Using Mybloglog - Building Traffic Post 1
Posted by Pixelhead
A new SEO client asked me for some suggestions for building traffic using the Social Media. So I have decided rather than giving the client a huge report, I would write a series of posts here that give some suggestions. I will also be linking out to other sites that can act as resources as well.
To begin with, I am going to suggest joining four of my favorite social marketing sites to start and focus on building networks on these four sites. The four sites I am going to suggest starting with are Digg, Stumbleupon, Blogcatalog and the subject of this post, Mybloglog. See my Networks page for more of the sites I use.
Joining Mybloglog.com
Mybloglog, which is now part of Yahoo is a great site for developing a network of bloggers.
Join by visiting the the Mybloglog homepage, and clicking the “sign up” link. This will require you to create a Yahoo ID, for which you can use on all the Yahoo Internet properties if you so choose.
After creating your Yahoo Id or using an old Yahoo Id, you will then need to add information to your profile such as personal data if you so choose. I would also add a picture for your avatar, which does not need to be a picture of you, but can be if you so desire. Unique eye catching avatars are always a good thing, but stay away from the sexy lady type avatar.
Next after updating your profile information, it is time to add the sites/ blogs that you author. Feel free to add a non-blog site as well, but I would suggest adding a blog as your first site. To add your blog, when you are on your profile home page, click the green box under “account tools” that says “Add site/blog that I author”.
In the Blog/site Name, type in the name of your site, this can be a keyword title or the actual title.
Next put in the url of the mybloglog page, which should be a keyword title. Use dashes between multiple words of th url, don’t jumble all the words together.
Fill in the other items and click the “Add Blog/Site” button.
Adding A Mybloglog Widget
Next, I recommend adding a Mybloglog widget to your sidebar, which can be obtained by clicking the “widgets link”. I like using the Recent Readers widget, but you can use a different one. Using the Recent Readers widget, and probably the others, will enable you to receive some traffic stats that are pretty handy. Not nearly as good as Google analytics, but they provide some nice traffic stats such as page views, where visitors came from etc.
Additionally, you can also sign up for a premium Mybloglog account which will enable you to receive stats over a longer period of time as well as up to the minute stats. For the free account you will only be able to see the previous days results and the past 10 days I believe.
If you use a Wordpress platform, depending upon the template and Wordpress version, their is a widget that you can add that allows easy installation of the Mybloglog widget.
If you have a free Wordpress.com here is a post that could help you with adding the Mybloglog widget to your blog. Its a bit tricky with the free ones, but it can be done.
Additionally, if neither of these can help you, after you have the widget made to fit your site(adjust colors, size, text) you can get the code and copy it into your sidebar template manually via your blogs dashboard.
Getting Traffic Using Mybloglog
First, in the search bar at the top of the Mybloglog page, type in your keywords or related keywords. Sites that are competing or closely related to yours should show up for these phrases, then:
- Click on the profile avatars of members that show up and add them as contacts after you visit their sites and determine they are a good match to network.
- Click on the communities that show up for the search term, and join the communities. Visit the sites and join in the conversation on these blogs by making meaningful comments. This will result in visits to your blog from both the site owner and visitors to the site that may like your comments.
When someone visits your blog, what do you do?
If the person leaves a comment, return the favor and visit their site if they leave a site url in the comments field.(most do).
If the person does not leave a comment, but shows up on your widget, click on their avatar and either: leave them a message on Mybloglog or visit their site and leave a comment. Mybloglog requires you to add them as a contact before you can leave them a message on their profile page. In the message thank them for visiting your site and I would suggest making a comment about their site after you have visited it of course.
Other Mybloglog Resources:
- The Mybloglog Blog
- Got any Mybloglog resources or tips to add?
Tags: Mybloglog, Social Media, Blogging, Networking
Written by Pixelhead on January 7th, 2008 with
27 comments.
Read more articles on Blogging and Marketing and Mybloglog and Networking and Uncategorized and Web 2.0.
Colon Cancer Guy
Mike
My StumbleUpon Page
#1. January 8th, 2008, at 2:24 AM.
I’ve never focused on MyBlogLog, so thanks for the info.