Your Opinion Counts

We’re hosting a survey to find out more about your needs in order to help us build a better blog. All information we gather is secure and strictly confidential.

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW; it’s easy and free.

—The Team

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

The Affordable Leading-Edge Conference for Search Marketers and Webmasters  is Not Just a Simulacra

Whether you’re new to online advertising or you’re a seasoned search marketing pro, WebmasterWorld’s Search & Internet Marketing Conference (“PubCon”), to be held next week at the Las Vegas Convention Center, is almost a guaranteed win.

For four days, in the hyper-real, postmodernist splendor of Vegas, PubCon will feature engaging topics to those interested in search marketing, Web 2.0, SEO, affiliate programs, domains, online video, multimedia and more.

Writing about Las Vegas, the French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, once wrote:

The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert, and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them: the mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.

But there’s no need to worry about being in the dark about search marketing and web publishing, because Yahoo! will be there to help shine a light on the way. For more information, check out the complete schedule. Be sure to visit the Yahoo! booth No. 502 on the conference floor, too. 

Vegas, as Baudrillard said, is the ultimate American simulacra of a city. Why go to Paris when you can gamble at the Paris, Las Vegas? Why visit the pyramids of Giza, when you can witness the wacky prop comedy of Carrot Top or watch an IMAX film about the Nile at the Luxor? Can’t decide whether to play blackjack, see priceless works of art in a casino lobby or spend $4.99 for a prime rib dinner (salad and dinner roll included)? No matter—you can do it all.

Take a break from chasing the ever-fleeting jackpot and get some real, practical takeaways for your search marketing efforts from the Yahoo! search luminaries at PubCon 2007.

When: December 4 to 7, 2007
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas

—Roger Park, Hipster of Hyperreality

Yahoo! Publisher Network and Adobe Team Up

Adobe Systems and Yahoo! just launched a new service, called Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo! This limited beta program enables online publishers to earn advertising revenue through their Adobe PDF-based content.

For example, let’s say that your website hosts downloadable PDF files, such as instructions, diagrams, forms or other documents that your users can access. Publishers accepted into the limited beta program will be able to place contextual Yahoo! Search Marketing ads next to the content of these PDF files and earn money on a cost-per-click basis, just as they do with web-based ads on their own sites.

For more information, click here.

To apply for this limited beta, click here.

—Michael Mattis

Understanding Your Information Needs  

We’re hosting a survey to find out a little bit more about our readers. It asks you a bit about who you are, about your information needs, what you would like to get out of the blog, and so forth. The purpose of the survey is to help us create content that better serves your needs. And, of course, all information we gather is secure and confidential.

To access the survey, click here.

And thanks for reading and being a part of Yahoo! Publisher Network!

—Michael Mattis

New Yahoo! Blog Focuses on Tech and the Folks Behind It

When asked by a customs official if he had anything to declare, Oscar Wilde once famously exclaimed, “Nothing but my genius!”

I’ve noticed a lot of that “genius” thing going around Yahoo! Our geniuses are get-your-hands-dirty technophiles and hard-core geeks who love pulling out the digital lug wrenches, banging out solutions and inventing cool new tools.

There’s so much going on at any one time that it can be hard to keep up. That’s why we’ve launched Next*, a brand-new Yahoo! blog that hones in on all the latest from Yahoo’s top technocrats.

Check it out and see what’s Next*.

—Michael Mattis

Monetize and Analyze 

Earlier this week, I promised to offer up five useful things that I learned at the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, but I only gave you three. I’m such a tease. Really, it’s all part of my cunning plan to keep you coming back to the blog. Looks like it worked.  Anyway, here are numbers four and five of the five things.

4. There are 7 1/2 ways to monetize your blog

i. Run contextual ads—You know, like from Yahoo! Publisher Network and RightMedia’s DMX.

ii. Sell physical goods—Branded merchandise, such as T-shirts, mugs, ball-point pens and so forth. There are many vendors out there who can help you do this at a minimal cost. This is only worthwhile once you have established a broad audience.

iii. Solicit user donations—Your blog can be partly or wholly user-supported, like PBS or NPR. PayPal offers a donation button that you can install on your site in seconds. Do you blog on a political or scientific topic? There are scientific institutions and political think-tanks out there with money to burn. It won’t hurt to hit them up for a donation. What’s the worst that could happen?

iv. Join an affiliate ad network—Affiliate networks offer text and display advertising for hundreds of vendors in a wide range of categories, from automobiles to vacation rentals. Affiliate network publishers are paid a percentage of each sale. Most BlogWorld-goers that I talked to agreed that text links embedded in your content tend to work better than banners. And remember, there are many ancillary goods that can be offered. People who like high-end jewelry, for example, may also be apt to buy expensive handbags. For more affiliate tips, click here. 

v. Negotiate direct ad sales—Do you have highly targeted content that caters to a niche audience? Have you developed, or are you in the process of developing, a significant audience? Don’t be afraid to contact advertisers directly and propose a deal. The worst thing they can do is say no. You’ll find that once you have one deal going, competitors in that niche may be more likely to get onboard. Some advertisers may be happy to place a display ad on your site for branding purposes if your audience is targeted correctly. 

vi. Explore pay-per-post—You may have heard of the controversial concept of advertisers paying bloggers to blog about their products. But if done ethically and with genuine interest in the product niche, you may be able to earn extra income and help expand your reader base.

vii. Offer subscriptions—If you have high-value content to offer, users will pay you for it. Consider developing tiers of content, some free, some via paid subscription.

vii ½. Make your blog into a book—This crosses the line between selling physical goods and offering subscriber content. The fact is, people like having physical books around. Who doesn’t enjoy the smell of fresh ink? You can also offer unique content in a book and arrange your content and illustrations to be both informative and attractive. There are many on-the-fly publishers who can help turn your blog into a book.

5. Analytics are your friend
Advertisers, partners and affiliates like to know things, such as how much traffic you’re getting, how many of your users are repeats, what your “bounce rate” is, where your traffic is coming from, how long your visitors stay, and so forth. You want to know where people are clicking, which pages they’re lingering on, and which they’re staying away from, so that you can adjust your content and revenue-earning strategies accordingly. There are many analytics packages available.

I also made quite a few new friends and professional contacts at the show. In the coming weeks, you’ll see some valuable new contributions by some of the many industry experts whom I met at BlogWorld.

In the meantime, here’s a brief round-up of BlogWorld coverage:

Turns out that despite all the hoopla, not everyone in Vegas knows what a blog is, as Fox News discovered.

There’s more to corporate blogging than just begging your CEO to let you set one up.

Here’s a great list of video interviews by our friends over at Build a Better Blog.

Zac Jonhson blogs Marc Cuban’s keynote speech.

Debbie Weil listens to BlogWorld impresario, Dave Taylor, opine.

Steven Van Yoder teaches you how to get slightly famous.

For Flickr photos streams, click here and here.

—Michael Bloggeratus

Blogging Comes of Age

There were five basic lessons I learned at the Blogword 2007 conference in Las Vegas last week, the fabulous and seminal Las Vegas trade show hosted by the redoubtable Dave Taylor. Here are lessons one through three:

1. Blogging has gone beyond pastime and into prime time.
How else to explain the hundreds of participants, speakers and exhibitors willing to pay top dollar to hob-nob with their fellow bloggerati? How else to explain the star-studded line-up? A few years ago, who would have thought that A-listers like radio talk show hosts Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved, or Dallas Mavericks owner and dot-com billionaire Mark Cuban, would have lined up to schmooze with a bunch of “little bloggers” like us? Well, it appears that the long tail is finally beginning to wag the dog.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

2. The first rule of blogging is to develop your audience.
If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise? Who cares? No one heard it, so it doesn’t matter. Sure, you may want to keep an online diary just for friends and family. It saves on stamps. But chances are you’re blogging for dollars, which is why you’re reading this. A small audience means little opportunity for revenue. Begin developing your audience by finding your niche, and make sure that that niche is monetizable (i.e., that there’s gear or other goods or services involved that advertisers and merchants can offer through your blog).

3. The other first rule of blogging is to concentrate on your content.
This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many bloggers think they can throw just anything up, slap a few contextual ads on it, and the money will come pouring in. You can’t hope to build an audience if you don’t offer compelling, targeted content that offers information or entertainment that users are unlikely to find elsewhere. This applies to your headlines, as well. Write snappy headlines that explain what an article is about. Most of your new users will come to you via some kind of search or other. By offering concise headlines, you increase the chance of a searcher clicking on you in search results. And remember, people like lists, like “Five Things I Learned at BlogWorld.” Lastly, when writing headers, people tend to search for problems (i.e., “leaky faucet”) not solutions (”fix my faucet”).

Stay tuned for lessons four and five—the 7 1/2 ways to monetize and why it’s wise to analyze.

—Michael Mattis, Blogster-in-Chief

Celebrate with Seasonal Content, Images and Ad Colors

You should consider developing special holiday content for your users.

Why? Because our advertisers—those whose ads appear on your site—are hard at it right now developing special holiday ad strategies and promotions, as a recent post on the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog explains. Creating holiday-related content for your site, sprinkled through with holiday keywords, can help get some of those highly relevant, click-worthy ads to your site.

To augment your holiday content and give it visual punch, you might also consider posting themed images or graphics—you know, like they do on the Yahoo! homepage around Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day and so forth.

If you read the blog regularly, you already know that one way that you can keep your users from experiencing ad fatigue is to regularly alter your ads’ color scheme. You should also consider creating seasonal color schemes for holidays and other special occasions. Orange and brown can keep your autumn and Thanksgiving looking warm, while green and red can help make your yuletide gay, and silver and blue can brighten up your New Year’s.

For Festivus, however, you’re on your own.

—Michael Mattis

Join us at BlogWorld 2007 in Las Vegas Next Week

Sometimes publishing and blogging can feel like a bit of a crap shoot. You can’t always tell which plays are going to come up a “natural” and which are going to “crap out.” So it’s appropriate that the BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2007 conference is being held in the crap shoot capital of the universe, Las Vegas.

Publishing and blogging may sometimes be a gamble, but attending BlogWorld might just help you even the odds. It’s pretty much the biggest tradeshow, conference and media event dedicated solely to blogging and new media, with more than 50 seminars. There are tracks for beginning and advanced bloggers, podcasters, entrepreneurs and executives. There are even tracks on sports bloggers, military bloggers and political bloggers. Lastly, there’s my favorite, a special track that focuses exclusively on—cha-ching!—monetization!

For more information, take a look at the complete schedule.

So next Thursday and Friday, Nov. 8 and 9, come on down to the Las Vegas Convention Center and BlogWorld 2007. Anf feel free to swing by booth 325.

—Michael Mattis, Chief Croupier