Kikabink News

MediaWhiz has launched a new ad network called InLinks that aims to sell advertisers text links within the content of bloggers’ posts… without being detected as paid-for links by Google.

InLinks will look and behave exactly like words with embedded links. They will not look like - or carry any indication - of being paid for and, since they will not have nofollow tags, they will pass on Google PageRank (the main objective).

Basically, an advertiser will be able to choose the keywords it wants to target and then buy text links for those keywords. Such links will then appear whenever the given keyword appears in the content of the blogs participating in the program. Bloggers will be paid a flat rate per month per text link sold.

Sound good so far?

Think again. Paid links are against Google’s quality guidelines and the search engine will penalize blogs caught selling such links. Not disclosing paid-for links is also a rather dubious practice for bloggers to engage in. In some jurisdictions, such as here in Australia, it may well be illegal.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger advises bloggers to proceed with caution. He recommends against participating in InLinks if you have a highly ranking blog, or if you are concerned about disclosure and transparency with your readers. He suggests that InLinks it could be something to look into if you don’t care about having your blog indexed by Google or aren’t concerned about being transparent with readers. For his part, he doesn’t sell text ads.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch concurs:

“The reality is that accepting money to link to/promote/market for a product without disclosing that fact is a very high-risk behavior, in my opinion.”

Meanwhile, Google’s Matt Cutts has emailed TechCrunch to reiterate that selling links to pass PageRank violates Google’s quality guidelines and that bloggers who fail to disclose that they have been paid to engage in word-of-mouth marketing also potentially violate laws in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

It will be interesting to see if and how InLinks works… and who participates. Not that anyone is supposed to know!

FYI, here at Kikabink News, we do not sell text links. We openly promote affiliate products, our own products, and sell advertising.

Source: Darren Rowse, “InLinks - TextLinkAds 2.0 Advertising,” ProBlogger, November 20, 2008, Michael Arrington, “Insidious New SEO Ad Product Will Be Hard For Google To Detect (Updated With Google Response)”, TechCrunch, November 19, 2008

Jack Humphrey has published an article that explains, simply and succinctly how to make your blog popular. He gives 6 tips, which I’ve put my own spin on below:

1. Create ‘marketable’ blog content that readers don’t just enjoy reading but also feel compelled to forward to others.

2. Write for two (2) audiences - readers and other bloggers.

Notice that Jack does NOT mention writing for that third audience… search engines? Here’s what we’ve learned since we began publishing the Kikabink News Internet marketing blog/newsletter just a few months ago: write for people and the search engines will follow.

If you regularly write about topics you want to be known as an authority on, sooner or later the search engines will begin treating you as such. If, on the other hand, you try to write specifically for search engines and stuff your articles with an unnaturally high level of keywords… you’ll turn off readers, bloggers and eventually the search engines.

3. Link to other relevant blogs and content. Remember the days when we were all told to get inbound links… without giving out links in return? Didn’t that strike you as a little… um… selfish? Well, those days are gone. Not only can you get “trackback” links when you link to other blogs, but the search engines are increasingly taking a holistic view at who is linking to whom. They’re actually starting to favor blogs that link TO (not just get links from) other related, authoritative blogs.

4. Network with other bloggers by linking to them, commenting on their blogs and doing them favors. If it isn’t obvious, doing nice things for others will result in others doing nice things for you.

5. Post early and often. Jack Humphrey recommends posting every day. Ideally, a few times per day. Why? In Jack’s words:

“Because every post is an opportunity to hit the search engines with another long tail keyword phrase. Every post is a new chance at turning on another blogger and making them link to you. Each post you make is yet another “touch point” for you and your readers. Readers are interested in different things at different times. More posting ensures you are hitting more hot button topics with more readers with varying interests at any given time.”

6. Work out how to “hook” your readers. Ideally, you want to work out how to write such content as to get your readers coming back again and again. My husband, Simon, writes the DomainerIncome.com blog. He tends to write funny, politically incorrect posts and, in terms of attracting readres and getting comments (supportive and not-so supportive) it works.

Another example is Clayton Makepeace. Clayton is an A-list copywriter who recently let loose his rather strong political views. Well, you should see the comments he’s drawn for his political posts. I’m guessing many readers just can’t wait to see what bloggers like these guys are going to say next!

Source: Jack Humphrey, “Making Your Blog Popular”, Friday Traffic Report, November 7, 2008

A survey of around 200 respondents by copy editing service, GooseGrade has found that blog readers are somewhat turned off by typos, grammatical errors and poor writing.

Those surveyed - a diverse group of respondents who spent some time reading blogs but generally used “mainstream sources” for news - indicated that finding errors on blogs makes them less likely to share the content they find with others.

Specifically, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors harmed a reader’s opinion of a blog and their willingness to share the content on that blog with others. Interestingly, the survey also found that most respondents believed such errors to be common. Only 20 percent of respondents said it was “not often” or “never” that they found such errors.

Bottom line: try to write well, and strive to eliminate spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. (I will too!)

Sources: Marshall Kirkpatrick, “Errors By Bloggers Kill Credibility & Traffic, Study Finds”, ReadWriteWeb, October 30, 2008, GooseGrade Reader Perception Survey Results

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Allow bloggers to place a widget on their blogs containing the titles of related blog articles and this would lead to people visiting other blogs, which, in turn, would result in heaps of free traffic for bloggers all round.

And you know what? BlogRush - the brainchild of John Reese - captured the imagination of literally thousands of bloggers around the world. In the words of John Reese:

“When BlogRush launched in late-2007 it spread like wildfire all over the Web. Thousands of bloggers were talking about it and the service exploded to become one of the fastest growing free services in the history of the Web. During the first year of the service it successfully served 3.4 billion blog post headlines and the BlogRush widget could be found on blogs all over the world…”

Only it didn’t work.

Sure, plenty of bloggers used it. But it didn’t generate the huge volumes of traffic those who participated in the network had hoped for.

Bloggers tended to put their BlogRush widgets at the bottom of their blog pages. And of those blog readers who actually saw the widgets, very few actually visited the other blog articles appearing in the widget.

We could attempt to deconstruct the failure of BlogRush further. But a single article wouldn’t do justice to either BlogRush or the failure of BlogRush. And forgive me if I haven’t fully explained how BlogRush was supposed to work. It wasn’t just a blog referral widget – there was (among other things) some kind of credit system that I could never really get my head around!

According to John Reese, there were security issues and abusing users who tried to ‘game’ the system. There were also ‘quality control’ problems in terms of whose blog was - and wasn’t - allowed in the BlogRush network. Meanwhile, John Reese and his team never got around to monetizing the service and, despite offers, decided against selling it.

Together, these - and presumably a host of other - factors all conspired to cause John Reese to shut down the service last week.

But if you think the failure of BlogRush is a testimony to the wisdom of those who said it couldn’t be done… or to those who just love saying “I told you so”… think again.

While BlogRush may well have cost John Reese a small fortune, he should look back at the service with pride.

BlogRush is an example of thinking BIG. Of the entrepreneurial spirit at work. Of an idea that went beyond regurgitating what everyone else was doing in the Internet marketing space, to doing something DIFFERENT.

And ‘failure’ is, perhaps, unduly negative. BlogRush didn’t work. So what? Doesn’t mean John Reese didn’t learn a LOT about his target market or glean powerful insights about how something else might work in the future. While I don’t know John personally, I suspect he’ll be taking all the lessons learned from BlogRush to the bank.

I stress this because it’s important – indeed, CRITICAL - for YOU, as an entrepreneur, to be willing to fail or ‘find out what doesn’t work’. If you’re not out there failing, you’re not trying hard enough. Which means you’ll never achieve the success you seek.

There are players and spectators in business, just as there are players and spectators in sport (and life). Spectators sit comfortably on the sidelines and never get hurt or suffer defeat. Players endure hard training… get their fair share of injuries… and suffer many defeats.

But only PLAYERS get the chance to win, and to reap the rewards of victory. Rewards that may well be an Olympic medal… a multi-million dollar business… or a fulfilling personal life.

John Reese is a player. In terms of BlogRush, he may have lost the game. And if he’s a typical entrepreneur, BlogRush is unlikely to be the only game he’s lost or will lose in the future. But indications are that his wins more than make up for the occasional losses. And, chances are, BlogRush will be nothing more than a blip on an otherwise exceptional business record.

So be a player. Try your guts out and be willing to lose. Because that’s the only way you’ll ever win big. And trust me: I practice what I preach!

Source: IMNewswatch, “BlogRush Is Shutting Down”, IMNewswatch, October 30, 2008

Research conducted by JupiterResearch for BuzzLogic indicates that blog readers tend to respond to ads on blogs, with 40 percent of people reading blogs taking action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog, and 50 percent of frequent blog readers taking action.

Of the action taken, 17 percent read product reviews online; 16 percent sought out more information on a product or service; and 16 percent visited a manufacturer or retailer Web site.

Perhaps not so surprisingly, 25 percent of the blog readers (people who read at least one blog per month) said they trusted ads on a blog, compared with 19 percent who trusted ads on social networking sites.

The survey also found that consumers are influenced by blogs at the moment of purchase decision. According to BuzzLogic and JupiterResearch, blogs play a greater role than social networks because bloggers establish themselves as an authority on a topic, particularly in niche areas, and create a relationship with the consumer.

Source: Enid Burns, “Study: Blogs Influence Purchases More Than Social Sites”, The ClickZ Network, October 28, 2008