How treating a web page like a research paper can help you in search listings

You should always keep your audience in mind when you’re writing landing page text. But what do you when you’re optimizing pages for search engines and your audience isn’t even human?

According to search engine optimization expert Jessica Bowman of SEM Inhouse, it may help to think of search engines as your college professor. Jessica recently gave a workshop at Yahoo! on search engine optimization, and she pointed out that search engines read your web pages an awful lot like professors read a college research paper.

They’re alike? Really?
Before the comparison brings sweaty visions of the worst part of college to your head, it doesn’t mean your web copy should be 20 pages long. In fact, it shouldn’t be anywhere near that. But, Jessica says, professors are like search engines in that they have to read a lot of papers, which means they have to make some of their judgment calls by scanning. These are some of the elements that both look for:

• Title: Both of them need to know at a glance what the document is about.
• Headlines, emphasized words and lists: Anything called out with headlines, bold or italicized words, or bullets is likely to be important. Call headlines in your web copy out with tags like <H1>, <H2> and <H3>.
• Conclusion: A good conclusion restates the theme of the opening paragraph, which drives the argument home for your professor and confirms what your page is about for the search engine.
• Sources cited: Professors like to know that you researched the paper, and search engines like to see that you’re linked to other websites.

How to get on the bad sides of professors and search engines
There are a few of the things that both of them hate:

• Plagiarism: You know that little research paper-buying incident that got your frat brother thrown out junior year? Turns out that search engines don’t like it when you steal other sites’ content either. And given that they’re searching the web, they might notice when 15 copies of something show up.
• Too many quotes: Original thinking is important. Just as you wouldn’t devote most of your research paper to huge quotation blocks, you don’t want to rely too heavily on syndicated content.
• Bad writing: Search engines are more liable to penalize your page in results when you stuff your copy with unrelated keywords, strand important content at the bottom of your page, and rely too much on headlines and lists.

Search engines and professors love…

• Verbosity: You probably realized this about your professor when you had to analyze three paragraphs in Dante’s Inferno for 15 pages. In the search engine world, verbosity means substantial, relevant, wordy, full-length, original content.
• Reinforcing your stance: Just as professors like it when you repeat and back up your claims, you want your main concepts and keywords to be repeated throughout the page.
• Good writing: For a search engine that means variations on your keywords, including different endings. If only your professor’s definition had been that flexible.

—Jeff Sweat, Blog Editor

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Nic McPhee

Five guidelines to help keep you in YPN compliance

When reviewing YPN publisher sites for guideline compliance, I see the same “problem areas” over and over that prevent sites from passing the guidelines. Here are a few things to avoid in order to keep your site in compliance with YPN.

1. Competing Ads
Be sure that Yahoo! ads do not appear on the same page as contextual ads from other companies. It’s okay to rotate these ads along with Yahoo! ads as long as they don’t appear at the same time.

2. Unsupported Languages
Pages where YPN ads appear must be in either English or Spanish. Some publishers may manage quite a few web pages, and may only have a few pages in unsupported languages. It’s important to identify these pages and remove them.

3. Ad Targeting
When choosing to target ads, make sure that these ads actually match the content of the page. For example, the best quality traffic for a page about classic cars will probably result from auto-related advertisements rather than medical product ads or real estate ads.

4. Excessive Ad Units
We don’t allow more than three YPN ad units (the box containing the ads) on the page. Don’t clutter your page with too many ads. 

5. Page Functionality
To ensure a good user experience for our users, we require that the back button be functional, and that the page does not spawn any more than one partial pop-up/pop-under window.

Hopefully, these tips will help keep your site in compliance. If you would like more detailed information, you can always find it by taking a look at the Yahoo! Publisher Network Program Policies, and Terms and Conditions.

If you have more questions, contact our Customer Support Team. You can reach them online or by calling them at 866-785-2636.

— Marc Gibson, Yahoo! Publisher Network

Seven ways to create link-friendly content

Linkbait has nothing to do with hot dog “links” or fish “bait,” but it has everything to do with catching folks’ attention, which can make you shout with glee: “Hot dog!” (Probably not “Fish!”)

Linkbait refers to content or a feature on a website that entices users to place links to it on other websites. Previously, Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz.org, wrote about linkbaiting on our YPN blog. We thought it would be a great idea to recap Rand’s informative and practical article, in case you missed it.

Linkbaiting is often seen as a form of viral marketing, which encourages users to pass along a message. When using linkbaiting, you may want to consider targeting link-friendly audiences such as bloggers, news sites and social media portals such as Flickr, Facebook and MySpace.

What Can You Use as Linkbait?
Rand explains that linkbait can be anything from a photo to an interactive web-based application to a “Top 10” list. In a nutshell, if your content sparks someone to link to it, it can be defined as linkbait.

The How and Why of Linkbait
Successful linkbait content generates buzz. As it is linked and passed on from site to site, the content gains traction and visibility. For example, let’s say you have a funny video of a dramatic and cute chipmunk on your site. Folks online will want to share this clip, and the next thing you know, it’s a world-wide internet phenomenon. (It’s actually a prairie dog from a Japanese telly show, but it’s still pretty darn funny.)

Rand explains that “Even after the initial buzz from your successful linkbaiting campaign dies down, your site’s traffic may stay on a slight increase due to a “linkbait bump” that keeps users circling back to your site.”

Rand’s Seven Tips for Linkbaiting:
1.  Find appropriate linkbait portals
2.  Understand your audience
3.  Brainstorm effectively
4.  Build beautiful bait
5.  Create a reputation
6.  Grab their attention
7.  Don’t be manipulative—and DON’T SPAM!

You can find more details on each step in Rand’s article.  Then…hot dog!

– Roger Park, Manager, Marketing Communications and office snacker

Editor’s Note: I met Stephanie Agresta last month at the BlogWorld Expo in Vegas—the girl’s got a wicked craps toss, I can tell you—where she spoke on the panel, “Bloggers and Online Merchants: Affiliate Marketing Synergies.” With more than 12 years of experience in online marketing, Stephanie has survived plenty of Cyber Mondays.

As we noted in a previous post, joining an affiliate program and negotiating direct ad sales can be great ways to boost your publishing revenue. Well, I learned that from Stephanie. For you publishers who are combining an affiliate program and direct ads with your Yahoo! Publisher Network ads Stephanie offers up ten survival tips to help get you through the holidays and into the black.

“Cyber Monday” has come and gone. While many news outlets focused on the “big bang” in sales that this day is supposed to represent (like its offline sister, “Black Friday”), online sales have grown at steady and steep rates each year for a decade. For 2007, initial reports point to even better-than-expected growth in the run-up to the holidays. More money for online advertisers means more revenue for publishers. Time to pop the Veuve Clicquot! 

But as anyone who has been in e-commerce for the last 10 years knows, with all this growth comes more competition and more stress for marketers. Consumer expectations are higher, there are more advertisers to choose from and manage, and—of course—there is significantly more competition (and expense) to secure those precious eyeballs! What is an online publisher to do?

Here are a few quick tips to help you navigate this hectic time. If you can keep these guidelines in mind, you may come out of the holiday season full of good cheer.

10. Speak with your audience and keep them top of mind. It is so easy to get caught up in the holiday hubbub and forget the basics. As a publisher, the most valuable tactic you can use is to stay focused on your readers and ask for their feedback. Start a conversation.

One simple idea is to create a holiday gift guide that suggests great ideas that you think they will love and asks for their product recommendations. If you’re a blogger, comments from readers can be a wealth of information on top-selling products and great content for future posts.

9. It’s all about the data. Set weekly and monthly goals for your affiliate commissions and contextual ad revenue, and run reports more frequently. Look at the numbers more closely and stay in tune with sales trends. Daily review of activity is a necessary component to making the season a success.

8. Stay on top of cultural trends. Who knows more about cultural trends than Oprah? As many of the pundits have pointed out, her annual list drives a huge number of online purchases. Tune into this and other trend-spotters now and throughout the year. If you aren’t already reading the Trend Watching briefings, sign up ASAP!

7. Read More Blogs. Does it sound crazy that, at the busiest time of the year, I am suggesting that you dedicate more time to reading blogs? Well, reading other thought leaders has a way of inspiring me. For online publishers who seek to increase their revenue, immerse yourself in the writings of Shawn Collins, Lisa Picarille, Sam Harrelson and Jim Kukral (in addition to this fabulous Yahoo! Publisher Network blog). You won’t be sorry.

6. Update your website with holiday images. Seems like an obvious one, but it is always a good reminder for busy publishers. Seasonal images help drive sales. Imagine shopping in an offline store that had no decorations up for the holidays. BORING!

5. Reach out to your top advertisers. This is always a tough one for some publishers. As someone who has been on the advertiser side for years, I cherish online publishers who take the time to make personal contact and share specifics about their site and the demographics they work with. It always helps to have a real person to contact with questions, so take time to make sure your top partners know who you are.

4. Try new methods of reaching out. As a follow up to #5, I must remind you that email and IM are so 2006. If you don’t already have a Facebook profile or Twitter account, give it a try. While it may take some getting used to, you will find that many of your colleagues are already there, and communication becomes that much easier.

3. Check your data feeds (if you use them). Another simple reminder—but vital during this busy traffic season—is to make sure that your site is up to par: no broken links to advertiser sites. If you find an advertiser that has not done an update to its data feed in awhile, send a polite note asking them to provide you with the tools you need to sell their products.

2. Don’t forget the long tail. While Top 10 product lists are great, let’s not forget that this is a time of year when individuals go out of their way to find unique and special gifts. Spend time building out lists of keywords (including five-plus word keywords). If you do any online marketing, such as through Yahoo! Search Marketing, use these in your campaigns. Even if you don’t do any online marketing, be sure to sprinkle these keywords throughout your copy to help get your site more visible in organic search rankings.

1. Get in the spirit. Most importantly, take a moment to be thankful for your direct advertising partners, if you have any. Not only is it good karma, but it goes a long way to enhance your working relationship all year long. Snail mail, old-school holiday cards are wonderful, but e-cards or online videos work, too. Give to receive!

Don’t Forget: It’s not too late to still capture the holiday spirit and boost your sales online. Keep in mind that many gift advertisers register about 60 percent of their sales in the fourth quarter, the bulk of which is in December. Plus, January is a big month for most e-retailers—with all those gift cards burning holes in consumer pockets.

—Stephanie Agresta, Stephanie Agresta Consulting

Editor’s Note: We all want to go to the SMX Social Media confab in New York next week. But good conferences don’t come cheap, especially if they’re in the Big Apple. But not to worry. We know people. Like Rand Fishkin, who is giving a talk on Social Media Marketing Essentials. As one of the smarteratti, Rand knows that driving more visits to your site can mean more clicks on your ads from more qualified prospects. Driving more visits is a good thing. Driving more visits for no money is even better. In his SMX conference presentation, Rand will discuss how to get more clicks via Social Media. He offers a preview here (for no money).

The buzz about social media has reached a crescendo. Naturally, this has sparked a good deal of debate and trial and error around the practices of marketing across social media on the web. Results, from successes (which we often don’t hear much about) to failures (which seem to get the most press) dot the landscape of social media marketing and inspire both curiosity and fear in website owners and marketers.

Today, I’d like to act as Sergeant Joe Friday and present, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Social media marketing may be a bit of a minefield, but it’s also an exceptional opportunity for marketers to reach a traditionally tough-to-penetrate demographic—early adopters. This is the fundamental reason that social media marketing is so exciting—those who are active in social networks are powerful people—they’re influencers, bloggers, journalists, thought leaders and publishers. They can help to spread your message, so reaching them can have a remarkable impact.

So… How does social media marketing work? In many, many different ways. You can use social media marketing to:

• Create profiles on social media sites to conduct reputation management and control (You can see what others say about your brand and actively prevent your brand name from being abused—i.e. the John McCain MySpace scandal)
• Participate in social media networks to earn credibility and mindshare from other members of those communities
• Share stories, links and content that the community will find valuable, which sends either a positive branding message or direct traffic to your company
• Build links to your website to help with traffic and organic search rankings by building content on social media sites
  Control the search results by using profile pages to fill up the search results (and push down potential negative results)
  Distribute viral content you’ve created to help attract links, traffic and attention (see this post on linkbaiting for more)

Each of these unique activities requires considerable effort, know-how and experience. It also requires that you know where to go to engage in social media marketing. These are the top 10 sites we engage with and get value from:

StumbleUpon—With more than three million regular users, StumbleUpon drives terrific traffic and has social options that help to make it even more powerful
Wikipedia—Incredible visibility in search engines and a powerful brand make participation valuable
Yahoo! Answers—with three million users and growing, Answers is a natural fit for any company seeking to build its brand and expose its experts to the curious
Digg—The Digg home page drives tens of thousands of visitors and considerable visibility to the larger blogosphere
Reddit—Similar to Digg, but with an older, somewhat more mature audience focused on politics & offbeat news
del.icio.us—Tag pages, the home page and the popular page are all valuable for driving traffic and branding
Flickr—One of the best sources on the web for sharing images and a highly participatory community as well
Newsvine—Recently picked up by MSNBC, Newsvine allows for unrivaled levels of participation and content generation
Yelp—The current leader in local reviews and listings
YouTube—The powerful, highly visible video site has millions of active users and allows for incredible brand reach when a video becomes popular

The best recommendation I can give is to spend time in these social communities, learn the ins-and-outs of the people and participants and jump in only when you feel comfortable engaging. For many publishers, this may require a social media specialist (either in-house or contracted) or someone who can dedicate the time to learning the landscape of social media. If you’d like to learn more, a good recommendation would be to stop by the SMX Social Conference in New York City next week, and be sure and look in at my presentation on social media marketing essentials as well Patrick McGee’s  session on Yahoo! Answers.

Best of luck on all your social media adventures!

—Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz

Do Want to Know More?
So do we. That’s why we’ve been running an ongoing series on low-cost traffic drivers to help our publishers get more users and help increase qualified clicks. Check out these previous posts:

Optimizing for Social Media

SMM in Depth

Working the Media

Boost Your Buzz

Optimizing for Relevancy

Leveraging Linkbait

Editor’s Note: It’s one thing to publish your content, product or services. But getting discovered is another story. Catherine Seda is a 12-year Internet marketing strategist and consultant who recently put much of her knowledge into a book, How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders, which we reviewed here a while back with some enthusiasm. Today, Cat offers an excerpt from her book on the topic of tagging, that vital tool for being discovered.

Tags are keywords that are assigned to a piece of content. Tagging is a part of the social bookmarking practice in which content producers and social site users can classify, organize and search content by keywords. Sites such as del.icio.us, Flickr, Technorati, and YouTube support tagging.

Tagging is important because it gives your content greater exposure within social sites, as well as in search engines. In this section, I’ll cover how to improve your visibility in both.

Social Site Visibility
Tags help your content get found within a social site. To see how this works, it’s best to see tags in action. Go to Flickr, Yahoo!’s photo-sharing site, and type in a keyword. Up comes a list of relevant photos. Next to each photo, you’ll see a tag icon with keywords next to it. Thanks to these tags (and the photo title), Flickr knows which photos are relevant to a user’s keyword search. 

Notice how the tags are hyperlinked? Click one. It takes you to another set of photos that are tagged with that same keyword. Flickr does this automatically; all you need are tags. Although members may create them for you, start your content on the right track by creating an initial set. This encourages members to tag your content, too. 

You want social site users to tag your content, as well. This helps you see which keywords people use to identify you and your business. Talk about an insightful market research feature! Plus, it’s free.

Tagging also lets you leverage other members’ content. That’s because if their content is popular, and you use the same tags they do, people can get to your content by clicking a tag that links to it. While you’re getting familiar with a social community, check out the tags being used for content similar to what you’ll publish and consider using these keywords in your tags.

Are you curious about the top keyword searches in a social site? Just click the “Popular Tags” link on the home page. You may see a tag cloud, a list of popular keywords arranged in alphabetical order; the most popular ones are displayed in a bigger font or set apart by a different visual treatment. Periodically monitoring this list can give you new keyword ideas to use in your tags. It’s similar to using keyword tools that show you the popular searches on search engines.

Search Engine Visibility
Tagging should be part of your search engine optimization strategy. Because tagging is all about linking and developing relationships, you should use some of the same tactics you use for improving your Web site’s link popularity. 

Use your Web site keyword list to guide you in selecting tags. Remember to choose keywords that relate to your content, as well as your business. Tags aren’t just useful to search engine spiders, but can drive significant traffic to your site.

Think of your tags as links. By using tags, you are providing the keywords you want associated with your business. Plus, because you can link your pieces of content to your profile page (which has a link to your Web site) or directly to your Web site, you’re ultimately boosting the link popularity of your Web site by tagging your content. Each link is yet another link vote for your site.

When you think about driving traffic with social media, there are two keys. First, because social media is all about linking, it has a natural fit into your link-building efforts. Therefore, be sure to include social media in the mix.

The second key is that spiders use tags like users do—to determine what the article, picture, or page is about. Having a lot of social site users applying the same tag to your content enhances its link reputation for the keyword in the tag. To get high rankings in the organic search listings you must be relevant for a keyword, and having many relevant tags accomplishes this…

Find out more about How to Win Sales and Influence Spiders.

Have any suggestions for marketing success for your fellow blog readers? Leave them in the comments!

—Catherine Seda, Internet & Search Marketing Strategist

(Excerpted from How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders: Boosting Your Business & Buzz on the Web by Catherine Seda. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.)

Mixing display with text ads for fun and profit with Right Media

Editor’s Note: Studies (like this one) have shown that online ad campaigns that combine text and display ads are more effective than those that rely on one or the other exclusively. At Yahoo! Publisher Network, we’re trying to meet that same demand among our publishers, while building the most open network we can. That’s why we acquired Right Media. Right Media’s Direct Media Exchange allows you to auction off your inventory to an array of bidders from different ad networks. Right Media’s Patrick McCarthy explains…

Yahoo! publishers might be asking: “Hmm, Yahoo! already has a product for us. So how will acquiring Right Media benefit me?”

This was a thought that could be heard rumbling through the Oregon halls of Right Media when we began acquisition talks with Yahoo!. Luckily, the answer was pretty simple, because of how Direct Media Exchange was built and how Yahoo! is embracing the open philosophy that we’ve been living with at Right Media.

Allow me to explain… Direct Media Exchange is a free web application that allows publishers to create an auction of their ad inventory that consists of their current ad network partners and the numerous display ad networks that are directly participating in Direct Media Exchange and bidding in real time. This means that Yahoo! Publisher Network and Direct Media Exchange can happily co-exist together.

The benefits are simple:

• Easier ad network management
• More potential revenue

Not bad if you ask me, or our publishers.

OK, so now that I have your interest, how does it really work?

1. First, add Yahoo! Publisher Network ad code and average CPM for each ad size into Direct Media Exchange, as well as code from any other ad networks you might work with. (Advertisers that you have sold campaigns to yourself are also welcome.)
2. Put the Direct Media Exchange ad code on your web pages.
3. When a user views your site, we run an auction in real time to see which ad network will pay you the most. If that’s Yahoo! Publisher Network, then great! We’ll show the Yahoo! Publisher Network ads that are relevant to your site’s content. If it’s another network that’s participating directly in the Direct Media Exchange, then we’ll display ads from that network. You win either way.
4. (Optional) Cash your checks and go to the beach!

The Direct Media Exchange team is happy to be a part of Yahoo!, and we’re more excited to be working on even more great advancements in the near future to make your life easier—while also making more money.

To find out more about Direct Media Exchange and get signed up, visit http://direct.rightmedia.com/

— Patrick McCarthy, Director, Direct Media Exchange

Secrets of Video Blogging Revealed

Editor’s Note: Our friend from MyBlogLog, Robyn Tippins, recently attended the BlogHer conference in Chicago to give a talk on video blogging. Her expertise stems from the fact that she’s been video blogging (or “v-blogging” or “vlogging,” if you prefer) at Gaming and Tech since the art was but a wee bairn. I asked her to jot down a few how-to tips about video blogging. True to her go-getter nature, Robyn went one better and made a video. Enjoy.  

Adding video to your blog or web site can be a great, interactive way to help get your users to stick around and keep them coming back for more. When I say that I am a video-blogger, one of the most common questions I get is, “How did you learn to do that?” Well, like most things, I learned by mucking it up. Lots of trial and error led to really learning my video editing software. However, rather than re-inventing the wheel, I thought I’d take a few minutes to show you an easy way to make your own videos and upload them for viewing on the Web.

To view my instructional video on Blip.tv, click here. 

For tips on web settings, you can download my “Tips for Great Web Editing.”  For some great conversion sites, check out Gena and Cheryl’s “Editing and Conversion Tips.” 

Don’t be afraid to put up a video that isn’t perfect. The charm of video blogging is that it’s personal and homemade. Your videos should be an extension of you and your personality: People like to know that there are real people on the other side of the screen. Remember, the more “professional” you make your video, the less fun it usually is.

If you run into a snag, feel free to email me at robyn@mybloglog.com.

—Robyn Tippins, Community Manager, MyBlogLog. She blogs here and video blogs here

11 Ways to Boost Your Site’s Effectiveness using MyBlogLog

Editor’s Note: When I asked MyBlogLog Community Manager, Robyn Tippins, last week to pen a post on how publishers can use MyBlogLog to drive traffic and keep their users engaged, she was on her way to the BlogHer conference in Chicago. So frantic was her schedule that I had little hope that I would actually see copy anytime soon. I needn’t have worried. Somehow, in between sessions, schmoozing, cocktail parties and late night runs to the 7-11 for more beer, she managed to bang out 11 useful and erudite tips you can use. Without further ado, let’s go straight to ‘em…

1. Make your Profile page deep
Don’t just fill in the basic information. Take time to make your profile page something that really communicates your personality. People are more likely to want to click through to your blog if they feel a connection to you.  MyBlogLog is full of bloggers and site owners who want to find great sites. They are interested in networking, learning from you and in really making a friend. Make sure your page lists basic things like your location and your bio, but don’t forget to add your names on all the other social sites. People who share common interests and common online hangouts with a site owner feel as if they already know them. Making friends with your readers starts with a full profile page.

2. Use the search function
Look for people who share your interests. Check out their blog and let them know that you too like to ride horses or restore classic cars. Look for blogs that are similar in topic and find a few that you love. Subscribe to their RSS feeds and comment on their blogs.  You’ll quickly realize that those people will usually come and bring the conversation back to your own blog.

3. Use your own picture on your avatar
While there’s something to be said for the safety of anonymity, readers seem to really like to see pictures of the authors they are reading.  It also makes the Recent Readers widget show off a real community of real people. There’s nothing more fun that seeing that widget reflect the real look of your readers. It feels more concrete, tangible, than pictures of celebs and photos with your site’s name on it. 

4. Stop posting your blankity-blank url
There’s no need to leave your url in any message on MyBlogLog. Your picture links back to your profile and if people are interested in what you have to say they’ll click through. People who send a URL in a message are often seen as “smarmy.”  If you are doing this now, it doesn’t mean you are really smarmy, but it does mean you need to stop shouting for attention. You get more notice from people if they think you don’t need their attention, but deserve it. (Editor’s Note: I feel so dirty ’cause I just did that last week. Ouch!)

5. Don’t spam or attempt to game the system
Sure, if you are a reasonably talented programmer, any system can be leveraged illegally.  However, people will rat you out with tags like Schmoe, with spam reports and by telling others of your behavior.  And, once banned, it is rare that we offer a second chance. Don’t risk having your url and your name banned for pity traffic.  Remember, when people visit your site and leave because it’s not a topic they are interested in, you gain absolutely no value. Spam traffic results in a larger load on your servers and no one caring long enough to read your content, much less pay attention to any advertising on your site.

6. Make your avatar attractive, hot even, but not racy
Due to a large outcry from our members, we’ve really cracked down on sexy avatars. Not only do you risk being banned if your image is outside of our image guidelines, you also run the risk of people clicking the red x themselves and banning you from appearing on their widget and on their pages.  When people put our widget on their page we deeply appreciate the valuable real estate that has been entrusted to us. We never want to put them in a position that our widget brings unwelcome content to their site, their home. Sexy is OK, but cleavage, bathing suits and images designed to make someone, er, “excited” are out of place on a family-friendly site.  Don’t make yourself invisible (i.e., get banned) on business blogs and family blogs just because you want attention. 

7. Take advantage of the tags
Tags have been searchable now for a few weeks and by making sure that your keywords are on your page, you increase your chances of ranking highly on MyBlogLog for your chosen search terms. Plus, by taking a gander at the tags that you interest you, and who else has been tagged the same term, you immediately make MyBlogLog smaller and more intimate for you. With one click you can find ‘business bloggers’ and ‘gamers’ and dive into people who’ll likely become instant friends (and readers).

8. Give back
Spend some time in the MyBlogLog Users Group.  Share your knowledge and gain instant credibility as a MyBlogLog expert.  You’ll gain friends, readers and people will appreciate your generosity.

9. Make sure your RSS feed is valid
At feedvalidator.org, you can check to see if your feed passes the test.  If it doesn’t, you may find that it doesn’t update properly on MyBlogLog.  Take the time to make sure it validates so the visitors to your profile will see what you are all about, rather than have them think you haven’t blogged in weeks. 

10. Apply to be a hot member
I’m tight with the person that picks hot members (grin) and I can put in a good word for you. However, you stand a much better chance at getting picked if you send me an email along with your picture (must be at least 2”x 3”) and what you are doing that is cool. Try to stand out from the crowd.  What are you doing that will knock my socks off? Here’s a rare time that a little bragging is a good thing. 

11. Watch what’s Hot in Your Communities
This list includes all the sites that you either write or read.  If you joined a community or own a community, that site is one of Your Communities.  The Hot part refers to the hot stories in all those communities.  To really see what is hot in your area of the blogosphere, keep an eye on that box.  It’s a great place for story ideas and inspiration for future series, and it is a brilliant way to know what resonates out there.

—Robyn Tippins, Community Manager, MyBlogLog. She blogs here and videologs here

Make the Most out of your Social Media Marketing Campaign

Editor’s Note: In the first installment of this series, Louise Rijk offered an overview of social media marketing, or SMM. In the second, she went deep into SMM, giving advice on how to start your own social media campaign designed to get more users and links to your site. In this, the third installment, Louise shows you how to optimize your content for social media.

Publishing for profit is a numbers game. You can’t just put up a site and hope people will find it and click on your contextual ads or affiliate links, or—if you sell online—make purchases. You have to market yourself and your site(s) aggressively. As far as contextual advertising goes, publishers often need 1,000 page views or more by highly qualified visitors to generate just $1 in revenue (though this is not a hard-and-fast formula).

Taking advantage of social media is one inexpensive (if sometimes labor intensive) way to help you get more visits and, hopefully, more clicks and/or sales. That’s why so many articles you read online these days—whether published by major newspapers or on an individual blog—have an RSS button or one or more links to social media sites like Digg, Reddit, Slashdot, MyYahoo!, or de.lico.us (like the one above).

Social Media Optimization
But there’s more to it than just offering a way for visitors to bookmark and tag your content. To get the best results, your content itself should be optimized to perform better in social media.

Social media optimization (SMO) is much like organic search engine optimization (SEO). Whereas SEO is designed to help leverage your content in organic search, SMO is designed to help achieve greater visibility on social media sites. Your content might be very original and provide high value for your target audience, but if it’s disorganized and you have not provided an easy way for visitors to pass it along the social web, it probably won’t be effective in your social media marketing campaign.

To implement SMO, you have to make changes to existing content, site usability, navigation and information architecture to make it easier for visitors to interact with your content and to help virally spread it through the social web.

SMO Tips
There are many ways that content can be optimized for social media distribution. Here are a handful of tips that you can use to implement social media optimization: 

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