This is a back-and-forth form of panel, so bear with me: I’ll bold the names when the speaker changes.

Loren’s discussing how he got his start with Search Engine Journal and his interest in how professional bloggers get their start, so here’s some mini background about our guest speakers.

Brian Clark started a blog six years ago about copywriting and creating online content as part of a marketing strategy. Now that blog is a centerpiece of CopyBlogger Media, which is a software company.

Jeremy Schoemaker started his site as GoogleNinja.com, and after receiving a cease and desist from Google, he ran with his nickname from high school: Shoe Money. He started writing about anything, from meeting Paris Hilton to pay-per click. He’s going on eight years of blogging, and he blogs at least once a day.

In 2007, Jeremy had crossed the six-figure mark per year, which was really moving the needle for his company. He started getting calls from the Wall Street Journal and realized he was considered an expert. He launched many companies from the blog, and he never had to spend money on advertising.

People ask him, how do you get people to read your blog? So he’ll look at their blogs and realize that they’re just rehashing what everyone else says “with lots of keywords like synergy and crap like that.”

“Be polarizing but just be yourself more than anything,” Jeremy said. You don’t have to come off as a news source.

Brian said that you definitely want to have that human speech — no one wants to read something that sounds corporate. “Think like a media producer,” he said. There’s a whole bunch of different ways to approach it, but you’re producing media one way or another. Whether you want to do it on a more personal way or a more tutorial-driven way, they’ll both work.

Jeremy talks about Brian’s blog and how it’s great content that’s polished but works differently than Jeremy’s blog.  They discuss a dare that involved Jeremy posting a blog entry called, “George Bush: Great President or Greatest President Ever?” I’m going to have to look this up when the session is over.

Brian says the first step is to make an authentic connection and tell people a story they want to hear. Don’t just pander to them; sometimes people don’t know what they want. You have to have a personal and resonant relationship with the audience.

“Half the things you try, you’re going to fail. But you just have to keep trying,” Brian said. “You’ve got to be creative and experiment to get attention.”

He said writing creative, engaging headlines is half the battle.

Jeremy doesn’t put that much thought in his headline writing and mentions how including something like “NSFW” can attract a lot of traffic.

“I continuously mess with the SEO community because they’re easy to bait. They’ll spread your content like crazy,” Jeremy said.

Brian always paid attention to what people were saying on the blog. He knew the best way for bloggers to start making money was to create premium content that was actual online education. They were really the first blog to sell an informational product, and the market was dying for it, so it was a huge success. They paid attention to what people wanted and they were right; this led to more evolution.

Also, a brief pause to reflect on a speech blunder Brian almost made and his follow-up: “Fitter and Twacebook. Wow. I need a drink.”

He talked about how if he needs something, the typical user probably needs it, and that’s how most of the Copyblogger products are developed. They haven’t been wrong yet.

For Jeremy, his company builds services they want to use. It’s so much easier to sell and talk about because it’s a need they share with the audience. There are three ways they analyze an idea:

• Is it something they’re going to use every day?
• Will it go viral on its own?
• Can it make money?

If it doesn’t meet these criteria, they jump ship.

Brian said that the industries that aren’t saturated include small business blogs. That’s really where things are going; it’s the small businesses out there that have money.

Jeremy completely agrees. He added that if you’re not really into what you’re doing, then just forget about it. If you’re only doing it to make money, hang it up.

If you look at readership of their sites, it’s probably way more than the distribution of the newspaper. He gets hit up every day to be in books, etc., because they know he’ll write about it.

Brian continues by saying you should watch those TV shows that are informational and entertaining (like shows on Food Network) because that’s how you should be thinking about content.

Brian said, “I can barely bring myself to write most of the stuff on Copyblogger anymore.” It was one of the first blogs to take on guest bloggers and make it a regular feature. Some people have built entire businesses out of posting for them. That’s a benefit of building an audience.

Jeremy has a few guest writers, but 99% of the content is from him. He’s never had a problem writing. He has like 30 or 40 posts done and ready to post. He takes a lot of notes and has a whole list of topics to go back to. “It’s more just about me and what I do.”

Brian’s blog is more topic specific, so he can’t just write about anything.

He says you can get inspiration all over the place because you start seeing intersections between marketing, literature, film, etc.

In regard to getting bloggers to cover people, he suggests going around to blogs and asking to write for them. It creates exposure and you’ll be able to mention your product. The key with bloggers is that they really respond to the offer to help instead of the offer to give stuff. But there are all sorts of other ways.

Jeremy has a very specific criteria for guest posts: he wants opinionated articles. He said when your stuff is on someone else’s property, it’s so much more powerful than if it were on your own.

It really is about giving value. He’s been transparent, and people give value to that. If you have strong opinions about stuff, let them fly.

Well it’s time for a short cookie-and-coffee break, and I’ll be back for session4.

If you want to learn to write text that will have readers frantic to respond, then employ these psychologically-driven messages. Here are the second five of the 40 secrets to create powerful prose, which are applied by content czars, divas, diplomats, and vendors, alike. Over the next six weeks, I’ll be giving away the remaining 30 secrets to improve your content creation game.

SYMBIOSIS

If an acquaintance gives you a gift—even something you hate and resent—you are twice as likely to reciprocate, or support that person. Thus, if Trump sends his Trump Steaks to vegan friends, even though they would hate the gift, they would be twice as likely to vote Trump for President, 2012.

Give your audience something, whether it’s a secret, widget, or valuable link, and they’re twice as likely to ‘like’ and buy from you. Even though an audience would prefer to be given a valuable tip or application, giving them anything creates that vacuum of reciprocation that makes people feel guilty, and prompts a positive response. Think: how much more likely are you to get the kids a small toy immediately after they’ve drawn you a picture. To learn more about the value of widgets, check out Overlooked Linkbait: The Value of Widgets by Jordan Kasteler.

Create a symbiotic support cycle:

• Give the audience a valuable link, insight, or widget
• After giving something away, subtly request reciprocation in the form of a well-placed ‘like’ button, a comment box to be filled-in, or a sales pitch
• Keep in mind how awful it feels when someone expects a present from you on Christmas: similarly, you do not want to create a situation where readers feel expected to respond, or they may resent the freebie you presented

PRESUMPTIVE GIFTING

Taking the previous section into consideration, would you presume an audience would be more or less likely to reciprocate positively if you imply they absolutely will reciprocate? Studies have found that suggesting a link between their reciprocation and a freebie will not affect a readership’s behavior, whereas an implicit assumption about their reciprocation actually increases the likelihood of positive response by more than 40%. If you’re convinced this is a good idea, check out Patrick Winfield’s resource in his post, Ultimate How-To: Buttons, Tools, and Badges

Sound complicated? All you need to do is suggest that a freebie is given in advance as a small ‘thank you’ for the audience’s feedback. Adding guilt to the situation in the form of an ‘if you/then I’ scenario results in no increase in feedback or ‘like’ count.

Create a symbiotic support presupposition:

• Before posting the free advice, widget, or tip, write a thank you to the readers, telling them the gift is a signifier of appreciation for commenting—the gift given as an implicit, advanced sign of trust that they will comment makes the readers feel good about themselves

RESPONSIVITY

Engaging readers is not enough when the average reader has 93 articles pending at any given time on Google Reader. Although the last post suggested thoughtlessness, or leaving a reader without a decision, was a best bet for responsivity, there is another approach.

Asking an open-ended question that has a positive spin on the topic will substantiate the reader’s belief of his rightness, making him more committed to his answer. If you want a reader to vote, then asking a questions such as, “Why do you believe voting is important?” will lead the reader to substantiate the importance of it in his mind. People asked this question before voting day were 25.2% more likely to follow through and vote.

Create a symbiotic support cycle:

• Place a presupposition, like the importance of voting, into a question
• By merely asking himself the question, the reader complies with the presupposition and ignores it, focusing instead on the reasons why he agrees, rather than if he agrees

CONTRACTUAL READING

Though having someone sign up for RSS feed is pretty neat, it might result in just another ignored feed, and an even less responsive audience (as they are no longer required to seek you out, it’s easy for them to take posts for granted). How can you keep your readership involved?

Having a reader sign up for RSS feed by typing a request and clicking ‘send,’ makes a reader feel contractually obligated to read it. Because there is an assumption that someone, a real person, must read their request and input their information, readers feel obliged to follow-through with the contract by reading the feed; in fact, interaction is 32% higher!

Create a written contract:

• Even if your feed subscription is automatic, including a text box for special notes, or requesting a reason why a reader is subscribing, leads to much higher participation rates
• Similarly, readers believe that their comments are being read and considered. If they do not receive responses, they often feel the contract has been broken on the writer’s end, leading to resentment and disengagement from the writer’s feed

SUMMER FLIP-FLOP

This favorite tactic is very useful with stubborn readers, and is often used on talk shows to allow celebrities to backtrack without looking foolish. No one wants to be perceived as a flip-flopper, making decisions on whimsy and changing viewpoints like knickers. How can you relive that sense of guilt a reader may feel if she realizes a previously-held belief is inaccurate?

Creating a conditional exception allows a reader to believe that a previously-held conviction was accurate, whereas now she would be wise to update her belief to suit the new circumstances. This is easier than it would seem.

For example, a reader thought (at first blush) that Mr. Frump would be an excellent president, but then news broke that he had exaggerated claims on the record; suggesting to the reader Mr. Frump was no longer an excellent candidate would give the reader an out. She could choose to believe that this one incident was the determining factor, which rendered Mr. Frump inadequate. Once people have opened this door to changed beliefs, they can easily be encouraged to re-think their entire position on a topic.

Create a conditional situation, which makes exceptions acceptable:

• Understand the reasons your audience has a previously-held belief
• Find a new condition for the situation that is a game changer—it could be something negative about a past belief, or something positive about a belief you want to move the audience towards
• Using the ‘game changer’ as an excuse to change beliefs, suggest that the new circumstance results in a new best option

TL; DR

Psychologically-driven messages increase sales and responsivity. Employ these five content creation tips with subtly, and with due respect for your audience: manipulating readers to respond in a certain way can backfire, if you attempt to manipulate them into doing something they don’t want to do. What does that mean? Like hypnosis, only a willing participant will be responsive to writerly suggestions.

The first post in this series was Create Content More Alluring Than Mata Hari. Next week the third of eight posts will be published, Create Content More Antagonizing Than Trump.

With its user-friendly Dashboard, and fully customizable features, WordPress is one of the greatest tools a website owner could ask for. When planning for user friendly features, a wise colleague of mine once said “Think of your Mom, is this something she would be able to use?” and I know firsthand that when using WordPress, the answer is yes. WordPress was created for anyone and everyone to use.

After completing WordPress’ Famous 5 Minute Installation there are many tips and tricks to available to set up and personalize your site. These tips are available to anyone, regardless of their level of experience.

1.Themes

Changing the entire look and feel of your website has never been easier than with WordPress’ Theme repository. You can browse over a thousand free themes until you find the one that suits your personality and needs. Once finding the new design of your website, you can make it live in literally two steps. All WordPress themes are fully customizable to better incorporate your personal logo or change colors to something that fits you better.

As for the skeptics, while you may think that the WordPress themes are not up your alley, or are too limited in style options, I highly suggest browsing through a few of their themes; You may be surprised by the versatility and variety that WordPress themes have to offer. If the free themes don’t catch your eye there are additional low-priced themes offered as well. Of course you always have the option to design and develop a custom theme, but this may require a higher level of experience.

2.Plugins

I believe the plugins offered are really what set WordPress apart from the competition. It doesn’t matter if you are setting up your site for the first time, or have already had it for years, you will never stop browsing/adding plugins. These plugins are created to make your life easier; and that’s exactly what they do. If you’re looking to setup a gallery, a contact form, Google analytics, or even a way to generate content, it can all be done with a pre-made plugin. Just hit activate, and watch how much a single plugin can improve your website.

3.Widgets

Almost all WordPress themes come with specified areas for you to add widgets. These widgets allow for you to choose what users should see on your site. Usually you will find these areas on the sidebar, footers, and headers. A very common use of the widgets in the sidebar is to display a large amount of your blog posts, categories, or other pages. Widgets can also be useful to add a search or custom text on your site.

4. Social Networking

Social media outlets are an ever-growing influence to society’s daily life; there isn’t an easier or more effective way to spread the word of your blog or website than by adding social buttons to your site. Just activate a plugin for your favorite individual social network site, or add one single plugin that will add options for multiple social sites.

5.Write the Content

After investing time and effort into perfecting the look and feel of your website, you are now ready to begin writing!

After following these 5 steps, you’ll learn just how easy it is to make updates and maintain your site.

Become a fan of BlueGlass on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe to our RSS feed.

Tumblr for Business vs. Tumblr for Branding

When brands approach the Tumblr platform as a site that they can customize the background and fields and post content, this is great but does not allow the brand to get the most value.  Using the platform for business and content sharing is just the first step. Depending on the brand, the content can sometimes easily walk on its own. In this case, using the most stimulating content is important. Mashable has even made it easy by offering their pick of the best Tumblr Themes for Business.

When using Tumblr, the best practice is to use it as  a user would.  ”ReBlog” content that followers are posting and give the brands take on it.  This will show the audience that the brand is an active player on Tumblr.  Some brands have even gone as far as creating a Tumblr personality for others users to interact with.  The hand holding affect of Tumblr is very powerful.  When a post is Reblogged, the content is shown to multiple audiences and has the power to travel faster and more affectively. But to do so takes more effort than just posting content out into the Tumblr world and praying somebody Reblogs it.  Effort is needed and appreciated on this platform.

Brands that use Tumblr for business (Only posting content):

• http://bergdorfgoodman.tumblr.com/ – Bergdorf Goodman
• http://rollingstone.tumblr.com/ – Rolling Stone
• http://blog.anntaylor.com/ – Ann Taylor
• http://life.tumblr.com/ – Life Magazine
• http://blog.acehotel.com/ – Ace Hotel
• http://vogue.tumblr.com/ – Vogue
• http://nypl.tumblr.com/ – New York Public Library
• http://newyorker.tumblr.com/ – The New Yorker

Brands that use Tumblr for branding (actively sharing content):

• http://katespadeny.tumblr.com/ – Kate Spade
• http://vanityfair.tumblr.com/ – Vanity Fair
• http://oscarprgirl.tumblr.com/ – Oscar De La Renta
• http://thingsmymomnevertoldme.tumblr.com/ – Womans Day
• http://bbook.tumblr.com/ – Black Book
• http://huffingtonpost.tumblr.com/ – Huffington Post
• http://comedycentral.tumblr.com/ – Comedy Central
• http://abcworldnews.tumblr.com/ – ABC World News
• http://92y.tumblr.com/ – 92nd Street Y
• http://timeoutnewyork.tumblr.com/ – Timeout NY
• http://gq.tumblr.com/ – GQ

As this platform grows and expands, it offers many ways to syndicate the branded content along with the shared content on multiple networks. Each post shared and updated can be shared on Facebook Pages, Twitter, and of course each it tied in with an RSS feed. Brands also have the option to schedule posts to Tumblr which would additionally send the message across platforms at specific times.

Over the past few months, since the last time I wrote about Tumblr, brands have definitely been picking up how to operate within this strong community but not with intensity or speed.  Why is this?  Is it because brands do not have the time to allocate to yet another network?  Do they not have Tumblr friendly content?  Can the brand not specify who internally should be managing this?  Is it an external strategy?  Until a brand can answer all these questions, they probably are not ready to operate on Tumblr. However, why aren’t brands asking themselves these questions to begin with?!

I’d like to point these out because they’re growing exponentially in the community aspect- and not only are these areas constantly growing and forming new/big communities, but on a personal level, people are deeply interested and now have the ability to find others who are as passionate as them due to social media and blogs acting as one big channel for consumption.

Is social media an enabler in this case?

I love these two things but I’m really only good at one of them:

Cooking and interior decorating/design. Hint: I’ve caught cup-a-noodle on fire before.

These are both typically thought of as something the older demographic loved and mastered, but is now completely indulged by those in their 20′s and early 30′s.

In true community style,these two ‘hobbies’ have flourished due to,

• ease of hopping in to actually share your recipe or decorations with the community
• ability to see what exactly is included in each, and purchase if needed
• social sharing is enabled for sharing external to the community
• the abundance of those interested that participate in social media

Now my question is (and this could kind of be a chicken or egg type thing) were these communities always existing in a younger demographic over the past few years and just brought into the mainstream using social media as a channel, or are these passions that became more acceptable and as such, more people have started to use social media to share their new found interest?

Or both?

The Era of the New Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart is a pretty awesome woman with some great cooking, decorating and all over home-making tips. Nevermind that whole  insider trading jazz… though I’m not gonna lie- that kind of made me like her for having a dangerous side.

Over the past few years, foodies have pretty much come out of the woodwork in a big way to let the world know about their love for all things food and there’s also been a serious, increase in interior decorating, architecture and design sites aimed at the young professional.

Personally, I wasn’t that interested in interior design until I started stalking sites like freshome and apartment therapy. These sites appealed to the young professional in me- the decorating was classy and cool and completely unexpected.

Foodies!

While it sounds like something an angry teenager might say, it’s very true that “that was then, this is now” and hobbies that weren’t outwardly expressed before (such as a love for cooking) and throwing a dinner party if you were under 30 might e considered a little strange.

Not anymore. Food lovers have now had whole communities built around them.

Creating Communities

This is where social media plays such an immense role.

Roles that traditionally belonged only to exclusive demographics are becoming more broadly accepted because a “cultural backbone” is easier, more fun and more effective to create in the online world and within social communities. Back to the foodie community that has sprung up over recent years.

Cooking, sampling fine food and wine, and getting involved in the nature of what we eat was something reserved primarily for women in the 35 to 55 bracket… previously.

That’s changed now, with men and women; single and coupled; ages anywhere from 20 and up; straight, gay, or anything in between; all willingly jumping into this interest. Yes, there’s an incentive because it’s so much easier to get recipes, but what’s more valuable is the opportunity to swap the story behind the recipe in a social setting.

It also doesn’t hurt that we now have foodie magazines available in app form (such as Food & Wine or Epicurious) which conveniently will be reaching the older demographic, as well as being available to the younger demographic of iPad users.

Some examples of the food loving communities formed that not only shifted but in a sense created the demographics is the foodie social networks:

• Foodily [a food search engine & recipe sharing engine]
• Food &Wine
• Epicurious
• Chowhound
• Open Source Food

As long as the community aspect is in play,  I see more and more people jumping into these passions.

This is truly a community based on sharing, learning, trying, testing and finding out new ways to make things taste even more delicious.

Food & Wine, for instance, strengthens their community by featuring members and why they’re passionate about food & wine.

For interior decorating/design, there are tons of communities that seem more geared towards young professionals- quite different from the Martha Stewart persona that you would originally think of when you hear “interior decorating.”

The online young professional-esque interior design community is growing, and there are some excellent blogs and sites that go along with these too.

• Freshome
• Unplggd
• Apartment Therapy

These communities keep up a great social presence too- engaging and using social channels properly rather than just putting things up and letting people find them.

So is social media an enabler?

I would say so. It’s a complete channel that allows for those to express their interests- in fact, it almost calls them to.

In short (well, I guess not really that short, considering all my rambling in this post) communities are generating new identifiers that change the way we think about demographic data and the industries that are linked to those statistics.

Speaking of community… if you want to be a part of ours, follow BlueGlass on Twitter – AND if you’re interested in keeping up with trends in online marketing and social media you can also like us on Facebook.

PS: Don’t forget to follow me. I don’t bite

There are many niche blogs in the overflowing blogosphere. You can easily find blogs on the art of crochet, the art of Cheese, and even the art of Smoking Cigars.  Over the past few years, I have noticed that some of the most influential blogs in their communities are within the niche of Interior Design, Personal Training, Gardening, and Wedding Planning. Let’s take a look at these niche areas and dissect the top blogs in the topic to learn what would need to be done in order to start a career in one of these fields in the year 2011.

Interior Design

• Design Sponge: A modern blog  with main writers and guest writers that offer DIY projects, new styles, product guides, podcasts, gift guides, scholarships from product companies, and advice for designing your home on a budget. Obviously it is a given that you can follow this blog on Twitter for quick tips, “Like” this blog on Facebook to engage with the other aspiring Interior Designers, and subscribe to the podcast feeds.
• Fresh Home: This blog is actually based on the popular magazine.  It breaks down the content into buckets that make it simple for the reader to chose content per room or section of their home that they are designing.  This blog is full of beautiful images that make it fun to scroll around and of course is “Social Friendly”, giving the user an option to join their community on other social networks.
• Atticmag: Like the other interior design blog, the blog offers a slew of beautiful images that make you want to redesign your home and click on all the affiliate links that are on the page to make it look like the pictures. There are design tips per room, videos, partners, and recommendations that you can follow on the blog or on one of their social networks.
• Inhabitat: Popular Green design blog that offers contests for readers, tech design, kids ideas, and fashion ideas to match your home.  This blog has changed over time to become more of a lifestyle blog.  It has featured authors, areas to participate in causes, ways to entirely engage with the blog on social media, and (since being bought by Federated Media) tons of advertisements and links to products discussed in the posts.

Personal Training

• Fatfightertv: This blog offers videos of workouts, recipes for healthy meals, and success stories. You can shop for fitness supplies and subscribe for daily doses of motivation.  And if you don’t have enough motivation to visit the website everyday, you can subscribe to the newsletter, rss feed, “like” them on Facebook, and follow them of Twitter.  You have no excuse to not Fight Fat.
• Livin the Fit Life: This blog looks like a great one to follow for day to day tips on staying fit and getting into gear.  You can sign up for the newsletter, watch instructional videos, learn how to improve your diet, and get tips on how to start “livin’ the fit life”.  Although the name of the blog is not what I would search for if I wanted to search for the getting fit, and the URL is different than the title, but it only ranks #2 for “Living the Fit Life.” Let me get back to the point. This is not an SEO blog post.
• Freaking Fitness: This is a simple personal blog done by a woman who is a huge fitness enthusiast. She is not for hire as a personal trainer but she is an affiliate for some Fitness companies. The posts are inspiring and helpful in order to learn how to live better. I would like to see more video posts but overall really like the holistic feeling of this blog.

Gardening

• You Grow Girl: This blog is perfect. It offers so many option for the aspiring gardener. You can watch videos, shop for products, talk to the author, learn about seasonal differences, and discover plant species you might never know existed. It is an all over learning experience. With the social component complete, this makes for an all around helpful blog, blooming with knowledge.
• A Way to Garden: “The source for Garden information and inspiration” is what this blog acclaims. There are many facets of information and links here. You can read anything from “How-To’s” to Garden Humor. The author has a book for sale, offers many images in a slideshow, a way to connect to every possible social network, and a way to sign up to a newsletter.
• Dirt du Jour : This blog is specifically written for Californians but surely can be read by anyone interested in gardening. They offer news, what to do in the kitchen with fresh grown fruit, and gardening couture. The simple and pretty layout make it a quick read and easy to follow.

Wedding Planning

• Polka Dot Bride: If you don’t know much about planning a wedding, this a great place to start. It offers information about colors, creative styles, vendor lists, inspiration boards, and expert advice. Being that planning a wedding is a long term commitment, (something the reader should probably get used to) you can subscribe to the rss feed, “like” the blog on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.
• Wedding Bee: This blog has turned into a Wedding Resource center over the years. There are the staples of every wedding blog, classifieds, inspiration boards, vendor reviews, and photo galleries. It is a one-stop shop for planning a wedding. You can even buy wedding invitations and favors created by the bloggers. It is an interactive experience in planning your wedding and would definitely make any beginner into a novice. Just in case this is only the first time you are getting married.
• DIY Bride: This blog has all the essentials you need in order to plan your wedding. Read up on budget friendly wedding tips, look at pictures from Real Weddings, browse the inspiration boards, or buy DIY Bride invitations and favors. This blog include many ads on the right side where you can click recommended vendors. Like all other blogs, you can follow it just about everywhere socially to keep up with the newest trends in Marital events.

With the over saturation of the blogosphere only getting worse, you might ask yourself what to prepare for.  It is a given now that to specialize in a certain field (and to make a living at it), you must be very visible everywhere online. In any niche of blogs there are common themes. With Gardening blogs we can see that using images, slide shows and tips are without doubt the best way to show off your skill.  Personal Training blogs all have videos of workouts and success stories. When researching your niche make sure to create this checklist of things you must do, but also create something that will make you stand out from the rest. It is not only about adapting to what is new but creating a space for yourself to grow and continue to be special at whatever it is you do.

If you want search and social media tutorials delivered to you regularly,  like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter!

Everyone gets it, whether it’s just somebody contacting you and pretending they know you, or better yet- the spam that makes no sense about oil in the desert with jet planes that are on fire.

Or, someone with terrible grammar and spelling trying to get my bank info.

But email spam is a dying breed, and so is the outreach that can be associated with it. Blogger outreach, when done the wrong way, can really make you want to gouge your eyes out. I’ve gotten outreach emails before that were very poor, and then I’ve gotten some that actually made me a little happy inside- like this one. I took out the part that can’t be shown, but you can get an idea of why I liked this.

Someone ACTUALLY took the time to get to know a little about me, and my blog, and then contacted me. While yes, this is considered “spam”, it’s coming with good value and shouldn’t be treated like junk. It made me respond and actually exchange a few emails with them.

Blogger outreach is slowly moving and shifting with the social media landscape, and it’s important that we start learning the proper ways to do BETTER blogger outreach, instead of more, and also how to tie in social media with the mix. There’s a never-ending value taking some of the weight of your outreach completely off email.

Email spam will (unfortunately) never die completely because there is some great value that come out of things that are considered spam. Think about it.

Spammy spam is?

1. An email from somebody you don’t know about something you aren’t sure you’ll care about
2. Unsolicited information about a product or service
3. Unsolicited attempts to sell you something
4. Absolute random crap that makes no sense at all

But how many times have you opened these anyway, and actually been appreciative of what you found? I know if it’s numbers 1-3, I’m generally a little intrigued because they’re usually targeted to my likes and interests.

Who is guilty?

We’re all guilty.

That’s right. You, you and me. Not of the above, but whether we like to realize it or not, when we’re trying to build our personal brand we may be doing a little unsolicited emailing. Better yet, when you’re working for a company and need to get in contact with somebody new, you’re also guilty of it.

So let’s forget how horrible old outreach tactics were, embrace our current tactics, and tie in social media with our email outreach for a better all around strategy and to help reduce the annoying spam that flies around our inboxes.

The Outreach Basics

Yes, this may be a little elementary to some who are reading this blog, especially if you’re in the Internet marketing field. But there are others who haven’t worked with outreach before, so I think it’s important to go over some basics before jumping into the social media aspect of things.

Why is outreach beneficial?

If you’re building your personal brand, there is nothing better to leverage than yourself. Likewise, if you’re working for a company, you’re representing them and need to approach people the right way. And let’s face it- sometimes you need to start doing outreach and you really want to do a great job and reach a large number of targeted blogs that might find your information useful.

BUT! If you’re able to reach 100 people in the click of one button, then you’re doing it wrong. Sending the same email to 100 people on a list because you think quantity is better than quality is completely W-R-O-N-G.

Take the time, do some research and really find out what blogs you want to target. What do you need to do?

• Research.
• Prepare.
• Personalize.

1.    Find out the general idea of their site. This is kind of a no-brainer, Make sure that what you’re trying to get in contact with the blogger about actually is something they believe in. IE: Do not try to contact a foodie blogger about something carnivorous when clearly they’re a vegetarian.

2.    Find out about the person. Look at their “about me” and whatever else they have around. What is their name? No one likes to be emailed and called, “Hey, you!” and they’re 50% more likely to respond if you actually address them by their name.

3.    Since you’re taking the time to check out their site, talk to them about something that you found interesting. When I’m doing outreach and getting familiar with a blog, I take the time to read a few articles over the course of a few days. If i find something humorous or awesome- I let them know.

4.    If you have the time work on visiting the blog and engaging the blog owner. And don’t just do it a few times, even after you get in contact with them for outreach purposes, keep visiting and occasionally sharing their content. Remember, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.

5.    If they do help you with a products/service/article, make sure you help promote it.
6.    Make sure you keep track of who you’ve had success with. Nothing is more embarrassing than contacting somebody and not remembering them after you’ve exchanged a few emails.

How Do We Shift Our Complete Email Dependency?

Outreach needs to evolve and move away from the association with mass mailing lists and impersonal spam messages. One way to do this is by integrating social media into your outreach mix.

Social media has been valuable in the past, and is slowly becoming more and more valuable as the days go on.

Think about it- if someone is reaching out to you, would you be more likely to take the time to write a blog post? Or would it be easier to send a quick tweet or post it on FB to reach your audience?

On the flip side, if you see someone with an interesting blog post, are you likely to write a blog post about it and integrate the link, or just click the handy dandy social sharing buttons (that I hope they have) for instant gratification and sharing with your audience?

Unless you’re looking for product reviews, it’s going to become more and more likely that bloggers are going to want to share your link/product/service through their social networks.

Even Tumblr, our new little rockstar, is becoming a popular way to share now- because if you find something on Tumblr you like, it’s easy to hit “reblog” or heart it.

Because of this, we need to let social media work for us. As you’re reaching out to various sites that you’re done research on, make sure that you’re also following them/liking them/engaging with them.

The Love of Influencers

It’s not new news (anymore) that even though link equity for social media is still evolving, social sharing on Facebook is being pulled into personalized Bing social search.

Don’t forget that if you’re doing outreach and someone shares a link on their Facebook page, it’s extremely likely that others will share it as well and it’ll start appearing in their friend’s personalized Bing searches if they have it enabled for social.

The power of utilizing social media is not something that should be overlooked, especially now from a search perspective. Reaching influencers in the vertical that you’re reaching out to is absolutely necessary.

There are many tools and sites that can help you identify influencers, advocates and do some social listening that you can take advantage of such as….

• Klout- Categorizes you into different segments of influence allowing you to see your (and other’s) true reach and amplification level. Klout score is actually now integrated into Seesmic if you use that to manage your Twitter accounts.
• TweetLevel- Another tool to allow you to find influence and engagement information on yourself and others.
• SocialSeek- Great social monitor that lets you track and find buzz around your brand, other brands, topics, etc so you can find out who is really influential and can reach a wide audience when sharing.

There’s tons more. Maybe that would make for a nice next post

Furthermore, the ability to reach out and have these influencers find interest in the product or service you’re reaching out around has the ability to act like a megaphone and reach a huge audience very fast- you know that when they’re influential, their audience is extremely likely to check out something that they share or put out there, and also likely to share it themselves.

Make Social Media Work For You

Aside from just randomly finding influencers and engaging them directly, why not start making interesting lists that others can follow which include these influencers? Make a list of your favorite bloggers, or your favorite financial gurus- and make sure it’s public.

Help bring value to their already influential accounts and let them know you find value in them too. Then start engaging and sharing with them.

Also, with more and more brands moving onto social networks and making Facebook tabs and applications, participating in Twitter chats, etc, it’s important that we can be stealthy like a ninja and ride the social media wave. You’ll be missing out on a lot if you don’t harness the natural power of engagement.

So Why Keep Some Blogger Outreach Through Email?

While it’s true that social media happens like an explosion, it’s good to have residual effects from blogger outreach that can keep the buzz alive since the very nature of social media is that it happens fast, and often times it happens all at once. And don’t forget, much like how email outreach can look spammy when done poorly, Twitter DMs and Facebook messages can be the same way. Don’t get me started on auto DMs…

Social media is an excellent complement and direction to take your outreach and it needs to move that way, but at the same time, you don’t want to neglect traditional blogger outreach- no matter how exciting and quick sharing with social media is when you find and build relationships with the right influencers in your vertical.

Blog posts can be searched and read multiple times and not get lost or pushed down quickly in the shuffle- often times staying on the front page or sidebar for a good amount of time.

The end of Email Spam?

If you’re thinking in terms of receiving an email that 100 other people receive, that isn’t personalized at all, then YES! I hope email spam is ending and will never rise again like a phoenix from fire and ashes.

But if you’re talking about blogger outreach, then no, it will never completely end. There is much value in blogger outreach and email is a great vehicle to get this done.

We all do a little spammy spam from time to time and chances are we don’t completely know who we’re reaching out to. How can we? It’s the online world. We can only do the best we can to build relationships off what we  know, and hope the blogger is open and receptive to us with warm and loving e-arms.

In moving forward though, we also have to consider and integrate the effectiveness of social media. There’s a whole big audience out there just waiting to hear what you have to say, and ready to share it.

If you’re interested in sharing this article, it’s probably really easy to click the “like” or “retweet” button up top. See how easy that is?

You can also become a fan of BlueGlass on Facebook or follow our fun (and informative) BlueGlass Twitter account.

• An interview helps your blog get credibility and trust: by getting someone influential answer your questions you (in some way) receive his approval of your resource;
• An interview is a great way to get more social media visibility: the influencer you are interviewing is most likely to share the interview using his social media channels which means more traffic and new followers;
• An interview is a powerful community building tool. Nothing builds a community better than the opportunity to easily self-promote your brand while helping promote others.

Sadly though, interviewing has been pretty much abused – and unless you take some time and effort to make the most of the opportunity, you are likely to fail. So let’s see how to take the full advantage of the blog interviewing opportunities:

Get the Maximum SEO Benefit: Think of a Proper Title

First things first: take a real effort to brainstorm a great title for your interview post. We’ve had quite a few posts on creating great titles by now and we are very-well aware of that almost impossible success formula:

make it short AND make it descriptive AND make it attention grabbing AND include your keywords AND create expectation AND avoid sounding forced and unnatural

Yes, having your title to comply with all the rules is too hard. Let’s make an easier formula for an interview post keeping in mind that we do want it to rank for the person’s (brand) name as well as for some other specific words:

• (Include the name of the person you were interviewing); and/or
• Include the person’s online moniker (this is very important. Make sure to chase the person throughout the most popular social media networks and find his/her username people know the person by);
• Include the person’s brand name (the name of the blog, site or product people know him/her by)
• Add some catchy introduction to let readers (even those who don’t know the person you were interviewing) want to read the post.

A good example?

Sure! Gina’s interview of Melanie Notkin (Savvy Auntie) makes a very good illustration of what I was talking about:

Make it into the Insanely Popular Link Bait

The social media web made us closer to people you’d never thought you could contact easily before. Look around. If you are active in the community, chances are, you (or one of your close social media contacts) is connected to a Twitter or Facebook superstar. Getting the interview from the really popular person is hard but it is almost always possible:

• People love being interviewed because no one can reject free publicity;
• People like to share their interviews with their contacts which will sky-rocket your stats.

A good example?

Even I was pretty much excited when I saw one of my social media friends Hillel Fuld’s interview with Alyssa Milano, his mutual Twitter friend. I think most people reading that interview (including me) felt the way Hillel described it in one of the opening paragraphs:

That was the first of many direct messages I sent and received from Alyssa, but somehow the fact that I can send Alyssa a direct message never gets old.

Important note: this is only ONE point in the post which is not intended to state that it only makes sense interviewing celebrities. Yes, getting a huge influencer to agree to an exclusive interview specifically for your blog is powerful but it is not the only way to do blog interviews. Interviewing less popular niche experts is a great way to source unique and valuable information and enhance your blog credibility. Get creative in your objectives and be unique about who you interview – and you are very likely to achieve interesting results.

Re-craft Your Blog Interview into the Unique Post

Question and answer format is fine but very often it is too boring to read and almost impossible to scan through main points. Re-crafting your interview into some more popular format can be a great way-out.

Ryan Malone over at Social Media Examiner shared some inspiring tips on how to ask good questions and then make the most of your interview. Here are some ideas shared:

• Turn (part of) your interview into a list and prioritize on it;
• Turn your interview into a case study or unique and popular product review;
• Turn your interview into the expert guide (and let the person you are interviewing think outside the box; for example, “What tips can you recommend that you’d only share with a close friend“);
• Capitalize on trendy topics. For example, as for the New Year season, the most obvious topics to capitalize on are “year in review”, “best of 2010″ and “2011 predictions”. See this post by Jason Lancaster to get inspired with Formulaic New Years Content;

A good example?

Even a few of them:

• What Paris Hilton Can Teach You About Branding (an interview as a link bait) – Fast Company publishes a lot of interviews regularly, so it’s definitely a good resource to learn interviewing from.
• Badgeville: Bringing Fun & Games to TNW – an interview re-crafted into a new exciting product review
• When do you throw a CEO’s privacy under the bus? – an interview that absolutely doesn’t look like one – asking two absolutely unrelated questions (which, in this case, prompts an even more active discussion)
• The Future Of Digg – the interview addressing first-hand information on a hot topic:

Re-purpose Your Interview Using Alternative Content Types

Re-purposing your posts using some different content type is the best way to further expand its reach. That’s no different with interviews. If you asked good questions and managed to pull out some great info, go ahead and visualize it using an infographic, structure using (downloadable) cheatsheets and prettify using video or powerpoint formats.

This way you’ll make sure people will bookmark your interview, share it along, download it to refer to it later, take it to an air-plane trip, etc.

A good example?

• CNBC often promotes its interviews from their official account at Scribd creating pretty branded embed documents (here’s one example) thus expanding their rich to active Scribd community.
• Check out slideshare-empowered podcast by Enquiro which actually makes a great format when put together: slideshare.net embed player lets you easily click through the parts of the interview:

Turn Interviewing into the Constant Stream of Great Content

Turning Q&A sessions into a tradition is a great way to fuel your resource with great free content and stand out in the community. Unite people by topic and profession and let them be heard – and you will win their hearts.

A good example?

InterviewByDesign is the blog / directory that focuses specifically on interviews. The process is pretty much automated (while still moderated). designers from all over the world fill out the online form that asks the same 5 questions to every designer, along with some questions on basic info (name, website, etc). It’s a simple concept that makes for interesting reading and comparisons, and is easy to maintain from a developer perspective.

Do you have any advanced blog interviewing tips? Share them in the comments!

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10. Article: Seven Insane Black Markets You Won’t Believe Actually Exist

Domain: TheSmokingJacket.com
Diggs to date: 220+
Why it rules: The world is a crazy place, and this list is fascinating reading for anyone who’s interested in economics or foreign cultures. Also, this quote makes me ROFL: “Amazon has more sketchy whitening systems than Apartheid.”

9. Article: 8 Things Made Cooler With Lasers

Domain: HolyTaco.com
Diggs to date: 50+
Why it rules: This should have gotten more traction than it did. Lasers make everything cooler.

8. Article: 11 Biggest Complaints Actors have had About Superhero Costumes

Domain: Blastr.com
Diggs to date: 480+
Why it rules: An insider look into the making of superhero flicks? Who wouldn’t love that?!

7. Article: Old Digg Crushes New Digg in Reader Vote

Domain: Mashable.com
Diggs to date: 3,650+
Why it rules: See, not all my picks were lists! For social media users, 2010 will always be the year of the New Digg, and the resulting backlash triggered a furor that was one of the most newsworthy stories in social media.

6. Article: How to Pet a Kitty

Domain: TheOatmeal.com
Diggs to date: 1,160+
Why it rules: Viral articles usually have pretty standard formatting, so Matt Inman’s use of graphics makes him stand out from the pack, and he was pretty much the Digg Darling of 2010. Every piece on his site rules, but this one is especially great.

5. Article: WikiLeaks Founder Praised by Pentagon Papers Exposer

Domain: ComputerWorld.com
Diggs to date: 640+
Why it rules: Wikileaks was arguably the biggest story of the year, and this article shows there really is nothing new under the sun.

4. Article: 9 Life-Changing Inventions the Experts Said Would Never Work

Domain: EcoSalon.com
Diggs to date: 420+
Why it rules: Because I’m a trivia/history nerd, and I said so. The old-timey quotes are really delightful.

3. Article: The 7 Best and 7 Worst Sidekicks in Videogame History

Domain: Dorkly.com
Diggs to date: 15+
Why it rules: Dorkly was one of my favorite new sites in 2010, and this article is a perfect example of why. This is another article that didn’t get the traction it deserved on Digg, but got a lot of exposure through other social outlets.

2. Article: Adam Savage: TSA saw my junk, missed 12″ razor blades

Domain: ArsTechnica.com
Diggs to date: 1,180+
Why it rules: Combining our love of Mythbusters with our hatred of the TSA, this article was bound to be a home run.

1. Article: 11 Celebrities Who Were Secretly Total Badasses

Domain: Cracked.com
Diggs to date: 90+
Why it rules: True, it got fewer Diggs than other articles on this list. But it was my favorite of this year because I learned so much, and the facts about Robert Mitchum and Audrey Hepburn pretty much blew my mind. It was the perfect blend of trivia, pop culture, and history, and that’s why it was my favorite viral article of the year.

So, what did I miss? What were your favorite viral articles of 2010? Tell me in the comments section below!

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1. How many people Tweeted about this (usually the entire room raises their hands)
2. How many people shared info about this event on Facebook (usually half the room)
3. How many people wrote about this on their blog and/or linked when they did (one or two people)

What’s interesting is that two or three years ago, when I would ask about the blogging, many more hands would pop up. Not just the bloggers’ table (do conferences still have those?) but hands all over the room. Now, the response about blogging has diminished. Why?

There are a number of reasons for the diminishing of blogging or should I say “traditional blogging.” Let’s face it, writing a blog post takes time, energy and for some; grammar skills [of which I have none]. The life-cycle of content sharing, or the sharing of ideas and thoughts, has in many forms, outgrown blogging, or evolved beyond the concept of blogging.

Furthermore, a good amount of influencers and decision makers have evolved along with the medium. As a professional blogger myself, I found that writing 5 to 8 posts a day on the world of search marketing or SEO became, in many ways tiring and repetitive (a reason I LOVE guest blogging).

Once Twitter entered the picture, the ability to share a recommendation or a vote of confidence for thoughts, interests and predictions within the online marketing industry within a more instantaneous and, in some ways, more receptive and targeted group, was not only a relief – but more gratifying in many ways.

With Twitter, I became less interested in the traffic and ad impressions, but more engaged in the conversation. In many ways with the same passion or fury that I had been with iSearch in email discussions 10 years ago or ThreadWatch.org commenting 5 years ago.

Does this mean that blogging is over? Does this mean that blogging is not as fun or influential as it once was?

Of course not. Blogging is the powerful medium that it always has been. Not only it is an essential part of the online publishing world, but also the content that populates blogs also populates search results. BUT what has happened is that in the same way blogging once complemented established websites and news vehicles, microblogging – or better yet, micropublishing – now complements blogging.

Furthermore, instead of trying to push out many pieces of blog content with all of my ideas, or writing two sentence blog posts, now I can focus on the one or two big posts, and share my ideas all day long via other platforms.

Enter Twitter, Facebook & Tumblr – Everyone Now a Publisher

One major tipping point with the adaptation of micro-blogging, is that the concept of the instapublishing of content and information has brought a new generation and expanded adoption into the mix, in a much similar way that blogging did in 2004/2005. Previous to the launch of WordPress and Blogger.com, the web was confined to hard coded content – FTP’d to the server side.

Think about it. Linking used to be one hell of an effort and files actually had to be uploaded to a server in order to hand code a live link … most of the time via dial up or poor connections(what a hassle)! Now I can link to someone from my phone in a matter of seconds

Blogging made the sharing of information, thought & ideas easily doable via push button publishing – all of the sudden, anyone could become a thought leader online – and conversations from email threads, user groups and forums found their way onto privately controlled, yet publicly shared blog format.

Blogging led to blog networks and the influence of the PageRank economy of linking for SEO purposes, coupled with AdSense monetization, made it profitable and scalable. But the scalability of networks and linking has led to a mistrust of the intent of many blogs – especially when the person behind the curtain is not always clear.

Social Media = Social Proof

What Facebook, Twitter and to a certain extent, Tumblr, now do is bring authenticity to the content. It’s fairly difficult to create a sharing in any of them with just content alone. These social networks are transparent, as user interests, likes, groups and followers all can define the intent and relevancy of the user.

For example, I know absolutely nothing about kitchen counter tops, but I can easily launch a blog, implement some SEO and build some links to rank that site for kitchen counter top oriented search terms. BUT with Facebook, if someone were to go through my interests and profile me, they’d quickly become aware that I know absolutely nothing about counter tops nor home repair.

So ideally, if I were to share a link about counter tops on Facebook, that content would have little value in a ranking algorithm since I am not an expert.

But I am an Expert at SOMETHING!

If I were to share, Like or recommend something about SEO, a post from Mashable, the Baltimore Ravens or possibly even a link to a resource about Reality TV Shows on Facebook – essentially those links would have value, because if you dig into my interests, those are subjects I am passionate about or commonly share with my friends. In an ideal world, I find this use of social proof being much more value than that of an anchor text link.

Likewise, my friends (or followers) also have similar interests, and if someone else who “Likes” the Baltimore Ravens ends up Liking or commenting on a news article, link or video that I shared – that is a highly relevant vote of trust and appreciation for that piece of content – not only by me, but but other similar users. By adding a like button to a website, blog post, item in an online store or where ever : that same vote of confidence and authenticity is then attributed to its source.

So in essence, a person is a better influencer in social media if like-minded people follow them AND support their relevant content. And adding to this, if your site content is shared by vertical influencers, then your content is more relevant to that theme. Which makes these relevancy attributes an important part of defining social SEO parameters and social influencer metrics.

Influencers are always Influencers

One of the cooler points about Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter publishing is that the barrier of entry is so easy [and so cost effective] that almost anyone can become an influencer. And some even have without knowing so – hence the power of incorporating social media metrics into SEO.

Why? Because previously, the link building initiatives around SEO were contained and controlled by a small percentage of the web : SEO’s and publishers. Even with a lot of the latest changes at Google – the bulk of its algorithm is still very dependent upon a style of linking which has been around for 15 years – yet the Internet has changed so much over the past 6 months alone.

Take a moment to step outside of the Internet Marketing box and check out the profiles on Facebook of the people you went to high school with. For me, a quick run through identifies accidental experts and influencers on parenting, hunting, shopping, saving, sports, real estate …etc. With social network based Instapublishing, the people who never wanted to blog, nor ever really were exposed to it, are getting to be almost as influential as publishers.

With social networking signals becoming part of the SEO mix at Google and Bing; now the influencers have gone from being a select few million of bloggers and publishers – to hundreds of millions of Facebook users, Tweeple & Tumblrs. Once the engines expand the dial of influence that these everyday users can contribute, the web will seem less controlled and more under control.

Are Social Signals Equal to Crowd Sourced SEO?

Yes, my rambling does have a purpose. Earlier in the month both Google and Bing confirmed with Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan that Twitter & Facebook signals do influence search rankings. Bing has been a little more transparent, with Facebook circles of friends influencing personalized & local search.

According to Bing, they look at the social authority of a user and Google confirmed that the sharing of information via retweeting and sharing is influential in organic web search and Google News. At the end of the day, these confirmations are heavy reasons to get started utilizing the social web and microblogging as ways to grow your site or business in the eyes of the search engines (along with traditional SEO methods – which are still as important as ever).

What I think is really cool about this is that it is also confirmation that Google & Bing are looking at more than the coded link and on-site content to rank and file web search results. Essentially they are looking at how the microbloggers of the world, the REAL people out there, share and process information – adding social signals to the mix. Believe me, by embracing and engaging the world of insta-publishing, businesses and publishers can gain an upper hand on their competition.

The Evolution of the Link has progressed over the past decade, and ultimately search along with it. We’ve gone from hand coded HTML to blogging to tagging and now Tweeting, Reblogging & Recommending. Push button publishing and voting is now a part of the normal online lifestyle and whether Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr users know it or not, they are part of a publishing migration that the search engines are slowly adapting to. Make sure your business adapts too!

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