Posts Tagged ‘Blogger’

WordPress Blogging Achievement: A Post Published 365 Consecutive Days In A Row

August 31, 2009

When I launched my first website back in 1999 – blogs didn’t exist.

To get my site MarketingPrincples.com launched, I had to use ad agency designers who knew how to write code which in turn published my content on the nascent world wide web.

After my site launched, I realized I needed to make some content changes.

Because blogging platforms didn’t exist and I hadn’t bought the code they had used to develop my site, the designers initially charged me $100 for each change I wanted to make to my site.

Outrageous!

I quickly set out to find my own web developers who could build my own content management system.

While giving a presentation at a local university’s engineering college, some young guys came up and said they would be interested in working with me.

I agreed to give them a shot.

They built me a content management system in .ASP where I could upload and control my own content without any ongoing costs.

Off to the races I went.

Little did I know at that time nor did it occur to me that the idea of a back end content management system would be something other businesses would want.

Nor did I foresee that content management would ultimately become known in general as blogs and blogging.

If I had, I guess I would be on the other side of this post founding and running WordPress.com not my consulting practice.

Anyway in the early days of the internet, the content platform providers all suggested bloggers just sit down and blog every day for a year to generate their own unique set of pages and content.

Well – 10 years later I have done it.

I have blogged here every single day for the last 365 days over a period of exactly one year beginning on September 1, 2008.

I have learned a lot and will write more about what the experience has taught me – tomorrow.

Bloggers: University of Phoenix Aggregation of Knowledge Initiative

May 11, 2009

Today while conducting research, I came across the following interesting forum post from Jay Dergaon:

I am conducting some research on behalf of the University of Phoenix.  They are looking into specific blogging initiatives and out reach to bloggers, internally and externally.

If you know of any students or faculty from The University of Phoenix that have a blog please let me know.  Also, if you’d be interested in writing or incorporating your blog into their new “aggregation of knowledge” initiative please let me know.

I wonder how many other higher education institutions in the U.S. include blogs or blogging in their curriculum?

Do any Universities in the United States teach blogging?

Can a student get a Bachelor of Science degree in Blogging yet?

Live Search xRank and Barack Obama

August 29, 2008

Microsoft has re-launched Live Search along with its xRank features.

Today I was surprised to find the following picture embedded in Microsoft’s Live Search home page.

Or is it the other way around?

I was surprised to find the Microsoft Live Search box embedded in a picture of Barack Obama.

Live Search Barack Obama

Live Search Barack Obam

I am not sure but I think this is a first.

Embed your search home page in images from the day’s headlines?

If your search appliance isn’t gaining search traffic market share from its competition piggy back your product on news and images known to produce search traffic by bolting your search box onto the backs of the day’s top headlines?

Yahoo already does this to some degree but Live Search has taken its editorial to a new level.

If search was previously defined by it’s transparency and absence of bias, Microsoft Live Search has now flip flopped with its decision to make its editorial choice the cover of their Live Search home page.

It will be interesting to see if this decision increases Microsoft’s Live Search traffic volume and market share or if it puts off both its otherwise loyal search users while dissuading potential additional search audience members from visiting the Live Search site.

Drilling down from the home page Live Search provides five categories of Live Search xRank results: Celebrity, Musician, Politician, Blogger and Olympics.

I assume as news cycles ebb and flow, so will their xRank editorial categories selections.

By optimizing its home page for maximum search audience traffic through co-opting the day’s headlines, Live Search has literally given new meaning to the terms search engine optimization and SEO.

Live Search xRank Celebrity

Live Search xRank Celebrity

Live Search Celebrity xRank

Live Search xRank Musician

Live Search xRank Musician

Live Search Musician xRank

Live Search xRank Politician

Live Search xRank Politician

Live Search Politician xRank

Live Search xRank Blogger

Live Search xRank Blogger

Live Search Blogger xRank

Live Search xRank Olympics

Live Search xRank Olympics

Live Search Olympics xRank

Why Aren’t WordPress Possibly Related Posts NoFollow?

May 15, 2008

I recently noticed WordPress.com hosted blogs started displaying three to four links to “possibly related posts” WordPress has deemed related to their hosted page’s content.

Usually the first link is pointed to somewhere else within the same blog while the balance of the links are then distributed to other blogs which more often than not appear to be other WordPress blogs.

I have been watching my referrals and haven’t noticed hardly any new traffic coming in from other WordPress blogs but I have noticed my search related referrals have dropped by nearly a factor of 10.

My drop in search traffic appears to coincide with the launch of the WordPress “possibly related posts” automatic link generator.

cohn wordpress traffic

If I were to to guess why my search traffic dried up I would guess it is because my blog posts that had enjoyed near constant search positions have been devalued vis-a-vis the links WordPress has now inserted in all of my pages.

WordPress blog comments automatically receive the “No follow” link attribute so as to not unnecessarily pass site value to spammers so why does WordPress think they can rob all of their bloggers of the value each one has built in their blog by redistributing their sites search value to other blogs – especially other WordPress blogs?

Regardless of whether my search engine traffic dropped because of the addition of the “Possibly Related Posts” links now being generated by WordPress, WordPress.com should add the “No Follow” attribute to their “Possibly Related Posts” link scheme to preserve the continued good will of the bloggers who’s content produces WordPress traffic.