Link Bait Me

Not that many bloggers think about it, but some people want to print your posts and if you don’t let them, an article you spent a lot of time on may lose some readers. I am subscribed to a lot of blogs, and a lot of times, I’ll see something I want to read, but I’ll put it off until later because I don’t have the time or I’m heading somewhere without internet connectivity, etc. In many cases, these are timeless articles that I would love to have available for those times when I just want some reading to fill the time (like road trips or camping). With a January cabin trip coming up (no Internet for a whole weekend), I found myself thinking about this, and coincidentally, one of the blogs I read daily, Daily Blog Tips talked about simple solution called wp-print. You can see it in place on this blog now.

Installation is pretty simple. Just do this:

1. First, download wp-print
2. Next, follow these instructions
3. Then follow these instructions

Tip: Put the “print” code near your social bookmarking icons for better visibility.

As Daily Blog Tips pointed out, a good example of this in action can be found over at Pick The Brain, but now you can try it here, too.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger is pissed. He claims Digg is now auto-burying any CopyBlogger articles, and that would have me pissed, too.

Digg certainly played a part in that. Mostly, landing on the Digg front page a couple times a month resulted only in a server-shaking stampede of worthless traffic. But mixed in with the basement-dwelling little boys who momentarily refrained from Playstationing with their Wiis long enough to tell me I sucked, I picked up new subscribers.

Ouch. Harsh words, Brian. But if he’s right, then they may not be too harsh. He’s not the first to have words with Digg. Techipedia wrote this open letter to Kevin Rose, Digg founder, and Marketing Pilgrim offered their thoughts earlier this year.

One thing we can be sure of, having seen problems with other socially driven sites: The majority of users will have their way in the end.

Popularity: 62% [?]

I came across a video the other day that I just had to watch. It’s a video of girls pole dancing on the New York City subway system. The kicker is that they did this on a dare from a site called DareJunkies.com in hopes of winning $10,000. That’s a nice prize for acting on a dare, but it’s unclear from viewing the site whether they won the $10,000 or it’s undecided. What I’m certain of is that the expression on this subway commuter’s face is priceless and will probably never be lived down.

The guys who run the site make no illusion about what they’re trying to accomplish:

We’re back and excited to announce the re-launch of our new and improved video social network. The site has been transformed into the sickest video sharing website that will redefine the way videos compete for cash. Fill out the form above and we’ll invite you as soon as it’s ready!

Of course, I signed up, because I, like the rest of you sickos, want to see what happens next. However, I’m curious about how far is too far. At what point do the viewers stop watching, the darers stop daring, and the voters stop voting? The video that I felt was the most overboard was the girl who smothered her bikini-clad body in peanut butter and sprawled out on a picnic blanket at the dog park for all the dogs to lick her clean. Is it really worth the possibility of winning the prize money? What kind of parental rating does that deserve, I wonder?

In any case, the site looks like it’s brand new, talking about a re-launch and not having any real working navigation yet, but when I decided to poke around that their Alexa history, I noted that almost exactly one year ago, they had a larger traffic surge than they do now. So what happened? The archive of the old site over at archive.org looks like it was the same principal (only $5k, though). We’ll have to wait and see if they succeed this time around.

UPDATE: It appears that the girls dancing on the subway actually did win the $10,000, according to this AP video report.

Popularity: 35% [?]

If you want to double your traffic, sell your ad space, get more RSS readers, and give your blog a kick in the pants, you need to read this.  Entrecard is a blog networking system where you sign up, upload your digital business card (or let them create one for you) and then drop your card on other people’s blogs.  You put the widget on your own blog and then people can drop cards on your blog, too.  The brilliant part is that you can feature your card on someone else’s blog for a day for the cost of a handful of “ec” (Entrecard credits).  If you know what you’re doing, you can have a lot of other blogs linking to you for free and in no time at all.  Keep reading to see how I did it on JoeTech.com.

1. Drop cards like mad
The whole point of the system is to allow for an easy way to let someone know you were on their site and to let them know you have a site they might want to check out as well. So, of course you want to drop cards. But this also helps you move up the ranks. I dropped 200 cards yesterday and I’ll probably hit 200 today, too, when I get to it. One thing to keep in mind is that they do not tolerate automated scripts for card dropping or anything that manipulates their data in an unfriendly way, but I found a problem trying to drop that many cards. Often, I would run into the same sites over and over again. To avoid this, I created the Entrecard browser. So far, the Entrecard staff has said it’s fine and all it really does is allow me to manually drop cards faster than normal.

2. Blog about it
Do like I am here. There’s a couple reasons for this. First and foremost, it’s a call to action. I’m letting you know pretty clearly that I added this Entrecard thing and I’m not just telling you to check it out, but I’m telling you why you should. This defilnitely beats just throwing the code in and hoping some people click. Blogging about it also helps promote it. Entrecard is still pretty young and growing and if you’re going to invest your time and energy into making yourself a valuable player in a new arena, you might as well chip in to help make that arena more successful. I’d rather be #10 in a site with 100,000 members than #1 in a site with 10,000 members.

3. Participate in contests or have your own
Contest are a great way to get a jump start, and throwing your own can bring good traffic as well. Be it Entrecard or some other new system, starting at the bottom always sucks (although not as much, here) and winning a contest can give you that boost. I have the largest (that I know of) Entrecard giveaway contest to date running now; the 1,000 Entrecard Credits (or 4 ads on JohnChow.com) Christmas Contest. John Cow just gave away 750 Entrecard credits on his blog to one lucky winner, and there’s a few other contest running now, too. Join them all and see what happens. When you feel comfortable enough with the system, start your own contest and ride on the coat tails of Entrecard’s success like I am.

4. Communicate via forums
Entrecard has some craptacular forums up that you should participate in. In their defense, they’ve been very rapidly coding away (opposite of other quick-growth blog networks *cough*BlogRush*cough*), and the current forums are their answer to people’s needs to communicate. They say they’ll have better ones in place soon. In any case, head to the forums once a day and communicate.

5. Buy cheap and in bulk
So far, I think this is the single most important thing I’ve figured out about Entrecard. I request an ad spot on every single new blog that shows up if I get to it in time. Why? They all start at 2ec per day and that price takes no outside factors into account. For example, if Google decided to sign up and throw the Entrecard widget at the top of their search results page, they would still enter the system at 2ec per day. If I buy that spot and they approve it, I’m in for a LOT of traffic for only 2ec. Google won’t ever do that (I wish), but there’s still a lot of sites with 200-2,000 daily uniques that pop up at 2ec per day and I’ve had my ad on a handful already. The money (ec) I save by getting on them right away can be used elsewhere, like an ad spot on one of the big sites or my 1,000ec contest. Having my card display all day long on 20 sites in the same day is pretty nice, too. Remember, too, that the more you get your card out there, the more traffic you get. This translates, over all, to more Entrecard popularity, which translates to a higher asking price for your ad spot.

6. Be social
One of the best things about Entrecard is that it promotes the idea of bloggers really connecting with each other. While I spend much of my involvement dropping cards quickly, I am also subscribing to about 1 new RSS feed per day, have gotten a review, had free credits tossed my way, found a new plugin for my blog, and made a bunch of new connections. This, to me, is just as valuable as the traffic. I learned how powerful this was with MyBlogLog and it just carries over here. GorrillaSushi and I have been competing (informally) through both sites, and the social interaction just makes it more powerful. Ultimately, if Entrecard vanished tomorrow and I lost all my credits, I would still have some great new contacts from it. Make sure you can say the same.

7. Stumble, Digg, Mixx
I touched on the idea a little before. Help the community grow as a whole through your submissions to Mixx, Digg, etc. Digg or Stumble other people’s submissions, too. There’s another way to use the social bookmarking tools to your advantage here as well. Digg, Stumble, and Mixx an article or two on a site that’s displaying your card. One blogger mentioned that he had his card on a site whose article that day hit the front page of Digg or got thousands of stumbles (I forget which), and he saw about 1,000 extra visitors that day. Help make that happen.

8. Recognize the bounce rate
I’ve heard some noise about bounce rates. Some people have said that the traffic is all crap. What’s the point in getting more traffic if the bounce rate is way up there? First, it’s free. Free is always good. If someone gave you $1,000 and told you that you would have to give $800 back, you’d take the $1,000, wouldn’t you? Take the traffic, write good posts that should help with conversion, and just soak up the extra traffic you get. I’ve gotten a lot of comments from people who found JoeTech.com on Entrecard, so I know my bounce rate is at least that good. Just enter the game with the casino mentality and have fun.

Popularity: 46% [?]

If you’ve never heard of eBay, well, welcome to the Internet. How’s your first time going so far? Seriously, though, everyone knows what eBay is, and it’s no surprise. Having joined eBay on May 25, 1996, I have been fortunate enough to watch as it grew from a relatively new web site with a smart idea into a multi-national corporation worth Billions.

Be Unique
The best web sites start with a unique idea. eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar, had a unique idea when he sold eBay’s first item, a broken laser pointer. He wanted to provide a way for multiple people to bid on what he had to sell. At the time, this service was not yet offered elsewhere, so Pierre was lucky enough to have a solid gold idea that was not yet taken. These days, it seems like every good idea imaginable has already been built into a web site, marketed, and flipped for a tidy profit. You can always expand upon existing ideas, but you should continue to look for something unique, too. The relatively recent birth (and sale) of MyBlogLog is just one indicator that there’s still room for more great unique ideas.

Recognize and Provide Value
Value on the web is whatever your visitors say it is. It’s what makes them your visitors, and not your competition’s. When eBay’s founder asked the first item’s buyer if he understood that the laser pointer was broken, the reply was, “I’m a collector of broken laser pointers.” This statement drives home the value eBay would offer soon after: a place for anyone with any obscure interest to find and purchase that thing of interest from another party. Pierre recognized this and wasted no time turning this into a business.

Remember Your Revenue Model
When eBay began to make money, it was with a revenue model that had to change and adapt. In the beginning, there was just a percentage-of-sale model. Around the time I became a member, a $1.00 listing fee was introduced and none of us liked it, so they changed it again to meet the needs of all sellers. Getting your revenue model right before you launch is critical. As we have seen from eBay over the years, you can enhance your revenue model as you grow (think bold and featured listings), but you should have a clear path to profit in mind right from the beginning. Imagine growth beyond your wildest dreams without a revenue model in place. Unless you already have a lot of money to burn, such a thought should scare you.

Work Within Your Budget or Without One
While we’re on the topic of money, let’s not forget that the phrase “it takes money to make money” does not have to apply if you don’t want it to. eBay has taught us that if you are working with a limited budget, you can think beyond financial means for things like advertising. Before eBay was a verb, they had to let people know they were there, but how do you get the word out when you’re not making enough money to actually have a budget? For eBay, the answer was another great idea of the time, Link Exchange (now owned by Microsoft). For you, the answer could be as simple as a link exchange, Bla.st, or something similar. Maybe a small budget affects how much you can pay developers and the solution might be to make them minor partners. Whatever the problem a small budget might create, think about creative ways around it.

Stick to Your Core
One thing eBay has done over the years is stuck to its core business. Even their single largest purchase, PayPal, was made to compliment their core business (and because their core business could easily compliment it). When you do one thing and you do it extremely well, branching out to other areas can do more harm than good. Stick to what’s working and make it the best you possibly can. For eBay, this strategy proved especially useful in 1998 when Yahoo! launched its own auction service, Yahoo! Auctions (which was officially closed this summer). From 1995 to 1998, eBay did such a great job of improving their core offering that Yahoo! was given little room to compete.

Continue to Innovate and Improve
As soon as eBay began to grow, it began to improve. Even early on, eBay was innovating further with additions like their often-copied feedback system. It is said that innovation is born of necessity, and such an idea couldn’t be more clearly observed than with eBay’s innovation. Feedback was the answer to bad transactions. In 1997 alone, eBay experienced tons of growth and some great changes to match it. Even ten years later, eBay is still growing and changing with the ever expanding web and its users.

When I sat down to write an article about who I’ve learned from as an internet marketer, several catchy (and sometimes funny) sources crossed my mind. Ultimately, though, I realized that I couldn’t convince myself that any other source was more inspirational or influential than eBay and their rise from one man’s small site to what it has become.

Popularity: 24% [?]