As most of you are aware, Feedburner has two separate metrics by which they measure your feed — total subscribers and reach. The subscribers number shows the estimated number of subscriptions. The only real concrete number you have there is your email subscribers, but even then those subscribers could be filtering your messages to a junk folder or simply deleting it without reading. The real RSS metric is the reach of the blog.

The blog’s RSS feed reach tells how many of your subscribers actually took a look at the feed and what posts they read. You might have 35 subscribers who read the latest post, with 10 or so reading the previous post.  What if you had 130 subscribers? That’s about a quarter of your possible reach. How could you possibly increase that reach?

How did you obtain your subscribers in the first place? Did you run a contest or were they all organic additions? If you ran a contest to gain subscribers, then the subscriber may have used a secondary email or filtered the feed out in their email software. It could be advantageous to contact your email subscribers one-by-one to create a dialog. This would help gauge their interest in your content. If you run a photography blog, then inquire about their needs. Find out what makes them tick. Do they need support on their particular digital camera model, photo development tricks, or software enhancements? Once you create that dialog with them, they’ll be more likely to interact with your content in the future.

All email subscribers are listed in your Feedburner account. You just have to dig a little to find them. Go to the Analyze tab –> Subscribers under the Feed Stats (on left) –> Scroll down to Email Subscription Services –> Click on it then open the link to Manage your Email Subscriber List. From here you can see every email subscriber in Feedburner, including their email’s status, like whether they’ve verified their subscription or not.

While I don’t condone using these emails to spam a copied letter, I do think it would be fine to send them one email asking them if they’ve returned to your site in a while, what they think of the content, how you could improve the content, and possibly if they remember how they found the site. Realistically most won’t respond, but many might. Those that do can help you improve your brand. I would only send one email though…don’t force the issue if they do not respond.

RSS Reader Subscribers

To increase the reach of those RSS subscriber readers who use a feed reader rather than emailed updates, the solution becomes much more difficult. The reach really is dependent on whether they check their RSS reader software or not. Once you have them open your feed, you need to keep them interested, so they survey all the information. I would also include branding logos inside the feed, which Feedburner allows, as well as a footer message to encourage their interaction with your site. I’ve seen this done quite artfully in the past. A little personal message enticing them to check out your new feature or site design can do the trick. At this point though, you’ve already accomplished what you set out to do — increase your reach.

Aside from stepping into someone’s office and pulling up their Google reader to your feed, there’s not much a blogger can do. We can make our content stand out a little from the other feeds in our readers, write quality content, and ask for feedback at regular intervals. Most of all we need to keep at writing content and the challenges that our blog presents.

Increase Your RSS Feed’s Reach from Jason Boom

I have to admit, this post is shamefully late. The idea behind the Micro-blogging Olympics was to test out the three major Micro-blogging sites — Twitter, Plurk, and Pownce — to gauge their effectiveness towards site traffic. The experiment was a lot of fun. I met a lot of cool people and found myself enjoying new Twitter apps and the Plurk site more and more each day. I honestly never took to Pownce though. It just seems too void of performance. I actually enjoyed Rejaw better, which is a new MB site that allows 1000 character posts, which may be moving into mini-blogging, not micro.

I can’t say the experiment was a complete success. I don’t think I have the social ability to push out tweets every five minutes or get into debates with random users, like some do. Most of the time I’m too busy working to bother with updating. I used the services to unwind and to catch up with people I’ve come to know online.

All in all, I Plurk much more than I Twitter. I think its because Plurking allows me to converse rather than just speak into a void with the hope of someone echoing back a statement or two. On Plurk I’m almost guaranteed some eyeballs on my thoughts or a funny conversation to look in on.

What Results Did I See?

The immediate results have been tangible. I know I’ve attracted a few new readers to my blog, making friendships along the way. I’ve networked and found someone to help with another project of mine. I’ve received a few link backs from various people who found me through Plurk. On the scale that I used the service, it helped me branch out and find new people to read my blog, comment and to network with me both on the Micro-blogging site and in my other networks.

The statistics show a much blander result. Throughout August I had 17 visits from Plurk. Of those 17, 58% were new visitors. They stayed on average 2:37, which is well above my site average. Unfortunately Twitter sent me 10 new visitors and they didn’t stick around long. (Just noticed Squidoo sent me a decent amount of traffic, but not sure for what.)

Proportionate Results

You really do get what you put into these networks. I know I’ve made a few new connections, laughed a lot, and learned a lot too. Micro-blogging sites may cater to a specific personality, but everyone can enjoy at least some aspect of one of these sites — you just have to find the right one for your tastes. I gravitated towards Plurk, but maybe your message can get out there better through Twitter.

Micro-blogging Olympics Closing Ceremonies from Jason Boom

Do you know how to build back links to the blog, e-commerce store, or site you’ve started? Link building may be one of the most sought skills for any site owner. After all, links help your site become found by search engines, build traffic, and increase your site’s readership. At LinkBuildingWiki.com you will find a vast resource focused on the art of link building. The wiki makes it easy to find resources related to link building.

What is the Link Building Wiki?

The LinkBuildingWiki.com compiles links to authoritative articles, blog posts, forum posts, and their sites for users to find information quickly.  The  site is completely free to use. If you’re new to link building or SEO, then this wiki should be your first stop on the journey.

Unlike other wikis, the Link Building Wiki is not open for everyone to edit. Those who would like to participate in building content can apply for the privilege. I understand why they have it closed. Imagine the amount of spam a link building wiki would receive — now you understand too.

The site lists link building resources including SEO blogs, forums and active posts in those forums, link building articles, and link building tools. The resources are first rate and should help anyone become acquainted with tips, tricks, and lessons related to link building.

Throughout the site, you may notice recommendations for certain material from two of the creators, Rob and Jarrod. They make it easy for you to spot their favorite material. The recommendations guide you towards quality information on link building.

The Hands off Approach

For those who simply want someone with the know-how to build links to your site, you can hire the experts behind the Link Building Wiki. From their link building services page offers everyone the information needed to hire their staff for link building work.

Conclusion

The wiki introduced me to quite a few sites on link building and SEO I hadn’t heard of before this review. If you’re looking to build back links to your site, increase your search engine rankings, or just gain SEO knowledge, then the Link Building Wiki should be part of your arsenal.

A Review of the Link Building Wiki from Jason Boom

Hi there,

I see you came to my site looking for “web 2.0 skills”. I’m not entirely sure why you found my page, but I’m glad you did. I’m afraid you didn’t stick around to learn any skills, but maybe that’s already a sign you have web 2.0 skills. It says here you bounced from the first page you visited? How did I lose you so quick?

I guess you came to my site expecting big buttons to push, tons of videos instructing you on the neo-art of converting social activity into dollars, and titillating internet memes. I’m sorry to have disappointed. I can tell you my site will give you tips on writing, marketing, and various blogging tools.

I could have inspired you to begin writing a blog of your own, if you didn’t already own one. You might even have been able to quit your day job. I’m not a money making blog, but your writing skills would have improved. Trust me. You would have wanted to take this route.

If you did own a blog, then I could have helped you write powerful messages to your readers.

I know Web 2.0 skills are hard to come by, just like computer hacking skills.I’m wondering where you went. Were there other Web 2.0 skill sites to visit? I’m checking now.  I see now that I come up on the first page of Google for Web 2.0 Skills (not anymore). It’s not a huge surprise. I’ve got skills like that.

If you’re here looking for web 2.0 skills, sign up for my RSS feed so you don’t miss my skill building seminar.

A Letter to a Random Search Engine Visitor from Jason Boom

Micro-blogging has its perks. You can meet cool people and chat all day long. The downside — you rarely get much done except for talking and reading different blogs. Well at least that’s how Sunday went. I interacted on both Twitter and Plurk most of the day, adding in a failed EC forum postings. All in all it was a good day. Then on Monday, I went to the office and got overwhelmed with Twitter. The deluge of messages really came when Gmail went kerplunk.

Back on Plurk, things were a little smoother. Plurk does have the Karma feature afterall.

Recently, everyone reached Plurk Nirvana. I had it with less than 20 Karma. It appears you should only receive it with over 80. No big deal. It’s not like it adds a whole lot to the experience. It’s just a number, right?

It has been fixed though, so no more free Nirvana spirituals.

The Karma Number

It is just a number. But the number ties into your profile and your specific activity so it can be a good indicator of your popularity to someone you don’t know. It’s tough to add random people, because you don’t really want to add just anybody. What if they have a terrible attitude? You need some degree of separation from them. Choose a friend whose judgment you trust and check out their friends.

When you’re new to a service like Plurk, it’s good to judge by numbers. On Twitter you would look at the followers compared to the number of those they’re following. On Plurk, you might also look at this, but you would check out the Karma points too. Those with Karma points above sixty definitely participate. It’s good to be in a community of those who participate because it reinforces our desire to be there. Without those individuals responding to our plurks, we’re simply talking down a long empty hallway.

Mama Always Said Be Picky When You’re Choosing Friends

I joined Plurk from an invite. I then decided to visit that friend’s friends. Ultimately I searched for a few people I knew would be using the site, added them, and then sat back to plurk. Others have added me since. As I’ve grown to use the service more frequently, I’ve found I make genuine connections with people. I could have gone through and added person after person, but people might have denied me and that would have hurt my Karma. It makes sense to add those you know then branch out slowly from there.

I looked through the interesting plurkers earlier and found one of the top plurkers to be TechCrunch’s Arrington. He had over 92 Karma. If I had his cred, I could just let the gravity of my presence feed my karma. Unfortunately I have to work hard at it, like most everyone else.

What’s the Point of All This Again?

The point is to bring in traffic and analyse how well each service helps with that. I suppose there’s lots of intangibles too. Do you have a personality people are drawn towards? Can you stay active enough to make an impression? So far with micro-blogging the newbie seems to go after well known bloggers or industry professionals first, then heads to the lesser known folks like myself. I’m trying to just get out there, get noticed, and help you all out in the process.

1. Follow me on Twitter
2. Join me on Plurk
3. Pownce on me

Micro-blogging Olympics Day Three from Jason Boom

The Olympics have commenced. I’ve dug into my micro-blogging sites of choice and begun the games. Here’s one response to my previous post.

“I have just started with twitter but honestly I don’t believe that it will add that much readership but one has to keep trying to promote a blog if your going to go through the effort of writing it in the first place.” — Renee from Womanist Musings

I can understand the sentiment. I felt the same way myself. I began using Twitter about two months after my blog began. I mostly added friends and read tweets. The experience didn’t do a whole lot for my blog. It helped me get to know other bloggers on a more personal level, but overall had no effect on my traffic. Now the Micro-blogging Olympics are testing a few of my theories about these types of services.

1. If we’re active on them, we gain followers who will periodically read our blog.
2. We gain a network of like-minded people who help us better our blog, essentially propelling our blog towards larger readerships.
3. We keep the momentum going, as constant contact with other like-minded bloggers will keep the passion alive.

I’m Only Selling Myself

I did some basic maintenance on all three of my profiles. I added links back to my blog, uploaded photos, and on Twitter, followed those who had added me since my last pass through (about 40 more individuals). I then began digging into Plurk and Twitter. My account on Twitter has a much better chance of sending me traffic. I’ve had it for a lot longer and have close to 150 people following me. The Plurk experience was a little more fun though.

Plurk has the casualness I crave. The friends I’ve added seem to talk quite a bit more than Twitter ones. Unless, you’re following Scobleizer, Guy Kawasaki, or other power users for that matter. A lot of Twitter power users seem to use the service to convey links/information to their followers. They don’t use it necessarily for their own sites, but they do push a lot of content. I’m fairly certain this is just an off-shoot of them being highly active on social networks and on the internet in general. They probably receive crazy amounts of email everyday, giving them tips on a site here or there.

Plurk has feature after feature. When you first create an account there, you might notice the Karma score. Everyone has a Karma score. It’s the first bit of obsession. How can I up my Karma score? I uploaded a photo, which gave me a whopping 7.5 karma. BAM! How’s that for instant gratification?

You can gain karma points by being active, not getting having friend requests rejected, and having people respond to your plurks. This is the biggest thing about Plurk, so far — having people respond to your message. It creates a fun and interesting way to have a conversation. Instead of all the @s to individuals, you can have a group of people commenting and joining in on the fun. I imagine as I gain friends that will definitely go up.

Still on the Starting Blocks

Pownce has the feel of an IM on the web. I haven’t dug into the service much yet, but at first blush it seems difficult to find people. Who has Pownce? Do you use it? I did update my profile on there a bit today, but haven’t looked around much. I need to put some time into it if I really expect to give it a chance. What do yow think? Wowld yow wse pownce over the other services?

1. Follow me on Twitter
2. Join me Plurk
3. Pownce on me

Micro-blogging Olympics: Day One from Jason Boom

In the last installment, I researched a few sites and made claims to the areas that stopped traffic. I think this type of discussion contains value for any blogger. I almost considered adding green lights and nailing a few sites, but I’ll keep to the current motif and only add stop signs to my case studies today. Be wary, though — green lights may be coming soon!

The idea of keeping traffic contained on our site should not be new to anyone who’s been blogging or site building for a while. At times, traffic can seem like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off — running around vapidly, then silently departing our world. How can we rein in traffic? We need visitors to dig deeper into our site, write comments, subscribe to feeds, and interact with our community.

Case Study #3

The Viral King website still has the new blog shine to it. The site features content related to viral marketing, and does so with, well, with coolness. I love the look of it, the curved angles of the sidebar boxes, the over-sized RSS feed and Technorati favorite icons in the header, and, of course, the Viral King character. It all ties together well, and I’m sure new visitors to the site would give it more than a second look.

The site has a lot of stop signs in place. Remember stop signs keep the visitor from bailing out on the content — they force readers to look deeper into the site and idle a while longer. I already mentioned the two icons in the header as well as the character, but I think the header navigation may be a critical stop sign in the design.

The navigation separates itself from the blog in that it stretches the width of the window, while the content maxes out at 973 pixels wide. This makes a difference, not for its incongruence, but for its statement. It’s telling a visitor that its anchoring the page. The search form also appears in the navigation bar. If you need something, it’s there to show you. I would say this is a terrific stop sign.

The Viral King also offers a free Viral Resource Report, which adds another crucial stop sign. Offering free information in the form of downloadable content places your site onto a reader’s hard drive. When they open the ebook days, weeks, or months later, they will likely make a return trip to your site and opine on blog posts. It’s a great stop sign technique.

Lessons Learned from Viral King

The Viral King displays the site navigation in a way that doesn’t detract from the site’s balance, but does illuminate the content. Having over-sized RSS and Technorati icons ensures readers subscribe to your content in order to find you later. Once again, it pays to have a clean site with well thought out placement of graphics. And the Viral King character, definitely shines.

Creating Stop Signs for Site Traffic Part Two from Jason Boom

A site should have stop signs in place to direct the traffic coming from various sources. An effective stop sign can lower bounce rates, increase visibility of monetization efforts, encourage RSS subscription, and ultimately provide more value to readers. I have noticed on my blog that my bounce rate increases from certain sources of traffic. This article does not illuminate strategies for one particular source of traffic but for all sources.

Site Visitors and Their Needs

Every site visitor has a need, whether its to educate themselves on a topic or simply to entertain themselves during their off hours. Every blog should likewise have a purpose. Affiliate marketing blogs would obviously be focusing content on marketing strategies, while SEO blogs would be helping their readers optimize their sites. But what happens if the reader comes in to the blog through a stale link and finds a post concerning a contest? Will they care to stop to read about the contest, and even further into the archives to determine what the blog represents? Can you entice them further into the site?

I think its best to work with examples, so I’ve traveled around to my favorite blogs and placed stop signs where I think visitors might be sucked in a little further to that site’s content. Let’s start out with Tyler Cruz.

Case Study #1

Tyler has a very unique and colorful site, where he describes his adventures as an Internet Entrepreneur. A site visitor would stop after seeing his logo for sure. They would also check out the Get Noticed area due to the nice finger graphic and its placement on the page. I also think his post titles do a good job of illuminating content in a bold, yet not overpowering, way.

Keep in mind I’m not looking at Advertising spots, but areas of design that encourage readers to stick around, read content, subscribe to a feed, etc. I think his RSS Feed area doesn’t attract my attention as much as it should. It could be muted by the over-sized ad banner or the pull of character graphics on the left side of the screen. It’s not terrible, by any means, but I think you have to look for it rather than have it pop out at you.

Lessons Learned from Tyler Cruz

It pays to have a unique logo and template for your site. The placement of certain graphics can weight one side of a blog too heavily and attract attention away from important activities like site subscription, but may also encourage advertiser activity on the site. In Tyler’s case, an advertiser would gain prime real estate and attention across the main ad banner, or along the side, as the eyes tend to be pulled in that direction.

Case Study #2

Ben’s site focuses on providing readers with blogging and website tips without the jargon. He’s mindful of usability standards when creating his blog archives, which include a separate Tutorials section. The site is based on Majestic, not WordPress. You may notice his template doesn’t look like some of the standard designs you see around the Blogosphere. Like Tyler’s site, he pulls readers into various parts of his blog through his graphics and design.

His site header seems to shrink every time I return. I think the header design does a good job of attracting the eyes towards the weighted right sidebar, with the tiny arrows directing you right. Above the sidebar, a visitor would stop to read the navigations as Ben has separated out various parts of his blog. It makes it quite simple for someone to visit the Tutorials section when they find his site looking to learn something.

His most discussed blog entries widget on the sidebar may also attract readers to dig deeper into his site content. It’s placement lower on the page also makes it appear after reading an entire article on his site. It’s positioned at the level where you would naturally look after reading. This works well to draw readers in and stop them from leaving the site.

Lesson Learned from Ben Barden dot com

Ben’s site teaches that subtle graphics can draw attention to different areas of a site. A breadcrumb trail can also place valuable links in front of readers, giving them the option to dig deeper into the content. His site also shows how the placement of certain items, like popular posts or recent comments widgets can be lower on the sidebar to encourage further exploration after a visitor reads the day’s article. Again, I think the only thing lacking would be more attraction to the RSS subscription service, although he does offer a helpful guide to RSS. I know I’ve pointed a few of my offline friends to his description just to save the hassle of IMing a dissertation on the subject.

Stop Signs and Traffic

Of course having great content, like the two of these sites, encourages readers to stay. Even with great content, a flawed design may let visitors off the hook sooner than you like.

These two case studies should have at least peeked your interest. How many stop signs do you have on your site?

This is a new series for Jason Boom dot com. These mini reviews take a look at what attracts readers to certain areas of your site. If you would like to be included in this short run series, please use the contact form to request your site’s inclusion in the upcoming case studies.

Creating Stop Signs for Site Traffic from Jason Boom

This week has showed me the power of social media sites like StumbleUpon. Sure I knew my site could receive tremendous exposure through stumbling, but I didn’t realize how quickly it could happen, and just how quickly it could dissipate. My recent article Ten Reasons to Write Well Not Good received a lot of exposure on StumbleUpon in a short amount of time. It was like one of those summer rains — soaking the site, then soon the sun was back out drying up the traffic.

I’m not complaining about StumbleUpon traffic. I received quality stats during that flash flood. My bouncerate was extremely low. I’m happy with the overall effect. I want to know how to sustain it. Does StumbleUpon traffic stop by a thumbs down? Does anyone have an article?

Happenings this Week

This week I wrote the previously mentioned article, which received the most hits of the week. I also wrote the two part series on How to Podcast with Audacity and WordPress. I tried to name this article with a more SEO friendly title to see if it brought more organic traffic. So far its brought three visitors, who stayed over ten minutes a piece on the site. I’d say it pays to target your titles with specific keywords.

New Milestone! I’m not a RSS jockey, but I’ve been riding a fairly strong horse upward these past few weeks. I’ve surpassed 70 subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed, now’s your chance. It’s free.

Site Tweaks: I did add an ad above the Spottt widget. I think this ad relates to what a lot of my surfers have interest — making money with their blog. It’s Darren Rowse’s Six Figure Blogging course. You might want to check it out.

I’ve also added a Digg This button to each individual post page, below the article itself. I hope this encourages everyone to Digg their favorite Jason Boom posts from the past and in the future.

Guest Post I have been writing a guest post for a neighboring blog. I’ll update everyone next week when I’ve finished that post. It’s taking longer than expected.

Upcoming Explosions

This week should see the second episode of the Boombox podcast early in the week. I’ll also be writing about site traffic, nurturing killer ideas, and another top ten list. I’ll have a Powder Keg review thrown in there too, for those who enjoy the series.

Other’s Explosions

I’m really enjoying Stephan Miller’s blog of the same name. He discusses his adventures in making money online, his blog, and other ideas for productivity. He has a clear, distinct voice that carries his articles along swiftly. His recent article entitled Spread Your Feed details some finer details of an RSS feed, which I hadn’t even considered. This is why I love his blog. It’s taking things I know, and showing me them from a different angle. Good work, Stephan.

Andrew Pavelski is back this week with a new successful blogging article. His look at John Chow seems like a natural step for this new series. I can’t wait to see what next week brings. Andrew also had extremely well thought out posts during this week. Everyone should be reading his blog.

I also enjoyed The Blog Entrepeneur’s posts this week. His writing has definitely made me want to elevate my own posting style. Just take a look at this rant on Make Money Online blogs or this one about developing blogs that stand apart from the masses.

Weekly Implosion: StumbleUpon like Summer Rain from Jason Boom

Last night I took the time to install the WP-cache plugin. I held off installing this plugin due to knowing nothing about it. I was afraid if I installed it, I might cripple my site, forcing me to ressurect an older backup then reconfigure. After reassuring myself, I stepped through the fear.

I figured WP-cache was a good solution since my site would sometimes hang while loading various ads on the sidebar. I knew a cache would fix those types of problems. So I searched the Blogosphere for information on completing the chore.

I found many sites describing the process. I found most of the trouble was with permissions. Thus another search began for securing WordPress when using the wp-cache plugin. I found an article detailing how to handle security problems with the wp-cache plugin installation. It helped me straighten out some of the finer points. Once I finished with that, I tweaked an .htaccess file then checked out the wp-cache administration area.

Administering the Cache
You can modify how long a cache page remains on the server. The default of 3,600 seconds (60 minutes) seems like a good amount of time for the traffic I receive. I kept everything the way it was, after toying with all the settings of course. Then I went back to my home page and right clicked to select view source.

My page was loading in half a second! I wanted to see what other sites had in terms of speed. I felt like a grease monkey webmaster daring to look underneath the hoods of others’ sites. I knew Problogger uses the wp-cache plugin. His site would crash often if it wasn’t for the cache. I visited his page and right clicked to view the source. That’s when something interesting happened.

I understand why the Problogger site loads slower than my own. I do. That wasn’t the realization that occurred. What did occur? I discovered a few monitoring services Problogger uses. He very well could have written about all these services too, but I just found two sites in particular I had never heard about. I felt like a sleuth.

ClickTale.com: A site where you can record, watch and understand. The service looks amazing. Basically the hosted software records movements of mouse clicks then allows you to play back your own traffic history. I love the idea of it, but haven’t tried it out for any tests. I do remember Darrin talking about the heat map feature, which is also part of this service.

103Bees.com: This site analyzes search traffic to help you optimize your site. I’ve placed the code on my pages and will be monitoring how well it does. The service seems fairly good at what it does. I’m going to test it out for a few weeks, then write a little bit about the results.

It Pays to Look under the Hood
The exercise started out simple enough. I wanted to find out how my site’s speed measured up to other blogs. I found my site does serve up fairly well and I also found a few new tracking solutions. It’s just what I need — more stats!

Have you noticed an increase in my site’s load time?

My View Source Adventure from Jason Boom