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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/rss2full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" version="2.0"> <channel> <title>Daily Blog Tips</title> <link>http://www.dailyblogtips.com</link> <description /> <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:09:17 +0000</pubDate> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1</generator> <language>en</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/DailyBlogTips" type="application/rss+xml" /><feedburner:emailServiceId xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">DailyBlogTips</feedburner:emailServiceId><feedburner:feedburnerHostname xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0">http://feedburner.google.com</feedburner:feedburnerHostname><item> <title>I am Willing to Try Bing, But So Far It Sucks</title> <link>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/i-am-willing-to-try-bing-but-so-far-it-sucks/</link> <comments>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/i-am-willing-to-try-bing-but-so-far-it-sucks/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:16:34 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Daniel Scocco</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dailyblogtips.com/?p=4107</guid> <description><![CDATA[As you probably know Microsoft launched its newest search engine a couple of weeks ago, called <a href="http://www.bing.com">Bing</a>. Some blogs and newspapers reported that the search engine quickly gained market share, and that on some days it was ranking in the second position, above Yahoo!. If nothing else I also think that we should give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and try Bing out. Competition is healthy in any market, and Google is not far from having a monopoly in search (thanks to the quality of its service, it is true, but still).<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/i-am-willing-to-try-bing-but-so-far-it-sucks/">I am Willing to Try Bing, But So Far It Sucks</a> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[As you probably know Microsoft launched its newest search engine a couple of weeks ago, called <a href="http://www.bing.com">Bing</a>. Some blogs and newspapers reported that the search engine quickly gained market share, and that on some days it was ranking in the second position, above Yahoo!. If nothing else I also think that we should give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and try Bing out. Competition is healthy in any market, and Google is not far from having a monopoly in search (thanks to the quality of its service, it is true, but still). One good move from Microsoft was to opt for a clean homepage. I can’t stand Yahoo! exactly because in order to search there I need to go across all the clutter that they put on the front page. The problem are the search results. They might need some time to tweak the algorithm, but so far it has not impressed me at all. Here are some examples that I gathered in five minutes before writing this post: <h2>1. Searched for “blog tips”</h2> <img src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bing1.jpg" alt="bing1" title="bing1" width="500" height="528" class="bc" /> Daily Blog Tips is number one on Google and Yahoo! for that term, but on Bing it was no where to be found. <a href="http://www.problogger.net">Problogger</a> should be there too, but I couldn’t find it either. <h2>2. Searched for “john chow”</h2> <img src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bing2.jpg" alt="bing2" title="bing2" width="500" height="530" class="bc" /> The original <a href="http://www.johnchow.com">John Chow</a> was not there, and instead the first result pointed to a squatter domain (www.john-chow.com) that just has some ads…. <h2>3. Searched for “stuntdubl”</h2> <img src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bing4.jpg" alt="bing4" title="bing4" width="500" height="535" class="bc" /> I wanted to give Bing a nudge, so I searched for the exact name of <a href="http://www.stuntdubl.com">Todd Malicoat’s blog</a> (he is a top SEO guy, and the blog is pretty famous too). Still Bing displayed Todd’s blog only in the fifth position. For now, therefore, I am sticking with good old Google. What about you, have you tried Bing? What kind of results did you get? Update: It looks like the results are not that bad if you are US or Canada based. The curious thing is that I did use the “English results only” option before searching, so I don’t know how come my location is affecting the results page. <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/i-am-willing-to-try-bing-but-so-far-it-sucks/">I am Willing to Try Bing, But So Far It Sucks</a> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/i-am-willing-to-try-bing-but-so-far-it-sucks/feed/</wfw:commentRss> </item> <item> <title>Watch 10+1 Free Videos on BecomeABlogger.com</title> <link>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/become-a-blogger-free-videos/</link> <comments>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/become-a-blogger-free-videos/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:13:55 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Daniel Scocco</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Blogging Basics]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dailyblogtips.com/?p=4099</guid> <description><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/become-a-blogger-1.jpg" alt="become-a-blogger-1" title="become-a-blogger-1" width="240" height="50" class="pino" />My friend Yaro Starak and his partner Gideon Shalwick are re-opening the very successful BecomeABlogger.com course next Monday. What is it about? It is a coaching program aimed at people who are just getting started with their blogs (or who want to get started). It covers all you need to know to get your blog up and running and to make it successful. If you want to get an idea about what is inside the program, <a href="http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=envec83&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com">you can watch 10 videos that they released free</a>. Those videos cover the very basics, including why you should use WordPress, how to get your domain name and web hosting, how to use RSS feeds and so on.<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/become-a-blogger-free-videos/">Watch 10+1 Free Videos on BecomeABlogger.com</a> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<img src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/become-a-blogger-1.jpg" alt="become-a-blogger-1" title="become-a-blogger-1" width="240" height="50" class="pino" />My friend Yaro Starak and his partner Gideon Shalwick are re-opening the very successful BecomeABlogger.com course next Monday. What is it about? It is a coaching program aimed at people who are just getting started with their blogs (or who want to get started). It covers all you need to know to get your blog up and running and to make it successful. If you want to get an idea about what is inside the program, <a href="http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=envec83&pid=4&u=http://www.becomeablogger.com">you can watch 10 videos that they released free</a>. Those videos cover the very basics, including why you should use WordPress, how to get your domain name and web hosting, how to use RSS feeds and so on. Alternatively, you can also check a video from the actual coaching program that Yaro released on his blog, titled <a href="http://www.becomeablogger.com/go.php?offer=envec83&pid=4&u=http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/1320/impact-marketing/">How to Rapidly Grow Your Blog Traffic</a>. You won’t need to subscribe to an email list or anything, so check it out. I am an affiliate for Yaro, so yeah if you end up signing up for the program I will make some money. However, I don’t promote his products just to earn commissions, but rather because Yaro is one of the marketers I most respect online, and because I know the amount of hard work that he puts on his products. Want proof of this? When Yaro first launched BecomeABlogger.com he approached me to be an affiliate as well, but due to some technical problems I could not sign-up for the affiliate program. I went ahead and promoted the launch anyway, even without earning commissions, because I knew it was a quality product. If you are getting started with blogging, therefore, don’t miss those videos. <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/become-a-blogger-free-videos/">Watch 10+1 Free Videos on BecomeABlogger.com</a> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/become-a-blogger-free-videos/feed/</wfw:commentRss> </item> <item> <title>Google PageRank Updates Becoming More Frequent?</title> <link>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/google-pagerank-updates-becoming-more-frequent/</link> <comments>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/google-pagerank-updates-becoming-more-frequent/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:25:27 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Daniel Scocco</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[SEO]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dailyblogtips.com/?p=4097</guid> <description><![CDATA[It looks like we had another PageRank update yesterday. I noticed a couple of small fluctuations within my sites, and some readers also told me that their PageRank moved. <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/google-pagerank-updates-becoming-more-frequent/">Google PageRank Updates Becoming More Frequent?</a> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[It looks like we had another PageRank update yesterday. I noticed a couple of small fluctuations within my sites, and some readers also told me that their PageRank moved. I am not writing about all PageRank updates anymore because there is nothing new with them, right? I made an exception this time because apparently Google is increasing the frequency of the updates. If I remember well some six weeks ago we also had a PageRank update. I didn’t notice it personally, but I saw a lot of people talking about it over the online forums and blog comments. Did you notice the update six weeks ago? What about yesterday’s one? <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/google-pagerank-updates-becoming-more-frequent/">Google PageRank Updates Becoming More Frequent?</a> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/google-pagerank-updates-becoming-more-frequent/feed/</wfw:commentRss> </item> <item> <title>6 Steps To An Effective Guest Post</title> <link>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/6-steps-to-an-effective-guest-post/</link> <comments>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/6-steps-to-an-effective-guest-post/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:52:58 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Daniel Scocco</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Promotion]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dailyblogtips.com/?p=3846</guid> <description><![CDATA[This is a guest post by Amey Shivapurkar. If you want to guest post on this blog, <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/daily-blog-tips-guest-post-guidelines/">check out the guidelines here.</a> There is no denying the power of a sound guest post execution. Benefits can include a flood of traffic to your site, increased reputation, high ranked links pointing back to your site, and improved relations with the site you are guest posting on. With so much on the line, it makes sense to do a little bit of work before creating and submitting your guest post. <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/6-steps-to-an-effective-guest-post/">6 Steps To An Effective Guest Post</a> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[This is a guest post by Amey Shivapurkar. If you want to guest post on this blog, <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/daily-blog-tips-guest-post-guidelines/">check out the guidelines here.</a> There is no denying the power of a sound guest post execution. Benefits can include a flood of traffic to your site, increased reputation, high ranked links pointing back to your site, and improved relations with the site you are guest posting on. With so much on the line, it makes sense to do a little bit of work before creating and submitting your guest post. <h2>1. Prepare Your Site/Landing Page </h2> Obviously the number one reason behind guest posting is to ultimately get traffic to your site. Be it your blog, landing page, or whatever you are linking back to, it should be optimized to capture your new audience. What is the point of sending new visitors to your site, if there is nothing of value there? If they do not return or opt-in to your product, then your guest post was a complete waste. If you are linking back to a blog, then make sure to have a couple of your best articles already displayed and a couple more ready to be posted in the next couple of days or whatever your normal posting scheme is. If you are linking back to a sales page, then make sure it is live with a visible call to action in place. Consider creating a special or sale if you are promoting a paid product or service. <h2>2. Choose A Target Site And Research It </h2> Commonly, people will create an article and then find a site to post it on; however, that does not always work out as well. Your particular article may not be best optimized for that particular site, or it just may not be related to topics the site covers. Instead I recommend that you research the site you plan to guest post on before and see what type of articles created the most interaction and/or is most popular. <h2>3. Create The Guest Post </h2> Once you have done your research, you should get a good idea of what type of article will work and how to format it. Keep in mind that any guest post is still linked to the reputation of the site you are posting on. So, if the site manager does not think it adds value to his or her site, then they will not post it. I want to emphasize the “add value” part. For a truly effective guest post, your article should not promote any of your products or sites. If you are just trying to relate an idea to your product, then most readers will probably ignore the post in general. Just make sure your article adds some type of value, and the rewards will be greater. Especially if you are posting on a site with a high page rank, make your article search engine friendly. Find keywords and go after them. Most people usually think about guest posting as getting instant traffic from the regular readers, but what about the search traffic? You are given a great platform, so you might as well use it. <h2>4. Review Your Guest Post </h2> The grammar and spelling part is obvious, but make sure the fundamentals of your post are intact. Are you adding value? Are the pages you are linking to optimized for new visitors? Does your article best represent your brand, and does it have the best intentions for both you and the site you are posting on? <h2>5. Submit Your Guest Post </h2> The key is to contact the site after your article is ready to be published. For one, it will expedite the whole process, but it will also be less work for the site manager. Why contact them saying you have an idea, when you could already have an article in place? Your email should be personal and give a brief summary of your article, why you think it would be beneficial, and if there are any changes they think should be made. There is no need for a huge article summary because they can just read your attached post. If your article gets denied, then there is not much you can do. Ask the site manager why they do not like it, and if you guys still cannot come to a solution, then find another site and tweak your post to fit it. Ultimately, the final decision is up to the site, and if they say no, they say no. Although you guys may not be direct competition, sometimes things just do not work out. How many times do you see Radio Shack selling their products in Best Buy? <h2>6. Promote And Moderate Your Guest Post </h2> If you are fortunate enough to get your site published, the work is not over yet. All your efforts should go into promoting that article and taking part in any comments that may be posted. Post the article on social networks and link back to it from your site and any other site you can. Every link benefits the search rank of that article. The more traffic you get to that site the better. It will also help your chances with the site owner if you ever want to post again. Remember, guest posting is an extension of your brand and also the site your are posting on. For a highly effective guest post, remember to do your due diligence. Are they any other steps that can boost the effectiveness of your guest post? Amey is the founder of <a href="http://asantmedia.com/">ASANT Media</a>. He has also created a free step-by-step course that teaches you <a href="http://asantmedia.com/sitestarter/">how to create your own profitable online site</a>. <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/6-steps-to-an-effective-guest-post/">6 Steps To An Effective Guest Post</a> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/6-steps-to-an-effective-guest-post/feed/</wfw:commentRss> </item> <item> <title>Careful Bloggers, the FTC Might Start Watching You</title> <link>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/careful-bloggers-the-ftc-might-start-watching-you/</link> <comments>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/careful-bloggers-the-ftc-might-start-watching-you/#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:52:21 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Daniel Scocco</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Monetize]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dailyblogtips.com/?p=4091</guid> <description><![CDATA[There is a big buzz in the blogosphere about a regulation that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is planning to approve late this summer. If that goes through, they will basically start going after bloggers "for any false claims or failure to disclose any conflict of interest." In other words, if you write a testimonial for a product you have never used, you might get busted. This part is the one that makes sense. The controversial one is the "failure to disclose any conflict of interest" one.<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/careful-bloggers-the-ftc-might-start-watching-you/">Careful Bloggers, the FTC Might Start Watching You</a> ]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[There is a big buzz in the blogosphere about a regulation that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is planning to approve late this summer. If that goes through, they will basically start going after bloggers “for any false claims or failure to disclose any conflict of interest.” In other words, if you write a testimonial for a product you have never used, you might get busted. This part is the one that makes sense. The controversial one is the “failure to disclose any conflict of interest” one. This could involve bloggers who earned a freebie from a company and ended up writing about it (without disclosing the freebie), for example. Furthermore, it could also mean that you can’t use any affiliate links inside your blog or website without disclosing that you stand to earn money if someone clicks on them. I believe that trying to enforce strict guidelines and clean the web from spammers and scammers is a good thing. However, I am not sure if this proposed approach is the right one. It kind reminds me of the RIAA, and how they were trying to stop illegal music downloads by suing the heck out of a women who had shared a couple of songs via P2P…. Aaron Wall wrote a really good post about this topic, titled <a href="http://www.seobook.com/ftc-going-after-bloggers-epic-fail">FTC Going After Bloggers = Epic Fail</a>. Here is a quote from it: <blockquote>What is absurd (to me at least) is how inefficient this process is. What needs to happen is better enforcement on ad networks, search engines, and merchants. Follow the money downstream rather than hunting for nickels upstream. The people who are making fake sites are doing so because they are paid to. And amoral ad networks that syndicate ads based on *maximizing yield efficiency* (like Google AdWords) are designed to syndicate fraud because it is easy for advertisers to pay a lot for ads when their profit margins are nearly 100% because they scam people. </blockquote> I completely agree with him. Going after individual bloggers will not solve the problem. It will just make the money shift hands, but the system will remain intact. Either way it is important to keep an eye on the development of this issue, because it might affect all of us. <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=258839&c=ib&aff=13371"><img border="0" src="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/bbb31.jpg"></a> <a href="http://www.dailyblogtips.com/careful-bloggers-the-ftc-might-start-watching-you/">Careful Bloggers, the FTC Might Start Watching You</a> ]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.dailyblogtips.com/careful-bloggers-the-ftc-might-start-watching-you/feed/</wfw:commentRss> </item> </channel> </rss>