Benjamins Yarn

So you’ve decided to start a blog? You’ve written a few entries, but it’s not getting the responses and feedback you expected when you decided to take the initial plunge. You don’t want to give up, but quite honestly you can’t understand just why blogs are such a big deal. What’s all the fuss about? And why does everyone talk about blogs in such reverent, awed tones?

The word blog is an abbreviation for Web Log. Described as an online diary, a blog gives its writer the freedom to express his or her personal thoughts and opinions to what is potentially the biggest audience in the world. The freedom and accessibility of the Internet means that anyone in the world can access any blog at any time. Theoretically a blog has the potential to be read by more people than any best selling book. It’s a disturbing, yet exhilarating thought.

Blogs are virtually the ultimate soapbox, and the true success of a blog depends on how the writer wants to reach his or her readers. There are a number of different ways in which to write a blog, and the content supplied needs to be considered according to the audience you want to reach. There are many different kinds of blogs, and I’ve selected the ones I feel most relevant to a personal blogger.

Some of the most popular blogs are cultural. These attract a wide audience, and discuss different cultural activities, ranging from sports to theatre and films. One way to use a cultural blog is to write a book or film review, or share the experience of attending a live concert. Imagine being able to share the experience of attending a concert given by a popular entertainer like Madonna with readers from all over the world. Imagine being able to compare your concert experience with people on continents who have seen the same show. That’s why cultural blogs are so popular.

A topical blog is more specific, in that it focuses on a niche market. Local blogs, covering events in a neighbourhood, a town or a city fit this description. The people living in the specific area featured in the blog are actual participants to all events and happenings in the blog. Another type of a topical blog is one that covers a specific subject rather than a physical area. For example: a patient living with cancer can share many aspects of the condition with readers. He can share his daily feelings as he undergoes treatment and the reactions of his family and friends with readers who may have the same medical dilemma. Organizations covering human rights abuses in a specific country can blog about their findings, making people all over the world aware of the situation in which they’re working. On a lighter note pet owners have written blogs from their pet’s point of view, allowing their animal to narrate the entries. Animal lovers all over the world can contribute and share their own experiences with their owners in a light hearted, humorous style.

A political blog is dependent upon the media and the news, and the blogger will combine personal observations with links to other blogs and articles on the Internet. A more serious politician will feature his or her own beliefs and comments, with links to supporting blogs and media articles. Political blogs can inspire fierce and enthusiastic debates among readers, which makes them extremely diverse and interesting. A warblog focuses upon news event about an ongoing war or military action, although these types of blogs have been accused of supporting war rather than remaining neutral.

Perhaps the most common type of blog is the personal one. Popular with students and those wanting to share their experiences with family and friends, entries are usually written in a personal diary format. Although growing in popularity, it’s more difficult to attract large reader numbers to this kind of blog. For example: a student living in a country in Africa will probably not bookmark a blog written by someone from a country like Scotland. The cultural and environmental differences between the two are significantly diverse. Another consideration is how long can diary entries about family and friend’s activities hold anyone’s attention if he’s never met them - and isn’t likely to anytime in the future?

If the writer pays attention to each entry, applying good grammar, humour and writing in a style that makes readers want to know more about the featured characters there’s a chance a few may return. However part of the appeal of this blog is the personal approach, and there’s a very real risk of losing the chance to build on the interaction between a crowd of people who have a physical connection rather than one formed in cyberspace. The best approach in this instance would be to write each blog entry as though it’s a chapter in a book about the characters.

Personal blogs can be used in other ways too. Some people use an entry to write a poem, a chapter in a novel or a short story. Others will debate their religious, political or other beliefs. Some will write about their thoughts and feelings on current news items, others may use them to describe personal feelings during a crisis, such as coping with an illness or death of a loved one. In this instance writing the blog becomes a cathartic experience, and the support of readers can help the writer cope with a deep, personal issue or crisis.

As most blogs are personal there are a number of ways in which the blogger can maintain and possible increase his or her audience.

Be Diverse - vary your entries every day. Share an anecdote about a friend or family member in one entry, then follow it with a story about your pet. If you’ve read an interesting story on the news dedicate an entry to it. Share a joke you received on an email from a friend. You could write a book review or share your thoughts on a film or DVD you’ve just watched. Think Forrest Gump: Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you’re going to get.

Be Candid - be truthful, frank and straightforward. Know your facts. If you’re commenting on a topical story or issue research your facts before committing them to the blog. Explain the reasoning for your beliefs, and back them with proven facts.

Be Neutral - don’t scorn, condemn or criticise those who disagree with your beliefs. Accept that everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion. It’s an idea to reflect both sides of the argument in an entry, taking care to avoid criticising or berating others. That’s the basis of democracy, and it’s a good point to remember when debating a “hot” issue in a blog.

Be Friendly - acknowledge those who take the time to read and contribute to your blog. If someone’s left a comment in your blog with a return email or blog address, send a message. Or better still pay a visit to the relevant blog. It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The visitor may tell others about your blog, and their visits will increase your blog’s popularity - not to mention your viewing statistics!

Be Entertaining - use your sense of humour, don’t take yourself too seriously. Sharing thoughts, ideas and experiences in writing is the same as sitting in a room with a group of friends. Just because you cannot see their faces doesn’t mean they’re not like you. Your blogging friends are special people, who’ve taken the time to respond to your words. Share some of yourself with them, and you’ll find your blogging circle grows.

A blog is a powerful communicative tool, and it needs to be handled properly. A well written, interesting blog has the ability to be read by people from all over the world. There are now more than 60 million blogs on the Internet, and that number is increasing daily. Self publishing house Lulu recently announced the winner of the inaugural Blooker Prize. Julie Powell wrote a blog about her attempts to cook all the recipes in an old French cookery book. Her blog was turned into a blook and to date she’s sold 100,000 copies.

Now that’s food for thought! Who knows what direction your blog will take in the future?

The writer was born in Africa, and lived there for the first 38 years of her life. She worked in the world of public relations for over five years, running her own PR company. She’s had extensive experience dealing with the world of journalism and the print media. She is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers. Her blog can be visited at: http://www.writing.com/authors/zwisis/blog

Obtaining Traffic

To convert traffic to sales or actions, first you have to obtain traffic to your website. This can be accomplished in various ways. You can provide top-quality content that is search engine optimized and places you high in the search engine results rankings allowing people to locate your website easily. You can use Google Adwords to obtain traffic. There are tons of traffic generating tools available on the Internet today.

You can even buy traffic, although purchasing traffic is the least effective means for traffic conversion. Sure, lots of people will land on your website, but these people are using pay-per-click reward systems and they usually will NOT convert to sales.

Quality content and Google Adwords and development of a large, targeted mailing list are the most effective means of obtaining targeted market traffic. After all, unless you get visitors to your website that have an interest in what you offer them, they will not convert to sales or action.

Factors Impacting Traffic Conversion

Once a visitor lands at your website, there are factors that will effect whether they remain on the site or move on quickly. Getting traffic to actually read your information or act on an advertisement on your website is determined by several factors:

The website must be attractive and easy to navigate.

It should contain exactly what was indicated in the search engine description. A description that tells the visitor they will find facts but only find a directory will move away quickly.

Any website that appears difficult to read, has too many slow to load graphics or ugly, clashing colors will most often result in the traffic hitting the “back” button and returning to their web search, moving to the next site available. Pop-ups, pop-unders and other annoying means of advertising often results in traffic departures rather than conversions.

Any website that lacks quality content and appears to be only sales-focused will inhibit conversion rates.

You need to give the traffic that you wish to convert something to keep them interested in your information in order to hold their attention long enough to convince them to take the desired action - to convert to a sale or click-through - instead of making a fast departure.

Convince the Traffic to Convert

In order to get your traffic conversion rate to increase, you have to really convince the visitor that they simply can’t live without what you have to offer. Whether you are using Adsense, selling a product or asking them to provide their personal information to add to your mailing list, the traffic must feel compelled to NEED your information.

Many people think the only way to make traffic convert is to use a long sales letter that is highlighted in yellow. Savvy Internet users are on to this technique. As soon as they see a bunch of yellow highlighting, they move away. The traffic wants information first and foremost. Provide them information and they will want to convert. Tell them what you have to offer and what it will do for them - honestly and concisely. No one buys into those sales letters that say “only the next 12 people get this deal” or “you will earn $1 million this month”. Be honest, be real and you’ll find more people convert than if you promise them unbelievable results.

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Hits, Unique Visitors and Page Views - Studying Web Traffic.

When studying your web site traffic, it is important to be able
to differentiate the above terms. A question that webmasters are
often asked is “how many hits does your site get?”. You then
need to ask “do you mean hits, unique visitors or page views?”.
Many hit counters, such as the FrontPage 2000 component can be a
little misleading. This particular hit counter only measures
page views and if you sit on a page clicking the “refresh”
button, it will increment. In order to get an accurate picture
of your web site traffic flow; you’ll probably want a more
detailed reporting tool than this.

A hit is the result of a file being requested and served from
your web site. This can be a html document, an image file, an
audio track etc. etc. Web pages that contain a large number of
elements will return high hit scores. Hits are of very little
consequence when analysing your visitor demographics.

A page view means just that. Once again, it is not a true
indication of how many different people are visiting your web
site, but it is a good way to judge how “sticky” (the ability to
retain the interest of visitors) your web site is and is an
important consideration regarding the possibility of attracting
high paying advertising.

A unique visitor is where stats really count. It is someone with
a unique IP address (when you log onto the Internet, you are
assigned a unique IP address, or if you are a cable modem user
your IP address is usually “static”, it never changes) who is
entering a Web site for the first time that day (or some other
specified period). Your IP address is an identifier, while you
are using it, no else on the Internet can utilise that
particular set of numbers. Your number is counted once, usually
for a 2-24 hour period, dependent up the tracking software. So
no matter how many times a visitor refreshes or navigates
through your web site, they will only be counted once for the
specified time period. This is by far the more accurate way of
analysing web site performance.

When you divide the number of visitors by the number of page
views, this can give an excellent indication of whether traffic
is transient or is staying on your site. If the average is one
page or under, you can be pretty sure that there is something on
your pages that is scaring people off. Perhaps the load time is
too slow or your opening statement is inappropriate. Remember
that due to bandwidth considerations, those first few elements
that display as your page is loading may be the deciding factor
as to whether a visitor waits around for the entire page to load.

Studying your web site traffic can take up a fair amount of
time, but it is definitely worth it. Of course in amongst all
this you need to be able to make the time to carry out
promotion, maintain linkages, develop new content etc etc etc.
Running a large, content rich site is definitely not a part-time
job!

Michael Bloch michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net Tutorials, web content and tools,
software and community. Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development
solutions. _____________________________________________

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