SEO - Blog Marketing

Intelliseek has added features to the BlogPulse tools. I spent some time playing with the BlogPulse Profiles (Beta) tool. Here’s the skinny:

• Overview - Rank according to citations, post frequency and a rank trend graph
• Posts - A list of keywords used in recent posts (I did not find very accurate) and links to posts
• Citations - Broken out between citations from top-ranked blogs and all other blogs
• Trends - Post and citation trends let you see if there is a correlation. Interestingly, in the case of this blog there is no correlation.
• Sources - Lists recent news articles and blogs cited along with trend and track conversation tools for each link.
• Neighborhood - Shows a list of “related” blogs with links to their profiles. I did not find the list to be very relevant for this blog.

Overall, it’s a pretty cool tool. More companies are taking the time to track conversations and mentions of their brands and products within the blogoshere. Advertisers can do their homework on potential blogs as well. MediaPost has more info.

For some reason, spammers think that blogs are great targets. However, any up-to-date blogs really aren’t.

The whole idea is to target dead blogs or old blog posts Then they automatically put in a link in the comments area and move on. Sometimes hitting hundreds of posts at a time. This use to be a good link building tactic, however there is now the nofollow tag.

The nofollow tag gets embedded into a link and it tells search engines not to follow it, thus not passing any link popularity. WordPress is one that automatically puts nofollow in all comments posted. Thus, any spammer is just waisting their time.

To stop spammers in Wordpress, get a plugin like Spam Karma that works great! It blocks so much spam automatically. There are also preferences in the admin area of Wordpress to turn on keyword filters and moderation features so that you control what actually gets posted.

Blogger and Typepad also have a good system for blocking spam. Since they are all run though a much larger system, everyone benefits from the admin implementing anti-spam features.

Bottom line is that your blog will probably get spammed. But there are many resources out there to help and get the spam problem under control.

There are many different pieces of blog software out there. Finding the one that is right for you is half the battle. Just because I like Wordpress, doesn’t mean you have to. Check out this list of blog software and the features they come with along with prices, platforms and more.

Note, this appears to be slightly outdated as some of the versions are older. It’s good for an overview, but check the companies site for specifics.

How about a quick overview of the most popular blogging platforms!

Blogger
Probably the most popular blogging tool.

• Free
• No installation
• Free hosting available or ability to FTP files to your own site
• Missing built in trackbacks and categories
• Only one type of feed available without other services.
• Templates. Good for a quick, good design, however harder to customize your own template.
• Reliant on Blogger.com which has a tendency (or use to) throw errors.
• Upgrades coming, hopefully. Recently added image uploads and hopefully more features are coming.

BlogFusion

• Fully loaded with features
• Cold Fusion based
• Easy to install and customize. Or so I hear.
• Runs on your site.
• Comes with full source code and has an easy to use admin area.
• Downside is that it’s not free. Ok, so it kind of is free for personal use. See their site for details.

MoveableType
Full featured blogging software that can create static or dynamic (php) pages. Runs on most web servers and is priced based on number of users. I have no experience with this, however I hear it’s nice.

WordPress

• Free
• Easy to use
• Fully loaded with all the features you need.
• Installed on your site. (Unless you use BlogSome which is the basic WordPress install that is hosted for you)
• Requires PHP and a MySQL database
• Lots of plugins and themes available
• Built in search

TypePad

• Has most blog features. Only thing missing is trackback functionality when posting.
• Priced per year at three different levels.
• Requires you to post though their website.
• Posting to your own website is possible via Domain Mapping.

Some of the software above I have more experience with than others. It all boils down to price, features and power. I would chooseWordPress above them all for personal use or business use. WordPress takes a little more effort as you have to install and maintain it yourself. Keep in mind that some hosts include it with hosting plans viaFantastico. Fantastico is an Automatic Script Installation program that will install WordPress for you.

Just want to blog and be happy? Then use BlogSome (because it’s WordPress driven) or Blogger. Both are two of the many sign-up and blog sites. No knowledge necessary.

Agree? Disagree? Did I miss something? Feel free to comment.

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference between a blog and a website was, speed is a big one. Just minutes after the London bombings, you could find information on blog posts from around the world. First hand accounts, thoughts, ideas, prayers and news. It will take any regular search engine a week or two just to index half of the new content that has arisen in the past few days. And then, finding it will be hard. However, sites like Technorait search only blogs and give you back results with the newest information first. Some results may only be a few minutes old.

The speed at which we can find information is catching up the speed at which we can create it. Sometimes, you just want to know what’s happening right now.

Some people don’t like the idea of blogs because it means they have to update it often. The main point behind a blog is that it is easily updateable and can be done at any time. Some blogs update continuously, others rarely. I read some blogs that post more than a dozen posts a day. However, that’s not necessary. For a successful blog, I’d say at least once a day but it all depends on your goal.

As you can see here, I’ve been posting twice a week or so. I’d like to post more often, but I haven’t found time. Blogs take time and I’ve spent mine posting over at the Online Marketing Blog the past week as I was filling in for Lee.

Each blog is different. There is no right or wrong way to blog. Some blogs, like Yahoo, only updated when they have something new. Thus it could only be once a week. Others post daily or even hourly. It’s up to you and what you what to do. However, the more posts you make, the more often visitors will come back to read what’s new, the more content you’ll create and the more successful you’re blog may be.