Social Network and being a Featured Blog
Blogging has SEO benefits that can give leveraging power to a blog or website trying to come up in the blogosphere but there is a benefit that has yet to be discussed here and that is being a featured blog. This blog stems from some news that reached me just a few hours ago. My personal blog, Goingbigger, has just become a featured blog for the third time by a major network.
The blog is housed on the social networking site of MSN Spaces and it’s approaching it two year anniversary quicker than I thought, especially when I remember how it was when it was created. MSN Spaces is the social networking site that is similar to MySpace but the difference lies in the construction of the Space with tech gadgets and SEO usability. Well the first time the Space was featured was on FoxSports.com one week prior to Superbowl XL for my attendance, blogging and uploading images of Seattle Seahawks game in which I attended. Then it was picked up by the MSN Spaces team for the same thing for Superbowl XL.
Being a featured blog gave the site exposure only dreamed of, in my opinion, and drove large amounts of traffic to the site and generated loads of comments highly relevant to the posts. Now the site has just become a featured blog, again, on MSN Spaces Live homepage under the category What’s Your Story that is halfway down the page.
So what am I alluding to you maybe wondering and it is if a blogger works hard enough and long enough there site is going to get picked up and featured by some major websites.
Being a Featured Blog (s) (er) lends itself to massive amounts of benefits that are not surface level.
First: A featured blog gets PR passed to it from the site that is hosting the feature.
Second: A featured blog gets large amounts of traffic from a major portal.
Third: A featured blog can gain new readers and subscriptions.
These three items help to encourage a blog to become a authority blog in which gains high search engine rankings and continued traffic. As a blogger it is quite an honor to have such a large site feature a blog because starting out each blog is a small fish is a pond that is exponential growing and content is always being added (this blog is included in that category being less than one month old).
So how a blog can become or reach this type of recognition? For now I will touch on the main three principals of consistency, interaction and time.
Consistency: A blog is only valuable if and only if it is regularly updated. Some recommend at least once a week strategy but I go for the daily position myself. Posting daily trains (might not be the right word) people as well search engines to visit on a highly regular basis to look for new information. If a blog is not regularly updated then people and search engines go else where and that is not good for the blogger.
Interaction: Get involved in the blogging community by reading and leaving worth while comments on other’s blogs. These don’t have to be blogs in the same network like MSN Spaces, MySpace or ActiveRain but other blogs that are stand alone domains (ex: www.twresourcegroup.com) or parts of other networks like FaceBook, Ning or Squidoo. Blogging is social activity in which participates need to engage in otherwise their blog will die.
Time: Don’t expect to start a new blog up and have it become a featured blog or have massive amounts of comments on it. It takes time, relative as it may be, and being patient will pay off, even if you don’t agree just try and see what types of results the blog gets.
Being part of social networks and achieves the honor of having a featured blog is something that will pay long-term dividends that won’t be actualized until the statistics show up in the results.
Local Auto Businesses
Automotive businesses usually serve a specific geographical location, this post will exclude high end niche providers, like a town or city. These automotive businesses usually vary in service but for the sake of this post the automotive company will be generalized.
Joe Bobs Service and Repair is a service and repair shops that provides a range of services on most automobiles. Joe does oil changes, air filters, transmission services and engine rebuilds but lately he has noticed business is starting to go down hill. Joe has a website that isn’t to well positioned in the search engines and wants to start improving his presence. He quickly learns that building quality backlinks is important and will be best targeted if he keeps inside his industry. Joe has also learned how social networking is taking off as a new marketing strategy but he doesn’t know how to combine the two.
Joe’s answer is simple, TheAutoLog.com. TheAutoLog is a social networking site aimed at the automotive industry and the enthusiast that love it. It is a place where users, like myself can create free profiles and I did one for my 2003 Chevy C1500. It is customizable like many other social sites, it doesn’t offer a blog yet, but what is unique about TheAutoLog is businesses can create profiles, learn how.
Joe has found a gold mine of instant marketing to tap into by taking some time to set up an account, setup a profile that keeps with his branding and increases his quality backlinks all at the same time. His company’s exposure will grow within the automotive industry and start to draw in more leads from the net.
TheAutoLog also allows business profiles, which are free, to become featured profiles on the homepage for extended period of times. That is high amounts of free advertising that any company would love to have, I know I would. TheAutoLog is a new but growing network and in my opinion it will grow to become a high powered niche social networking website.Â
If you are in the automotive industry and thinking how to create another avenue to get in front of customers then go to TheAutoLog.com…you’ll not be sorry 
Reasons to Blog
There is an old song that comes to mind while contemplating the article ‘Mo Better, Mo Blogs’ A-Listers Feel the Heat discusses another article where the author main point was to stop blogging if nothing original can be contributed. It reminds of a song by Merle Hargard and Willie Nelson, Reasons to Quit but I agree with Solomon on this issue, keep on blogging.
For SEO geeks and link junkies blogging maybe seen only has a way to gain market authority and influence search engines for personal or client’s benefits. But there is a component to blogging that is frequently overlooked in my opinion, the freedom of self expression. Blogging has become an outlet for many people to share thoughts, opinions, keep a personal journal and/or just share pictures with family/friends.
I use blogging in multiple ways, SEO, connect with communities (professionally and personally) and to mind dump stuff in order to stop thinking about it. It has become an outlet that is truly enjoyable to do. When I first started blogging I was obsessed with subscribers and having as many comments as possible but then it started to feel like a job and the fun started to drain out of it. It gave me the opportunity to sit down and think about why do I blog?. It turned out I just liked doing it and it didn’t matter if I was the most read blog on the net.
Being a small time blogger it is hard not to get caught up in the blog hype of social interaction and the marketing combination inherent that is becoming the hallmark of Web 2.0. Keep on blogging in the free world, wow that is almost a parody. Have fun and do it because you like it, keep it simple.
YouTube for Marketing?
Not to long ago I was reading a post by a friend from SocialMediaSystems and it was on the use of social media to generate buzz for a company/website. The article got me thinking how the social media could be applied to generate buzz for one of my topics at that time, Marysville real estate, but the hard thing was and still is; how does one make a short about real estate that will generate buzz?
So far the best idea that has come up is to do a basic video just to get a feel of what I am doing. The video was for a listing Barnett Associates Real Estate, LLC has in Stanwood WA, Washington. This Puget Sound waterfront property has so much to offer but how does a person convey the excitement about owning Puget Sound waterfront property through a short video? Gosh, still working on that one and once I find out I’ll share.
Real estate is one of the topics that it is very challenging to make exciting to watch but that is not to say that other industries face the same dilemma.Back in college a buddy and I had to do a commercial on a company we chose. Our conclusion for the company, The North Face, was to stick to its core competencies by only putting their product in high-end stores instead of trying to get mass product out there using cheaper stores, quality over volume. Well our commercial, being a school project, used borrowed material from the movie Out Cold and images from The North Face website along with music provided by a local band my buddy knew. The commercial titled Warm & Dry was a smash success at the University of Washington.
The video is now hosted on YouTube for the sake of sharing it with world on the largest social media website on the world wide web. Many YouTube users use it to create Vlogs and to share their own creations. I have seen more humor on that site than any other in a long time and some companies are using to their advantage and one of them is AdultSwim. Though not the most mainstream material it is catchy and has been awarded some top honors like #26 Most Subscribed of All-Time and #37 Most Viewed this Month. Those seem pretty substantial from a free social media network.
So what does it take to create a video on YouTube?
- Sign Up for a free profile page
- Add information to your profile
- Add a link to your main website (if you have one)
- Add a custom URL to your YouTube page
-Start uploading videos
Tech Tip: it may take a few uploads, time and videos watched before a custom URL can be created
- Come up with a theme for a video
- Use digital camera to take images and short videos (Tech Tip: some digital still cameras will only take 30 second videos)
- Use Windows MovieMaker to compile the pictures and videos
Tech Tip: windows moviemaker comes standard on all pc’s using XP or newer, just go Start=>All Programs=>Accessories=>Windows MovieMaker.
After adding titles, closings, music, blending images and adding movies just save it the computer in a WMV format. Now go back to the newly created YouTube site and upload the video and add all the appropriate titles, descriptions and tags and voila! You are now on YouTube.
Videos then can be added to websites like blogs, basic html sites, comments all by using the automated code supplied by YouTube. Good Luck and have fun using media on the internet.
What keeps you at the your current job?
What is it that keeps you where you are at? I think this is a question that all of us come across at some point in our lives. Is it the Securability, your Current Pay, the Work Environment, or just to gain the Experience for future opportunities?
When you wake up in the morning, every morning, and don’t want to make the commute to work, maybe it is time to pack the bags and find another solution. As a society today, the majority of us go through high school, then through college, not knowing exactly the path we want to take. Once graduating, we take an opportunity that seems to make us feel happy. We get paid an average wage (that pays the bills), and at some point we realize “this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
What makes it harder is when you become committed with a home purchase, marriage perhaps, or just the insane monthly bills. In hindsight, the pay does provide you with the income you need to live month to month. The human psyche is to feel trapped and have the feeling that you can’t get out. It is hard to take the large step and potentially obtain the opportunity that will relieve you from your current situation. This is due to the underlying uncertainties of taking that step. If you don’t take that step, you will always wonder what could have and would have happened if you did.
Our advice to you, don’t sell yourself short. It will not hurt you to continually see what is available to you. If an opportunity does not present itself, keep trying. If you don’t try, the likelihood of something falling in your lap is slim. Try and try again. What do you have to lose?