This edition of the Powder Keg Review series examines the impNERD web site’s explosiveness. The name for the site makes me think of little green men running around with black framed glasses. After reviewing the About page, I realized “imp” is an acronym for “Internet Marketing and Publishing.” So you won’t be getting your hands on little impish men, but on some quality Internet Marketing and Publishing content.

Gary Hess runs the impNERD site. The archives date back to October 2005, but Gary didn’t start blogging prolifically until September of 2007. Since then, the posts have focused on information any blogger or website owner should know about. The content contains helpful information on using Wordpress, monetizing your site, joining affiliate networks, and the ins-and-outs of social networks. It’s packed full of content relevant to today’s bloggers. From the latest post, it appears Gary will be reining in the posts published per week to focus attention on marketing the blog, and to give each post a chance to breath. Not a bad idea at all.

The impNERD site houses Wordpress plugins as well. Gary gives back to the WP community through his unique creations. He offers the following plugins on his site:

1. Keyword Snatcher
2. Random Ads
3. Featured Posts
4. SEO Tip of the Day

I’m planning to install the Keyword Snatcher plugin. It shows you the keyword density of any article inside the administrative area of Wordpress. This a great tool for SEO writing itself. The best part — it’s free. The other plugins look good as well. I encourage you to check them out for your own blogs.

The Layout
I like the subtle grays and the easy-to-read site text. impNERD also makes good use of their own creation — the Feature plugin — on the frontpage, which right now illuminates the Keyword Snatcher plugin. The wide adspace along the right compliments the two columns below. This valuable ad space should be a steal for the price he’s asking. Be sure to grab the $15 dollar spot for quality exposure.

I especially like the header where you can find more information about impNERD, see the popular posts on the site, view the available Wordpress plugins, and subscribe to the blog. I only have one complaint. I could not find the search feature. I wanted to search for a keyword to see if anything was written about the topic, but couldn’t find it. I think this is crucial to blogs as they grow in size. The more content we have — the more options we should offer to find that content.

Conclusion
I think it’s safe to say the impNERD site will continue to grow with quality content for bloggers, site owners, and affiliates. Gary’s contributions to the WP community, his insightful commentary on social media, Internet marketing, and web development should carry the site through the coming months and years. I have subscribed to his feed. How about you?

Look out! Coming through!

 Places logo on header. Steps away for a look. Grabs it by the corner. Straightens it.

In the famous words of The Dude, “It really ties the (site) room together!”

What does everyone think? I love it. And I have three separate iterations to choose from when I’m marketing my blog on other people’s sites.  I’ve begun creating a 125×125 ad for inclusion on EntreCard. I’ll be buying up some cheap ad real estate just as soon as I have more of my draft posts completed and published to the blogging world.

How Can a Logo Explode Your Potential?

A logo creates your persona to the world. It embodies the essence of your blog in a quick and easy to identify manner. For instance, this logo guessing game assumes you can put the company name to the logo. We can probably get the majority of logos right. Why? Because we are inundated with their images throughout our life. Most of those companies have huge budgets that allow them to plaster their logo in all types of media. We can do our part by exchanging ads with up-and-coming blogs (hint, hint), use our logos in our signatures on forums, and use the logo on comment forms when available.

Your logo should be your footprint on the internet, a trail for others to find you.

A logo has to appeal to our visual taste buds. The aesthetic quality of the logo may do more for our site’s popularity than we realize. Let’s assume we dress our blogs up to attract the right readers. Some of us tempt these readers into our RSS feeds with candy (contests, free giveaways, etc.). While this works for a time, the real attraction comes when a few criteria are met. All of which combine to form a loyal readership.

3 Things that Attract Readers to Blogs

1. Love at first site (the visual appeal.)
2. A great smile (the logo and graphics.)
3. Brains (the content that makes them think, write, come-back, question their beliefs, write like maniacs, buy this, buy that, sell this, offer that, and most of all talk about your blog!)

These three things can be met with time, effort, and through humility. We can ask for help.

Imagine going to a site that has a discombobulated design, poor graphics, atrocious colors (one’s our aunt’s curtains resemble), but good content. We may grab the feed in a reader, but maybe not.

The whole package will attract Mr. Right Reader. What can you do to make your blog more attractive?