Kikabink News

If you use Gmail you would have noticed the addition of a new feature last week: video and voice chat. Hmmm, looks like Google plans to take on Skype!

To activate the new feature, you need to install a small browser plugin. The feature will work on PCs with Windows XP or Vista, as well as on Macs with OS X 10.4 or later. The plugin will work with all the major browsers, including Google’s own Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

Source: Justin Uberti, “Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat”, Gmail Blog, November 11, 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

Okay maybe “trash” is exaggerating (although see my example below!). Still, Internet marketing blogger Yaro Starak makes a good argument that you can (and probably should) write a product review that reveals the flaws of a product… and still expect to sell it through your affiliate link.

Yaro explains that while most Internet marketing product reviews are sales pitches - and that part of his motivation in writing product reviews is to sell products - by explaining the negatives as well as the positives, he ends up selling more.

I’m reminded of a product review I wrote on another blog a year or so ago. I called the product lame… and I still got an affiliate commission out of it! I’m not sure whether someone forgot to clear their cookies… or really did want to buy a lame product… or dismissed my product review… but it just goes to prove anything’s possible!

In any case, Yaro indicates that it IS possible to write genuine product reviews AND sell products if you follow these four guidelines:

1. Pick products you’re interested in that are relevant to your audience.

2. Write a thorough review after studying the product.

3. Build up credibility as a trusted source in the industry.

4. Build a large audience so that when you say something, enough people listen.

This is pretty much the approach we take at Kikabink News. I will say, however, that apart from the strange example above, we won’t write promotional product reviews UNLESS we genuinely endorse the product.

(No, I DON’T believe you can trash a product and sell it!)

Bottom line: if you plan to run a review site, be sure to discuss the cons as well as the pros of a product you review. Chances are you’ll build up more credibility and, in the long run, more affiliate sales.

Source: Yaro Starak, “Why Writing a Bad Review is Sometimes a Good Idea”, Entrepreneurs Journey, November 11, 2008

A guest post on the Hitwise blog by search engine optimizer / analyst Dustin Woodward, suggests that the long tail of search might be much longer than most of us expected.

Woodard evaluated a data set of search terms used in the last three months, and found that the top 1,000 search terms only accounted for about 10 percent of all search traffic.

Indeed, the Hitwise’s top 100 search terms account for just 5.7 percent of all search traffic, while the top 1,000 search terms only account for 10.6% of all search traffic. Even the top 10,000 search terms drive just 18.5 percent of all search traffic.

What does this mean for Internet marketers? Well, it does NOT mean you should try to optimize your site for all those long tail keywords. Together they may account for a lot of searches, but if anything, Woodard’s analysis confirms the fact that long tail terms are infrequently searched on i.e. they are likely to be ‘one-offs’.

There may still be opportunities to pick up traffic for such one-offs, but trying to target such keywords is unlikely to pay off – simply because such words are unlikely to be searched on next month.

So it still pays to optimize for the most popular, relevant keywords you can afford to target. And if you want to be creative, think into the future rather than the past. In other words, instead of targeting last month’s long tail keywords, think about what keywords you think will become popular, based on trends in your market or industry.

Source: Frederic Lardinois, “Hitwise: The Long Tail of Search is Much Longer Than Expected”, ReadWriteWeb, 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