In this week’s marketing skinny:
- Cute puppies and kittens say good-bye to Google Reader;
- Pinterest jumps on the “bigger is better” bandwagon;
- Google releases more services it will soon kill;
- will you use Amazon new button on your blog?
- and why Ana is not as charming as she thinks she is.
First, an update from TrafficGenerationCafe.com.
Hot off the press at TrafficGenerationCafe.com
- Be Everywhere: How to Convert Blog Post into PDF in Under 60 Seconds - Learn how to quickly How to Convert Blog Posts into PDFs to maximize traffic, and backlinks. Submit PDFs to sites for maximum content leverage.
- How Google Works: Why Does Crappy Website Rank Higher Than Mine? - How does Google search work when it comes down to which website shows up at the top of search engine ranking results? How can you get your site there?
On another note, I’ve been getting A LOT fewer comments recently - not even half of what I normally get per post.
The only culprit I can think of is the fact that I had to temporarily disable CommentLuv due to the broken link problem I’ve had with it.
That brings me to a sad thought: people comment on my post because of LINKS and NOT the information they read here.
Thoughts?
Would love to hear them in the comments (minus the CommentLuv links)!
Social Media
Pinterest changed their look.
They refer to it as “now you have more ways to discover what you love“.
Facebook lifted restrictions on cover images.
Mari Smith reported that Facebook has quietly changed the rules about what content you can have on your fan page cover image! Everything but the “20% rule” has been nixed.
You may need to clear cache to see the revised guidelines (or copy and paste this link into a new browser where you’re not logged into Facebook):
https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php
According to Mari, although both the older and revised versions of Facebook’s page guidelines state that they were last revised Dec. 17, 2012, rules that are no longer being listed include:
- Price or purchase information, such as “40 percent off,” or, “Download it on socialmusic.com.”
- Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your page’s “about” section.
- References to Facebook features or actions, such as like or share, or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features.
- Calls to action, such as “get it now” or “tell your friends.”
Freedom!!!
Facebook acquired domain name Instachecker.com.
Your guess is as good as mine as to what they are going to do with it, but it was interesting enough to include in the skinny.
Amazon
“Send it to Kindle” button.
In short, Amazon wants to create the “save” or “read later” button for content on the internet.
The Send to Kindle Button lets you easily send that content to your Kindle to read later, at your convenience.
Just send once and read everywhere on any of your Kindle devices or free Kindle reading apps for iPhone, iPad and Android phones or tablets. No more hunting around for that website or blog that caught your eye — just open your Kindle and all the content you sent is right there.
The Send to Kindle Button is also great for those who want to collect content from the web to use in work projects, school assignments, or hobbies.
Here are simple instructions on how to use it.
Because the button isn’t about sharing or additional exposure (at this point), it’s not clear how many publishers will rush to implement it. (source)
Just to show you what it looks like, plus to see what kind of effect it has on my traffic (i.e. will I get more referral traffic from readers bookmarking my posts and coming back to check out more?), I included the button at the top of the post.
You can add it to your blog with a simple “Send it to Kindle” plugin as well.
Let me know in comments if this is something you find use for.
Google launched Google Keep.
Every day we all see, hear or think of things we need to remember.
Usually we grab a pad of sticky-notes, scribble a reminder and put it on the desk, the fridge or the relevant page of a magazine.
Unfortunately, if you’re like me you probably often discover that the desk, fridge or magazine wasn’t such a clever place to leave the note after all…it’s rarely where you need it when you need it.
To solve this problem we’ve created Google Keep.
Considering their ever-expanding Google Graveyard (see below), I’ll stick with Evernote.
More Google Reader Rantings
Feedly has gained half a million new users thanks to Google’s stupid decision.
Have a favorite new RSS reader that you’re enjoying after Google’s early entrant in the “Knuckleheaded Moves of 2013″ contest?
Why, vote for it at http://www.replacereader.com/.
If you are still not sure about the options, check out my Slideshare:
Share this valuable content with your readers; embed the presentation on your blog (just copy and paste the code below):
Personally, I am sticking with Feedly.
It does the job, and I don’t have time to research the “perfect” alternative.
Is there such a thing anyway?
Slate has started a graveyard of dead Google products (in the image above).
Buried in these hallowed grounds are some of Google’s ill-fated services.
Some, like Google Reader, lived long, prosperous lives, full of admiration and glory.
Most, like Google Wave and Google Buzz, struggled to carve out a place in this harsh, unforgiving world where technologies continuously clash and innovation reigns king. But whether these services transformed our productivity or only polluted our inboxes, they all touched our world in some way.
You can click on a grave and add a virtual flower to it - and let the healing process begin.
My personal fave: the last one.
Any predictions?
Google Reader song
Oh, come on; I know you love it…
Here’s the last good-bye to Google Reader:
A Goodbye Song for Google Reader by Hit Reach
Authority ROI
Ryan Deiss is launching his latest product Authority ROI on Monday.
So far I tried to keep you up-to-date on his pre-launch freebies - always worth checking out and packed with free valuable advice.
If you missed them, here are the links:
- Authority Hacks - 3 simple tricks that transformed a flat ordinary blog into a 100,000 visitor per month high profit site that Google loves.
- Free Traffic Loophole - this free report reveals 6 steps for an even complete newbie to the market to leverage traffic from big shots in any market.
While those reports don’t reveal too much, they certainly give us a glimpse into what Authority ROI will be all about, and I, for one, am very curious to check it out when it’s finally released on Monday.
So far I did my best to buddy-buddy to Brian Silverman, Ryan’s affiliate manager, to see if I can squeeze out anything beyond the released free reports (like actually get access to the product itself):
- tried to capitalize on the fact that Brian is 1/24th Russian,
- got on the phone with him and turned up the charm;
- even played the “pretty please” card…
I must be loosing it, for I couldn’t get anything beyond “I’d love to, but…” from Brian.
No worries; I’ll be the first one in line to purchase Authority ROI the second it comes out and will let you know what I think: good and bad.
But for now, I strongly suggest you don’t miss out on his free reports:
- they do provide some great tested insights into what might turn your blog from zero to hero;
- you do need to keep up with what’s happening in the online world, and this just might the future blogging trend;
- Ryan is doing the entire launch on Facebook - something I’ve never seen before.
So here are your links again (the reports are free, but the link are affiliate, just in case you decide to dive into Authority ROI when it’s released):
I’ll see you back here on Monday with a full report.
Thank you
To all of you who generously mentioned Traffic Generation Cafe in your tweets, Facebook shares, and blog links, my whole-hearted THANK YOU.
Here are just some of the mentions:
Weekly Social Media Wrap Up – Articles and Links – March 16, 2013 - LeagueComputers.com
5 Tips To Bring Your Blog To The Next Level - IBlogZone.com
The Savvy Blogger’s Guide to Blog Engage - CareerMomOnline.com
To an even better week to come, Internet!
{ 73 comments… read them below or add one }
I wondered what happened to your CommentLuv Plugin. I have read that some marketers are disabling the dofollow attribute because of the problem of broken/dead links harming their SEO. Is that
what you mean?
I thought that I read in one of your posts that you were going to keep it.
Well, I’m sorry about the CommentLuv issues (is it just happening to you or should I be checking out my sites too *looks worried*) but I think that your blog and posts are amazing - always have! I love your weekly “Skinny” posts too - an easy way to catch up on what’s happened over the preceding week!
I have close to 30,000 comments at TGC, Kat, so my 404 errors are in hundreds.
My guess is you don’t need to worry about it; plus Andy Bailey will release a new plugin to check for CL 404 errors.
You always save me a ton of time. Thanks so much for the Facebook cover image update!
As for the Send to Kindle button, good thing for now that it’s an opt-in by the website itself. If it becomes a browser toolbar button like Pinterest, not sure sites using sidebar ads are going to love it. On the other hand, if links to affiliates (in posts) go through as well, it may be a goldmine.
You are so welcome, Marta.
Yes, I’d be curious to see where they go with it.
Hello Ana! I enjoyed your fun approach on Google’s trying to offer some great services and then for whatever reason failing- and since I was not very enthusiastic about Google Glasses either-they are like some of those cameras we can use on cars to record what happens on the road- seriously? Like I would have nothing better to do! So I was amuse but also I could appreciate some really good pointed out ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Imaging watching that playback… lol
Loved your take on Keep and recommendation on feedly.
Great to see that you touched on the Google Reader fiasco from last week Ana. It will be interesting to see if another RSS reader emerges and takes a majority of the market share. Thanks for putting this together!
Hi Ana - I don’t get time to comment much but you should know yours is one of the best IM blogs around. Period. With or without commentluv. Ok - back to coding!
Liz
So sweet of you, Liz; always a pleasure to see you around.
Hi Anna,
Love your emails and blog posts.
I don’t use any kind of comment system on my blog other than the wordpress default one. Which seems to work fine for us.
For people that use Google Feedburner for their blogs or podcasts, I would recommend moving it to your own domain. I think the writing is on the wall with Feedburner and you wouldn’t want to lose all your subscribers.
Hopefully Google would give people a few month’s notice, but no harm in looking at your options now.
We have our own domain for a RSS feed that works with Libsyn, so we could move that domain somewhere else in the future. And our subscribers would’n’t need to do anything.
Keep up the great work….Gary
I agree, Gary; moving away from Feedburner is essential. It’s just a matter of time before they shut it down.
Hi Ana,
I’m sorry to hear that you see fewer people comment on your blog after removing CommentLuv. Yes, CommentLuv is a great way to reward your readers to comment on your blog, however, it’s not necessary the case for me, I purposely comment because of the excellent quality post you have here.
I was looking at the Authority Hacks, but the link doesn’t work probably? I do sometimes notice the same problem when I receive emails from you. I think you should check your trafficcafe.sharedby.co to see why it’s responding probably.
Thanks for letting me know about the links, Tony.
Are you saying that the links in my emails are redirecting through trafficcafe.sharedby.co? That would be strange…
Anna,
What a hoot! The stuff you put together around Google Reader was a great fun! Although the sad song and utterly desolate looking animals did make me sniffle a little. Don’t tell anyone. I am, after all, a manly man.
Keep up the great content and worry less about the comment posers, er, posters. Those of us who love your work keep coming back for more.
Just goes to show cute animals work for any niche.
Thanks for the mention Ana.. Really enjoyed that post about “How to Convert Blog Post into PDF”.. Working on it really soon. Video was great too!
As for the domain acquisition from FB, it will be interesting to know what they are up too. Maybe “checking” for fake accounts, although not sure how that will work
Thanks and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Right back at you, Francisco!
Are the images broken? They are not viewable from here.
No, the images are just fine.
Ana, while CommentLuv is a nice feature, that’s not why I read or comment on your site. I truly enjoy your style and have learned so much from you. I’m just one of your many fans!
Thanks, Sheila!
Well, one of the reasons why readers leave comments is for backlinks, at least one to the homepage possibly direct. I don’t usually comment on blogs using Discus or FB comments or similar because they don’t provide added benefit to me while my comment does to the blog.
On my website I use Livefyre and it works pretty well, practically no spam and a link back to commenters, also every problem gets solved extremely fast even if it’s a free service.
CommentLuv got so promoted over the net, and it’s still used by many, that I find strange they didn’t solve your problem or added something like GASP. Being a premium plugin I mean.
Another issue might be that now the sharedby thing doesn’t clarify if the link is counted toward the commenter’s blog or not.
It’s not that I leave a comment only on those blogs which give me backlinks but having to choose between two, being time always strict, I prefer to go for backlinks. Blogging is a business after all.
Have a great weekend!
I completely understand and agree, Andrea - given a choice between commenting on two comparable blogs, one with CL and one without, I’d choose the CL blog. Blog comments do build links and traffic; no question about it.
However, commenting JUST for the sake of getting a link is not a good way to build a brand, of course.
Hello Ana,
Another awesome skinny, thank you!
I have started using Google Keep. It’s good.
In reader, Mention seems useful.
..and will you reactivate ComLuv?
Waiting for Andy, CL creator, to come up with a new plugin to correct the 404 issues; it’s in the works right now.
I’d be too afraid to get hooked on any new Google product, given their “killer” track record.
Hola Ana!
I read many blogs: yaro, leslie samuel, pat flyn, etc and yours of course.
I usually read and do not comment. I think this is my second comment ever. I think you are very good blogger. I was only a little bit dissapointed about your promoting Ryan Deiss Authority Roi. I read two of his promoting reports including the blogging is broken report.
It seems to me that he is just being a contraire and many of his arguments do not make any sense.
I am aware that you very honestly discussed recently about your lack of conversions i.e. making about $700.00 or so a month even though you have a huge amount of traffic.
I hope that you are not getting desperate and sell out and start promoting these big gurus just to get a buck. I see that some internet marketers sell their souls for the mighty dollar.
To me being ethical is very important and even though I am not against making money, I am very much against making money at the expense of ethical values. I prefer to die poor than to make money. Perhaps, I am a loser for saying so, but that is the way I feel and that is the way I prefer to be.
So, continue with your honesty and keep reminding yourself that making money is not everything in life.
Other then that, I think you are a great blogger and teacher. I will keep reading.
Best,
Roberto Palacios
I promote Ryan’s products because I’ve learned so much from him, Roberto.
I think he’s got something up his sleeves with Authority ROI and I am planning to find out when it becomes available.
I’ll right an honest review about it; good or bad. And no, I am not planning on selling out; not now, not ever.
Thanks for taking your time with the comment!
Hi Roberto
Ryan is often controversial in his approach. But I’ve not known him to make any false claims. Maybe incorrect from time to time, but I don’t think it is intentionally incorrect. He and his team do a lot of research. It is well worth it to read whatever you can from them and then make an informed decision about what you’ll do from there.
In this latest launch he is showing that blogging and hoping for traffic and monetization is not a cost effective way to make money. But that you can become an authority by aggregating great content written by others. Think “magazine editor” and you’ll get the idea.
If your goal in blogging is something other than making money, then this isn’t necessarily for you. Many people blog just to get out a message or to have a platform for their writing. The message is what is important.
I absolutely agree, Bill.
Hey, Ana, I’m a Facebook follower of yours, and I’m subscribed to your blog via e-mail, too. This is my first time to comment here (now that CommentLuv is temporarily disabled) although I’ve been here a countless number of times reading your stuff, so this pretty much tells you that I don’t visit your blog just for CommentLuv.
I’ve downloaded the free reports from Ryan Deiss, too. Thanks to you.
And thanks for the mention, by the way. Very, very much appreciated.
You are so welcome, Maricel; thanks for coming by and linking to TGC!
Hi Ana
I’d like to clarify that I’ve never left a comment here just in order to get commentluv link. Although not subscribed to your blog but almost once in a week I visit your site. The only reason is that you are good at what you do. Recently started following you on slideshare because I was quite impressed by your presentations.
I also liked the last one image from slate about Google Glass. I didn’t even noticed that commentluv is gone when I visited trafficgenerationcafe 3 days ago. Keep posting great content
Well, thank you, Hamza; it’s great to know that my content keeps you reading.
Your question about the Kindle button is a good one. What is in it for the site owner to go to the trouble of putting it on their site?
I guess it might come in handy if your readers tend to find a lot of interesting stuff that they want to come back to at some point. Rather than having a million tabs open in the browser (like me) or using some sort of “Read Later” plugin with their browser (like me) or storing links in Evernote (not like me… yet 8=) they can stuff it into their Kindle.
At least you’d have a 2nd chance to get them reading your stuff, but if they’re like me they probably have far more than they can handle and it won’t make much of a difference 8=(
Still hope to see how it works for you.
That’s the only benefit I see, Bill.
If someone is on the go and doesn’t have the time to read a post, they might at least save it for later and read it nonetheless.
That’s a lot of hypotheticals though, right?
On the other hand, would we actually discourage the readers from reading our content right there and then if we give them a way out by saving it for later, and then never reading it?
I doubt that would be a major factor. If they don’t have the time or attention to read now then sending it to the Kindle and never reading it or simply shutting down the browser is 6 of 1, 1/2 dozen of the other.
Maybe if the Kindle button allowed you to monetize it somehow — maybe a pay per use thing. Then users would use it only when they needed it and you’d get a few cents to make it worth putting the button up. Kindle users might be willing to pay for content if it is convenient for them to get on their devices.
Good point; “save it for later” almost always means “bury it forever”.
The only reason I really noticed that CL was gone was because your commenting was broken for a few days and your site accused me of being a spammer. (Which was ultra-freaking-special.) *laughs*
I will point out that one reason my commenting has slowed down, personally, is because I feel this intense need to read your posts three times or so before commenting!
You pack so much information into your posts that I read, digest, read, digest, read, and THEN comment - if I have something truly intelligent to say. Generally your stuff is so good that I’m left going “Well . . . I have nothing to add.” *smile*
So I’m sorry if people were only commenting for links. I love your blog and your content and will forever be commenting . . . but only if I feel I can add to the convo.
Yes, my blog tends to have a voice of its own every once in a while.
I feel loved; whether you actually comment or not, Lindsey. lol
Hi Ana,
Its been up to one week since i visited your blog last, so i might not have noticed that you disabled the commentluv.
The last time i tried commenting on your post, your spam filter marked me as a spam, it happened twice. I even wondered why it accepted my comment now.
I love all the ebook links you shared here and I’m going to check on theme one by one. I also love feedly, but I’ve been using RSS feed readers, and liked it too.
Thanks for sharing.
Yes, I had trouble when I first disabled CL links, but that lasted for a few hours until I figured out what the problem was.
The more important question: Is your commenting down because TRAFFIC is down?
Personally, I could care less about CommentLuv. I find it tends to attract a lot of spam comments that have absolutely nothing to do with the conversation at hand. “Oh, yes. Great tip. Thank you for teaching me.” Not so bad by itself, but when you see that strewn across 1000 blogs, all using CommentLuv, it’s pretty easy to figure out what’s up.
I come here because you give you great tips. Plain and simple. Sometimes I have something relevant to say in response, sometimes not. I’m still reading, though.
Maybe all these people that are now jumping on the reader bandwagon have decided to subscribe to your feed, instead. Many people who prefer to keep up with a reader won’t want to push an extra button just so they can comment directly on your blog.
I’ve read that a lot of ‘big’ names (such as Glen at Viperchill) are now removing their feeds altogether in hopes of retaining their readers on the blog itself.
I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, though. My thought would be, instead, to set up one’s feed to only show excerpts.
Yes, I should’ve mentioned that my traffic hasn’t changed; grown if anything.
I see a lot of value in CL and actually miss it - I used to use it to keep tabs on what my commentators are blogging about and visiting interesting links, but now I feel like I go on a fishing expedition when visiting someone’s blog.
I read Glen’s post. I never actually made the RSS buttons conspicuous; as a matter of fact, I took it down for a while altogether. Unfortunately, most readers, including Google Reader and Feedly, can extract your RSS feed from your blog URL. So it doesn’t matter what we want; if someone wants to read our blogs via a reader of sorts, nothing we can do about it.
Personally, I agree. I don’t want to encourage my readers to read my blog off my blog in any shape or form.
Ana the ONLY reason I come to your blog is because of your amazing content and not at all for a link.
I told my friend to follow you because the quality of your posts are sick! One of the bests out there.
Thank you!
Much appreciated, Elie!
Right now, I’m using Feedly. I was using Blogger’s reader before (I know, I know), but Feedly is working out for me. With the massive immigration to Feedly, it’s definitely curtains for Google Reader.
By the way, I tried uploading my PDFfied blog post to Slideshare, but it failed. Guess I’ll have to try again.
I do like Feedly as well, Alexander.
Slideshare: I think there might be a glitch with one of their upload buttons.
When you are in your newsfeed, you see two upload buttons.
Whenever I try to upload something through the lower one, it never goes through. Just keeps saying “it’s converting”.
However, the top button always goes through.
Like this:
Try it; let me know if it works.
I did what you said, and I was able to get it onto SlideShare easily. Thanks! I might stick with this and see if it helps me in any way.
(It also gave me an excuse to revise one of my older blog posts to give it a little more oomph and polish.)
I didn’t notice the comment luv either - I interact with you a lot more on Facebook nowadays, must get back into the swing of the blog commenting!
Have we any clue as to the price of the authority ROI? I’ve started implementing the changes to one of my sites, but I think the price is going to be way out of my league for the whole shabang!
Yes, I am very much used to seeing your smiley face on my FB page, Lisa.
I don’t know the price for Authority ROI, but I don’t believe it’s going to be a high-ticket item. We’ll see on Monday though.
By the way, is blogmunchies a new project?
It sure is, it’s a joint venture which I haven’t done before, and I’m loving it - having someone to bounce ideas off and help you when you get stuck is really motivating and inspiring!
All the best with it!
So just because you remove comment love from Your blog, people stop commenting, that’s lugubrious, so it means most people comment just to get a backlink to their blog,its kinda funny. let me remove comment love on my blog also and see what will happen
That’s what it looks like.
Hello Ana,
I thought you might be interested in why I don’t comment as much as I used to. Whenever I go to a post these days, it says comments closed, go to my Facebook page to leave a comment.
The problem for me is that going to Facebook is just too time consuming, I wonder if other readers of your blog feel the same, it would be interesting to find out.
I am still as a much of a regular to your site as usual; just far fewer comments.
Regards,
michael
Yeah Michael, you and I are on the same page as far as using Facebook is concerned. The site drives me nuts.
I used to be a Twitter user through and through, but started testing Facebook for traffic and loved it. It’s slowly become my favorite social platform, plus the traffic ain’t that bad.
Once again Ana, I find myself agreeing with Michael. Installing FB comments on your site would definitely encourage me to show Facebook a bit more love.
I do close comments after 90 days due to spam, Michael, but that shouldn’t have any effect on the new posts.
I was thinking of installing a secondary commenting system, like FB comments, at TGC; would that make a difference to you?
Hi,
Yes, I think FB comments would probably make a difference.
Because I’m trying to learn as much as possible at the moment about traffic generation, I spend more time on older posts, so that probably explains why the comments are generally closed.
Great site, great information as always.
Regards, michael
On my list!
Comment Luv is that important to people? Wow.
Although the Amazon button reportedly works on Android devices, it doesn’t work on mine. In fact I’ve yet to see anything in my Kindle library I’ve sent from the web… give it time though. I think it will be awesome.
Apparently - my traffic is still the same.
I don’t have a Kindle, so I don’t really know if it works or not. What do you think about it from a marketing point of view, Sarah?
Well, you don’t need a Kindle you just need a Kindle app. There are approx 3.5 million Kindle devices, no one knows the exact figure and that doesn’t include the apps. There is an app for every single mobile device, I use and love the Android app.
You know how some people still bookmark using control D, well Kindle is a bit like that. Your content stored on their device, one that they use often. Leaving you constantly at the top of their mind, that has to be good for us marketers, right?
I’ll ping you a guest post request, I’d love to do you a post on connecting all the Kindle to Blogging dots.
I was wondering about that, Sarah; just goes to show how technologically inapt I am.
Saw your email; will get back with you.
I read your blog Anna at least once a week and am subscribed…so don’t worry about RSS and link building, that stuff was old news a year ago. BTW, I do follow Ryan Deiss a bit, not too much, but a little…I think he has personally jumped on the bandwagon with ‘guest blogging” that most gurus know is the ‘next best thing” to make a dime on. Sites like this, Copyblogger and Problogger are what will last because it adds VALUE, not nickle and dime you to death for some crazy crud nobody really needs. So thanks Anna for all the work and value here….I could care less for the “dofollow”link and more for the content you share….God Bless.
Well, Problogger is turning away from its former guest posting model, David, and what Ryan is talking about is more like syndicating plus hosting other authors.
He definitely tends to stay ahead of what everyone else is doing, so I’d be very surprised if Authority ROI boils down to the “same old guest posting”. I am curious either way.
God bless you as well; have a great Sunday!
ahhh Wayy tooo many changes going on to keep up with lol
All these giants always trying to one up each other. Ryan’s course does look like its going to be really good though.
And that’s after filtering a ton of other info that I figured we could live without.
Hey Anna,
For what it’s worth I didn’t notice the CommentLuv plugin was disabled so I haven’t commented in a few weeks but it wasn’t for lack of backlink love! Also to be honest I don’t think I’ve ever gotten any traffic from you. Which is totally understandable - your crowd is not MY crowd.
I say this just to be clear that I don’t read your posts and then comment due to some secret goal of generating links/traffic. It’s just because I’m interested in what you have to say
Alexis
Very sweet of you, Alexis!