing direct questions to the readers, but none of them seemed to produce any participation out of the ordinary. The number of comments per post ranged between zero and fifteen. My conclusion, however, on the subject does not disregard my assumptions.
I still believe, that imperfect, controversial articles have the potential of increasing participation and interaction on a blog. The parameter that makes the difference is the source of these thoughts. When I – an unknown blogger, with a very small network of affiliates - write controversial, imperfect posts, readers perceive them as a negative element of my work and do not bother to correct me or oppose my opinions. My network of fifty or hundred regular readers was surely neither large nor old enough (the blog was online only a couple of months) to be willing to collaborate and start a discussion. They simply did not care. But when bloggers with thousands of subscribers write a controversial, provocative post, things tend to take another course.
On Perfection; The RWW example
To elaborate I will use the example of the ReadWriteWeb blog, a blog with more than 170,000 subscribers and certainly one of the biggest hubs in the blogosphere (it is the 15th biggest blog according to technorati’s rank). Alex Iskold, one of the regular authors of the blog, wrote a controversial post on 16th of January discussing the dangers of free services and software on the web. For all the advocates of open source software and the freedom of the web this was certainly a disputable article. In fact, as commented by several readers, some of the arguments the author poses, are based on wrong facts.
However, this post received 60 comments and 3 trackbacks. Of course for such a hub, with so many subscribers, 60 comments may seem a very small number. But a look at Iskold’s archive of posts shows, that out of the total 40 articles he has written, only 3 have exceeded the threshold of 60 comments. While blogging, I very often encountered similar examples. I am not argumenting, that the only way to encourage participation is provocation, but an acknowledged blogger can certainly use it to her advantage.
IV. Conclusion
What conclusions can be drawn from the statistical results of the blog? Did it succeed achieving its primary goals? These are more complicated questions, than they seem. On an individual level, the blog accomplished its goals, although in different degrees of success. The weekly pageviews presented a substantial increase, so did the degree of interactivity. The number of subscribers showed also a slow but steady increase. So in an individual level, the blog managed to meet its challenge. But, trying to answer this question in more universal terms, evolves into a troublesome attempt, mainly because there aren’t available any results from other, two month old blogs to compare with. Probably the statistics of the blog are very encouraging; but how impressive would they look, if we were to set them in relation to other blogs? Unfortunately, such information are extremely difficult to find. Under that perspective, the results of this research are open to interpretations.
Time investment
However, they certainly show, that drawing the attention of the wider public in the social web is a time consuming, demanding effort. It requires an active participation in a variety of communities, blogs and forums; it involves wisely choosing affiliates and establishing a substantial connection with them; it demands being constantly informed about current news regarding your niche; finally, it requires constant renewal of the content with quality information. These are practices, that may bring popularity to a blog, but will almost certainly not bring immediate results. Large numbers of readers, subscribers and contributors cannot be achieved in a short period of time. This time investment implies, that interest in the whole blogging experience is the primary, fundamental factor for attention in the social web.
How social, social networks are.
Other than that, this research revealed how social, the social web actually is. Stanley Milgram had conducted a research during the 1960s about the connection degree among people, resulting in the famous small world theory, also known as ‘the six degrees of separation’. In short the theory supports that
“[...] everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. [...] I am bound, you are bound, to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.“
Although Barab�si’s research on the web’s degrees of separation concluded, that we are dealing with nineteen rather than six degrees, the social web and the blogosphere give the impression, that they are in fact much less. It is really fascinating how people manage to find each other in this unthinkable complexity and establish remarkable projects and productive discussions. How these clusters and constellations of data are in one way or another sorted out and eventually quality emerges.
Is there a future in the economy of attention online?
Finally, this research raises interesting questions concerning attentiveness in the future generations of the web.
- If the vision of the semantic web will be realized, enabling true emergence and interaction between humans and machines, how will attentiveness online be influenced?
- Will virtual agents evolve into the absolute attention aggregators, which will study the semantic language of humans to provide perfect results, constituting any need for drawing attention obsolete?
- Will the rich continue getting richer in an environment, where users can find exactly what the look for, without the necessity of visiting the hubs?
It is still too premature to look for answers to these questions, but it is probable that the new semantic web will revolutionize the way we interact with each other and with the web, changing the way we understand the economy of attention in scale-free networks.
Invitation.
I am aware of one blogger (everybodygoto) who is conducting the same kind of research. He will try to get 100 subscribers for his new blog in a month. I’m looking forward to seeing (and comparing) his results.
This research is also an invitation to everyone. As already mentioned, my results are inconclusive without any comparison to other upcoming blogs.
How successful were your first steps in the blogosphere? How did you try to establish your presence in the cyberspace and what results did it bring?
DOWNLOAD: Click here to download the entire research.
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Asking The Readers: Fixed or Fluid Designs?
February 17, 2008
Welcome to Asking The Readers! You are invited and encouraged to share your responses and opinions. Super Blogging has a fantastic community full of friendly and wise readers - so don’t be afraid to read the post and the other comments, and then share your own thoughts and ideas. We love hearing what you have to say!
This time around I’d like to discuss two popular types of designing a page: with a fluid layout, or a fixed layout. A fixed layout is created by specifying the main wrapper to an immovable width or a certain amount of pixels, so the page will be one size no matter what resolutions it’s viewed in. Super Blogging is a fixed design, and so is John Chow. A fluid layout is created by not specifying a wrapper width or using percentages, which means the content will fill the entire page and stretch out to fit the whole screen, no matter what its size is. GrayBit.com is an example of a fluid design, and this is a fluid page as well. Most of the blogs you read are probably fixed designs.
The thing is, there are pros and cons to both the fluid and the fixed layout. A fluid design will fit any user’s screen and can be completely universal, while a fixed design often times has more usability and is easier to read, plus more easy to control. Depending what kind of site you have and what you’re trying to accomplish, either could work for you.
However, I’m asking you, do you prefer fixed or fluid designs, and why? Is one more easy to use and access over the other? Does one simply look better and the other doesn’t? Do you like reading sites with fluid or fixed designs, and which type of layout is YOUR blog or site using? Would you ever consider changing it to be fluid if it’s a fixed design, or vice versa? Let me know what you think on the topic, what you prefer, and why.
Please leave a comment and let us know! Depending on the responses received, I will take my favorites and include them in a new article or in the next Asking The Readers post, giving you credit and a link back to your blog featuring your response. In that future article I will also share my own opinions about fixed and fluid designs as well. Until then, I can’t wait to read what you have to say. The comments are open, so don’t be afraid to share. I look forward to your responses!
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The Best of the Blogosphere: February 15, 2008
February 15, 2008
How to Write Posts That Set StumbleUpon on Fire at ProBlogger.
28 Ways to Make Money with Your Website at DailyBlogTips.
Dissecting 28 Ways To Make Money With Your Website at Entrepreneur’s Journey.
9 Things That Drive a Blogger Crazy at Skelliewag.
10 Myths of Social Media Marketing at Traffikd.
How Frequently Should You Change Your Blog’s Theme? at Vandelay Design.
What is Good Content? A Working Definition and Some General Principles at Dosh Dosh.
13 Sure Signs Your Landing Page is a Turn-Off at Anywired.
A Twitter / StumbleUpon Combo to Benefit the Blogosphere at Caroline Middlebrook.
Blogging About Blogging Won’t Die at Blog About Your Blog.
Brown Thoughts Hits One Year at Brown Thoughts.
Blue Screen of Death - Vegas Style at Tycoon Blogger.
I hope you all had a fantastic Valentine’s Day, and that you enjoy reading the articles I’ve gathered for you this week. There’s never a lack of knowledge and information in the blogosphere! Speaking of knowledge, if you’d like to share yours in front of a new audience, gain exposure, and have a chance at winning free advertising for doing so, please consider guest blogging for SuperBloggingTips.com! Thanks, and have a fantastic weekend.
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Monetize Your Audience Using PlaceMyProduct.com
February 14, 2008
There are new services that help you monetize your site and sell advertising that are popping up all the time. PlaceMyProduct.com is one of those services - but this time, it’s more unique than others and offering something new. Simply putting it, PlaceMyProduct.com is a site where you can place your products or advertising opportunities, and the highest binner on your auction wins. But there’s a bit more to it than just that.
“Have you ever sold an ad and wondered if the price was too low and you could have earned more? You probably could have earned more. Have you ever tried to sell an ad and there were no takers? That probably means your price was too high. PlaceMyProduct.com eliminates this guessing game and helps you achieve ad price parity.”
Product placers can sell almost anything via PlaceMyProduct.com. You can sell your advertising blocks, sponsored reviews, text link ads, banner overlays in videos, podcast sponsorships, and much more. But, you can sell offline placements too! Sell ad spaces on your radio station, local newspaper or community newsletter, even billboards. When you think about it, the possibilities for PlaceMyProduct.com are endless - all you have to do is get creative and you could start making money off a lot of things!
Like I mentioned, PlaceMyProduct.com allows people to bid on your products. You can set the price low and have a lot of people bidding on it and building up the final price. Or, if you’re selling an advertising space or something else, you can figure up how much you’d need to price it on PlaceMyProduct.com to make at least as much as you would otherwise, and then you’ll make at least that much or more (since they do keep a percentage of the earnings - but you get 80%, which is more than almost all other sites give back).
PlaceMyProduct.com is new, but I can see it becoming huge. Since it revolves around a bidding process and also allows you to sell offline advertising as well as online, it’s very unique and different from most other things we’re used to seeing out there. And if you’re creative, you can definitely take PlaceMyProduct.com and use it for your advantage, generating a nice income. So start thinking up something good, or just use it to sell ad space on your blog - whatever works, it’s that versatile!
To learn more about PlaceMyProduct.com and what you can do with it as a blogger or webmaster, click here. Or if you’re interested in advertising in an original way, check out the advertisers page. So what do you think about PlaceMyProduct.com? Is it something you could see yourself using, and what ideas are you already forming for it? I can’t wait to hear your answers, I’ve signed up for it myself and can’t wait to see how it all works out.
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Guest Blog on SuperBloggingTips.com
February 12, 2008
You heard right, Super Blogging is taking in guest posters! This is a rare chance for you to get traffic and a lot more by exposing yourself to a whole new audience and all of our visitors and RSS subscribers. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain, and apart from the exposure, there’s even a small prize - read on.
First of all, there are a few rules. The post should be at least 300 words long, and it can contain images as long as you don’t violate copyright with those, provide credit where necessary, and as long as they look okay with the design. Also, you should write up an ‘about the author’ section at the top or bottom of the post that’s no more than a few sentences long and contains a link to your blog (and RSS feed if you like) to give yourself credit and a backlink. Obviously, the topic of the article you write should relate to this blog so just use your common sense and imagination!
Now you might ask how this is going to benefit YOU. Guest posting is an amazing thing to do to grow your blog, and one of my New Year blogging resolutions includes guest writing for another blog at least once a month. By doing this, not only do you expose yourself to that blog’s entire audience and a whole bunch of new faces, but it helps grow your blog and build your brand. The more you guest post, the more people will start seeing you all over the place and become interested in you and trust you. Guest blogging is one of the best ways to get yourself out there, increase your traffic, and grow your blog.
Of course, I did mention that there is a PRIZE as well, if the above reasons aren’t enough. I’m giving away away a 125×125 advertising spot for one month and a sitewide link at the top of the Recommended Sites section for a month as well (and you can flip/sell those spots to profit even more if you like). This is a great and free advertising opportunity, and one you should most definitely take advantage of.
But how you can you win that prize? The guest author that sends the most traffic (as long as the traffic won’t harm this blog or falsely influence results) to their post wins the month’s worth of banner and link advertising. You have until March 14 to send me your article and drive your traffic to it, and after March 14 the contest will be closed and winners determined.
So are you interested in guest posting here at Super Blogging? Like said above, there’s nothing to lose and much to gain. You can send your article to me through my contact page or email it to tay [at] superbloggingtips [dot] com - make sure you send it complete with its coding. Good luck and have fun with it. I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with, and I’m pretty excited!
Please subscribe to Super Blogging so you don’t miss out on the fantastic guest posts and advice to come - I’m sure this’ll be great!
Any guest post I feel is inappropriate for this blog can be rejected, whether it’s off topic or bad quality. However, I’m pretty lenient and don’t expect that to happen.
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